Authenticity and Belonging in the Northern Soul Scene: The Role of History and Identity in a Multigenerational Music Culture (Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music)

This book, which builds on a three-year immersive ethnographic study, argues that what scene participants do and say within the northern soul scene constitutes a claim to belong. For younger members, making claims to belong is problematic in a scene where dominant notions of authenticity held by insiders are rooted in a particular past: the places, people, events, and soundscapes of particular venues during the 1970s. In order to engage with this past, young men and women participate in a range of discursive practices. This book argues that these practices, and the ways they intersect and deviate from dominant notions of authenticity, represent shared and individual negotiations of the 'true soulie'. In doing so, it reveals the rich experiences of the younger generation of this multigenerational music scene, and the ways they establish a claim to belong to a scene first formed before they were born. A Preface (in Poesis) 7 Acknowledgements 9 Contents 11 Chapter 1: We Share the Floor 14 References 17 Chapter 2: “Going To A Happening” 18 At the Peak of the Night 18 A Moment to Catch Our Breath 20 References 23 Chapter 3: “Let’s Talk It Over” 24 Getting Into It: A Soul Nite in Staffordshire 24 Negotiating a Place: The Record Stands at Rugby 27 Power Dynamics in a Multigenerational Music Scene 29 Claiming to Belong 33 References 37 Chapter 4: “I Got Something Good” 39 Two Ballrooms in Blackpool 39 The Winter Gardens, February 2012 39 The Blackpool Tower Weekender, November 2016 41 Ways In 44 Nancy, 19 44 Levi, 21 45 Emma, 28 46 Joe, 31 47 Being on the Inside 48 On/of the Scene: A Shared Northern Soul Identity 50 “I Just Go Out and Have a Good Time”: Pushing the Boundaries 56 References 60 Chapter 5: The History Lesson 62 A “Northern” Premiere: The King George’s Hall, Blackburn 64 From the Catacombs to Chatham: Three Accounts of the Northern Soul Past 67 An Interview with Mike (62) About the Catacombs 67 A Letter from Dave (58) and “a Sort of History Lesson” 68 Grace (57) and the London Soul Scene 72 The Self-Documented History of Northern Soul 74 Historicising Insider Experience 79 References 82 Chapter 6: “Back in the Day” 85 Summer 2015: Experiencing Time and the Past at the Kings Hall 85 “Soul Time”: Engagements with Time and the Past on the Northern Soul Scene 89 Stories of Northern Soul Nights 92 Patching Up Northern Soul Histories 94 “I Can Imagine”: Empathetic Extensions of Northern Soul History 97 Engaging with the Material Past 100 Creating a Knowledgeable Northern Soul Style 102 Doing Drugs “Properly” 105 An “Appropriate” Engagement with Technology 109 “Fuck Wigan”: Boycotting the Kings Hall 113 References 116 Chapter 7: “I’m Where It’s At” 118 Searching for the “Proper” Place 121 The Place of Place in Northern Soul 123 A Tale of Two Events: The Value of Northern Soul History in Contemporary Places 127 Heading “Home” and Being “Out of Place” 131 The “Proper Nighter”: Finding a Place of One’s Own 134 The Place of Class in Northern Soul 137 Dave Godin’s Autoethnography of the North in Northern Soul 140 The Working-Class “Northern Soul Story” 142 Empathetic Histories of Working-Class Experience 145 Scene Success: “Hard Work and Hard Knocks” 147 Cultural Signifiers of the “Inside” 149 A Bar in Barcelona: Making Sense of New Northern Soul Places 154 Class in New Places 157 References 159 Chapter 8: “Hey Girl Don’t Bother Me” 162 “Out On The Floor”: Gendered Expectations of “the Dancer” 169 “Fucking Hell, He Makes That Look Easy”: The Cool Dancer 172 “Don’t Bring Me Down for Being a Dancer”: Public Critique and the Dance Floor 175 Original Vinyl Only: Record Collecting 176 Informal Mentoring and Northern Soul Record Collecting 178 “He’s Not Touching My Records, ‘Cause They Are Personal”: Doing-It-for-Yourself 180 Masters of Soul: DJing on the Northern Soul Scene 184 Northern Soul DJ Practices 186 Starting Out 188 Learning to DJ 189 The DJ as Emcee 192 We’ll Do-It-Ourselves: “Young Souls” and Event Organising 197 Finding a Place: Gender in the Northern Soul Scene 200 References 202 Chapter 9: “A Little Togetherness” 204 Conclusions 204 From Debut to Finale 210 References 215 Events 216 Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii We Share the Floor (Sarah Raine)....Pages 1-4 “Going To A Happening” (Sarah Raine)....Pages 5-10 “Let’s Talk It Over” (Sarah Raine)....Pages 11-25 “I Got Something Good” (Sarah Raine)....Pages 27-49 The History Lesson (Sarah Raine)....Pages 51-73 “Back in the Day” (Sarah Raine)....Pages 75-107 “I’m Where It’s At” (Sarah Raine)....Pages 109-152 “Hey Girl Don’t Bother Me” (Sarah Raine)....Pages 153-194 “A Little Togetherness” (Sarah Raine)....Pages 195-206 Back Matter ....Pages 207-207