Understanding Scotland Musically

This research aims to develop new understandings of how contemporary traditional music is used in the construction of Scottish identity both in performance and through the media. Devolution in the UK, and the rapid expansion of the New Europe have led to a rise of importance of regional and national identities within the context of globalization of musical communities. What was once considered kitsch tartanry has been re-mythologized and now hybrid sounds from Scottish musicians portray a newer, emergent sense of national identity. Increasingly, musicians are performing deterritorialized and commodified music which is shifting attention away from musical provenance and authentic ideology towards more transient sonic identities and blurring established musical genres. These changes have powerfully altered Scottish music and identity and this research will investigate how Scottishness is performed in, and as, traditional music at this crucial moment in the public life of an increasingly (dis)United Kingdom. This project therefore aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the musical politics of identity, and to influence policy makers and key stake holders in challenging older mythologies and representing newly defined regions and minorities in the UK as a whole. This fellowship will result in a sole-authored book for publication and a resource-rich website.

The research will have benefits both within and without the academy.

The fellowship will:

1) Benefit scholars in ethnomusicology and Scottish studies both through publication of the book and through conference presentations at the British Forum for Ethnomusicology and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.
2) Benefit those scholars with interests in cultural constructions of identity and ethnicity within the United Kingdom. This will principally come from the analysis of Scottishness as constructed as musical discourse and discourse about music.
3) Help to redefine the analytical and methodological landscape for the study of Scottish music by demonstrating how critical discourse analysis, reception studies, ethnography and concepts from cultural studies and critical theory can be applied to traditional culture.
4) An important scholarly impact of this research will be to shape a more outward-looking perspective, recontextualizing Scottish music in a more meaningful and sophisticated scholarly and political space that recognises the complexity of people's political identities and everyday lives.
5) I envisage that the fellowship will benefit musicians, promoters and policy-makers, particularly stakeholders with a national interest such as Creative Scotland, Visit Scotland, The Scottish Government Homecoming 2014 Team etc., who have an interest in promoting Scottish culture at home and abroad. This will principally be achieved by demonstrating the nuanced relationship between Scottish music, identity, ethnicity, nationalism and the media in the published book and through fieldwork dialogue with them, particularly at the symposium in month 6. The project website will also act as a means of publicising the findings to a large audience at home and abroad. In this way, the research will assist the UK in bringing in cultural tourists and the associated economic benefits associated with this expanding area of tourism.