ABSTRACT
This chapter uses Williams’ definition of culture (1961) as intrinsically linked to objects and behaviours. That is, we cannot discuss the historical context of musical listening culture without including the corresponding cultural practice of associated artefacts. It is evident that all variations of gender listen to music. However, this chapter examines vinyl record listening culture in the context of gender roles and, specifically, the exclusion or lack of visibility of women among such high fidelity practice from 1950 to the present day.
With regards to vinyl records, popular culture has permeated the norm of the ‘technocratic male preserve’ (Greer and Sommerich 1994, p. 37) in the record store. This has been strengthened by social conditioning (Belk and Wallendorf 1994) and historically rigid gender roles (Keightley 1996; Doane 2009). An examination of popular online vinyl retailer forums provides contemporary insight into this systemically embedded pattern which appears to persist even among vinyl’s recent second coming. The novelty of female vinyl fans, beyond the sexualised images used by the marketing industry, is always thoroughly questioned for evidence of the homogenous male traits which make a credible collector.
The exclusivity of maintaining such a homogenised practice appears to be linked with an ongoing quest for high expertise, elitist, purist attitudes and subsequent high status, and, seemingly, women are not invited. This chapter examines alternative accounts, or as Fraser might call them ‘subaltern counterpublics’ (1990, p. 67) from cultural theory, practice and ethnographic research in an attempt to document the slow historical change within gendered listening practice.
