Article

A Destabilising Pleasure: Representations of Alternative Music in Irish Fanzines

Ciaran Ryan

Published in: Ethnomusicology Ireland 5 (2017)

Pages: 102-117 | Published Online: July 2017

https://doi.org/10.64208/HXDH2648

Abstract

This article focuses on the position of the fan in Irish alternative music cultures through their connections with media texts. In particular, it examines the emergence of Irish punk music fanzines. By assessing the role of these publications in distributing valuable information within a shared taste community, it demonstrates that this process needs to be considered as a fan practice. What is evident is that fans within such communities (or ‘scenes’) can occupy several roles simultaneously – writer, promoter, musician, and facilitator of information. Furthermore, this work touches on the links between the rough texture of punk/DIY music, its participatory culture, and the corresponding application of the same aesthetics to fanzine production. This analysis draws on over thirty-five years of archive material, as well as valued contributions from fanzine writers, to prove that DIY production is not just about opposition to a dominant culture, but that it is a fulcrum for pleasure for its participants.

Keywords: Fanzines, DIY, scenes, punk, fandom, pleasure

Author: Ciaran Ryan