From Festies to Tourrats: Examining the Relationship between Jamband Subculture Involvement and Role Meanings

Abstract

I introduce two continuous measures of subculture involvement (ideological embeddedness and behavioral-relational involvement), and use them to examine the relationship between involvement in the jamband subculture and the affective meanings (evaluation, potency, and activity) associated with 18 roles that are relevant to that subculture. I expect the two measures of involvement to be related positively to the evaluation and potency of fourteen subculture roles (deadhead, drinker, drug user, environmentalist, festie, hippie, phishhead, rainbow person, rastafarian, raver, stoner, tourrat, vendor, wharfrat), and negatively to the evaluation and potency of four authority roles (capitalist, nark, police officer, venue security officer). Using data from self-administered surveys ( N = 418 for familiar subculture and authority roles, N = 219 for less familiar subculture roles), I find that subculture members learn meanings for relevant roles as a result of their socialization in the subculture; more specifically, as a result of their levels of ideological embeddedness and behavioral-relational involvement. This study enhances other investigations of subculture and meaning socialization. First, whereas past studies have examined between-group meaning variation, I investigate within-group meaning variation. A within-group analysis should indicate whether or not groups are heterogeneous, a finding that might reduce negative acts such as stereotyping. Second, I introduce two continuous measures designed to capture two dimensions of subculture involvement: ideological embeddedness and behavioral-relational involvement. Similar to previous conceptualizations of involvement, these two measures represent both attitudinal and behavioral involvement. Third, previous qualitative research within the related Grateful Dead subculture suggests that although not all subculture roles are equal in terms of evaluation, most subculture roles tend to be equal in potency. I further investigate this hypothesis using evaluation and potency to represent the affective meaning of roles, and I examine the implications of these findings for the jamband subculture.

Subculture, Sociology of

“…Yet, the broader study of general populations also yields difficulty, particularly in identifying subcultural groups (King, 2007). For this reason, even in the challenging case of studying migrating or intermittently territorial subcultures, researchers examining them have tended to supplement any survey or documentary research with their observations (e.g., Hunt, 2008Hunt, , 2010Riley, 1988). For this reason, even in the challenging case of studying migrating or intermittently territorial subcultures, researchers examining them have tended to supplement any survey or documentary research with their observations (e.g., Hunt, 2008Hunt, , 2010Riley, 1988).…”

“…Although some scholars have continued to apply the more general definition of subculture in their work on youth subcultures (e.g., Hunt, 2008Hunt, , 2010Latysheva, 2011), and especially in examinations of subcultures not associated exclusively with youth (Lieske, 2004;Spencer, 1997), after the introduction of the notion of youth subcultures as 'cultures of resistance,' this more specified definition has dominated the subculture literature and much of the critique of the notion of subculture since then is a response to this more specific usage (e.g., Crosset and Beal, 1997;Miles, 2000;Straw, 1999). Muggleton and Weinzierl (2003), for example, question the validity of this approach in a postmodern world, and champion "a more pragmatic approach compared to the romanticism of the CCCS" (p. 4).…”

Emotions, Sociology of

“…Similarly, fans of jam bands, such as the Grateful Dead and Phish have developed different emotional cultures, particularly regarding such social identities as narcotics agents and law enforcement officials (Hunt, 2008(Hunt, , 2013. Individuals participating in a polyamorous community, for example, have created their own language as a way to dispel disruptive feelings and to create a deeper sense of community.…”

Back to the Future: 25 Years of Research in Affect Control Theory

“…Thomassen (2002) studied sentiment change in Alcoholic Anonymous; King (2001King ( , 2008 connected Internet cultures with social sentiments for Internet identities and behaviors. Hunt (2008Hunt ( , 2010 studied involvement, identity-roles, conformity, and deviance in Jamband subcultures. And, Sewell and Heise (2010) explored the copresence of Black and White cultures in the United States using 1970s data on cultural sentiments.…”