White man’s soul : Paheka masculinities in popular music of New Zealand / Aotearoa

Abstract

My main research question is "what is the relationship between indie (independent or alternative) guitar rock and pakeha (white New Zealand) cultural identity in terms of masculinities?" The object of this thesis is to examine popular music produced in a particular time and place (New Zealand in the 80s and early 90s) in terms of a genre (indie guitar rock) but also as the culturally and historically specific production of white (pakeha) men. Masculinities tend towards hegemony, both globally and locally - in modern Western society, in popular music culture and in New Zealand society, but masculinities' association with power may be articulated differently in each of the above contexts. A common factor, however, is that this association is often not explicit but operates through a range of discourses, aesthetics, practices, ideologies and institutions, some of which may not be obviously gendered. It is my intention to tease out the ways in which power and masculinities operate in specific cultural contexts, particularly the complex interactions between white masculinities and concepts of value in popular music. I also examine how white masculinities have historically operated in representations of pakeha cultural identity, and how white masculinities in indie guitar rock in New Zealand (particularly Flying Nun) may be heard as continuing a history of masculine association not only with canonical popular music texts and genres but also with discourses of pakeha cultural identity.