ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to understand the grounds for mockery, and suggests that it arises not merely from cultural practices that are perceived to be 'different' from the mainstream, but from a perception that these differences may be in some way threatening. More concrete evidence as to the primacy of barbershop as a social identity can be found in the accounts of 'barbershop weddings', where the choruses or quartets of one or both of the couple sing during either the ceremony or the reception. Barbershoppers have attempted to achieve a rapprochement with the wider musical community and suggest why these have been only partially successful. British barbershop may prioritize different practices to define its separation from wider society from those chosen by American barber-shoppers. H. Richard Niebuhr account of church–sect theory as a continuum rather than as ideal types invites a consideration of historical change. The most obvious way in which barbershop is self-contained is in its organizational structures.
