Below you will find an abridged list of all talks and conference presentations Ben has given during the course of his PhD studies. The entries are in date order, with the most recent first.
Eras Workshop, Tay Day: Liverpool’s Version, University of Liverpool, 2024: Welcome To New York: The Curation of Memory, Location and a ‘Conscious Uncoupling’ in the Eras of Taylor Swift.
This paper argued that in the Eras of Taylor Swift, each record released, each musical diversion in Swift’s career, is tied not only sonically to a musical genre, but geographically to a location and space which reflects the deep entanglement of Swift’s public persona and personal life. Moreover, I will draw on the celebrity-coined neologism of ‘conscious uncoupling’ as a metaphor for the way in which Swift curates her own life to present an image of herself and her career which is embedded both in the location and memory of each ‘era’ presented outwardly to her fans, and the world. As Swift reaches the mid-point of what is surely her crowning achievement, and emerges in the prominent position of, arguably, the most recognisable cultural figure of the 21st century, it is timely to consider the way in which location and memory are curated across Swift’s whole body of music and their impact on long-tail-dominated culture.
Doctoral Day for Belgian Universities, Musical Instruments Museum, Brussels, Belgium, 2024: Music City, USA: Hybrid Ethnomusicological Fieldwork and the Country Music Community of Nashville, Tennessee.
In this paper, I presented findings and reflections from my two years of hybrid ethnomusicological fieldwork in Nashville, Tennessee, focusing on the country music community and in particular on the experiences of women performers and women working in the ‘business’ of country music. I drew on comparisons between the class of women who emerged out the 1990s scene and our current generation of performers to ask if opportunities for women to build established careers and find success in the country genre, are more achievable now, in the 21st century, than at the end of the 20th century.
In the paper I discussed my approaches to hybrid fieldwork, building on the work of Przybylski (2020) and Pink et. al (2015) to develop a unique methodology of both online (social media, blogs, websites, and new media) and more traditional in-person fieldwork research. I shared my experiences, initial findings and lessons learnt from my ethnomusicological fieldwork.
Conference presentation, British Association for American Studies Digital Confrence 2024, Online: ‘Welcome To New York: The curation of memory, location and a ‘conscious uncoupling’ in the eras of Taylor Swift’.
This paper argued that in the Eras of Taylor Swift, each record released, each musical diversion in Swift’s career, is tied not only sonically to a musical genre, but geographically to a location and space which reflects the deep entanglement of Swift’s public persona and personal life. Moreover, I will draw on the celebrity-coined neologism of ‘conscious uncoupling’ as a metaphor for the way in which Swift curates her own life to present an image of herself and her career which is embedded both in the location and memory of each ‘era’ presented outwardly to her fans, and the world. As Swift reaches the mid-point of what is surely her crowning achievement, and emerges in the prominent position of, arguably, the most recognisable cultural figure of the 21st century, it is timely to consider the way in which location and memory are curated across Swift’s whole body of music and their impact on long-tail-dominated culture.
Conference presentation, International Country Music Conference, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 2023: ‘The Hard Way: 1993 and the Women of Country’.
Thirty years ago, On May 6th 1993, CBS Television broadcast the two-hour music special ‘The Women of Country’ filmed at the campus of MTSU. The programme acts as a unique snapshot of women in the genre, at a time of monumental change. Featured here, is almost every woman performer then living. It is a unique historical artefact. Within a decade, many of those performers would be gone; and the position of women in country music would be more precarious than ever.
This paper presented a brief analysis, arguing for the programme’s historical importance, and examining its legacy. Moreover, it attempted to establish why, after three decades and given the promise that effused out from those who took part, a documentary of this nature has not been attempted again.
Conference presentation, British Association for American Studies Annual Conference, Keele University, UK, 2023: ‘The Road Less Travelled – Approaches To Ethnomusicological Fieldwork In Nashville.’
In this short paper, PhD candidate Ben Atkinson discussed his ongoing PhD fieldwork, including initial findings from a six-week research trip to Nashville, Tennessee, a city considered to be a core music industry centre that ‘tracks ongoing patterns of political, social and demographic dynamism in the United States’ (Lloyd, 2017, 284). Ben’s research trip, in May and June of 2022 was funded in part by the 2021 BAAS Marcus Cunliffe Award. Ben’s PhD is the first Ethnomusicological study of women in American country music in the 21st century. It is informed by the potential myriad opportunities for women in the genre during the 1990s, and the conservative reframing of country music which impacted such opportunities in the early 2000s.
Ben is employing the emerging methodology of hybrid ethnography, which requires the 21st century ethnographer to employ skills which cut across both digital and physical spaces (Przybylski, 2020, 4-6). He conducts both online ethnography and conventional in-person fieldwork and will discuss his experiences and initial findings through photos, video, and other media. Ben will share observations of live performance and songwriter showcases, archival research at the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Centre for Popular Music and insights from the twenty-seven interviews conducted in and around Nashville. Ben’s first period of fieldwork coincided with a turbulent period in US history with the Dobbs decision being made by the Supreme Court and the GOP redrawing districts throughout Nashville (Blaise, 2022) as the 2022 mid-terms approached. Ben will discuss how these issues manifested in his observations, interviews and fieldnotes.
Paper, PGR Research Showcase, University of Lincoln, UK, 2023: ‘The Road Less Travelled – Approaches To Ethnomusicological Fieldwork In Nashville’.
See British Association for American Studies Annual Conference, Keele University, UK, 2023, above.
Paper, College of Arts Sharing Research and Practice Event, University of Lincoln, UK, 2022: ‘This One’s For The Girls – Observations from Ethnographic Fieldwork in Nashville’.
ABSTRACT
Conference presentation, International Country Music Conference, Belmont University, Nashville Tennessee, USA, 2022: ‘The Road Less Travelled: Initial Approaches to Ethnographic Fieldwork in Nashville’.
In this paper, Ben discussed his approach to ongoing ethnomusicological fieldwork. Ben’s PhD thesis examines the role of gendered gatekeeping on the experiences of female country performers in the period 2000-2021, considering the impact of new technology and changes in society bought on by the #meToo movement and COVID-19. Having to adapt his approach significantly due to the pandemic, Ben is now engaged in hybrid ethnography, blending the online and offline field. Ben outlined his approach, from his unique vantage point as a UK scholar of country music, and considered how conclusions drawn from his fieldwork will inform his wider study.
Doctoral School Research Showcase, University of Lincoln, UK, 2022: ‘Gatekeeping Country – An Ethnographic Study of Female Country Music Performers in the 21st Century’.
ABSTRACT
Conference presentation, British Association for American Studies Annual Conference, University of Hull, UK, 2022: ‘This One’s for the Girls – A Brief History of Women in Country Music’.
While the field of country music scholarship is comparatively new, with most authors agreeing that it began with Malone’s seminal text Country Music USA first published in 1968 (Malone and Laird, 2018), there was a move in the latter half of the 20th century to examine the role of women in the genre. With strict gender-segregated labour systems and social hierarchies seeking to keep women in their place, much of the literature ‘acknowledges gender without explaining… [the] consequences’ (McCusker and Pecknold, 2004, 17).
This paper discussed the key theories of scholars working in the field of country music studies, and examined the integral role played by women in the development of the genre. This historiography forms the foundation for my PhD study on the experiences of female country performers in the 21st century; and I shared my approach, centred around ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Nashville in 2022.
Conference presentation, British Forum for Ethnomusicology / Royal Musical Association PGR Conference, University of Bath, UK, 2022: ‘Turn Your Radio On: Comparisons of Country Radio in the UK and USA’.
This paper discussed the differing representation of country music, defined by the US marketing category, on public, commercial and community radio stations in the UK.
In the rural South of the USA, Radio grew to be the predominant form of media during the first half of the 20th century (Pecknold et al, 2007). In the UK, the development of radio broadcasting was led by the BBC from 1927. While country stations in the USA tended to develop organically, radio broadcasting in the UK, especially that of specialist music such as country, has largely been curated by a series of local satellite stations of the BBC (Crisell, 2005). Today, the landscape changing in the UK, and the time is right for re-evaluation. Country music now has its own national radio station in the UK, and in 2020 that station was purchased by one of the biggest media outlets in the industry. National, as opposed to local, representation of country music has become in vogue (Martin, 2019).
This paper challenged long-held views about the representation of country music on UK radio, and argued for a wider publicly-driven adoption of the genre, moving the focus beyond the domain of specialist and hobbyists alike.
Paper, College of Arts Sharing Research and Practice Event, University of Lincoln, UK, 2021: ‘This One’s For The Girls – Observations from Ethnographic Fieldwork in Nashville’.
ABSTRACT
Conference presentation, PGR Showcase, University of Lincoln, UK, 2021: ‘Country Music: Race, Gender and Transition in the year of COVID-19’.
This paper was originally presented as part of the GRS Summer School at the University of Bergen in Norway (see below), and attendance was made possible by the Lincoln School of Fine and Performing Arts kickstarter fund. This will support was referenced in the introduction to the presentation.
Paper, College of Arts Sharing Research and Practice Event, University of Lincoln, UK, 2021: ‘Turn Your Radio On- Comparisons of Country Radio in the UK and USA’.
See British Forum for Ethnomusicology / Royal Musical Association PGR Conference above.
Conference presentation, British Association for American Studies PGR Conference, online, 2021: ‘Gatekeeping Country: An Ethnographic Study of Female Country Music Performers in the 21st Century.’
Country music is well known for its ‘musical traditionalism [and] political conservatism’ (Lloyd, 2017, 283). Gender roles are well established, with ‘a rigid male/female binary [underpinning] the genre’s century-long history’ (Watson, 2019. 1). Examples of a gendered double standard are common, with male managers turning ‘a blind eye toward male performer indiscretions’ while women’s ‘sexuality [is] ruthlessly controlled’ (McCusker, 2017, 10). Meanwhile, country radio has perpetuated the myth that ‘women don’t want to hear women’ (Somvichian-Clausen, 2020). In short, female performers in country music, continue to be a be a marginalized in the genre while the voices of these performers, outside a small group of the leading Top 40 artists, continue to suffer from a lack of visibility when compared to their male counterparts.
While the first two decades of the 21st century have been impacted by rapidly developing technological and cultural change; (Neal, 2016); the period 2018-2021 has seen a surge in support for global activist movements, intent on securing societal change.
In this paper, I focused on such developments in the country music genre, and discussed how this period, and the decades leading up to it, have informed my approach to ethnographic fieldwork. I considered a series of differing perspectives including the continued legacy of the #MeToo movement, the COVID-19 pandemic, #BLM movement and a more democratic music landscape where online platforms allow musicians to circumnavigate traditional gatekeepers and perceived barriers to success.
Conference presentation, GRS International Summer School, Grieg Research School in Interdisciplinary Music Studies, University of Bergen, Norway, 2020: ‘Country Music: Race, Gender and Transition in the year of COVID-19.
This paper examined the way in which the COVID-19 pandemic upended the US country music awards season in 2020 and the extent to which the crisis provided an opportunity for the country music industry to respond to the global social movements of #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. In particular, I saught to establish the extent to which the decisions made by producers of two flagship country music awards shows, the CMAs and ACMs, could be seen as an obvious alignment with current social movements, well-known in the public consciousness and further highlighted by the impact of the pandemic, or more reflective of a trend in which the country music industry is moving away from its divisive past in relation to issues of race and gender.