Turning the Tune: Traditional Music, Tourism, and Social Change in an Irish Village (Dance and Performance Studies)

Author: Adam R. Kaul
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Category: Folk Dancing, Folk Dancing, Folk & Traditional Music, Folk & Traditional Music, British & Irish History, Popular Culture, Sociology: Work & Labour, Anthropology, Social & Cultural Anthropology
Book Format: Paperback

The last century has seen radical social changes in Ireland, which have impacted all aspects of local life but none more so than traditional Irish music, an increasingly important identity marker both in Ireland and abroad. The author focuses on a small village in County Clare, which became a kind of pilgrimage site for those interested in experiencing traditional music. He begins by tracing its historical development from the days prior to the influx of visitors, through a period called the Revival, in which traditional Irish music was revitalized and transformed, to the modern period, which is dominated by tourism. A large number of incomers, locally known as blow-ins, have moved to the area, and the traditional Irish music is now largely performed and passed on by them. This fine-grained ethnographic study explores the commercialization of music and culture, the touristic consolidation and consumption of place, and offers a critique of the trope of authenticity, all in a setting of dramatic social change in which the movement of people is constant.

Table Of Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction


Conceptual Orientation
Conceptual Organization
Doolin

PART I: REMEMBERED HISTORY

Chapter 2. The Old Days


Ethnography, History and Memory
Subsistence and Seasonality
Argonauts of the Eastern Atlantic
Seasonality Tourism in Clare in 1859
(On the Origins of a New Species)
Traditional Irish Music of the "Old Days"
The Ceili and the Crossroads Dance
The Country House Dance
The Dance Halls and The Ceili Bands
Early Collections and Early Sessions
Conclusions

Chapter 3. The Revival


A Changing Economy
The Folk Revival
Internal Changes in Irish Music
The Revival Arrives
Turning the Tune
Conclusions

PART II: MOVING IN AND MOVING THROUGH

Chapter 4. The Celtic Tiger


Celtic Tourism
Mass Tourists
Coach Tours
"Travelers", Working Tourists, and Visitors
Conclusions

Chapter 5. Locals and Blow-ins


Locals
Blow-ins
Negotiations of Belonging
Conclusions

PART III: CHANGE AND CONTINUITY

Chapter 6. Consolidation and Globalization


Traditional Music of the Celtic Tiger
Doolin's Celtic Music Industry
Bands and Sessions, Performing and Playing
Paying to Play
Conclusions

Chapter 7. Adoption and Approriation


Appropriation
Adoption
Complementary Discourses
Phenomenology of the Session
Premeditated Spontaneity
Music as a Conversation
Perfect Embodiment and Good Craic
Conclusions

Chapter 8. Conclusions


History, Globalization, and Tourism
Appropriation, Tradition, and Cosmopolitanism
The Trope of Authenticity
Credibility
One's Relationship to the Locale
One's Epistemological Relationship to the Music
Immediate Context
Seasonality
The Interaction of Personalities
Good Man, Yourself

Bibliography
Index
About Adam Kaul
Adam Kaul is a Professor of Anthropology at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. He has written extensively on traditional music, tourism, and the economics of musical performance in Ireland. He is also the co-editor of Leisure and Death (University Press of Colorado 2018) and co-editor of the 3rd edition of Tourists and Tourism (Waveland 2018).

(BK-9780857458087)

SKU BK-9780857458087
Barcode # 9780857458087
Brand Berghahn Books
Artist / Author Adam R. Kaul
Shipping Weight 0.2400kg
Shipping Width 0.150m
Shipping Height 0.010m
Shipping Length 0.230m
Assembled Length 22.900m
Assembled Height 1.100m
Assembled Width 15.200m
Type Paperback

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