Ethnography project

The type of music I observed was the music at bars performed by local bands. People generally do not pay to see these bands in concert. Whenever I imagine a bar in my head I always imagine a band playing some kind of music in it. It could be considered the evolution of the piano players form back in the saloon days. Bar bands are quite numerous. They are usually paid by bar owners or event planners. The main goal of these musicians is to keep people at the events happy by playing background music pleasing to the people at the events or venues. This music culture is not as concerned with technical ability as other music cultures are. That is not to say that the performers in this music culture are lacking in talent, it just means that the goal of the performers is to make sure that everyone has a good time at the event rather than trying to dazzle the audience with their technical proficiency. The music is not the main thing that attracts people to the bar, that would be the drinks. However music is an important part of the experience. One major thing that sets one bar above another is the atmosphere and a good band makes can have positive effect on the atmosphere of the bar. The bars usually have a set of bands that regularly play at the venue. At Sherlock’s it appears that there is live music every day. The band I saw, Big Daddy, performs every Tuesday at the bar (sherlockspubco.com).
Big Daddy is set up like most bar bands. It is made up of a group that uses the traditional rock and roll instruments. Most of these bands include at least one guitar, a bass guitar, a drum kit and at least one vocalist. Big Daddy includes two guitarists who also perform lead vocals, a bassist and drummer who perform back-up vocals and another back-vocalist.
Big Daddy is a band that plays at a variety of bars and events in the Dallas area. According to their calendar they even play the occasional wedding. The audience was made up of bar patrons. The group was a fair mix of college students and people in their middle adult years, and it was fairly crowded since it was a bar on Mardi Gras. The audience was enthusiastic about the music. Most people seemed to be enjoying the music. The band seemed to be pretty experienced. I am unsure whether to they would be considered professional or folk. They get pet paid, but they also seem to play more for entertainment than for the pursuit of fortune and fame. A band focused on fame would be touring the country whereas Big Daddy is tied to the local area. The band needs to focus on getting recognized on the local level through for different reasons than a nationally recognized band would.
When talking to my roommate he pointed out that the band especially the front man had a good level of interaction going on with the audience (John Todd). That seemed to be one of the main reasons why people enjoyed this particular band. I have seen a good deal of bands at bars but this seemed to be like one that people were excited to see perform. The front man really knew how to get the audience enthused. On the band’s website people are encouraged to make suggestions to upcoming set lists for the band. Audience interaction is a very important factor in the success of a bar band. Since they mainly play covers they cannot rely on their set lists to attract an audience the way a band playing their own songs would. Therefore things like audience interaction and stage presence end up being way more important in determining whether or not people come back to see them than they would for a professional band. I may suggest “Burnin’ for You” by Blue Oyster Cult. From what I saw the band could probably play that song quite well and it‘s a crowd pleaser.
The band mainly plays covers. This is fairly understandable for a bar band. When people are drinking they usually want to hear something familiar. To truly appreciate a new song requires some level of thinking and most people at bars go to drink and drinking and thinking usually don’t go together so bar bands will generally play familiar tunes. Big Daddy is classified as Rock and Pop according to their Sonicbids page (sonicbids). They play a wide variety of rock and pop songs. Although there set list is diverse ranging from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Coldplay to Justin Timberlake they seem to have an special place in their hearts for eighties rock (thebigdaddyband.com). During the performance I saw one song that stood out as particularly good to me from their performance I saw was “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield. That is a song I remember my parents playing a lot when I was younger and like I pointed out earlier, people enjoy hearing music that is familiar to them when they are drinking.
This is a music culture that is very accessible. It involves two things most red blooded Americans are crazy about, alcohol and rock and roll. In moderation this is a pretty good combination. Rock especially that from the seventies and eighties are the types of music that I have always associated with bars and luckily Big Daddy specializes in eighties rock (sonicbids).
One thing that this music culture values above all else is fun. People do not go to bars to be enlightened by modern art. They go to bars to kick back and relax. Bar music helps with that. There is nothing pretentious about this type of music and that is pretty refreshing. It’s the exact opposite of something like Bjork where it’s all pretension no fun. These performers are just dressed up like normal people, there are no swan suits involved. They are just five musicians having fun who want their audience to do the same. And from what I saw that was what was happening.
The bar bands are the unsung heroes of the bar business. Most people assume the heroes of the bars are the bartenders and they are partially correct. However it is a team effort. The bartenders do keep the drinks flowing, but every bar has drinks. What gives bars an extra level of character is the bands that play at the bars.
Bar music is an interesting music culture. I found it interesting because, it is something that seems simple and basically is. And it’s simplicity is what makes it great. The music of the world is pretty interesting, but after hearing enough of it you can’t help but appreciate relaxing at a bar listening to familiar music.


















Works Cited
Big Daddy, Rock, Sonicbids EPK - Sonicbids." Get a Gig. Book a Band. - Sonicbids. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.aspx?epk_id=115855.

"Big Daddy!" Web. 11 Mar. 2010. http://www.thebigdaddyband.com/bigdaddy.php.

Sherlock's Pub Co. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. http://www.sherlockspubco.com/BandCalendar.aspx.

Todd, John. "Sherlock's Pub Interview." Personal interview. 10 Mar. 2010.