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Sydni Burge

Professor Gardiakos

ENC1102

17 February 2023

Research Proposal for “The Indie music Complex: How is the way people discuss and

critique music they perceive as underground different from the way they discuss and

critique popular music?”

I thoroughly believe the language people use to discuss popular music vastly differs from

the language people use to discuss music they believe they “discovered” themself. I believe that

the idea that they are better than someone because their music is more unique comes from the

sense of hyper-individuality that is often praised in American culture. In this essay I aim to

explore the difference between opinions on popular and “underground” music via peer

interviews, analysis of longform content from YouTube, subreddit r/LetsTalkAboutMusic and

survey.

Hyper-individualist culture in the United States

The United States highly emphasizes the idea of being completely self-sustained, we are

meant to move out at 18, we are praised when we work multiple jobs to put ourselves through

college and pay our rent, so why wouldn’t we want to develop taste that is hyper individual as
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well. Here, I would like to answer the question: “Is this true of the United States? And if so, is it

damaging to those who live in the US? And if so, in what way?” and “Does our population, as a

whole, feel more isolated than others? How does that affect our psyche?”

In this portion of my research project, I am going to aim to create a sense of

understanding as to why, exactly, Americans specifically, want their music taste to be so

exclusive. To everything from a crippling desire to be independent to a sense of pride in

exclusivity, I want to read scholarly articles about the American need to be individual and

hypothesize about what that might do to affect the way they talk about and interact with art and

popular culture- specifically music. I will primarily be using secondary research on the nature of

culture in the United States.

“I’m not like other girls; I don’t like Taylor Swift,”

In this section, I would like to, in specifics, highlight the way women talk about one of

the most well-known pop musicians, Taylor Swift. I have a hypothesis that if I really get into the

psycho-analytics of their stance on her, I could find a link between hatred for her music and

some sort of a need to be differentiated from other women. The desire we all have to be special.

I think there’s an idea that girls who listen to musicians that get fewer monthly listeners are

“cooler” and more “unique” and “chill”. I’d like to answer the questions “Why do we care?” and

“Does it all come to other’s perception of us, and thus, our perception of ourselves?”, “Do

women believe they are only good enough, if they are different from other women?” and, lastly
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“How does this tie back to hyper-individualism in America?”. Obviously, we all care about

other’s opinions of us to some extent, but I’d really like to find the reason why in this portion of

my project.

Research-wise, in this portion, I believe I will be utilizing peer interview, and asking

people, specifically women, why they do or do not like Taylor Swift, and comparing them

directly.

r/MyMusicIsBetterThanYours

I want to explore a very casual genre of talking about music. Outside of professional

music critique, how do people talk about music? What are the arguments like? Does it get

personal, and if so, in what way? Are people defensive, and if so, why?

In this segment, I’d like to answer the question “Are people more likely to be critical of

music if more people listen to it?”. I’m going to be pulling primary research off of

r/LetsTalkAboutMusic and analyzing the ways the community discusses unpopular and popular

musicians and their work and comparing the rhetoric used directly.

I believe that, with non-participant observation of reddit communities, I will be able to

truly understand how people discuss music in a casual setting.

Long-Form Content Section

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In this portion of my research project, I am going to deep dive into the world of long-

form album analysis on YouTube. In this, I plan on honing in on 2-3 specific creators and

watching 3-5 of their videos ranging from albums I may not have heard of, to albums that had

songs make it to the Billboard Hot 100.

I believe I will be finding an abundance of objective speaking on the quality of the art

form, which could lead to an interesting discussion on how language is used in the YouTube

realm of this discourse community.

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Annotated bibliography

1. Chirkov, Valery et al. “Differentiating Autonomy From Individualism and

Independence: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective on Internalization of Cultural

Orientations and Well-Being.” Journal of personality and social psychology 84.1 (2003): 97–

110. Web.

Richard M. Ryan is a professor at the University of Rochester with a Ph.D. in clinical

psychology. He co-developed the “Self-Determination Theory” and ranks in the top 20 of the

most influential psychologists. I would like to find a way to incorporate his theory into my paper

to really drive home the psychoanalytical aspect of my paper. Youngmee Kim is a psychology

professor at the University of Miami, she closely studies social motivation, and I would like to

include her perspective on what motivates us to separate ourselves from the crowd of our society.

Ulas Kaplan has an Ed.D. and Ed.M. from Harvard University. He commonly explores moral

judgement and motivation. I plan on including his research to provide insights from professionals

outside of the psychological field. Valery Chirkov is a psychology professor at University of

Saskatchewan, and I will be wary to cite his work as anything but a field professional’s opinion,

as multiple reviews on Rate my Professor have cited that he is “unreasonable,” he “wrote half of

the textbook for this class but hates the rest of it,” and “his viewpoint is the only correct

viewpoint,”. He is, however, highly educated on the topic and thus I will still be using his

research to provide professional opinion on how autonomy can affect how we interact with

aspects of our culture. Collectively, I would like to use their research to explore the difference

between autonomy and individualism.

2. Baker, Sarah. “‘Rock on, Baby!’: Pre-Teen Girls and Popular Music.”

Continuum (Mount Lawley, W.A.) 15.3 (2001): 359–371. Web.

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Sarah Baker is a professor in Cultural Sociology at Griffith University. Baker focuses on

heritage studies, popular music studies, youth studies and creative industries. she has a Ph.D.

from the University of Australia, and was a Ph.D. candidate at the time of writing the article.

Baker’s main goal in the article is to create “intensive ethnographic research with seven girls

aged eight to eleven years old, I am exploring exactly how these pre-teen girls use popular music

to construct cultural identities,” and I believe her research on the topic could be very insightful in

explaining how young girls create the demand for popular music, and thus, it is my hypothesis

that misogyny is one of the things that fuels the superiority complex of those who don’t listen to

music they perceive as mainstream. I believe this article will be a great way to kick off my

second section of my research paper.

3. De Boise, Sam. “Music and Misogyny: a Context Analysis of Misogynistic,

Antifeminist Forums.” Popular Music, vol. 39, no.3-4, 2020, pp. 459-481.

Sam De Boise is a Senior Lecturer, Docent of Musicology and Head of Research at

Örebro University, Sweden. De Boise has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Leeds. He

is known to publish studies on gender equality (or lack thereof) in the music industry. The article

“Music and Misogyny: a Context Analysis of Misogynistic, Antifeminist Forums.” Was

published in the Cambridge University Press. What De Boise aims to explore in his article is the

type of music misogynistic people enjoy and avidly dislike, and why. I believe this paper will be

a very interesting way to open my third section “r/MyMusicIsBetterThanYours” seeing as, in

that section I will be doing primary research on online forums (namely Reddit) and he

specifically studies misogyny in online music forums.

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4. Dehlin, Adrian J., and Renee V. Galliher. “Young Women’s Sexist Beliefs and

Internalized Misogyny: Links With Psychosocial and Relational Functioning and Political

Behavior.” Psi Chi journal of psychological research 24.4 (2019): 255–246. Web.

Adrian J. Dehlin is an Academic Researcher at the University of Utah. Dehlin most

frequently contributes to academic conversations about Health Equity and Minority Stress.

Renee V. Galliher is a psychology professor at Utah State University, with a PhD in psychology.

She is a Behavioral Health Specialist. Galliher’s research specializes in interpersonal

relationships in adolescence. Their research makes compelling points about internalized

misogyny through the lens of religious fundamentalism. I believe I can use their research to

expand on my hypothesis about the way internalized misogyny affects the way women interact

with each other regarding popular music and culture. If religion is so deeply engrained in young

women’s brains, then it is possible that the prevalence of gender roles in the fundamentalist

framework could create deep internalized misogyny, and I would like to explore that hypothesis

with my secondary research from this article.

5. Einhorn, Sue. (2021). “From a woman’s point of view. How internalized

misogyny affects relationships between women.” Group Analysis, 54(4), 481–498.

Sue Einhorn is a private clinical therapist and group analyst. Her article dives deep into

the societal institution of sexism and how it affects interpersonal relationships between women. I

find the points Einhorn makes about the invisible woman and the generational torch-passing of

internalized misogyny particularly useful for background information in the section of my paper

“I’m not like other girls, I don’t like Taylor Swift.” Einhorn makes many insightful conclusions

about the generational nature of the fear of men and the patriarchy, so in this section I would like

to use that to answer the question “How does internalized misogyny shape the way we as women
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discuss and critique music when speaking to each other? How does it shape the way we speak

about music made by other women?”

6. Hamamura, Takeshi. “Are Cultures Becoming Individualistic? A Cross-Temporal

Comparison of Individualism–Collectivism in the United States and Japan.” Personality and

social psychology review 16.1 (2012): 3–24. Web.

Takeshi Hamamura is a cultural psychologist, who, at the time of writing, was a

researcher at the University of Hong Kong. He has a Ph.D. in social and cultural psychology

from the University of British Columbia. He has lived in China, the United States, Hong Kong,

Australia, and Japan, and has studied each culture separately. In this text he aims to study

patterns of cultural change and how modernization plays a role. I would like to use his research

on cultural syndromes in modern societies and compare directly with V ello and Dov Cohen (see

below). I believe this could help me provide background information for my claim on how

individualism shapes the American relationship with popular culture. I would also like to use his

research on collectivism to further round out my evidence and draw a more accurate conclusion

from my hypothesis.

7. Johnes, Martin. “Consuming Popular Music: Individualism, Politics and

Progressive Rock.” Cultural and social history 15.1 (2018): 115–134. Web.

Martin Johnes is a professor in the Department of History at the University of Swansea,

United Kingdom. His studies specialize in popular culture, and while he discusses individualism

in the UK in the 1970s, I believe there are many parallels between popular culture in the UK and

the US in the 1970s. The historical research within this paper will be very helpful, especially as a

transition between my first two sections. Johnes makes a very compelling point about the fact

that popular music being ridiculed is nothing new, if his research on progressive rock of the
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1970s is indicative of anything, it is that older generations have always tended to criticize the

music of the younger generation. Johnes makes many very educated observations about the

history of popular music, counterculture, escapism, and fan culture. I feel I can use a lot of these

observations to round out my evidence and research with historical context.

8. Li, Jian-Bin, Alexander T. Vazsonyi, and Kai Dou. “Is Individualism-

Collectivism Associated with Self-Control? Evidence from Chinese and US Samples.” PLoS

ONE 13.12 (2018): e0208541–e0208541. Web.

Li is a professor in the Early Childhood Education department at the University of Hong

Kong, Vazsonyi is a professor in the Department of Family Sciences at the University of

Kentucky and Dou is a professor in the Department of Psychology and Research Center of

Adolescent Psychology and Behavior at Guangzhou University. I will primarily be using

Vazsonyi’s research on how the idea of maintaining self-control greatly affects the culture of the

United States. I also want to include their research on the difference between individualism and

the country-level and at the individual-level.

9. Pecknold, Diane. "The Politics of Voice in Tween Girls' Music Criticism."

Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, vol. 9, no. 2, winter 2017, pp. 69+.

Diane Pecknold is a Women’s and Gender Studies Professor at the University of

Louisville commonly publishing studies on women’s relationships with music and popular

culture. Pecknold makes excellent points about the political side of policing women’s voices in

intellectual musical conversation and really dives deep into the names we as a society assign to

women who are simply fans of something. Multiple group discussions were conducted for the

sake of this article in which Pecknold had a group of girls sit together and have a discussion

about music. I found it particularly interesting how topics of female empowerment and feminism
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often came up (Page 4) and would like to use this particular part of this article in depth in my

section of my research project “I’m Not Like Other Girls, I Don’t Like Taylor Swift.”

10. Vandello, Joseph A, and Dov Cohen. “Patterns of Individualism and Collectivism

Across the United States.” Journal of personality and social psychology 77.2 (1999): 279–292.

Web.

The above article aims to provide insight to both individualistic and collectivistic culture

within the United States rather than comparing and contrasting the individualistic culture of the

United States with the collectivistic culture of countries in Asia. I plan on comparing this article

directly with Takeshi's (as stated above) and diving into why collectivism creates popular

culture, and how American individualism, in turn, makes people adverse to what is popular. It

could also be interesting to include research on how different regions of the United States tend to

be more individualistic than others. For instance, answering the question “Do more

individualistic regions of the United States tend to be more influential on our culture as a

whole?” I find the authors Vandello and Cohen to be quite credible on the source, as they are

both psychologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their psychoanalytic

research on the culture of the USA will be very useful on providing insight on why citizens

interact with popular culture the way that they do.

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