I've decided to do my ethnography on the songs of rugby socials, the Rugby Social Scene, I suppose one might call it. Little did the general public know, the rugby community has a brand of music all it's own. Generally, following an 80 minute match of tackling one another, two teams will get together to eat, drink, and be merry. Mutual serenading included. Songs vary depending on the team, but the community has its old fall-back songs as well. Insert your player's names and sing!
I'm interested in the dissemination of the music, how teams decide what songs to sing, where do the lyrics come from, why are they so lewd, and the biggest question, why sing? And why ruggers? I think I'll be able to get some better questions once I start my initial fieldwork on the topic. For now, that's what I have.
Michelle, this topic is terrific, and you are obviously well-positioned to investigate it. Did you spot the scholarly reference that Ned Quist showed during his presentation? Elizabeth Wheatley, "‘Stylistic ensembles' on a different pitch: A comparative analysis of men's and women's rugby songs", Women and Language 13 (1990). I believe this article is too old to be available through Josiah's electronic version of the journal, but you may want to speak to a music librarian about getting it through interlibrary loan.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting topic since it is something that occurs but people rarely seem to study as a subculture. Since coming to college, my experience with rugby subculture has been that of an outsider, but I was very interested in the songs that friends who had joined rugby. I was attracted to their drinking-style melodies and the humor. It also seemed odd to me that when I asked a friend to write down the lyrics for me, she refused, claiming they must only be transmitted orally.
ReplyDeleteI think you might want to look into how these melodies might be related to European drinking songs, since I think many have similar sounds, to find out how they were passed down orally. And you might look at the lewd humor as it relates to male and female rugby players.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThough I can't say I have any experience with the rugby culture, as a member of the crew team I was recently taught a song that may be similar to these rugby songs (i.e. A verse about Harvard and Yale, to put it nicely, being a bunch of soft, pampered brats.). I expect that elements of drinking songs and athletic fanaticism associated with European countries are combined to create lewd songs at the expense of rival rugby teams.
ReplyDeleteI can say that these types of songs create a great sense of camaraderie (especially when more or less shouted over drinks) which would be especially important in a sport such as rugby.