“The Guitar Is a Symbol of Copulation”

Wendy Fonarow, an anthropologist at UCLA and author of Empire Of Dirt: The Aesthetics And Rituals Of British Indie Music, provides an interesting perspective on indie culture. The Guardian has the story on Fonarow’s anthropological constructs of Elvis’ gyrations and punk anarchy. Some theories sound true

There were so many men who loved the Beatles, too, and if you look at the actual documentation they’ll do close-ups of the women and only show men in the long-shots. The cameraman has made a conscious choice of what to shoot; it’s the same as at festivals today, when two thirds are usually male but you see more girls. Why? Because rock audiences are usually shown to be ‘out of control’ and by individualising females it implies they’re sexually out of control and therefore sexually available.

While others are maybe more questionable

There’s a long past of people hurting themselves on stage – Sid Vicious, Iggy Pop. It’s seen as being more ‘real’ but, if you read the performers’ accounts, the reason they often do these things is because they think the show’s going badly and feel frustrated.

On guitars.

People think the guitar is a phallic symbol but it’s patently not. The head and the shaft are phallic, but the body is the hourglass shape that we use to symbolise femininity. So the guitar is actually a symbol of copulation, combining the two symbols in front of an open whole where you use your fingers. The guitar can be arousing to women but also men as well.

Read the entire story here. Somebody needs to study the rituals of Indian gigs.