Destined for Greatness

Michael Ramirez

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780813588131
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Clases sociales y disparidad económica

Pursuing the dream of a musical vocation—particularly in rock music—is typically regarded as an adolescent pipedream. Music is marked as an appropriate leisure activity, but one that should be discarded upon entering adulthood. How then do many men and women aspire to forge careers in music upon entering adulthood?  In Destined for Greatness, sociologist Michael Ramirez examines the lives of forty-eight independent rock musicians who seek out such non-normative choices in a college town renowned for its music scene. He explores the rich life course trajectories of women and men to explore the extent to which pathways are structured to allow some, but not all, individuals to fashion careers in music worlds. Ramirez suggests a more nuanced understanding of factors that enable the pursuit of musical livelihoods well into adulthood.  
 

1

First Hearing the Sounds

Coming of Age and the Discovery of Music

At age fourteen, a young Robert Zimmerman happened upon “Mystery Train,” one of Elvis Presley’s early recordings. It immediately struck him, so much in fact, that it fed his musical ambitions and career trajectories. “When I first heard Elvis’s voice I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody, and nobody was going to be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail,” recalls Zimmerman. He is by no means alone in his perspective. The early adolescent years—particularly age fourteen—is a “sort of magic age for the development of musical tastes” (Hajdu 2011). Adolescence is a critical time, both physiologically and socially, for identity development and discovery. It also feels serendipitous. By sheer chance, Zimmerman came of age at the point of Presley’s introduction to American culture. By sheer chance, he discovered “Mystery Train” at a point in life in which culture, art, and music tend to exert a heavier influence on life and identity. His life would never be the same. His identity would dramatically shift—he would literally adopt another name—as he moved into a musical identity. Several decades later, Zimmerman, now better known as Bob Dylan, cites his discovering Elvis as a critical moment, a turning point in his life. Given the power he cites in his musical development during adolescence, it is possible Bob Dylan would have never existed were it not for his chance stumbling upon Presley’s music early in life.

While it feels like our music culture hit the jackpot with the auspicious chance convergence of Dylan discovering Elvis and subsequently shifting his life direction, there are larger social forces at play here. It is not simply luck that Bob Dylan, the musical icon, was spawned on that fateful day in his adolescent life. It was instead due to the complex interplay of culture, age, peer culture, gender, and motivation that led to the fortuitous creation of Bob Dylan.

For most people, Bob Dylan notwithstanding, life unfolds in unanticipated ways. The human condition is to plan for the future, to work our way towards specific life goals. But the reality is that such blueprints rarely go as planned. A good many of us end up in places entirely unanticipated later in life. Others end up slightly off target from their presumed goals set early in life. It is not that most people demonstrate bad judgment in planning their futures. Instead, it is perhaps something more universal: life intervenes in our plans.

In this chapter, I examine musicians’ retrospective accounts of their early lives, moments they remember as influential, leading them to their career trajectories as musicians much later in adulthood.1 I begin by examining the musicians’ recollections of the time in life during which their interests in music were first triggered. I then review the musicians’ histories of learning their first musical instruments and introductions to rock instruments. Following this, I trace a key moment in musicians’ musical trajectories—their joining their first rock bands. I conclude by examining the musicians’ retrospective accounts of their early aspirations in life. Those who did envision musical careers were the rare cases, as musicians typically imagined pursuing other, often more standardized, lines of work. As we will see, nearly all the musicians felt as if events early in life—those music related, but also those outside the milieu of music—set the stage for their ultimate pursuit of musical careers in adulthood.

Introductions to and Interests in Music

Many life course trajectories have objective starting points: educational trajectories begin with one’s entrance to the school system; family trajectories may start with engagements, marriages, or births of children; and work trajectories may begin with securing credentials for the labor market or landing one’s first “real” job. Musical life course trajectories, in contrast, are more fluid in their inceptions. Each individual musical life course—more often than not far less structured than educational, family, and work trajectories—essentially begins when musicians deem them to start. To capture this self-defined starting point, I began interviews by asking musicians when they remember first developing an interest in music. Many of them remember these moments as occurring very early in childhood. For seven of the musicians, all of whom were men, the toddler years were the point at which they first discovered the significance of music in their lives. They all had clear memories of their parents playing music in the house or on road trips—music that stuck with them and precipitated their appreciation of music. These memories were sometimes enhanced by other “proof”: photographs of their childhood in which they were sitting in front of their parents’ record player with headphones on or stories their parents shared with them later in life regarding their early interest in music. These musicians, however, have clear memories of these events themselves as well; they are not simply dictated by their parents’ memories alone. Dean had strong memories of music early in life:

Dean: You know, it’s hard to say [when I first became interested in music] because it was so long ago. I remember some of my earliest, really vivid memories—you have a lot of memories temporarily when you’re a kid, but some stick with you more than others. And I think some of the earliest memories I have—I couldn’t tell you what age I was, but I remember just falling asleep in the back of my dad’s car on car trips. We would drive a lot from Atlanta to Kentucky, where I’m from, listening to Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall by Pink Floyd. And at that time, I was pretty sure that that was the definitive music. I wanted to do stuff like that, too, but I just didn’t really understand it. I really liked Elton John a lot when I was a little kid, too. I couldn’t really grasp the concept of what it meant to be a musician because it seemed like those guys were making, I don’t know, they had some sort of otherworldly gift to make music, whereas I did not. So I couldn’t understand it. I was pretty obsessed, though.

MR: So being in your dad’s car listening to music, was that when you were in elementary school, do you think?

Dean: I was, well, in pre-elementary school. I mean, I really have those memories. I said that they were vivid memories, but they’re not. They’re really just kinda like nebulous, like I just filed that away somewhere like that. I can remember being really mesmerized by listening to [certain music], specifically Dark Side of the Moon. We always listened to that on car trips, and tucking my head away in the corner and falling asleep listening to it in the car. There was always music playing in the house and in the car and stuff like that, but that music particularly really moves me for whatever reason. I thought it was great.

The memories of developing interests in music early in life are a combination of the musicians’ own memories fused with those of their parents or other documentation such as photos or home movies.2 Nonetheless, the musicians are steadfast that music was a constant in their lives since their earliest memories. Some of them spoke of music being innate—a core aspect of their identity from early in life. While other memories of their toddler years were often fuzzy, their memories of music emerging during that time were sharp and less ambiguous.

Figure 2

Athfest, a three-day music and arts festival held each summer in Athens (Photo by Mike White, deadlydesigns.com)

Over two-thirds of the musicians (33 of 48), however, did not remember their interest in music being sparked until the early childhood years.3 Many musicians cited age five, in particular, as the year at which they started on their musical pathways.

Andrew: Growing up, I was exposed to music by my parents and obviously my surroundings. But I think what I really initially latched onto was the Beatles, Creedence [Clearwater Revival], Michael Jackson even, [and] Genesis’s The Invisible Touch record. But at the same time, the first time I heard classical works like Bach, I was immediately drawn to that just the same. There was an immediate interest I feel like.

MR: Was this in elementary school or middle school?

Andrew: Oh man, all the way back to when I was in primary school. I went to the symphony with either my parents or some of my buddies’ parents or something. In North Carolina, the symphony orchestra played a Christmas concert, and just seeing that for the first time for me, it was like, “This is awesome.” I was really into it.

Some of the memories are a bit fuzzy, as are the details of some of the events (or the people with whom they shared them), but what remains clear is the feeling of awe that music instilled in them immediately upon discovering the sounds of music. The musicians cited their musical memories in early childhood as clear and the definitive start of their moving toward musical life course trajectories.

The remaining eight musicians with delayed starts remembered their musical trajectories beginning in the preadolescent years. They cited a particular and powerful influence in their social networks during the middle school years as sparking their musical interests. Abby, for instance, had two older brothers who were invested in music, one of whom was in a punk band when she was in middle school. For Abby and others in similar situations, music grew to be more interesting as they were embedded in contexts in which others intensely valued music and the arts. The mere presence of individuals who centered their lives on music had a rub-off effect on them.

The three musicians who had the latest start on their musical pathways cited more concrete issues of identity exploration, in line with traditional theorists such as Erikson (1950), as the conduit for their discovering music. Seth, for instance, felt that his enthusiasm for athletics was waning and music provided an alternate path as he continued exploring who he “really” was. His devotion to baseball was not giving him the anchor in life it had in early years, and he began exploring music instead. With that shift, he began to develop a new sense of who he was and where his true talents and passion lay. These musicians suggested it was more than age itself that prompts youth to delve into culture, be it music or otherwise. It is moving into one’s own self-constructed identity that can prompt searching for music.

Objectively, these moments may appear insignificant. Symbolically, however, these moments are incredibly important. Musicians, with little prodding, were easily able to return to key memories in their early lives in which music took center stage or, at the very least, where the context in which other important childhood events took place. Musicians easily and in great detail remember particulars about music early in life. Furthermore, they internalized these musical moments as life-shifting moments in their early lives.

Musical Influences in Early Life

The musicians did not magically develop an interest in music from out of nowhere. Instead, they often cited the context of the family as sparking their interests in music early in life. In particular, parents’ interests in music often shaped their children’s music appreciation. One or both of their parents was often a “music lover” and, as such, music was a bridge connecting parents to children early in life (Kotarba 2013). Parents often purchased, shared, and played music in the home, thus socializing their children to appreciate and genuinely love music. They played a clear role in their children’s musical development, often acting as an agent of socialization for musical interests, whether they intended to or not. Roger remembered the dual impact both parents had on his musical development.

Well, [music] became interesting to me when my parents—I guess I was like five or six, they went to New York for the first time in their lives. I didn’t go, but they went to New York City, and they saw two or three Broadway shows. They came home and they had all the soundtracks. They bought the original cast recording of those particular shows, like Phantom of the Opera, Into the Woods, and Will Rogers Follies. My earliest memory of loving music is me singing along with my mom. She’d do the female part and I’d do the male part, singing along to the songs. And then my dad was really into classic rock. He liked, you know, the big names: the Beatles, Rolling Stones, stuff like that. Those are like the two sides of me. Both of my parents were really into music. My mom was really into show tunes and light rock. My dad was really into classic rock. They played music a lot, and by proxy I listened to music a lot.

The parents’ collective musical influence was not always focused on rock music per se. They often instilled a more general appreciation of numerous styles and genres of music, as well as an appreciation of the arts in general. The influence is more than just familial socialization—it is the influence of a certain kind of family, namely, those in which music, art, and culture are valued by parents and instilled in their children early in life. Musicians overwhelmingly came from middle-class backgrounds, the context of which allows more opportunities for potential musical and creative development. Parents spent resources of time and money on music and embedded those values in the development of their children.

Fathers were somewhat more likely than mothers to influence the musicians’ interest in rock music. The musicians, both women and men, had particular memories of enjoying rock music with their fathers. They often specified that “listening to rock and roll with dad” tended to occur in contexts in which the mothers were away, either temporarily, such as when dad took them on car rides, or permanently, via postdivorce living arrangements. A number of musicians cited one-on-one time with fathers as the moments during which they began exploring music by virtue of their fathers’ love of music. As such, they often cited their fathers as having a particular influence on their attraction to rock music (Kotarba 2013). Julia said her diverse music interests began through her relationship with her father: “I’d say probably when I was six or seven, [music] really began taking hold of me. Most of it came from my father. He was really cool. On Sunday afternoons, he would pull up all the windows in the house and blast the stereo, and we’d run around and dance. I thought it was really cool. He had a convertible. He would drive us around town and blast the stereo. He was just a lot of fun. He really brought music into our lives.”

Similarly, Stewart said:

To me, that turning point when I realized [music] was something that I was really into was probably fourth or fifth grade, because my dad at that point had separated from my mom, so I got to hang out with him on weekends and we would always be driving around, and he would always have music on in the car. And I think he didn’t play as much [music] at home when they were married, but when they were separated he could listen to his own music, so I really got a taste of that. He listened to a lot of Jimi Hendrix, Jethro Tull, progressive stuff like [Pink] Floyd, Yes. They are still some of my favorite bands. They are what started me.

Music served a dual purpose in musicians’ early lives. Rock music was one way that musicians forged deeper relationships with their fathers early in life.4 It was also a time in life that fueled their future career trajectories, as they would later come to realize.

Fathers were the consummate rock-and-roll fans. The musicians lovingly referred to their fathers as “music geeks,” highlighting their intense love—nearly obsession—with rock music. Similar to many musicians, Damien specified that his dad was “not a musician or anything, [but] would always go around, excited and singing songs, though not too well.” Some fathers owned guitars and “would goof around [on it] a little bit, but never really [learned how to] play it,” as Roman described his father. As such, fathers were not necessarily musically inclined. Their love of music was passed on to their children and was one of many influences that would prompt the musicians to one day take up music themselves.

Other musicians cited their mothers as a stronger influence in their burgeoning appreciation of music during the early years of life. Mothers’ influences seemed to emerge in ways different from those of fathers. Kayla said: “My mom, when she was in college, she ran her own radio show. And she and my aunt would do duets a lot and play guitar and had a little group. My aunt was in a group with Paul Simon’s brother. They were always doing [musical] stuff like that [throughout] their lives. She was always musical, and she passed it on to me.” Like fathers, mothers were of course often deep fans of music. However, mothers were often true musicians as well, having spent part of their lives not only playing instruments, but also performing music in some context. Sometimes they hosted radio shows, as was the case with Kayla’s mother; other times they were in folk bands; and still other times they were active in church choirs. Their active involvement in music beyond fandom was a trait that they often, intentionally or not, passed on to their children. A few of the men had mothers who not only participated in music as a leisure pursuit, but also had initiated career avenues focused on music. Owen said: “My mom was a soprano in the opera. I saw my mom perform a lot when I was a kid. Music was always playing in the house. My mom gave up the opera as a profession shortly after my brother and I were born. . . . My dad was in Vietnam at the time. She couldn’t continue to do artistic stuff [aft...