Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7385-2287

Date Available

12-20-2024

Year of Publication

2024

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

Fine Arts

Department/School/Program

Musicology

Advisor

Dr. James Revell Carr

Co-Director of Graduate Studies

Dr. Ron Pen

Abstract

In this dissertation, I explore activism, music, and meaning through the lens of HONK! Bands in the United States. HONK! A Festival of Activist Street Bands began in Sommerville, Massachusetts, in 2006. Since its inception, the festivals have grown on a national and global scale. The festivals, however, operate as a convenient organizing structure for the bands themselves and are not a primary focus of this work. Instead, I examine activism, learning, and value as systems within the HONK! culture (each topic with a devoted chapter) to, through a phenomenological lens, better understand how HONK! bands fit within American culture.

Throughout the dissertation, data is drawn from personal lived experience. A strong part of the research phase of this work comes from my time joining, rehearsing, performing, and recording with The Party Band from Lowell, Massachusetts, from 2018-2021. My personal experiences playing alto saxophone as a participant observer in this band combine with twenty-three ethnographic interviews to define activism and systems of value, which are at times in opposition to more mainstream American thought. This opposition is embodied by the concept I call ‘The New,’ inspired by the “alterontologies” of Dimitris Papadopoulos, ‘The New’ describes the possibility that the world can be a different place. I argue that ‘The New’ is essential to activism in contemporary America. The uniting factor among the three focus areas is deserialization—a response to Jean-Paul Sartre’s “seriality.” Through deserialization, agencies and identities that are lost to the superstructural demands of society are returned to individuals, empowering them to act, think, and live richer lives.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2024.413

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