Music Ethnography

Song List
Lullabye - Billy Joel
Abide With Me - Popular funeral hymn
Ganja Smuggling - Eek-a-mouse
Hard To Concentrate - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Breakdown - Jack Johnson
Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - Jack Johnson
For The Longest Time - Billy Joel
Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve
Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas
Fields Of Gold - Sting

I wish I could do this experiment again and list my 10 most favorite songs and see if I would get a different result. We'll never know though..


Music truly is a gateway into social relationships whether they are friend or family. A lot of songs I listen to are a reflection of past experiences, good or bad, or they provide some sort of meaning and insight into my life now. Music is a very useful tool used to identify a person’s actions, beliefs, sociability, and style. Actually all of the songs on my list had to deal with an event that had happened earlier in my life. Some were sad songs reminiscent of funerals, and some had a much happier meaning.
The songs on my list reflect all of the different things I’ve gone through during my life. They represent all my ups and downs, highs and lows. The good thing is at least the songs that constitute “ups” outweigh the “downs.” Many of the songs have to do with experiences I’ve had with friends, and if someone were to identify that, they would be able to identify subculture. But some of my songs are about past experiences with other things such as sports, funerals, girls, and choir. If I would’ve listed my favorite ten songs then I’m sure this experiment would’ve turned out a lot different.
By listening to the songs I selected I think people could still get a decent understanding of who I am. People would infer that I am a laid back person with a ”chill” attitude on life, and I enjoy good musicianship. Whoever had my list today in class basically got all the questions right about me. They properly identified my subculture now as well as my past subcultures. They even got my clothing choice right… The only thing one might not get from listening to this playlist is the fact that I play a lot of sports. Since my songs aren’t aggressive at all in tone or style, one could suggest that I don’t play any hardcore sports. I actually played football for the past 9 years of my life, but contrary to the traditional “pump up” music, I listened to Jack Johnson before every game. I am also a huge golfer, and the mellow attitude of all the songs helped me relax myself before tournaments.