ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author advocates an approach informed by methodological precepts and suggesting one amongst many possible routes for research that traces the material and moral narratives of fame and failure. The voluntary and involuntary shifts from amateur nobody to acclaim somebody as these are shaped by commercial music production. The activities of amateur musicians are not outside or independent of the networked webs of the music industry. The music business, as part of a wider entertainment industry, is structured around the dynamics of stardom. The attractions of stardom for individual musicians hardly need stating in terms of the financial rewards and their consequences. As the author writes this, nearly thirty years later, in light of the institutional growth of popular music studies, the writings of James Clifford and Paul Ricoeur seem to be more pertinent than ever. The masculine cultures of bands and gendered assumptions about instruments infiltrate the experience of trying and buying instruments and technologies.
