{"id":110150,"date":"2020-03-03T14:52:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T13:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=110150"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:43","slug":"why-rock-concerts-usually-mean-watching-white-men-surrounded-by-other-white-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/03\/03\/why-rock-concerts-usually-mean-watching-white-men-surrounded-by-other-white-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Why rock concerts usually mean watching white men, surrounded by other white men"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the 21st century. When you go to a rock concert, why do you usually end up in a crowd of white men watching other white men up on the stage? Julian Schaap (31) wondered the same thing, and devoted his dissertation<\/a> to this phenomenon: Elvis Has Finally Left the Building?<\/em> This month, Schaap received the Graduate School\u2019s Best Thesis Award<\/a> for his research.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

How did you end up researching this subject?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring my research master\u2019s in Sociology of Culture, Media and the Arts, I found out that things I enjoy in my spare time \u2013 like heavy metal and rock \u2013 can also serve as interesting research topics. For the very reason that they also relate to broader social themes like inequality or social cohesion. So I choose themes like this for my papers. Take gender and heavy metal, for example: why do so few women play metal? I ended up publishing a book<\/a> about the subject with my colleague Pauwke Berkers in 2018. The fun thing about a research master\u2019s is that, if you\u2019re driven and have enthusiastic lecturers, certain projects can develop into articles. That set the ball rolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat same colleague, Berkers, had this subject on the back burner. He had already submitted several grant applications for this research \u2013 to no avail. In the final year of my master programme, we jointly rewrote the application, and I was awarded the grant in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus of this study is whiteness rather than \u2018the other\u2019. When researchers examine music and inequality, the subject is usually hip hop and how marginalised groups use music for empowerment. Rock is a very \u2018white\u2019 music style \u2013 something that people within the genre hardly seem to be aware of. The paradoxical thing is that rock has become a white thing, while many of the pioneers of rock \u2018n roll were African Americans \u2013 and many of them women, besides.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018In those days, everything was still segregated \u2013 including record labels. Rebellious music was popular among young white people\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Really?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes. Rock came out of a fusion between the country music and rhythm & blues played in the American South of the 1950s. Artists like Fats Domino, Big Mama Thornton and Sister Rosetta Tharpe played rock \u2018n roll, which drew its inspiration from both black blues and white country. It was very rebellious; it went against the established order. In those days, everything was still segregated \u2013 including record labels. Rebellious music was popular among young white people. Combined with the introduction of television and independent radio stations, this created a new market. But due to racial segregation, the demand couldn\u2019t be fulfilled by black music. Artists like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Bill Haley were able to fill this niche since they also played rock \u2018n roll. They owed a lot of their popularity to music written by black musicians. Ultimately, this led to the idea of an authentic rock identity, integral elements of which are masculinity and whiteness. Blackness went to soul music and other genres that came up together with the Motown record label.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sociological question is: why is this still the case? Even though we\u2019ve gone through all these emancipation movements and everyone can access the same music. Why is it that at a rock concert, you usually see white men up on the stage, and are surrounded by other white men \u2013 while women and non-whites are viewed with some scepticism?\u201d<\/p>\n

Was this already your impression before starting on your research?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how I saw it, sure. Sometimes explicitly, but more often implicitly. But when I embarked on this study, my idea was that it didn\u2019t<\/em> have to do with race or gender. Unfortunately, evidence to the contrary started piling up, and I\u2019ve tried to identify this in my dissertation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

How did you do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI compared Atlanta and Rotterdam, since the US is the cradle of rock. Within this comparison, I examined the respective audiences: critics, rock fans and the general public. I held an association test among one thousand general music lovers. This clearly showed that white is associated with rock; and black with rap.<\/p>\n

\u201cCritics often point it out when a band or specific band member isn\u2019t white. This can be a good or bad thing, but whatever the case: they draw this distinction. In addition, on average they score albums made by non-white bands, or bands with at least one non-white member \u2013 who could also be Asian, for example \u2013 4 points lower on a scale of 100. On the other hand, you do see they can be very enthusiastic about non-white musicians participating in this scene, so I definitely wouldn\u2019t call it conscious exclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, I interviewed 27 fans and held a test. This made it clear that femininity in particular \u2013 and, to a lesser extent, being from a non-white background \u2013 is often considered at odds with rock. Fans refer to ethno-racial characteristics when validating people as authentic rockers \u2013 sometimes without being aware of it. In the case of six respondents, mostly from the States, who are heavily involved in themes like feminism, I got the exact opposite results.\u201d<\/p>\n

But most rockers are white men. So it\u2019s hardly surprising, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOne aspect of sociology is that you actually question and try to debunk your \u2018common sense\u2019. It\u2019s OK to say \u2018that\u2019s just the way it is\u2019 when you\u2019re making conversation. But is it what people actually think? For example, I didn\u2019t expect the result to be exactly the other way round with some of the fans. Starting on a new research project I try to be as open-minded as possible. But you\u2019re right: based on the literature this is what you\u2019d expect. What I did discover talking with the fans is that this process of exclusion is usually unconscious. This runs counter to the prevailing idea. During the test, some respondents even drew this conclusion themselves: that they had strong preconceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Taking a closer look at personal taste gives you a very interesting avenue to research the mechanics of inequality\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Is it a preconception or simply the status quo?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask people questions \u2013 not because something is a bad thing, but because we want to know how something works. When the study first started in 2012, Obama was President and the US had supposedly gotten over the issue of race. The key question posed by the jury when I defended my research proposal was: Why is this relevant \u2013 surely we\u2019ve left racism behind us?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s precisely why I wanted to study ethno-racial inequality in something like music, which a lot of people consider trivial: personal taste and entertainment. Inequality is about jobs and education. But taking a closer look at personal taste gives you a very interesting avenue to research the mechanics of inequality. I also wanted to get rid of this idea that rock concerts are full of nasty racists who are bent at keeping everyone else out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are they?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone I talked with is very welcoming towards everything and everyone in the rock scene. Nevertheless, white people would say things that could implicitly contribute to exclusion \u2013 by saying that it was a welcome surprise to see non-white people attending a rock concert, for example. Indeed, that\u2019s something that non-white respondents run into now and then. But a far bigger problem for the latter group is the resistance they run into within their family and among co-ethnic friends. You hear terms like \u2018bounty\u2019 and \u2018race traitor\u2019. This is a far more nuanced picture than simply saying that white people are keeping the door shut. For example, one of the two Muslim girls I spoke with stopped attending rock concerts due to the resistance she encountered within her family \u2013 that shows what kind of impact this can have.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is that among young fans, the frames within music seem to be becoming less and less important. And it helps that there is interaction between all sorts of genres. This could be a sign that things are changing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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