Fans or Friends?
Fans or Friends?

Local/Translocal Dialectics of DIY (‘Do-It-Yourself’) Touring and the DIY Community in the US

Summary/Abstract: When studying how rock, punk, and similar cultures relate to place,scholars tend to focus on local scenes (and on concerts as constitutive eventsthat establish the rock music community). When they do consider translocalconnections, they mostly discuss non-face-to-face relations, for instance, asenacted through printed or electronic media. In this paper, by ethnographicallyexamining the interpersonal dynamics of several case studies, I demonstratethat the music community of DIY (do-it-yourself) participants inthe US is constituted in large part through face-to-face interaction, not onlyin local places (through the interaction of DIY participants both within andbetween music venues), but in translocal space (through touring, and similartraveling practices), as well. Local participants depend on translocal touringparticipants (who generate flows of ideas, sounds, objects, and people), andthe translocal participants depend on their local compatriots (who provideplaces at which to play, or sleep). Local DIY places, especially DIY participants’houses, play a significant role in this dialectic as items of reciprocalexchange within the translocal “network of friends/favors.” In addition, theyalso function as places of ‘intimacy,’ in the local context as sites for small and‘intimate’ concerts, and translocally as places for hosting touring musiciansas houseguests. DIY places/houses thus contribute to an experience of closenessand to the transformation of fans to friends for the DIY participants. Inthe first part of the paper, I examine the establishment of local and translocalDIY ‘communities’ through the social practice of touring (culture as travel).In this section, I also briefly discuss historical and geographical factors, andconsider the dimensions of race, gender, and sexuality in the American DIYtouring experience. In the second part, I subsequently observe the aspectsand particular characteristics of DIY touring practices themselves (travel asculture), and how they reflect and generate DIY values and politics.

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