I'm With the Band: Peer Culture, Resistance and Identity

• In Event: 304 - Regular Session. Children/Youth/Adolescents: Youth Identities: Voices and Perspectives

Abstract

For most people, what they will remember the most from their years as a high school student is not their academic experiences but their social experiences with friends in peer groups that many of them develop through involvement in extracurricular activities such as clubs, athletics teams, or performing arts groups. Memories of events and friendships made through these endeavors often live on years after high school has been completed. In particular, students that seem to be especially close are those involved in their school’s band program. Whether in marching, symphonic, or concert band, this unique group of students is just one of the many crowds or cliques present in many, if not most, high schools in the United States. Similar to other high school cliques, that are stereotyped with social labels, band students have often been characterized by their peers as “band geeks;” the usual portrait painted is of unfashionable, socially awkward teenager clutching a woodwind or brass instrument who exhibits odd or eccentric behavior. Popular films directed to teenage audiences such as the American Pie series and Mean Girls portray band students as “sexually active band geeks,” adding sex-crazed and hyperactive to the roster of stereotypical traits of band students. While “band geeks” are a well-known among American adolescents and adults alike, these stereotypical images are not grounded in band members perspectives, interpretations nor their everyday experiences. Moreover, social science literature has not paid systematic attention to high school band members’ lives. This paper addresses these shortcomings.

Authors

• David A. Kinney, Central Michigan University

• Amanda Draft, Wayne State University

• Nancy J. Herman, Central Michigan University