Papers by Daniel Gouly
This thesis examines the roles of human and nonhuman actors in the transmission of knowledge in e... more This thesis examines the roles of human and nonhuman actors in the transmission of knowledge in experimental hip-hop. What I call ‘experimental hip-hop’ emerged with a number of musical innovators, mostly based in Los Angeles, and has since spread globally, including to London, the main site of my investigations. The musicians who make this music are usually termed ‘producers’ or ‘beatmakers’, and they employ their laptops along with other instruments and music technologies to create their compositions, usually in bedroom studios. While this style has much in common with more traditional forms of hip-hop, producers have increasingly released instrumental pieces as compositions in their own right (rather than as backing tracks for rappers and MCs), and focused on creating different kinds of musical complexity. Producers deploy an array of innovative practices alongside more traditional ones, such as sampling. Drawing on a richly varied methodology, including long-form semi-structured...
This dissertation uses three case studies to explore theories of Tradition, Transgression and Cos... more This dissertation uses three case studies to explore theories of Tradition, Transgression and Cosmopolitanism within Downtown New York’s Radical Jewish music scene. These case studies: Uri Caine’s Moloch, The Masada String Trio’s Azazel and David Krakauer’s Pruflas, are drawn from John Zorn’s Book of Angels series released on his label Tzadik, a hub of avant- garde Jewish music making. In each case study, different facets of transgressive practice are explored with particular consideration of the interaction of the tropes of Contemporary Music, Jazz and Klezmer. This discussion explores the ways these musicians manipulate musical tropes, aesthetics and ideologies to accumulate cultural capital.
Although much has been written regarding Internet theory, there is still work to be done explorin... more Although much has been written regarding Internet theory, there is still work to be done exploring the nature of lived experience online to assess the validity of such theoretical discussion. This ethnographic research explores the relationship between online and offline experience, the process of online community creation, and tensions between self-promotion and community endeavour, focusing on a group of Hip-Hop musicians on the website Soundcloud.
Being disembodied from those day-to-day activities that have long created community cohesion and powered the process of enculturation means that online community formation differs from its offline counterpart. Websites such as Soundcloud provide an important locus for musicians to create knowledge-exchange networks, collaborate on musical ventures, and by the sharing of compositions involve themselves in collective musical exploration. However, a key question is whether such connections lead to the creation of social bonds. This research sought to evaluate the extent of communal processes on Soundcloud through ethnographic research and extended discussions with twenty users, aiming to discover whether their actions are driven commercially by the desire for promotion or by shared, communal goals.
The findings reveal a surprising depth of community and local identity online, with users regular meeting offline to compose and organizing concerts to create live performance opportunities. Musicians are also coming together to create independent labels to help promote their music as collectives, and developing music deeply rooted in local sounds. This combination of high levels of online communication, and an ongoing process of organization and performance offline initiates a move from connections to the formation of social bonds and the building of offline friendships and communities based around Soundcloud as an online hub.
While previous digital ethnomusicology has focused on online experience, this preliminary research illustrates the importance of an integrative approach that considers both the online and the offline worlds.
For ‘revival’ musics the issues of musical creativity, style and development are tightly bound up... more For ‘revival’ musics the issues of musical creativity, style and development are tightly bound up with historical concerns. Unravelling musics’ “recourse to the past” (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1995: 370) is therefore essential to understanding the nature of music in the present. Klezmer is of particular interest here as the essential destruction of the music’s original context in the Holocaust, and the dearth of surviving musicians to transmit the tradition at the time of the revival, means that memory, nostalgia and imagination are key tools for modern musicians as they seek to recreate, retain and develop this musical tradition. This discussion focuses on a key revival figure, clarinettist and mandolin player, Andy Statman. While there are clear limitations in attempting to expand directly from the experience of one musician to generalise about musical practice as a whole, this discussion considers Statman as an archetype for consideration of issues connecting identity, mannerism and performance style, and the development and proliferation of musical styles within the current Klezmer scene. The aim of this essay is to begin to shape a theoretical framework expanding on the work of previous scholars, incorporating the impact of external factors on musical ‘mannerism’ (Katz 1970) whilst still maintaining a theoretical space for the vision of the musical auteur. This framework will consider the importance of historical resources, both real and imagined, when constructing the present and seek to underscore the importance of the manipulation of musical tropes in the construction of musical meaning.
Jewish identity has undergone major changes in the American Diaspora. Relentless oppression in Eu... more Jewish identity has undergone major changes in the American Diaspora. Relentless oppression in Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries meant that immigration to America surged, particularly during 1880-1924 (Netsky 2002). Immigrants found themselves in a country of greater equality, prosperity and opportunity, but one in which assimilation and cultural survival were problematic. This essay presents a tripartite schema for the role of Klezmer in American-Jewish identity, in which music serves as a conduit for survivalist discourse, moving from particularism to assimilation and returning anew to particularism during the revival of the 1970s and 80s. Firstly, it connected America’s working class Jewish population both to their past and to each other, maintaining a particularist Jewish identity (Slobin 2000). Secondly, under assimilatory pressures, the next generation broke with their European past to connect to an American future. Here, Klezmer provided a cultural platform for assimilation while maintaining a modicum of Jewish identity (Sapoznik 2006). Thirdly, with mass assimilation and gentrification Klezmer was re-employed, as a middle class reaction to the boredom of homogeneity and the search for a new Jewish identity. This essay will first consider identity theory, and then seek to validate this Schema.
Throughout the world there is a tension between music as a tool of hegemonic enculturation and as... more Throughout the world there is a tension between music as a tool of hegemonic enculturation and as a marker of a personal and communal identity that often attempts to subvert the structure of power. Due to Israel's complex history, the focus on national discourse is particularly prominent, and music plays a pivotal role. In both the pre-state Yishuv and the state itself, the dominant Ashkenazi elite saw music as a means of
Conference Presentations by Daniel Gouly
Although much has been written regarding Internet theory, there is still work to be done explorin... more Although much has been written regarding Internet theory, there is still work to be done exploring the nature of lived experience online to assess the validity of such theoretical discussion. This ethnographic research explores the relationship between online and offline experience, the process of online community creation, and tensions between self-promotion and community endeavour, focusing on a group of Hip-Hop musicians on the website Soundcloud.
Being disembodied from those day-to-day activities that have long created community cohesion and powered the process of enculturation means that online community formation differs from its offline counterpart. Websites such as Soundcloud provide an important locus for musicians to create knowledge-exchange networks, collaborate on musical ventures, and by the sharing of compositions involve themselves in collective musical exploration. However, a key question is whether such connections lead to the creation of social bonds. This research sought to evaluate the extent of communal processes on Soundcloud through ethnographic research and extended discussions with twenty users, aiming to discover whether their actions are driven commercially by the desire for promotion or by shared, communal goals.
The findings reveal a surprising depth of community and local identity online, with users regular meeting offline to compose and organizing concerts to create live performance opportunities. Musicians are also coming together to create independent labels to help promote their music as collectives, and developing music deeply rooted in local sounds. This combination of high levels of online communication, and an ongoing process of organization and performance offline initiates a move from connections to the formation of social bonds and the building of offline friendships and communities based around Soundcloud as an online hub.
While previous digital ethnomusicology has focused on online experience, this preliminary research illustrates the importance of an integrative approach that considers both the online and the offline worlds.
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Papers by Daniel Gouly
Being disembodied from those day-to-day activities that have long created community cohesion and powered the process of enculturation means that online community formation differs from its offline counterpart. Websites such as Soundcloud provide an important locus for musicians to create knowledge-exchange networks, collaborate on musical ventures, and by the sharing of compositions involve themselves in collective musical exploration. However, a key question is whether such connections lead to the creation of social bonds. This research sought to evaluate the extent of communal processes on Soundcloud through ethnographic research and extended discussions with twenty users, aiming to discover whether their actions are driven commercially by the desire for promotion or by shared, communal goals.
The findings reveal a surprising depth of community and local identity online, with users regular meeting offline to compose and organizing concerts to create live performance opportunities. Musicians are also coming together to create independent labels to help promote their music as collectives, and developing music deeply rooted in local sounds. This combination of high levels of online communication, and an ongoing process of organization and performance offline initiates a move from connections to the formation of social bonds and the building of offline friendships and communities based around Soundcloud as an online hub.
While previous digital ethnomusicology has focused on online experience, this preliminary research illustrates the importance of an integrative approach that considers both the online and the offline worlds.
Conference Presentations by Daniel Gouly
Being disembodied from those day-to-day activities that have long created community cohesion and powered the process of enculturation means that online community formation differs from its offline counterpart. Websites such as Soundcloud provide an important locus for musicians to create knowledge-exchange networks, collaborate on musical ventures, and by the sharing of compositions involve themselves in collective musical exploration. However, a key question is whether such connections lead to the creation of social bonds. This research sought to evaluate the extent of communal processes on Soundcloud through ethnographic research and extended discussions with twenty users, aiming to discover whether their actions are driven commercially by the desire for promotion or by shared, communal goals.
The findings reveal a surprising depth of community and local identity online, with users regular meeting offline to compose and organizing concerts to create live performance opportunities. Musicians are also coming together to create independent labels to help promote their music as collectives, and developing music deeply rooted in local sounds. This combination of high levels of online communication, and an ongoing process of organization and performance offline initiates a move from connections to the formation of social bonds and the building of offline friendships and communities based around Soundcloud as an online hub.
While previous digital ethnomusicology has focused on online experience, this preliminary research illustrates the importance of an integrative approach that considers both the online and the offline worlds.
Being disembodied from those day-to-day activities that have long created community cohesion and powered the process of enculturation means that online community formation differs from its offline counterpart. Websites such as Soundcloud provide an important locus for musicians to create knowledge-exchange networks, collaborate on musical ventures, and by the sharing of compositions involve themselves in collective musical exploration. However, a key question is whether such connections lead to the creation of social bonds. This research sought to evaluate the extent of communal processes on Soundcloud through ethnographic research and extended discussions with twenty users, aiming to discover whether their actions are driven commercially by the desire for promotion or by shared, communal goals.
The findings reveal a surprising depth of community and local identity online, with users regular meeting offline to compose and organizing concerts to create live performance opportunities. Musicians are also coming together to create independent labels to help promote their music as collectives, and developing music deeply rooted in local sounds. This combination of high levels of online communication, and an ongoing process of organization and performance offline initiates a move from connections to the formation of social bonds and the building of offline friendships and communities based around Soundcloud as an online hub.
While previous digital ethnomusicology has focused on online experience, this preliminary research illustrates the importance of an integrative approach that considers both the online and the offline worlds.
Being disembodied from those day-to-day activities that have long created community cohesion and powered the process of enculturation means that online community formation differs from its offline counterpart. Websites such as Soundcloud provide an important locus for musicians to create knowledge-exchange networks, collaborate on musical ventures, and by the sharing of compositions involve themselves in collective musical exploration. However, a key question is whether such connections lead to the creation of social bonds. This research sought to evaluate the extent of communal processes on Soundcloud through ethnographic research and extended discussions with twenty users, aiming to discover whether their actions are driven commercially by the desire for promotion or by shared, communal goals.
The findings reveal a surprising depth of community and local identity online, with users regular meeting offline to compose and organizing concerts to create live performance opportunities. Musicians are also coming together to create independent labels to help promote their music as collectives, and developing music deeply rooted in local sounds. This combination of high levels of online communication, and an ongoing process of organization and performance offline initiates a move from connections to the formation of social bonds and the building of offline friendships and communities based around Soundcloud as an online hub.
While previous digital ethnomusicology has focused on online experience, this preliminary research illustrates the importance of an integrative approach that considers both the online and the offline worlds.