Popular Culture Review Vol. 3, No. 2, August 1992 | Page 71

Parties as Sound Rituals:
An Audeography
Parties are an overlooked and understudied phenomenon,
with the literature on celebration focusing almost exclusively on large
calendrical festivals and gatherings (Van Gennep; Turner
C elebration: Geist and Nachbar 271-297; MacAloon). Social
gatherings of all kinds are important events for most people. "It
would seem that people need periodic times of escape from work,
times in which they can be joyous together" (Smith 161). Some
gatherings are seasonal and periodic, like festivals, but many are
more informal and nonperiodic, "somewhere between festival and
ritual on the one hand and the solitary sandwich on the other"
(Humphrey 190).
Parties are social gatherings which often involve music,
confirming that popular music is social (Fomas 298) and is ubiquitous
for many cultures. Most persons would readily acknowledge the use of
music at large, ritualistic and public events. It is omnipresent and
formative of both individual consciousness and group collectivity on
occasions such as commemorations, dedications, graduations,
weddings, funerals and memorials. On these occasions special music
may be brought forth, music not often performed at other times, like
Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" or Wagner’s "Wedding March." Use
of specific musical compositions only for special occasions underlines
the liminal nature of the events and often defines or helps to define
the events (Van Gennep 177-188; Turner Forest of Symbols 93-101).
Naturally, music occurs at times other than culturally
sanctioned events, and these more informal occasions are often
conceived as mostly for enjoyment, for passing the time. Everyday
life situations are no less interesting for cultural interpretation than
formal and elite cultural events which call for "classical" music
(Douglas). Indeed understanding what Glassie calls concrete
"situations" is perhaps as important as the artifacts which are
employed in or emerge from the situations (33). While music may
appear to be just a way of passing time, in some cases there are deeply
resounding features of the uses to which music is put.
Music at parties also functions as sound and noise, offering
party participants the opportunity to break norms. The study of sound