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Minneapolis Wireless Web Community
For some folks, voice calling is not a primary technique of communication on their cellular phone. By December 2010, USI Wi-fi had roughly 20,000 subscribers, in line with the company's CEO, Joe Caldwell. You connect one of these to a modem, and the other you just plug into an electrical outlet in an space the place you need more coverage. Clearly I need an web connection, a couple of really and a few of the shopkeepers mentioned they might let me use their's but it was really gradual, around 3MB and for that reason they said no. Just a few different appeared happy however simply wished some extra information or needed to speak to the boss/owner.
Wi-fi safety techniques are nice and very talked-about as a result of they are super simple to put in. It's normal for internet set up and activation fees to hover round $one hundred. Any gadget with a MAC address that is not listed in your router configuration won't be allowed to access your wi-fi router and use your broadband connection. There are two methods in which you can join your system to a wi-fi connection. Hi i was questioning if anyone is aware of if i can join my Belkin wireless Router N300 wirelessley to the already energetic web connection without having to connect an ethernet or adsl cable to the again of the router.
E-vergent is a high-pace Internet service provider for the whole Gurnee area. Mercantile has mixed a set of products and services that meet the immediate info expertise wants of a small enterprise: Web entry, basic and enhanced hosting providers, Net design, Intranet purposes, and most exciting to small business, E-Commerce tools. The Last Mile Wi-fi Internet Hosting is: Quick, Secure, Dependable and sits proper on a fibre cable with limitless bandwidth. I too am in the Kemptville space, and am trying to find decent high velocity web.
If you happen to really wish to cowl a large area outdoors I recommend you place one other OM2P on the roof of your cafe or just on top of the frontage/signage. Per the request of regulation enforcement officers who had been involved in regards to the potential capability to surf the web anonymously, the free login points require the user to enter a username, password, and bank card quantity. In case you are not acquainted with wireless routers, take a look at the hyperlink for to learn the way to purchase one of the best home wireless router Likewise I like to recommend that you simply learn my comparison analysis of the Motorola SB6141 and SB6121 for cable modems.
At $9.ninety five a month DSL could be sluggish, but if all you're doing is web surfing, electronic mail, twitter, boards, and analysis for varsity that's actually all you need. We are able to have your Internet up and operating in a matter of days, avoiding the lengthy delays experienced from different suppliers. For less than $a hundred on eBay, I bought a much more sturdy wireless security system with the next items. An IP company that specialises in web based mostly options for SME's and corporates. I imagine that wired connections are faster and more dependable as in comparison with wireless networks.

subset: commoncrawl


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The building of a brand
Aspire is a specialist property advisory business in London, focusing on development management and compulsory purchase projects. They approached us to align their website with their brand and to better represent their capabilities to help attract more work.
The results & the experience
When Aspire came to us, their website was not attracting the level of work they wanted, and it didn't represent the capabilities and experience of an expanding area of the business. The communication of core messaging was not as effective as it could be. Aspire has two business propositions, aspireDM and aspireCP, but it wasn't clear how they worked together, or how should be positioned online.
We first ran a discovery workshop to understand Aspire's overall and individual propositions. The website was then redeveloped based on our findings, positioning their industry experts at the centre of the offer, and presenting key messages clearly to inspire users to take action. We also recommended engaging with key audiences through highly targeted digital marketing to attract them to the website.
Base Creative have patiently and calmly explained the opportunities to us – in a language we understand – and helped identify which where we can look to take advantage. Working with Base Creative on our collateral never feels like a chore. The conversation starts with "what does success look like and how can we measure positive (or negative) outcomes?" With their help, we're able to plan and monitor our digital activities and target those areas that best fit our business, in a timescale that works for us.
Greg Mileham Managing DirectorIt's been a pleasure working with Chris and Ian during the project and since launch. During the design phase they were really open to our suggestions and we've been able to have open and helpful dialogue throughout, which has produced great results in the messaging and execution, and a website that achieves our agreed project goals.


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Fuji X100F I The take-everywhere camera.
January 3, 2019It's 2012 and I'm about to go to Italy, a region I'd ever since then call my absolute favourite, Liguria. I'm about a month away from going and look at my photo bag full and ready (at that time) of Canon 40D, a couple of lenses, batteries, flash, wires, etc. etc., you know the drill. And I'm a bit un-keen… I'm visualising walking around the streets pulling a wagon full of gear thinking too much about the bulk. So I'm deciding to purchase a smaller camera, something light and, you know, one that simply would do the job. So I'm at Jessops, Leicester and my eye is drawn to a retro-looking piece sat on its own surrounded by nothing but black walls of the shelving unit. It's the original Fujifilm X100 which started it all for so many. I have a go and both dislike it as well as being strangely drawn to it. Then I go through the film simulations and have a go at the monochrome with a green filter. That's it. It's done. I'm in. But not yet convinced fully…
I then take the camera to Italy and find myself struggling. Struggling with autofocusing, manual focusing, ergonomics, fiddly round button set up as well as the ever detaching lens cap. I am so frustrated that I admit defeat and before I'm back the camera is on eBay. On my return home I insert the cards into the computer and preview the images and I'm gobsmacked! How is it possible that they're the best images I had ever taken up until that time with the worst taking photos experience ever? I'm puzzled but really keen on seeing where the system ends up with the future iterations. I skip the S, the T and fast forward to November 2018, after looking at the F for 2 years and considering different equipment shuffles I finally purchase it. And boy oh boy am I for a treat?
Why the X100F?
The X100F is the fourth iteration of a compact x-trans sensor type camera with now 24 megapixel and capable of producing a Wow! factor output at even higher ISO. However, for specifications and details on the tech head over here, where you can learn more about the camera from Ken Rockwell. I'd like to discuss why I've gone for the F instead. And the main reason being that for the past 2 years I've been a Fuji X-Pro2 shooter, completely converted from the Canon system which I had previously used. The thing is, the X100F has exactly the same sensor as the X-Pro2 and, this time around as well takes the same batteries as the X-Pro2. Moreover, on the X-Pro2 and due to my style of shooting, I've been taking photos at the 35mm equivalent field of view and I absolutely love the outcomes the system produces especially when paired with the excellent 23mm 1.4 lens. The X100F, as well as the previous versions, are built around a 23mm f2 lens and again, I love this documentary-style field coverage. Some will pixel peep and comment on slight softness at close distances of the 23mm f2 version on the X100 system but you know what, I don't pixel peep. And guess who doesn't neither? Your clients! I've always thought this: if you know what you're doing with the camera and focus on capturing the moment, you disregard tech. And if you focus on the tech, you miss the moment. I actually love the f2 version of the lens the X100 series is built around and it's a testament to its quality that the F is now the 4th camera built around it. If it ain't broke,…. I digressed. Apart from the field of view output, I am now equipped with what I like to call the sibling cameras, one being the bigger brother of the other. This ensures consistency not only with the photographs but also with the style of shooting and ergonomics since the cameras are possible to be set using exactly the same layout function buttons, the same menu and both fit perfectly in the hand. It's like driving a Golf and then a Polo. You know what to expect, where everything is and how to push it for the best performance. But then the X100F has an ace or two up its sleeve I haven't of course used on the X-Pro2 as that camera simply doesn't include them. These are leaf shutter as well as a built-in flash and the ND filter. And these are the areas where a switch to the system is necessary when setting against harsh sunlight or where there isn't enough available light and you'd like to fill for capturing the moment. I can't put it in any other way than simply saying that my system is complete for my favourite reportage and documentary type photography both at weddings, family shoots as well as travel.
The X100F deserves more and in fact, I've seen e-books written on the system by professionals, which I'm sure to contain an awful lot of inspiration, explanation, and answers. I can only say that quite simply I absolutely love this camera. The system is an extension of my concepts in how I approach photography and makes me feel both complete as well as completely satisfied and assured at both professional and personal ventures. So for those of you who might be thinking of a purchase, I can only say absolutely and definitely "Get it!". Get it even if there's a new version coming out in 2019, get it if you need a reliable second body or a travel tool, get it if you haven't tried the X100 system yet nor the 23mm (35mm equivalent on the full frame). It will change the way you think about taking photos and your subjects and your photography game. And in the appreciation of this, you'll be hard-pressed to look back. I know I am.
For more on the subject check out Jonas Rask's entry on the Fuji X100F and the system as well as Kevin Mullin's dedicated and quite extensive blog entry. Some of my early images using the F version are below.


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[1] This article addresses gender and popular music-making in the city of Hamilton, New Zealand, a moderately prosperous provincial city (population 130,000) which services a large rural sector (the Waikato). Starting from the observation that few women enroll in tertiary commercial music courses in Hamilton, I aim to examine both the pedagogical experiences and perceptions of students relating to these courses, but also the background of beliefs and practices relating to gender and music in Hamilton, focusing on the live original music scene and its participants. My research question is 'what factors enable or disable women's participation in original popular music performance in Hamilton?' I have used mainly qualitative approaches (interviews with students, participants, participant observation at live music events) and some quantitative research (statistical analysis of gender participation in NZ tertiary education). Precedents include Lucy Green'sMusic Gender Education (1997) and Sara Cohen's Rock Culture in Liverpool(1991), which employed a mixed methodology to research similar issues in the UK. My theoretical approach starts from a position similar to Green: critical theory that aims to reveal and interpret ideological patterns of power within everyday experience, specifically in relation to ideologies of gender and music. However, while critical theory is excellent at identifying constraints, problems and contradictions, it's not always clear how it can set out a positive agenda, other than by addressing the problems it identifies. It doesn't always engage with how people dwell within and work with contradictions, rather than trying to 'solve' them. Some of the strategies I describe later that enable women's music-making could be interpreted as critical responses to social problems, but others do not work so much with or against dominant discourses but alongside them – that is, agents or groups develop effective strategies to make music 'on their own terms' but without necessarily defining themselves against someone else's terms. In the latter part of the essay I consider Gustav Holter's theory of public/private spheres and, briefly, Foucault's concept of resistance as alternatives to critical theory's emphasis on ideology.
[2] This is the first study of gender participation in popular music-making in New Zealand. Both men and women were approached – however, mostly women responded, so by default (which certainly begs interpretation), it has become mostly a study of women's participation in music-making. I should also state here a personal agenda – as a popular musician who has played with both men and women (including some of the participants), I was interested in what factors encouraged or inhibited women's participation. I also teach media arts at one of the main research sites, Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec). I have defined popular music-making as participating in the production of popular musical performances primarily in public spaces as musicians or sound engineers. My focus is on musicians who compose, sing or play, or facilitate that process. This connects the two sites of my research: in both cases 'playing, singing and producing self-written music' is the dominant mode of musical performance and production. The two main research sites are Wintec's Commercial Music programme and the local live original music scene. 'Original' designates performers who play mainly their own material, as opposed to covers bands. Typical performance settings include pubs, cafes, parties and the University of Waikato, whose student radio station (Contact FM) is probably the most active supporter of local live original music, along with the Htown website (http://htown.co.nz), an online forum which advertises gigs and promotes discussion of music. However, these are both small operations, and do not offer equal coverage of all types of local music.
[3] The Hamilton live original music scene is small, fragmented and suffers from a lack of venues. It rarely attracts large audiences, and there isn't necessarily any connection between the Wintec programme and the scene I am describing. At any given time, however, there will be some musicians participating in both, at least attending live performances. Two significant annual live events are the Circle Jerk (in which bands cover songs by other Hamilton bands) and the Mammoth Band Experiments (a 'battle of the bands'). Mainly because of the range of performers involved, these events attracted (in 2008) audiences of 200-300. I participated in both (as performer in the first, as judge at the second, and as an audience member in both). The 'battle' featured a number of (male) performers from the Wintec music programme.
[4] The Wintec music programme has been running since 2004, and in the period I surveyed (five years) 126 students have enrolled, 99 males and 27 females, approximately 80% male. (Forty of the men dropped out (40%) without completing the degree, six of the women (22%).) Are these figures typical of NZ tertiary institutions that offer popular music degrees? Broadly, yes. First year intakes are mainly male, although the proportion is highest at Wintec and at institutions which only offer audio engineering courses. One exception was a songwriting degree at the University of Auckland which is typically 50/50.
[5] In the local live music scene, the proportion of female performers is even lower, even though audiences are pretty mixed. For example the 'battle of the bands' featured 16 bands or artists, about 70 people, of whom four were women. No acts with women reached the finals. At the 'Circle Jerk' (the name itself has highly masculine connotations) there were three woman performers out of perhaps 50. In my experience of New Zealand music scenes, men have always been prominent, but especially in Hamilton in 2008. Why is women's participation as performers so limited? To what degree is it specific to Hamilton, or New Zealand, or tertiary music programmes? To what degree does it respond to global discourses of gender representation in popular music?
Gender and popular music
[6] In some contemporary popular music genres – pop vocal, R&B, singer/songwriter – there are arguably more successful women than ever before: Madonna (a significant role model), Shania Twain, Celine Dion, Mary J Blige, Missy Elliott, TLC, Britney Spears, Destiny's Child, Beyonce, Christine Aguilera, Celine Dion, Jewel, Mariah Carey, Pink, the Dixie Chicks (US), Amy Winehouse, Enya, Lily Allen, Dido (British Isles), Kylie Minogue (Australia). In New Zealand a number of major female stars have emerged in the last ten years – Bic and Boh Runga, Brooke Fraser, Hayley Westenra, Anika Moa, Julia Deans, Ladyhawke, Gin Wigmore. In a typical current singles chart today, you'll see up to 50% female artists.
[7] However, irrespective of all the other work they do (playing instruments, producing, managing, writing songs) the dominant visual representation of woman musicians (say, in music videos) is as solo vocalists or sometimes singing groups. Women sing (and often dance). Rarely do they play an instrument (other than an acoustic guitar or piano). Even more rarely are they seen in a band, either all female, or mixed, except as singers. The number of representations of women performing music has increased, but the range has not. Moreover, the genres in which women are most successful are perceived as the most 'commercial' and thus lack cultural capital. What counts as 'classic', ie canonized popular music, whether decided by media programmers or rock critics, tends to be by white men. In 2002 APRA polled its New Zealand songwriter members and released a list of the 'top' 30 NZ songs of all time, subsequently issued as a bestselling CD by Sony (Nature's Best). The list features six songs sung by women (Pixie Williams, Bic Runga, Shona Laing, Julia Deans of Fur Patrol and Jenny Morris of the Crocodiles, and four written by women ('Sway' and 'Drive' by Bic Runga, 'Lydia' by Julia Deans and 'Glad I'm not a Kennedy' by Shona Laing). Although the list covered 60 years of NZ music, the most successful woman has emerged only in the last decade (Bic Runga). Within the top 30, white males predominate.
[8] It could be objected that the commercial mainstream is not particularly relevant for the scenes I am examining. Indeed, given the perceived 'fragmentation' of music and other media in the last 20 years, is 'mainstream' still a relevant concept? Many musicians are disdainful of pop music (usually the men more than the women). However, are women then more prominent in 'alternative' or 'independent' music scenes? On the basis of the Hamilton scene, I'd say not. Certainly there may be more opportunities for experimentation, but within NZ independent scenes, women performers have always been in a minority, although rarely as much as in Hamilton. Also, for music students, most of whom are school-leaving age, the 'mainstream' (commercial radio and TV programming, popular music in films) still provides a set of expectations and possibilities. As we will see, most female students identify with the singer/songwriter role model. However, most women musicians in the local live scene are not singer/songwriters, which suggests a contradiction or impasse for women participating in local popular music that is not present for men. Mavis Bayton's work provides a generic overview of problems women musicians face: access to money, equipment, resources, transport, that 'public space' means men's space (pubs for example), pressure from peers and partners, male musicians who exclude them (347-354). Moreover, many women prioritise maintaining relationships over self-advancement. If they do finally make it on to the stage, they face a further set of problems, which I will discuss presently. However, women musicians can also evolve strategies to cope with these obstacles, a theme I will return to.
Gender in the local context
[9] Gender discourse in settler cultures like New Zealand may be a further challenge for women. In an earlier article (for this journal), I argued that in New Zealand, gender has functioned historically like class does in the colonizer, the UK (Bannister). It is a means of social stratification, producing a national iconography of tough, rural, anti-intellectual, working-class masculinity – the 'Kiwi bloke' – but no corresponding model of female national identity. More particularly, social stratification is also performed through gender segregation in education, leisure and social activities. These factors may affect women's participation in music-making. Although I did not explicitly address gender and national identity in my interviews, one respondent (Minette) argued that NZ social gatherings were more segregated than in her home country (France): 'it tends always for the women to be on one side and the men to be on one side, and me coming from Europe I'm used to genders mixing … I've got into situations where the women would get angry at me because I was talking to the men.' She related this to education: 'In France all schools are mixed … Single sex schools do not teach you how to behave in society, if a girl doesn't know how to talk to a boy it may not help her in later life.' The idea of NZ as a 'gendered culture' has been developed in other studies (James and Saville-Smith).
[10] Within popular New Zealand discourse, Hamilton typifies conservative, 'redneck', 'heartland' New Zealand, a bit like the US Midwest, the kind of place ambitious or alternative young people tend to leave. Handsome Jeffery (sic), a Waikato all-woman band that won Rockquest – an NZ rock talent quest for schools – promptly moved to Auckland. Their lead singer, Anna Coddington, is now a rising solo star. Another band I interviewed (three women and one man), moved to Wellington at the start of 2008. In places where there are more 'flows' of people and ideas, there may be a degree of freedom to re-invent oneself. Of course, this argument works both ways – immigrants may in turn perceive New Zealand and the Waikato as 'liberating'. I interviewed two French women, Mary and Minette, both of whom had become popular musical performers since coming to NZ. Their perception was that French culture was judgmental: 'there girls criticize each other a lot … Kiwis are more reserved, they never say anything bad, it's great… over there it's not very encouraging' (Mary). Minette stated:
I went to an art exhibition and there were some painters that were not great artists at all, quite simple stuff, and I was surprised that those people were exhibiting, because in France … you will be judged … if you call it an art exhibition, immediately there will be a higher expectation, because it's called art, in NZ people can more just do their thing … It makes people less shy to express themselves, even if … it's not that great.
Leaving aside the question of whether these NZ/France differences are real or a matter of perception, these women experienced a move into an unfamiliar environment as liberating, presumably in the same way that musicians from Hamilton might move elsewhere to avoid parochialism. But such mobility is also a function of social status (both women had university degrees).
[11] Wintec students come mostly from Hamilton and its rural hinterland – other institutions, especially universities, tend to have a larger catchment area. This may act to some degree as a conservative force. However, there are also more bohemian communities in the Waikato area, and a large Maori community. Finally, even locally prominent 'conservative' institutions, like fundamentalist and charismatic churches, are not unilaterally 'repressive'. A number of respondents reported church as an important influence – a site that offers support for women's musical performance in a relatively supportive communal context. We will return to this point.
Educational environment
[12] Polytechnics are generally perceived as less socially and culturally prestigious than universities – vocationally focused, less research-oriented, and with lower entrance standards. For example, students can be accepted into the music programme without formal qualifications, on the basis of ability alone. It is possible that polytechnics attract students of a lower social class than universities, and that they may be more conservative in terms of gender. Researching student enrolments across Wintec undergraduate schools (2005-8), I noted that programmes of study are strongly gender-differentiated. For example, health students are over 90% women, trades overwhelmingly male (85-90%), education is mainly women, information technology mainly men. Very few schools have even close to a 50/50 split. Women favour programmes that involve working with people, men those that involve technology. Within Media Arts, most programmes have a majority of women (visual art, communication), with the exception of music. In Wintec as a whole, there is a majority of female students (roughly 60/40). Indeed, according to the most recent study, women form the majority of tertiary students in NZ ('Provider-based enrolments'). In some ways this makes their lack of participation in the music programme even more puzzling.
The study
[13] Two groups were interviewed: Wintec students and musicians participating in the local 'scene'. My choice of local musicians was based around my knowledge of the scene and relationships with participants. With Wintec students, I advertised within the music department for volunteers (gender not specified), as well as contacting former students. We conducted 11 student interviews: nine women, and two men, in age ranging between 19 and 43, but mostly in their 20s. Six women (Anita, Coral, Heather, Katie, Roz and Julie) identified mainly as singer/songwriters (vocals accompanied by piano or guitar), two as instrumentalists (Lauren, bass; Jane, violin), and one specifically as a sound engineer (Lola). Both the men (Stuart, Michael) identified as sound engineers, one as a DJ too (NB: pseudonyms have been used throughout). I also collated information from admission interviews, to identify levels of formal education for music students generally. Initially I had expected that schooling would be a significant influence, but in fact the linkage was pretty loose – some students were self-taught, some received private tuition, and some were mature students. However, those who had more formal education were more likely to complete the course, and women students were more represented in that group.
[14] I also interviewed 11 non-student musicians associated with Hamilton's live original music scene, ten women (Mary, Minette, June, Amber, Wanda, Helen, Caroline, Betty, Pat, Natalie) and one man (Gene). They had a broad range of degrees of engagement and commercial success – some experienced, some just starting out, only one (Natalie) close to being a fulltime musician, and this is not unusual – most popular music-making is amateur (Finnegan). Unlike the students, only one identified herself as a solo singer-songwriter (Helen). Most played in bands, though usually in supporting roles rather than as main songwriters. The median age of respondents was older than the students, and some had children, which limited in some cases their ability to 'do music'. But they also had a long history of musical involvement, and had usually played a range of roles in different genres and settings. In terms of background, about half had formal training (Amber, June, Mary, Wanda, Caroline). Most had been tertiary students, suggesting that women participating in local live original music tended to come from relatively privileged backgrounds.
Femininity as disruption
[15] Lucy Green states that the feminine is typically perceived as a disruption to musical performance (22-26). Although she discusses mainly classical music, this disruption also appears in popular music. Only one (female) student thought it was an advantage to be a woman: 'You can get what you want … I think some of the other girls found it hard though.' This respondent, Coral, discussing the course, but by implication also the wider world of popular music, suggested:
you've got to create your own path, and you've got to be a survivor and, y'know a lot of females, I guess the ones that were on the course, didn't have that built into them so much … I'm not just a flaky girl that's all talk, and girls do talk a lot.
The language used here suggests that the music business is 'tough', for both men and women. However, its individualistic tone suggests that women have to be 'like men' to succeed. Most female students also talked about a sense of alienation within the (Wintec) music environment, but in different terms:
… 80% of people seem to love death metal… You can't really have … a musical conversation with them … 'cos they're just so different … they don't really know much about the music I like, luckily I used to be into hardcore so I can kind of … understand what they're on about (Anita).
It just seems to be heaps of fucking heavy metal boys there (Michael).
One female student (Lauren), the only one who played metal, had more specific instances of alienation within the metal scene:
at shows I used to get asked … whether I was paying to get in, when I was actually playing. But a lot of the time people wouldn't believe me … and also there's … stuff like getting asked if you're someone's girlfriend … the other weekend … my partner plays in a band as well, and I was … approached by this dude at one of his shows and I got called a groupie, which pissed me off quite a bit because he had no idea that I actually play myself.
Heavy metal is very popular with teenage boys in Hamilton, and is often identified as a masculine genre, in terms of its personnel, subject matter, approach and general connotations. The most internationally successful Waikato group of recent times, The Datsuns, while not precisely metal, are generally regarded as 'hard rock', that is 'heavy', bluesy, guitar-dominated music, stylistically similar to 'classic' 70s metal, as opposed to recent subgenres like nu-metal, extreme, black or speed metal. Despite the diversity of metal subgenres, metallers do share modes of dress, behavior and beliefs, which women often find alienating, and in turn they are seen as an intrusion, as a male student (Stuart) put it:
If you had a metal band, I think a male singer would be taken more seriously than a female singer … I've only listened to one metal band that had a female singer [Kittie, actually an all-female band] and … a lot of their lyrics … had quite feminist views and stuff… the timbral qualities of their voice, weren't what I would expect from the genre. And so it sounded kind of strange to me.
The music doesn't sound right, and its lyrics are anomalous with the genre.
[16] More broadly, metal is often identified as typifying 'rock' as opposed to 'pop' values (Leach). This binary works within popular culture to distinguish not only gender roles, but also relative value, as Lauren illustrates:
Like a lot of the um, female stuff out there's just crap, like, complete crap and, and … just doesn't get taken seriously … all woman bands like The Donnas … it's like you've got to … be in an all girl band … that are just playing really crap stuff, or um, just be a solo artist .
She also states that 'feminine' genres (pop 'girl bands') are less prestigious:
I think that the genres that females can become famous in, a) they focus quite a lot on looks and appearance and dancing and stuff like that, the pop look, and b) they're … not really serious genres like if you look at it in terms of musical … or …. songwriting ability.
The women students see themselves as broader in their tastes than the men; Anita states that because she likes hardcore, she can 'sort of understand' the metallers; Lauren actually plays metal (although not exclusively). But they find it hard to imagine metallers being similarly willing to listen to 'their' music.
[17] Most non-student respondents also acknowledged that women playing music were perceived as unusual, especially in Hamilton. Pat, who has played in bands in Wellington and Auckland, stated that the Hamilton scene was 'worse than average' in terms of gender, which she mainly attributed to the fact that 'anyone with talent leaves'. Other respondents (June, Amber) had experience of playing in rock bands in the past, but felt marginal within the rock world. Although initially inspired by the growth of local independent music in the 1980s, they no longer played rock music. Amber initially performed bluegrass and folk on violin but found the NZ folk scene restrictive, so she formed a rock band with her boyfriend. However, the addition of a male drummer made it more of a 'boy's club'. She then moved from violin to bass, partly because she felt it was a more 'rock' instrument, and she would be more central to the band. However, this raised fresh problems, in that she felt that she was more likely to be compared to others. She also resented being told what to play. Overall, she did not feel that rock music was welcoming to women: 'Being in a band as a woman is like being in drag. It's hard to be there and be seen as a woman.' ('Being seen' here means being recognized within the band, as opposed to being seen by the audience.) June and Amber felt uncomfortable with the volume of rock music – noting the difficulty of amplifying violin over drums, for example. Feelings of isolation were common. Amber viewed rock as a male world: 'I spent years trying to fit into a male world, but there's no negotiability in the other direction.' As a result, both have investigated more interactive, low-key acoustic modes of music-making. Natalie, a fulltime bass player in a relatively successful roots reggae band, supplied a different perspective. She felt that gender was basically a personal self-confidence issue – 'my own stuff' – and that as her band has become more successful, it has mattered less. Some women (especially those starting out) might use it as a 'crutch'. However, she did acknowledge that audiences might expect a higher musical standard from a woman performer, and that there is still prejudice within the industry 'mainly from sound engineers and roadies', especially those from a 'rock' background. She also cited her experience backing a well-known Jamaican reggae singer (a Rastafari) who was 'surprised' to have a female bass player, but eventually he gave her 'respect'. She has two children and takes a nanny 'on the road', but still feels responsible for 'picking up after them' (the men and the children), which is 'not how I would do things'. Notably, the women who downplayed gender issues the most, Natalie and Coral, were the closest to being fulltime musicians, suggesting that 'making it' in the music business requires women to 'masculinise' themselves to a degree.
Performance – the gaze
[18] Green notes how the musical performer is always displaying him/herself and becoming the object of a gaze, a looking/being-looked-at dichotomy historically constructed as gendered male/female (Mulvey, 20; Green, 22-26). The female musician is particularly prone to this gaze, and is viewed as body, rather than musician:
It is absolutely paramount for women that they fit societal expectations of how they should look, in terms of beauty and physical appearance. It doesn't seem to apply to men … They can certainly achieve quite highly and become quite wealthy out of music, even if they don't fit … there's also stereotypes about being … feminine in behavior … being soft, or cute … And then there's the other side … [being] very provocative and … bolshie in your sexuality, but you're not allowed to be … in-between (Caroline, non-student).
Female respondents felt that no matter what they did, they would be judged primarily in terms of their perceived sexuality. This doesn't mean they felt totally victimized however, because they can use strategies to affect how they are perceived:
… I used to have blonde hair … now I've got dark hair and … since I've changed my hair colour … generally I've been taken more seriously … there's a blonde woman in one of my classes this year, um, I've noticed the way she's treated sometimes, which is quite interesting because she's actually a really intelligent person as well (Lauren, student).
The female/body connection is reinforced through the association of women and voice. Voice is gendered (it's easy to tell sex from a voice) and is also heard as a 'natural', bodily rather than learned ability. Voice is also individualizing – the vocal performer in an otherwise instrumental ensemble is usually the focus of the gaze. Singing is thus often characterized as feminine: 'I found it a bit difficult to sing in front of everybody … coming from an all boys school' (Stuart, student). A female student, Heather, suggested:
Woman musicians that are doing really well are often perceived as just the front man, just a face, d'ya know? They'll make them look real pretty and sell their CDs and it's not really necessarily any chick talent behind it.
Thus the female musician is often highlighted as a solo performer, in contradistinction to the 'band'. Rock is a male collectivity, while pop creates 'stars', who are female, or effeminate: 'the notion of the band or group is central to rock music . . . in contrast to pop music, with its focus on the vocalist, backed by anonymous studio musicians' (Clawson 101).
[19] A possible middle road between being a vocalist or soloist and being 'one of the band' and thus between pop and rock is the singer/songwriter. For female music students, this is a popular option: 'the stereotype of the female in the music industry is a singer/songwriter. I think that's the most obvious track … as a big generalisation of what girls do in the music industry' (Katie). Singer/songwriters write their own material and play an instrument, and within rock discourse these traits connote autonomy and hence 'authenticity'. They suggest that the performer is in control and 'not just a pretty face'. In terms of the gaze: 'The woman player is clearly capable of at least attempting to control an alienated man-made object . . . The interruptive power of the instrument seriously detracts from the fullness of the intention to display . . . the sex-life of the woman instrumentalist is less suspect, and her display less susceptible to interpretation as a sexual invitation' (Green, 53). Non-student Helen confirmed this analysis by a negative example:
I've heard stories about people like Sharon O'Neill [popular NZ female singer] for example, having huge pressure put on her to not play an instrument … in her music video because … they just wanted to see a pretty girl in a dress, and they don't want that impeded with an instrument in front of her.
The singer/songwriter genre also has a number of potentially negative connotations. For example, it is a predominantly acoustic genre. Acoustic instruments are seen as less technological, more 'natural' and therefore more acceptable for women (all of the female singer-songwriters played piano or acoustic guitar, and many of the female instrumentalists played violin). They are also less powerful and more difficult to amplify satisfactorily. Although acoustic instrumentation signals intimacy and folk sincerity, and thus a distance from pop triviality, the genre is often associated with confessional and emotional themes, which can be problematic: 'for a female singer/songwriter it would be, I think more OK for them to be expressing themselves emotionally, whereas some people might view a male singer/songwriter … as being like a fag…'(Stuart, student). At Contact FM, the playlist has a genre category 'girly singer/songwriter' – there is no parallel category for men. The singer/songwriter is thus often identified with an emotional, confessional and hence feminine position (Echard, 48). Rock critics/historians often marginalize singer/songwriters, for example, 70s US West Coast 'soft rock', a genre in which female performers were prominent (Robins, 154; Gillett, 411).
[20] Female student singer/songwriters also reported practical difficulties, for example, communicating with male musicians:
The boys kind of band together when it's comfortable for them, like if there's something to ah, discuss they'll talk to one of the guys about it rather than talking to me, even though I'm in charge… I have to kind of go, hey, I'm in charge, what did you say sorry? And then we'll discuss it properly and then we'll get to add something cool to the music or something, and it's just beep (sic) y'know, they're people with good musical ideas, it's just that they automatically seem to find it more comfortable to start discussing it with a boy (Anita).
The perception of femininity as disruptive produces communication difficulties in musical practice, and women have to intervene in order to be 'heard'. Anita reported that when collaborating with male musicians, she got asked on a date, 'which was not part of the plan!' another instance of how women musicians get differential treatment. Another possibility is that male musicians resent being told what to do by a woman. In practice, the singer/songwriter role is complex. Women in control may be perceived as domineering and one female student, Roz, ironically affirms this: 'I'm too much of a diva to be in a band.' Broadly this suggests a peculiar pressure on women to 'go it alone' and the corresponding normality of male collectivity (ie the band) in musical performance. Moreover, in work situations such as touring, a band can offer a degree of support and companionship, whereas solo performers have to work in comparative isolation. And in performance the singer/songwriter also stands alone, thus still confirming the 'object' stereotype, although her instrument deflects the gaze to a degree.
Playing with men in bands
[21] Interviewer: Do you reckon music is a male bonding activity? Sort of similar to sport?
Michael: Yep. Definitely. I used to surf with a whole lot of guys and, we'd jump in the van with our surfboards and we'd go to Raglan [local beach] and we'd all jump out there and … you'd be individual but you'd be … sharing it with your mates. As a DJ, five of us would go and play a gig, ah, an open air, something, um, be it Soundsplash in Raglan or a bonfire in Tauranga, we'd all jump in a van, instead of having surfboards we'd have crates of records …
Although there were few male respondents to the survey, the above quote demonstrates the investment men can have in certain types of group music-making activity. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick has theorized such male relationships as 'homosociality': a structure in which male-male relations are affirmed indirectly through pursuit of a common goal, such as work, playing sport or music (Sedgwick, 1-2). Such male collectivities are normative in the public domain. Accordingly, most women interviewed found playing in bands with men difficult. Reasons included communication problems (above), and a need to be 'better' to be accepted: 'It's almost like you have to kinda prove yourself a bit stronger beforehand' (Betty):
You definitely have to prove yourself a lot more … playing in a metal band … This year some of the … other students actually saw our band play, and then after that I [got] a lot of offers to play on different people's recordings … when they needed a bass player … They obviously realised that I wasn't completely crap (Lauren)
A sense of being abnormal:
if you're in a band … that's not normally classed as a feminine, thing to do I guess. So if you're trying to be like a rock, a rock musician as a girl, it doesn't often come across well in terms of what people would expect a girl to be like (Katie).
Women often complained that they didn't get a lot of feedback – it was a case of 'sink or swim': 'it's frustrating with men, you don't really get … much recognition' (Lauren, student).
[22] A male perspective on women in bands is supplied by a non-student participant, Gene, who describes his four-piece band as indie/twee pop, a genre more likely to feature females than other rock genres. This respondent 'likes the sound of female vocals' and has recruited female members (usually playing keyboards). However, his most successful musical relationships with women have been as contributors rather than full members, for example, a classically trained pianist and vocalist (who could also play rock) but who is committed to her career as a concert pianist, and a local singer, who subsequently signed a record contract and moved to Australia. At one point the band had two female members, but this was not successful. Why? Neither had been in a band before, but more specifically, there were communication problems between male and female members. Gene sees himself as the band leader, (songwriter, main vocalist) and tends to discuss 'the band' in pragmatic terms, ie as necessary for the kind of sound he wants to make ('I've fired drummers'). He tends to communicate more fully with the long-time (male) members and decisions would often be made in a way that the women members felt excluded – they wanted more consultation. Gene reported that the women were reticent – 'What should I play?' was a frequent refrain. They 'lacked confidence' in their own abilities. 'A lot of approval was required to get anything done … They were unwilling to take a risk.' He drew a contrast with what he regards as a more male approach of 'just doing stuff and perhaps checking afterwards if it was okay'. The ideal musician, in his view, was someone for whom 'no direction is required'. But the women expected feedback as a matter of course. When it didn't happen, they lost interest and gradually drifted away.
All-women bands
[23] Given the problems that women face with men making music, why don't they form all-women bands? Notably none of the female students had formed all-female bands, but some non-student women had. Pat observed that while many male bands have 'ego' problems, that is, an ongoing struggle for power between band members, attempts at female musical collectivities were hamstrung by 'the opposite of ego'. There was a lack of collective will, either to play music in the first place (a common statement was 'we looked for female members, but couldn't find any') or to do it systematically. Some women reported agreeing in principle but in practice 'people just didn't turn up' (Pat). That is, women routinely prioritized other activities over playing music. Of course, some women are caregivers, which means music-making has to be fitted around other commitments. Some women bands make it as far as the practice room, but never perform live. They fear that they will be found wanting, for their musicianship, or just for being women, and here the 'disruption' of female performance, located in the spectacle of their perceived sexuality, is a significant factor. A local all-women band (Handsome Jeffery, mentioned above) were judged as 'naff' and 'too pop' (Pat) by their peer group (they moved to Auckland). Pat suggested that women 'judge themselves by others' standards' and 'are used to deferring to others' impressions'. Another non-student respondent, June, started an all-woman group, but 'every decision was made communally and it drove me crazy … In groups of men there will tend to be one person directing – the songwriter'. Of course, this assumes that songs are written by individuals, which is not always the case. Making popular music is usually collaborative – and involves other aspects than playing or writing, such as audio engineering.
Behind the desk – production and engineering
[24] Most popular music courses include a production component, that is, learning to record and mix music in the studio and/or live. Sound mixing is integral to popular music, and producers and engineers have a huge influence on the music. It is also an area of popular music where women have made few inroads. As Michael notes:
Any of the male influences that as a young male I might relate to, they always had photos of them working in the studio. Elton John. Pictures in the studio… Any of the female artists … it's just a pretty picture of them on the front, maybe with an acoustic guitar. You'll never see a photo of them sitting behind a big desk.
Representations of women artists in the studio or behind the mixing desk are rare. The second problem is the normativity of men/technology link already discussed in relation to performing with electronic instruments. Clearly, the importance of technology is even greater in the engineer/producer's role, which is thus imagined as even more masculine. For many female students, studio technology/production was one area where they felt they could not compete:
I guess that the engineering, recording side, I don't know of any girls personally that have gone down that track … it doesn't seem like there's a lot of interest from females in general in that area (Katie).
Males have a generally more technical mind than females (Lola).
Most of the girls … go for more the songwriting side of things … I guess that was one area guys were better or more dominant in. … they'd get mad if you had the rooms booked out … Like they'd be a bit of a room hog, y'know (Julie).
The last response suggests that men not only thought they were better, but that they had more right to the studio. Julie also remarked:
I actually did quite well in the production classes and would get the highest marks … I think the guys were worried that I would win the 'scholarship' where you get to use the studio after you finished the degree to record.
Another student stated:
When we started um, our course, and … all the basics of the computers and recording on to y'know certain programs, most of the guys already had like a handle on it. And I don't know where they got that experience from or they might just be more that way inclined, to ask about mechanical kind of things like that. But I noticed all the girls had no idea and we had to learn from scratch… (Heather)
As such, a female sound engineer is an even more unusual sight than a female musician: 'A few tough musicians … didn't like the fact that I was female … a lot of the bands that I've met, they've never, never had a female sound engineer' (Lola). Helen, a singer/songwriter, reported being treated patronizingly by sound engineers:
I get the feeling that they expect me to be completely ignorant about technical matters and I'm not … Sometimes I've felt that it's harder to get engineers to give me a really ballsy sound on my guitar, because they expect that I will just be plucking away at it. Often I think too that they mix the voice and the guitar differently because they don't understand … or they expect me just to do twinkly ballads.
So sound engineers can also impose their expectations of what a woman performer should sound like. Some women students felt they were able to 'master' studio engineering, however, and their reasons are interesting:
I think within the production classes I actually did quite well because I'd do my assignments … exactly how they were supposed to be done, whereas the guys were a bit more experimental with working on other things of their own (Julie).
These remarks lead us towards a consideration of learning styles and gender.
Learning styles
[25] Green also reports on teachers' perceptions of gendered differences in abilities and learning styles. Girls excel in areas like notation and classwork (198). Boys are seen as more confident with technology, because of its 'hands-on' approach. However, the female student above suggests that this did not necessarily lead to better grades, because the men failed to follow the brief. The women preferred a more formal style:
The doing stuff and kind of learning from watching, um, suited them (the men), whereas some of us girls were kind of … we … did well at school, most of us, and, um I think we learn better from that kind of … studying and books and stuff like that … The guys just jump in and um, just learn from their mistakes, which I find really frustrating 'cos I like to plan stuff … I think girls tend to be a little bit more um, organized (Roz).
In Green's study, boys' failure to do well in formal learning situations was interpreted as being due to laziness or carelessness, hence identifying the possibility that they 'couldn't be bothered' (198, 213). Some boys stated that their failure was their own choice, because they were tested (in their view) on the 'wrong' music (that is, not the music they were interested in) (212). At Wintec, many students (mostly male) drop out of the course because they fail music theory.
Most of the males I know have sort of been tutored outside of high school, or taught themselves. And then when they … decide to be in the music industry, they need to get those music qualifications or those skills (Michael).
In contrast, women students excelled in a more formal and structured environment. They were more likely to have learned music formally; for example, to have classical training. Green writes that women musicians often find classical music more accommodating (185). Classical music degrees in NZ have more female students.
I've just recently met a girl who's done the Wintec course, she's a solo mother of two, and she is now studying at University doing a classical course up there, or orchestral course or something like that, ah and she's a music teacher now (Michael).
… if you're still into music by the time you finish high school, as a chick I think you go to, you know you go to … classical school (Roz).
[26] Women students at Wintec are also more likely to complete the course than men, but the consensus was that teaching was the most likely career path for them. Whether this means they are more likely to participate in popular music performance subsequently seems uncertain, although it should be noted that many non-student women playing music in the Hamilton live scene are likely to have higher education, and often formal training. Is this because such formal qualifications are useful for popular music performers? I would question whether the ability to read and write music is particularly relevant in a domain that mainly relies on and values oral, improvisatory, mnemonic and technological skills, rather than following written scores. Academic studies have questioned the relevance of formal musical training and analysis to popular music (McClary and Walser). But perhaps qualifications may reassure women that they have won the 'right' to perform, whereas for men this right is taken for granted. It also suggests that working-class women are unlikely to perform original music.
[27] Almost all students were positive about studying music at Wintec, although some felt that the course would be improved by having female tutors (at present there are none). There was only one example of explicit sexism by a tutor:
[a music] theory tutor once … asked me why I wasn't doing dishes (laughs) that why was I making up riffs when I should be in the kitchen (Lauren).
Some said that a female tutor might be more understanding of female students. One had an interesting summary of the overall relevance of learning to 'real life':
The impression that I've got so far from commercial music courses so far anyway, is that they tend to be focused on the creative and developmental and technical side of things, rather than your appearance as a performer, or how sexual or non-sexual you are on stage and things like that, so I personally haven't seen evidence that courses do attend to those kind of issues (Caroline).
Looking back it would've been really nice to take a course on, a paper on you know, female, females in the music industry or, new feminism or something like that (Roz).
On the one hand, this suggests that such courses shelter students from issues around gender and performance, which might be good insofar as it allows them to develop certain kinds of abilities, but there is also the underlying suggestion that 'out there' these issues might become more important. I would interpret this as suggesting that the music course could include more contextual material – becoming a musician is not simply (as one music tutor suggested to me informally) 'learning a trade'.
Disabling factors
[28] Applying Lucy Green's critical theory model to a case study confirms her analysis in many respects. Femininity is perceived as disruptive to musical performance in a number of ways. Women perceive themselves and are perceived as 'out of place' in popular music courses, performing onstage especially in rock bands, and in many genres of popular music. And as a minority amongst popular musicians, they are seen as exceptional, both in the sense of being unusual, but also in the sense that they have to 'prove' themselves to their male peers. Woman's musical performances, and representations of the same, are judged by different standards to men. The female performer, subject to the gaze, is judged on her appearance and perceived sexuality rather than her musical ability. Her body 'gets in between' the audience and the music. And the more sexually attractive she is, the more her musical ability is called into question. A binary opposition associates woman with body, voice, sex and nature, and man with mind, instrument and technology. The dissociation of masculinity from the body makes it impersonal or gender neutral, and hence normative in relation to music: 'music being played' as opposed to 'women playing music'. The gaze also acts to restrict the range of female musical performance and consequently the genres with which women are identified. Women musicians are caught between the world of pop, with its emphasis on appearance and perceived lack of 'seriousness', and rock, which has more artistic credibility, but is also fiercely guarded as a bastion of male supremacy (one reason perhaps why so few males volunteered). The singer/songwriter role negotiates between these two extremes, and is a possible compromise, although in practice 'going solo' means foregoing the companionship and support that a band may supply.
[29] One could argue that if women have issues with performance and the gaze, they might be better off in 'behind-the scenes' roles such as sound engineering and production. However, few women are attracted to these roles, which suggests that the gaze is only part of the story. Attitudes to technology are also significant. I have already suggested that representations of gender tend to associate men with technical mastery and women with voice and body, but the question remains as to why this should be so, or how it plays out in practice. Learning styles provide one example – women seemed to be more at ease in formal learning situations, whereas men preferred hands-on, or practical learning. More specifically, experimenting or tinkering, with a novel technology for example, is seen as a male domain. Green makes a parallel point about classroom situations where boys 'break the rules', citing the view that 'it is because boys play wrong notes that they achieve pleasing results' (200). Male transgression is justified, but 'this … harnessing of misbehaviour to creativity is denied to girls' (190-91). Green's point is that masculine deviance confirms hegemony. Another way of interpreting this, however, is that the women are more 'careful' than the men, more sensitive to the possibility that something might go wrong or get broken. Again this might be because, as a minority, women feel that they are 'on trial'. But it could also be linked to a more general sensitivity about how interaction with people or things colours or affects the environment, a contrast between an instrumental ('what can I get this technology to do?') and a more circumspect approach ('what are the possible consequences of my actions?').
If there is a drum kit in the room a woman will sit there tapping quietly for a while, then once she's comfortable will start playing them but … a man will come along and kick her off before she can have a good go, and proceed to smash the shit out of them (Betty, non-student).
Men tend to do what they want and they take more risks whereas women seem to be more worried or frightened of taking risks and they have family commitments (Mary, non-student).
These ideas are also relevant to more general considerations about gendered styles of interaction. Men are quick to condemn what they see as 'female passivity' whereas women highlight issues of communication and responsiveness – we could say that men tend towards an 'act first, ask questions later' model, whereas for women the reverse holds.
[30] Women viewed themselves as more concerned about preserving and looking after things, whereas they saw men as both 'looser' (more experimental) and more driven. The women argued that they were more sensitive to the environment they were operating in, including emotional atmosphere:
When they (the men) have a problem they um, they might get moody about it and stop talking about it … And … they kinda like change the atmosphere of the room. And you notice the girls will get quite affected by the atmosphere changing, and the boys notice but they just shut up… And you notice that the girls probably get over it a little bit slower than the guys … [Men are] not quite as affected by the relationship aspect of that and they're not quite affected by the emotional aspect a lot of the time (Anita).
The women pick up on the environmental affect more readily than the men. Although this is useful knowledge, it is not necessarily valued in the world of commercial popular music production, where a goal-oriented, task-specific mentality tends to prevail. To the extent that the band is a normatively homosocial setting, acknowledgement of emotion is weakness. Male collectivities are often hierarchically organised, and in such a context, leadership tends to be associated with the ability to achieve a result by whatever means necessary, not through 'caring' about participants. But at the same time, public endeavours such as (male) rock bands depend ultimately on support networks of caregivers and other agents (usually female) who remain largely invisible.
[31] Gender theory based around the gaze envisions gender as essentially a public performance. It emphasises the ways that femininity is defined by the gaze, and the ways that men avoid or control it. This has led some (eg Lacan) to theorise that femininity is essentially a masquerade, or an effect of a symbolic system (Rose, 43). But if there is a public sphere, there is also a private sphere. Or to put it another way, femininity is not exhausted by its public manifestations. It may be that aspects of femininity are not fully recognizable in the public sphere, but that does not mean they do not exist. There is something that exists 'beyond the gaze'. At the very least, the gaze is too monolithic a theory to cover all situations and experiences. Another point here is that critical theory identifies problems, but cannot always suggest an alternative, other than addressing the problem. For example, the association of technology with men can be seen as a source of male power which excludes women. But it is also possible to 'reverse the discourse', as Foucault would say, and view women's renunciation of technology as powerful. Similarly female 'passivity' can be re-envisioned as a source of strength. We will see examples of this.
Enabling factors
[32] Student responses to this question tended to focus on issues of teaching and publicity for the course. Some students stated that female tutors would be helpful. Reasons included role-modelling and the idea that a female tutor might be more sympathetic. Some students from girls' schools stated that little attempt was made to promote Wintec music courses there. Within the course itself, the focus on technical skills and industry training could be usefully supplemented with more contextual material that encourages students to look at music-making from a broader perspective, including approaches like gender (I have recently introduced a new paper, Popular Music Culture, which addresses such issues). Most women respondents identified home and family environmental factors as important to their interest in music. Commonly cited was a parent, usually the mother, as providing encouragement or role modeling. At least half the respondents mentioned church. Most had some formal music education, whereas male students were less likely to have had such training. The few male respondents tended to cite other factors such as peer group, musical preference and public rather than private role models – ie 'rock stars'. The rock band represents a kind of male collectivity that is normative in the public arena, goal-oriented and instrumental. For women the goal may be less important and they may be more attentive to the state of relations between members. 'Women experience that they are something for themselves by being something for others, while men experience that they are something for others by being something for themselves' (Borchgrevink and Holter, 7-8, 1-16). The suggestion is that for women 'taking care' of relationships may be important, and that women may understand agency in a way that is related less to public life and more to a 'family situation' (Holter). This may seem essentialist, but Holter's point is not that men and women are different, but rather that each sphere has different modes of practice. Of course there is a power imbalance between them, but at the same time, following Foucault, power does not operate unilaterally.
[33] Gustav Holter discusses how modernity has engendered a 'split' between private and public spheres, which relates to:
gender as expression of the whole relationship between the spheres of production and reproduction. Industrial capitalism itself 'engendered' its opposite, the world of domesticity as against the world of wage work, and women as the other of men. Modern gender … emerges as a highly abstract system, a value system, yet posited as value's opposite (102).
Gender produces and is produced by the public/private distinction. Critical theory tends to view the bourgeois family and associated gender discourses as produced by capitalism, but Holter, describing being invited into a home to look at the family photo album, emphasises rather how the domestic family scene invokes a different epistemology to the public sphere: 'As I look at the album I am aware that … My way of thinking should be different from how I think at work, in a sense non-modernistic, and not bureaucratic, market-oriented or scientific' (106) but rather 'a centripetal process, a movement towards a centre. I may think of lines moving into, and out of this centre. The movement may also be termed "prismatic"' (110). What this family centre consists of, he suggests, is a kind of collective identity to which all the 'I's' contribute – 'the whole relationship between the us and the I's is connective … the I's are not positions defined by themselves, isolated and opposed, as in exchange relations where the one reflects the value of the other. Rather each refracts the whole and thereby expresses and extends the whole' (110).
[34] Popular music, although apparently operating in a public sphere, nevertheless draws much of its power from its potential to create a private shared space of collectivity, an intimacy between performers and audience, ideally erasing the distinction altogether (Frith, 28). At the same time, normative discourses around rock practice can tend to emphasise a 'job-like', realistic and individualistic mode of engagement. There seems to be a contradiction between this kind of 'realistic' rhetoric and the utopian goal of collectivity, which is thus relegated to the realms of mysticism and magic (Toynbee, x-xiii, 37). But there is nothing mystical about the creation of collectivity; it only seems that way because of the gendered division of public and private spaces. Women's association with the private sphere may give them greater investment and practical accomplishment in the production of 'togetherness'. The metaphor of 'refraction' is relevant in the sense that it could describe not a 'reflective' looking at or looking through, but a looking around and looking after other participants. In the following I consider how women musicians participating in local scenes have developed alternative strategies that draw on or extend models of collective musical identity.
Alternative strategies
[35] Women respondents had a range of strategies for participating in music, which include alternative forms of participation (ie not just playing music, but creating or perpetuating the scene in other ways). For example, Pat is not only a musician, but also a photographer of music events, and has been running an image-based local live music website for several years. At the 'battle of the bands' there were a number of women photographers, including her, taking photos of the (all-male) acts. Given that it is usually the female form that is objectified, it could be argued that female photographers are taking back a measure of power by objectifying men. However, it can also be argued that the website creates local music as a community, by providing a forum in which individuals, bands and audience members can see themselves recognized as contributors to a collective identity.
[36] A second method is to challenge the dominant modes of performance, for example the normativity of technological mediation (using amplification). June got back into music (after playing violin in a rock band) through her association with theatre, and now leads two bands, both instrumental ensembles comprising only acoustic instruments – bass, guitar and violins – playing folk and jazz. She feels that amplification is a barrier and values interactivity or 'synergy' between audience and performer. 'I'm always after that thing which happens when the band feels joined and the audience is… on the same tangent. … I've never felt comfortable with amplifiers, sound desks … they're a dilution.' Accordingly she is also suspicious of recording: 'I don't like the way that one version gets stuck in time because of my focus on the live aspect.' Many of the women instrumentalists interviewed played violin. This may reflect the classical background of a lot of women players. Ideologically, the violin is a 'suitable' instrument for women – it is small and light, usually acoustic and its generic associations (in the popular realm) are generally with folk or country. It might be said then to be 'marginal' to popular music, but this marginality can also be utilized discursively as a strategy to produce music that presents an implicit challenge to modern technological modes of making and listening.
[37] Although we have discussed the problems that women face in forming and participating in bands, some (non-student participants) do play in mainly female groups that seem to be successful collaborations. The essential difference seems to be that in these (two) cases, the participants were friends before they started a band. Wanda: 'We were a group of friends and all have that background of singing in church and none of us were involved anymore, we used to like the fact that we were in a group singing together.' Minette formed a band with a French friend: 'She is like my sister … I know her well.' Both reported that in their bands, members had equal status. 'No one feels so accomplished that they would bring a whole song' (Wanda). Different members had different strengths: 'some are better at lyrics … they think of musical ideas but they can't really translate it to an instrument, so me and [male band member] do that' (Wanda). Of course, bands of men may draw on existing friendships as well, but it is hardly a precondition for their formation.
[38] Another factor is the role of the church, or more particularly non-traditional charismatic churches in which bands, microphones and amplification on the one hand, and audience participation on the other, are normal (a number of students also mentioned church as a formative influence):
Music is part of church culture … as a singer you gain confidence … people not involved in churches don't get those opportunities … Now I look back at it, I was learning a lot of performance skills (Wanda).
I learnt a lot through church 'cause there's bands where they play a lot of rock music and soft rock and … you can learn a lot of the skills through practically doing that (Anita).
The role of religious worship in popular music has been discussed extensively in relation to African-American culture, but here it empowers women performers (Werner, 11-15). The communal aspect of church performance is emphasised – it's not just about performing to an audience (with the concomitant connotations of gaze, judgment etc.): 'because of the context (of worship) you have this attitude of learning songs but of then being open to things happening, listening to what's happening in a dynamic' (Wanda). So it's also about learning to participate in a larger musical ensemble, and some have suggested that it is the creation and management of such 'participatory discrepancies' in collective situations which supplies popular musical performance with much of its meaning and power (Keil and Feld, 96).
[39] In modern society, communal music-making opportunities are rare – music is mainly consumed as a commodity rather than made by a community. This is not to say that consumption cannot be creative or communal, but commodification has undoubtedly resulted in musical production being regarded as a specialized skill, rather than an everyday form of interaction and communication (a tendency that tertiary courses in popular music do nothing to dispel). Obviously popular culture does provide opportunities for consumers to become producers, as in subcultures. But subcultural discourse has frequently been criticized for the way that it tends to highlight masculine, public performance (McRobbie). The significance of church is that it provides a kind of intermediary space between the private and public spheres, and this is important for marginalized social groups. Such spaces are arguably at a premium in modern society.
[40] There are many discursive similarities between the experiences of students and non-students in the ways that they seem to construct masculinity and femininity as 'essentially' different. In part, this was driven by the kinds of questions we asked and the initial theoretical perspective of the study. However, this perspective began to change when we discovered how non-students, being older and arguably wiser, found various ways of negotiating and working with these perceived differences. Both groups identify problems, but the non-students have evolved more strategies to deal with them. In this they exemplify Foucault's dictum that to 'to resist is not simply a negation but a creative process' (Halperin 60). For the students, understandably, the key issue is how to 'make it' in a male-dominated world, but for the non-students, notions of commercial success are subordinate to the question of how to continue making music, which becomes an end in itself, rather than a means.
[41] These considerations revealed another flaw in my initial premises, the emphasis on public performance, which does not take into account all forms of music-making. Women's musical performance can be enabled by the creation or use of intermediary spaces between private and public spheres, or by situations in which private sphere values can be enacted or employed as an implicit challenge to ideas of masculine 'public performance'. These practices have consequences both for existing theoretical descriptions of how musical agents engage with popular music on the one hand and normative notions of industry commercial success on the other, both of which focus on individuals (Toynbee, ix-xii, 34-42). In contrast, a key theme in the non-student's accounts is communal participation. 'Musical community' can be articulated in various ways – within the performing group, between performers and audience (or challenging that distinction itself) or in terms of a broader sense of solidarity with a community or shared culture. Within performing groups, many women emphasized the quality of relationships between participants as a key enabling factor – in plain language, they played music with their friends. They had a pre-existing relationship with other participants, and music-making was by implication a shared expression of that common bond. They didn't become friends through playing music – they played music through being friends. This might seem a commonplace idea, that music is an expression of friendship or solidarity, but the women gave it a different twist by making the quality of relationship prior to and a precondition for music, rather than the other way round.
[42] Other non-students argued that playing acoustic music was a way of attempting to abolish the performer/audience distinction, a kind of 'folk' discourse that attempts to minimize mediation, and thus escapes normative definitions of musical performance. Of course, many media scholars would argue that all musical performance is mediated, and that it's at most a matter of degree (an acoustic instrument or a voice is a medium just like electronic amplification or a recording). But to what degree does talk of music as a medium presume the very alienation of performer and listener that participation could subvert – ie what happens when 'everybody sings along'? What about the bodily or emotional interactions that could occur in communal musical participation? The suggestion here is that women's music-making can challenge existing ideas about music as a medium, mediating between a subject and an object, or a performer and audience. Another response might be that men need to take more responsibility for recognizing the importance of communal context, through becoming more emotionally literate and aware of the ways that public endeavour is always based on an 'invisible' background of (private) support networks. The question then changes from one of how women's participation in musical performance can be increased to one of how it can be more effectively recognized.
The author wishes to acknowledge the help and support of Wintec, the Commercial Music Department at Wintec, research assistant Joe Citizen who conducted the student interviews, and finally all the students/musicians who participated.
Works Cited
- Bannister, Matthew. 'Kiwi Blokes: Recontextualising Pakeha Masculinities in a Global Setting'. Genders Online 42 (2005).
- Bayton, Mavis. 'Women Making Music: Some Material Constraints.' In Bennett, Andy, Barry Shank, Jason Toynbee (eds.) The Popular Music Studies Reader. London and New York: Routledge, 2006, 347-354.
- Clawson, Mary Ann. 'Masculinity and skill acquisition in the adolescent rock band.' Popular Music 18.1 (1999): 99–114.
- Cohen, Sara. Rock Culture in Liverpool: Popular Music in the Making. US: Oxford University Press, 1991.
- Echard, William. Neil Young and the Poetics of Energy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
- Finnegan, Ruth H. The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town. Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2007.
- Frith, Simon. 'The Popular Music Industry.' In Frith, Simon, Will Straw, John Street (eds.) Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2001: 26-52.
- Gillett, Charles. The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll. London: Souvenir Press, 1983.
- Green, Lucy. Music, Gender, Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
- Holter, Øystein Gullvåg. 'Family Theory Reconsidered.' In Borchgrevink, Tordis, Øystein Gullvåg Holter (eds.)Labour of Love: Beyond the Self–evidence of Everyday Life. Aldershot: Avebury, 1995: 99–131.
- Holter, Øystein Gullvåg and Tordis Borchgrevink. 'Introduction.' In Borchgrevink, Tordis, Øystein Gullvåg Holter (eds.) Labour of Love: Beyond the Self–evidence of Everyday Life. Aldershot: Avebury, 1995: 1-16.
- James, Bev and Kay Saville-Smith. Gender, Culture and Power: Challenging New Zealand's Gendered Culture. 2nd ed. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1994.
- Keil, Charles and Steven Feld. Music Grooves. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1994.
- Leach, Elizabeth Eva. 'Vicars of "Wannabe": Authenticity and the Spice Girls.' Popular Music 20.2 (2001): 143–168.
- McClary, Susan and Robert Walser. 'Start Making Sense! Musicology Wrestles with Rock.' In Frith, Simon, and Andrew Goodwin, ed. On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word. New York: Pantheon, 1990: 277-292.
- McRobbie, Angela. 'Settling Accounts with Subcultures: A Feminist Critique.' In Frith, Simon, and Andrew Goodwin, ed. On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word. New York: Pantheon, 1990: 66-80.
- Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989.
- Nature's Best. Music CD. Sony, 2002.
- 'Provider-based enrolments.'http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/tertiary_education/participation, 2007, accessed 20 February 2009.
- Robins, Wayne. A Brief History of Rock, Off the Record. New York: Routledge. 2008.
- Rose, Jacqueline. 'Introduction – II'. In Mitchell, Juliet and Jacqueline Rose (eds.) Feminine Sexuality: Jacques Lacan and the ecole freudienne. New York, London: Norton, 1985: 27-58.
- Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. New York: Columbia University, 1985.
- Toynbee, Jason. Making Popular Music: Musicians, Creativity and Institutions. London: Arnold, 2000.
- Werner, Craig. A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race and the Soul of America. Edinburgh, Payback, 2000.


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SEGRO joins United Nations Race to Zero campaign and The Climate Pledge
Following its commitment earlier this year to be net-zero carbon by 2030, SEGRO has joined the United Nations Race to Zero initiative, the global campaign to support a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.
SEGRO also announced it has signed The Climate Pledge, a commitment to achieve the Paris Agreement 10 years early, and be net-zero carbon by 2040 or sooner.
Race to Zero members must pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions as soon as possible or by the middle of the century at the latest, to take immediate action to start delivering against interim and long-term targets and to report their progress publicly.
SEGRO joined the Race to Zero campaign via partner network The Climate Pledge, which was co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019. The Climate Pledge requires signatories to be net-zero carbon by 2040 – which SEGRO's 2030 target achieves, including a commitment to measure and report regularly on greenhouse gas emissions, to implement decarbonisation strategies in line with the Paris Agreement and to neutralise remaining emissions through credible offset programmes.
David Sleath, Chief Executive Officer, SEGRO, said:
"We recognise that the planet is facing a climate emergency. Earlier this year we launched our Responsible SEGRO framework which sets out our three long-term priorities to which we can make the greatest business, environmental and social contribution. One of these is championing low carbon growth and we've been actively pursuing this ambition across our business, for example at our new SEGRO Park Tottenham development and our refurbishment at Premier Park.
"We want to be at the forefront of the collaborative effort that is needed globally to address the climate challenge and, as we have already committed to be net-zero carbon by 2030, joining the UN's Race to Zero and The Climate Pledge is a sensible, natural next step on this journey."
The Responsible SEGRO framework formalises the company's commitment to be a force for societal and environmental good. Within the framework, the Championing Low-Carbon Growth sets clear am-bitions around building lower-carbon spaces, running lower-carbon spaces and absorbing any residual carbon in line with limiting global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees.
Notes to editors:
About SEGRO
SEGRO is a UK Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), listed on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris, and is a leading owner, manager and developer of modern warehouses and industrial property. It owns or manages 8.8 million square metres of space (95 million square feet) valued at £17.1 billion serving customers from a wide range of industry sectors. Its properties are located in and around major cities and at key transportation hubs in the UK and in seven other European countries.
For over 100 years SEGRO has been creating the space that enables extraordinary things to happen. From modern big box warehouses, used primarily for regional, national and international distribution hubs, to urban warehousing located close to major population centres and business districts, it provides high-quality assets that allow its customers to thrive.
A commitment to be a force for societal and environmental good is integral to SEGRO's purpose and strategy. Its Responsible SEGRO framework focuses on three long-term priorities where the company believes it can make the greatest impact: Championing Low-Carbon Growth, Investing in Local Communities and Environments and Nurturing Talent.
About The Climate Pledge
In 2019, Amazon and Global Optimism co-founded The Climate Pledge, a commitment to reach the Paris Agreement 10 years early and be net-zero carbon by 2040. Now, over 200 organizations have signed The Climate Pledge, sending an important signal that there will be rapid growth in demand for products and services that help reduce carbon emissions. For more information, visit www.theclimatepledge.com.


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A Christian couple says they are the victims of religion-based discrimination after being refused by a foster agency when they said that they would send a hypothetical gay foster child to conversion therapy.
Byron and Keira Hordyk of Perth, Australia filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission because, they say, Wanslea Family Services is discriminating against their religious beliefs.
Related: Parents who try to change their child's sexual orientation increase suicide risk significantly
In January 2017, the Hordyks applied to be foster parents at Wanslea. As part of the evaluation process, they talked about their Christian beliefs.
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When they were asked what they would do if an LGBTQ foster child were sent to them, they said that they believe that being LGBTQ is a sin, that change is possible, and they would provide "help" for the child to "overcome the sin," according to Western Australia Today.
The American Psychiatric Association has long opposed conversion therapy and has called on lawmakers to ban what they call a "harmful and discriminatory practice."
Even conversion therapy that doesn't use abusive or violent techniques can harm a child's mental health by teaching them that they are fundamentally broken because of their identity. According to HRC, the practice has been linked to increased risk of "depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and suicide."
Garden State Equality, an LGBTQ organization, says simply, "Conversion therapy is child abuse."
So it was perhaps not surprising when the Hordyks got rejected by Wanslea. The Christian couple said they got a letter from the foster agency saying that they did not meet the requirement of "providing a safe living environment."
The Hordyks filed a claim with the Equal Opportunity Commission, saying that they were rejected because of their religious beliefs.
They also said that Wanslea took no steps to accommodate their religion, like only sending them straight kids to foster. They did not explain how the foster agency would know in advance which kids are straight and which are not.
The Commission rejected their claim as "lacking in substance," but they appealed to the State Administrative Tribunal, which may be taking it seriously. Wanslea moved to have the claim dismissed as frivolous, but the Tribunal rejected their motion.


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Top Fall Home Exterior Projects When Selling Your Home
When it comes to selling real estate in the fall, cooler temperatures, falling leaves, and festive decorations make the process of selling that much more enjoyable. Fall is the perfect time to take on home exterior projects you have wanted to start! Mark Spain Real Estate has compiled some of the top home exterior projects to tackle if you plan to sell your home this season.
For more real estate tips to maximize your home value, visit our blog!
Fall Home Exterior Projects
Add a Fresh Coat of Paint to the Front Door
A freshly painted front door is an easy way to make your home stand out from others on the market. Although this project is simple, it increases the value of your home and reaps the biggest reward.
Any exterior painting is advised to be done when temperatures are at least 50 degrees and will not fall below the 40s at night time. This range of temperatures allows the paint to set properly and prevents it from freezing before it is fully dry. This upgrade will also enhance potential homebuyers' first impression of your home!
Repair or Replace the Roof
Next, repair all broken or missing shingles, tiles, or ridge caps before attempting to sell your home. These are the components that protect your home from water damage, so it is best to keep your roof in its best condition. Keep your eyes open for any other problem spots such as cracks and bubbles in the sealant. Future buyers will appreciate the extra steps taken in preparing the home and will eliminate some of the potential negotiations at the closing table.
A buyer wants their new home to be in good condition when they move in, so if your roof is showing signs of age or serious damage, you may consider getting a new roof this fall.
Replace or Repair Windows
Replacing old windows can boost your home's selling potential and even its price. Many homeowners focus on improving more pronounced features of their home, such as the kitchen and the bathrooms, forgetting to check on the status of their aging windows.
It is important to keep your budget in mind when selling your home. Making a list of the projects that are most important to you before you start your projects will ensure that you do not spend too much on little things. Take a look at all of the windows of your home and see which ones need to be repaired and which ones do not.
If your windows are fairly new or in great condition, a full replacement may not be a necessary home exterior project. If you have modern windows that are not drafty, are soundproof, and are relatively energy-efficient then just enhancing their condition can do the trick for your home's overall appeal.
Clean the Gutters
Gutters are intended to drain the water that collects on the roof of your home. When autumn leaves and other debris pile up and clog the gutters, your home's exterior could suffer.
Make sure the gutters are cleaned in the fall to enhance your home's appearance, as well as help to avoid further damage if heavy snowfalls hit later in the winter. Taking the time each week to clean gutters, lawns, and porches will eliminate the stress of trying to clean everything all at once when you are selling.
Pressure Wash the Exterior
Lastly, we recommend pressure washing the exterior of your home. This includes the sides of the home, the windows, the driveway, and the areas surrounding pavement and sidewalks.
An effective pressure wash to these areas will remove any dirt, stains, mildew, and algae that would otherwise increase the curb appeal of your home. Your home is bound to stand out and prove memorable to potential home buyers if its exterior is clean and freshly pressure washed!
These fall home exterior projects will have your home ready to sell, and you'll enjoy completing them in nice, cooler weather. Want to sell your home this fall or looking to sell and don't have the time to tackle repairs and home projects? Mark Spain Real Estate has many selling options to choose from. Give us a call at 855-299-7653 or visit our website to learn more!
Communication is our top priority! Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn to stay in touch. Learn more about how Mark Spain Real Estate values putting the client first.
We are grateful to serve all of Metro Atlanta, including Athens in Georgia, Raleigh and Charlotte and Greensboro in North Carolina, Nashville and Chattanooga in Tennessee, Tampa and Orlando and Jacksonville in Florida, Greenville in South Carolina, and Birmingham in Alabama!


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Even if you're not a professional designer, you probably can easily tell when you've visited well-designed websites and (maybe more so) when you have not.
The elements, or principles, of visual design, include Contrast, Balance, Emphasis, Movement, White Space, Proportion, Hierarchy, Repetition, Rhythm, Pattern, Unity, and Variety. Visual design components are extremely helpful in creating an aesthetically-pleasing website but they're not absolutely necessary for every site out there.
Really successful websites (i.e. high converting websites) are ones that have a smooth, natural visitor progression, a user-friendly interface, ones that make a good impression with high-quality assets and have clear calls to action to point the user in the right direction.
Let's dive in and take a look at all of the design elements in a high converting website.
What is Conversion Rate?
Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that come to your website and achieve the desired result, like making a purchase, subscribing to your newsletter, or following you on social media.
Your website's goal may be monetary, service-related, or just to collect subscribers (among others). A high conversion rate is the goal of every website, but it may not be the easiest thing to achieve.
Business owners know what their websites are all about but that doesn't mean they know how their customers like to shop, surf, or learn. The key to building and designing a high converting website is to always, always, always, keep your user experience at the forefront of your mind.
User-friendly interface
A user-friendly interface is integral to a high-converting site because, well — if visitors can't use it, they're not going to buy from it.
Good design starts with the navigation bar. It's one of the first things that people look at and it helps them get an idea of what information your site contains and what services you offer.
One of the most important parts of a website (or any business, for that matter) is making sure your customers understand the steps that they're taking and the options they have. Giving too many options, however, can lead to visitors becoming confused or frustrated — maybe even exiting the site entirely.
Keeping your website clear of excess information and focusing intently on the customer's journey are the two best ways to design a high converting website that visitors will keep coming back to. This leads us to the next design recommendation…
Minimalist design and text
Let's keep things simple! We're way past those busy sites from the late-90s with music playing in the background and 12 different animated fonts flashing across the screen.
Today, really great website design truly embraces simplicity. Clean lines, lots of white space, and important information in plain sight are the fundamentals to stick to when designing your website.
Design simplicity in a website ensures that there is no clutter or useless information to confuse visitors. With everything focused on the outcome, the key message, and an aesthetically-pleasing visual experience, guests are more likely to respond positively to your conversion goals.
Calls to Action (CTAs)
A call to action (or CTA) is a marketing term for encouraging or prompting a customer to take a specific action or make a purchase. CTAs can be anything from email sign-up forms, add to cart buttons, or even affiliate links.
Calls to action need to be clear and compelling, creating a sense of urgency for your visitors to feel the need to take an action right away. Large, attractive buttons in natural areas of the page that the mouse might scroll over during the regular course of a visitor's interaction with your site are a perfect place to start.
Call to action elements are key to driving visitors in the right direction. NoDepositExplorer does a fantastic job, employing strong wording and color (look at this page to see what we mean). Making sure there is no confusion with what you're asking a visitor to do in your calls to action is the best way to create a high converting website.
Better design means more conversions
Whether you're selling a product, generating leads or clients with a digital sales funnel, collecting email subscribers, or getting social media followers, more conversions mean profitability for your business. And it all starts with the right desigy7n.
Getting the design right enables your customers to click where you want them to click and take the actions that help your brand succeed. The more clicks, the more conversions after all.
Happy designing!