I spent time with Hardcore Christians and Taqwacores to “see how they respond to events as they happen” and I experienced “these events and the circumstances that give rise to them” (Emerson, Fretz and Shaw 1995: 2). Participant observation allowed me to establish familiarity with Christian Hardcore and Taqwacore, get to know members, and understand group boundaries (Emerson et al. 1995; Jorgensen 1989). I was not “immersed” in these groups in the traditional anthropological sense but studied a community that comes together in different places and at different times (Crang and Cook 2007). I had intensive introductions with participants but never became part of these groups.
Ethnographers use participant observations to become subjectively and personally involved with the phenomena they study (Jorgensen 1989). One way that I got involved in Christian Hardcore and Taqwacore punk was by listening to its music. I listened to it on the bus, on walks, on runs, and at home.12 I also listened to it live. More concerned with ‘feeling it’ ─ the it being the loud, throbbing music ─ than hearing loss, I observed my first punk show (for this project) up-close, near the stage. My ears rang the next day – without a doubt, I was still feeling it. That morning, I decided to follow the advice of a committee member and buy a pair of
earplugs. For the next show, I wore earplugs for almost an entire song before plucking them from my ears. I did not like that the sound was muffled; I felt like the earplugs were getting in the way of my experience. I never wore earplugs to a show again. To study the social worlds of Christian Hardcore and Taqwacore punks, I listened to their music at full volume, even if it lasted well into the next morning.
12 As an example of just how involved with the music I became, for more than a month, I listened to “Portraits” by For Today. For another month, I listened to “Wild Nights in Guantanamo Bay” by The Kominas almost daily.
In total, I spent 365 hours in the field collecting participant observation data. Due to the sheer magnitude of Christian Hardcore music, I observed many more Christian Hardcore shows than Taqwacore. I spent approximately 300 hours observing live Christian Hardcore shows in secular bars and nightclubs, and at Christian punk events such as conferences and festivals, and at affiliate church services, such as those held at Hot Metal, an emerging church that supports local Christian punk bands in Pittsburgh. The Cornerstone Christian rock festival, which I attended twice, was the most time-intensive observation I performed. I attended Cornerstone twice, both times for 3 nights and 4 days. Cornerstone was a data goldmine. By midafternoon, the festival grounds were overcome with hardcore music. Unable to see all of them, I attended the shows that I heard the most buzz about, took note of popular band T-shirts, talked to vendors and band members, interacted with the young people who were advertising their band on
cardboard signs (Figure 2-4), and, on occasion, joined attendees for breakfast and dinner. The days were long at the festival. I rose early and retired to my tent late. Every night I returned to my tent at about 12:00 a.m. and fell asleep to a band playing worship music in the distance.
Figure 2-5: Live music show flyers cover the portable restrooms at Cornerstone
Another time-intensive Christian Hardcore event was the weekend-long Unified Underground (UU) conference, which I observed in 2008 and 2010. At the conference, I conducted formal and informal interviews, watched live bands, participated in workshops and spiritual speaker
sessions, and attended the Sunday morning service in the main auditorium of the Baptist church and the worship service that UU organizers held on Sunday afternoon. Although I spent a great deal of time at the UU conference and Cornerstone festival, I never felt fully immersed in the groups I studied. Participants were eager to do interviews, but they did not invite me to join them outside of the public events I observed.
For Taqwacores, I spent approximately 65 hours collecting data face-to-face. Although the Taqwacore events were less frequent than the Christian Hardcore events, I got to know Taqwacores better. Taqwacores do not stop socializing when the show is over. They converse into the wee hours of the night and they generally make sure that everyone has the opportunity to
join them. One night after a show in Cambridge (Figure 2-6), about eight different people waited on The Kominas and Sunny Ali & The Kid to load up their gear so that we could all go ‘party’ afterwards. We sat outside of the Middle East venue for over an hour, just talking. By the time everyone was ready to leave, it was too late to buy alcohol for the party. But no one seemed the least bit perturbed. Instead, the group focused on assigning each person to a car headed to the suburbs and encouraged everyone to come out to the party. I got a ride with a second generation Indian American woman, a young white college guy, and a member of The Kominas. Most of us did not know one another; we had just met for the first time or only once before. When we arrived to the party in a nice suburban home outside of Boston, one person passed around a bag of McDonalds French fries, another offered homemade curry, and the host handed out ice cream sandwiches. By the time I got a ride back to my hotel, it was 5:00 in the morning. I had spent the entire night talking to different people about Taqwacore, a few of whom had attended their very first punk show earlier that evening and loved it.
I followed Christian Hardcore and Taqwacore bands concurrently, studying live shows in the same time frames, especially in the summer months when bands typically tour.13 To save money, I observed events in the Midwest and along the East Coast of the United States, where most Taqwacore and Christian Hardcore events take place. On two separate occasions, I was at a Taqwacore show one night in one city and at a Christian Hardcore show the very next night in another city. Most of my participant observation of music shows took place in the spring, summer and fall of 2010 and the spring and summer of 2011 but I also attended live Christian Hardcore shows in Pittsburgh as late as 2012. I collected participant observation on the physical and social boundaries of the event space; the visuals aspects (signs, images, videos) of the setting; and how performers talked or did not talk about religious, political or social issues (Appendix A). Additionally, I noted the differences and similarities between religious and non- religious punk performers as well as surprises and/or conflicts that occurred during the
performance. When I returned from the field site, I filled out my participant observation template in thematic order (e.g. description of event; visuals; performers; performances; audience) and wrote up a preliminary analysis of my field notes.
Considering that the people I observed were wary of outsiders, I had to be careful about how I took notes in the field. I generally used my cell phone note pad, which has the appearance of text messaging, to type short notes and direct quotes. Typing notes on my cell phone allowed me to both record a lot of rich data and look like everyone else who kills time on their phone. In some instances, I used a paper notepad. I typically used a notepad when I was in the presence of a show promoter or venue owner as I realized these individuals were more willing to talk to me if
13 The average cost of a Christian Hardcore show was $15 (but some were donation only), while the cost of a Taqwacore show was around $8.
I appeared as though I was doing research. In addition to taking notes on site with my cell phone and a note pad, I regularly recorded small videos of performances with a digital camera and took pictures of performers, the music venue, and the merchandise (such as a wall of T-shirts for sale). For this research, carrying a camera allowed me to “mingle in with the crowd, rather than stand out from it” (Crang and Cook 2007: 107). The videos and photographs were particularly helpful when I conducted a preliminary analysis of the event after returning from the field site. Videos proved to be an irreplaceable source of data; I reviewed the videos several times and discovered things that escaped my attention in previous viewings (Crang and Cook 2007).