Houses Provide a Spatial Backbone for Virtually Everything We Do': An Anthropological Study of DIY ("do-it-yourself") House Shows in the US
Abstract
The subject of this article is the phenomena of 'DIY house shows' (i.e., 'do-it-yourself' house concerts) in the US, which usually incorporate a variety of music genres, from punk and indie rock, to experimental music and singer-songwriters. In this regard, I am mostly concerned with the significance and centrality of 'place,' more specifically, DIY venues, and particularly houses, for the American DIY communities in terms of the spatial or venue constitution of scenes, community construction, political aspiration, musical aesthetics, and sound.
In terms of community construction, I particularly look into DIY organizational patterns, space policies, and translocal musical interaction. The findings that I present are based on my long-term ethnographic study of American DIY house shows and scenes, particularly on the West Coast.
Ethnographic approach consequently informs also the main focus of this paper, in which I am concerned with both discursive and material aspects of American DIY scenes, as related to the issue of place. In other words, I present native or emic discourses about the value and importance of place, and particularly houses, for the American DIY communities, while I also demonstrate how these discourses are manifested in the everyday practice of American DIY participants.