Dissertation on clubbing ... looking for participants in interviews/questionnaires!

Good luck on here :)

Are most people older? I'm actually interested in talking to anyone who has any opinions they want to share about clubbing :)

How about you Papa Bendy?

If anyone claims to be under 35 they're winding you up :-)

I'm actually interested in talking to anyone who
has any opinions they want to share about clubbing :)

Are you using any particular definition of clubbing? It's a bit of a loaded term... if you don't watch your step you'll be confronted with mad Scotsmen shouting "I'M A RAVER NOT A CLUBBER" ;)

as the barmaid said at the last meet" I wondered why there were a lot of old people dancing to 90s music"

CLUBBER n.

I think everyone who has been on this forum has fit one of those descriptions at some point in their life and as she is looking for clubbers from all areas/ages i seriously think everyone who can help out should... yeah there are only a few active posters left on here but u'd do well to find more experienced "clubbers"

haha, as i started to read that I honestly thought you were about to make an actress said to the bishop gag... I remember that comment now :)

Hahahahahahahahahaha, totally forgot about that! :)

At Weatherall at the BC, I was looked around at one point and actually thought "this crowd wouldn't look out of place at vintage car show"

Yep it does seem the distinction betwen raving and clubbing is a hard one, but many people I've interviewed so far identify their experiences with both. However if you consider yourself a 'raver' and not a 'clubber' I'd still love to hear from you to find out why you think they're different and why you prefer to identify with one label over the other.

And again the age doesn't matter, I'd love to hear from anyone of any age.

:)

There's a wealth of experience on here for sure - around seventeen years worth in fact. The archive of UK-Dance postings over the years would represent an incredibly in-depth and closely detailed study of dance music culture in the UK (not to mention the opinions of its participents) and its continuing rippling-out following the events of '89, or was it '88.  Personally speaking, I began to enjoy the deep and long lasting pleasure of clubbing a few years before that even. Last week I was dancing til dawn three nights on the trot at Shambala festival. There's awful lot in between.  Oh my.

mmmmmmmm seems i quauilify on all three counts

Hi Tasha. Out of interest, in what discipline/degree subject is this research being undertaken? What's your theoretical framework? And this is a question I ask most dissertation students - what do you hope to find out as a result of completing this research?

Lord Borthbury

Hi Lord Borthbury,

My degree is Geography, of which I do both physical and human modules but this dissertation is strictly human geog. My dissertation is categorised as a cultural geography enquiry as it is looking at social behaviour/spaces.

At the moment my study is still quite broad, since I don't want to narrow down my reserach area too much whilst still undertaking the research, but having done about half of my research so far I am finding that particular themes are emerging. Broadly, my study is looking at clubbing as an expression and celebration of youth (which does not restrict it to the 'young'), and the experience of clubbing as an embodied experience that changes relationships people typically have with body territories in other social settings.

My theoretical framework began with Goffman and Butler's contrasting ideas of performativity and Brake and other sociologist's theories on youth culture, but recently has been moving towards less general and more specific theoretical positionings on youth identities and dance/music cultures. There's a lot of interesting positionings on rave/clubbing/dance music as things only young poeple can enjoy and understand, which I would like to counter by saying that it is not age but 'youthfulness' that is perhaps more important. So theoretical framework has yet to be fully established but it's getting there :P

And as for what I hope to find out ... I first wanted to study clubbing as it is something I've just started to get into after being at uni, and for health reasons I don't drink a lot, so I found myself quite observant on nights out, thinking up lots of questions about the experiences of clubbing. It was the vibe/energya club can generate that interested me most. Then I read lots of the literature on clubbing/dance music/youth cultures and identities and found it quite interesting that most of the studies associated clubbing with young people. So I want to find out why this is, and what young people think of it themselves - the results of which have led me to develop this idea of clubbing as an expression and celebration of youth, rather than clubbing as an activity appropriated by young people. And the fact that I'm finding more and more people over 25 (many well over) enjoy clubbing as well is making this study far more interesting.

In essence then, I think I just want to find out why it is people club, and why they love it so much - to try and find out what that 'je ne sais quoi' is. Whether this can be done is another question :P

Tasha

Hi everyone,

Due to the great feedback from the members of uk-dance, most of whom seem to be over 25, I think I'll be adding another sample group to my study of those over 25. I've devised a new questionnaire for over 25s; it incorporates bits from the under 25s questionnaire for comparison so apologies if some of the questions seem a bit strange/less applicable.

Please contact me if you'd be willing to fill the quetsionnaire out. There are 19 questions and it should take around 20 minutes but obviously depends on how much you have to say!

Thanks for the great response so far :)

Tasha

Suggest putting it on Surveymonkey.com then everyone (hah! I mean there may be 10 of us?) can fill in...

DJ

-- The archive of UK-Dance postings over the years would
-- represent an incredibly in-depth and closely detailed study of dance
-- music culture in the UK (not to mention the opinions of its
-- participents) and its continuing rippling-out following the events of
-- '89, or was it '88.

Man, it would be hilarious to do some text analysis of keywords in that data :)

What would be interesting is that I bet it would show a much more worldly side to the "clubbing experience", beyond y'know the larks, the class As, the DJs and the CHOONZ.

You'd have to filter out all the snax chat first though, natch.

DJ

I did try and make a survey on surveymonkey but they only allow a certain number of questions unless you pay for a premium account. So if anyone does want to offer to fill in a questionnaire I'm afraid you'll still have to email me and I'll email you it as a Word doc.

A simple problem looking for a complex answer, typical social scientists ;)

People go clubbing for one or more of the following; good music, the vibe, get mashed, cop off, etc.

No?

Hi Natasha,

I'm 35 give or take a year, I can never remember.

I got a couple ideas on a couple of these things, it's something that's always interested me as well.  You gave Lord B a stunningly detailed and interesting answer to quite a probing set of questions, so here's some thoughts.

Natasha Footman <(Address removed)> said:

 It was the vibe/energya club can generate that interested me most.

I think that's part contact high.  I don't have a great understanding of other dance music forms, but particularly in the house/techno circles within which I did/do move, the music effectively decommissions the analytical part of your brain and allows a bit more direct communication between what you are surrounded by and your experience of it.  Or to put it another way, a trance-meditation like state of constantly "experiencing" without the interference of a learned "language".

Or to put it another way, if you dance enough, your ego is decommissioned, and at that point it becomes very easy to enjoy the company of strangers with no barriers.  At that point the music becomes a thermostat that can be turned up and down on the crowd and everyone goes together.  It's a uniquely fun experience and the fact that this ego-decommissioning is so alien to every day life makes it all the more alluring.

In essence then, I think I just want to find out why it is people club, and why they love it so much - to try and find out what that 'je ne sais quoi' is. Whether this can be done is another question :P

Tasha

It's a very big and a very small question.  I have an occasional random blog - there are a couple posts where I've touched a bit on this stuff... one here which via a specific record is also talking about the decommissioning of the analytic brain, and one here which via a specific club night hints at the collective dynamics of a properly constructed night.  Might be something in there for you.

As the KLF said:

"it is through dance music and dancing we are able to get momentarily back to the Garden. Of course, in the clear light of day this is all very silly".

That is though tongue-in-cheek, completely true if you ask me - and is also a perfect illustration of what is currently wrong with the "clear light of day" that we have constructed for ourselves, and why "clubbing" continues to be attractive.

Of course, kids taking bangers and getting off their heads is also a reason.  But that's just a shortcut to the decommissioning if you ask me - it can also occur without.  It is a good night out, a party, etc, but there's more under the surface I think.

cheers,

dave

Hi Dave,

I too think there's more under the surface. Thanks so much for those insights, especially the idea of ego-decomissioning, a lot of my research has been revolving around that kind of idea that clubbing transfers people into a different state of mind/body and how that relates to reasons people go clubbing and their experiences of it.

Would you by any chance be interested in an interview/questionnaire to discuss them in further detail? No worries if not :)

Tasha