This article discusses soundscapes created by young people participating in The Beat of Boyle Street, an in-school recreation-based project that teaches inner-city, at-risk youth to make music using computers and audio production software. Participants are predominantly Aboriginal youth, ages 14 to 20, living in poverty and confronting other challenges, including disabilities, addictions, parenting issues, racism, homelessness, and the vicissitudes of life “on the streets.” The soundscape compositions young people create tell stories that speak to the importance of what young people actually do with popular culture in their everyday lives, particularly with hip-hop music and style. Three soundscape examples provided indicate how young people (a) use and negotiate popular culture, (b) politically use and contest city spaces, and (c) act as “border crossers.” These points call attention to the power of popular cultural practices as leisure and provide insights for working with young people in recreational contexts.
Anzaldúa, G. (1990). Making face/making soul: Haciendo caras. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute Press.
2.
Anzaldúa, G. (1994). Borderlands/la frontera: The new mestiza. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute Press.
3.
Anzaldúa, G. (1999). Borderlands/la frontera: The new mestiza (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute Press.
4.
Ballinger, R. (1995). Sounds of resistance. In R. Sakolsky & F. Wei-han Ho (Eds.), Sounding off! Music as subversion/resistance/revolution (pp. 13-28). New York: Autonomedia.
5.
Bennett, A. (2000). Popular music and youth culture: Music, identity, and place. London: Macmillan.
6.
Bennett, A. (2002). Researching youth culture and popular music: A methodological critique. British Journal of Sociology, 53(3), 451-466.
7.
Berland, J. (1992). Angels dancing: Cultural technologies and the production of space. In L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, & P. A. Treichler (Eds.), Cultural studies (pp. 38-55). London: Routledge.
8.
Carlson, D., & Dimitriadis, G. (2003). Introduction. In G. Dimitriadis & D. Carlson (Eds.), Promises to keep: Cultural studies, democratic education, and public life (pp. 1-35). London: Routledge Falmer.
9.
Chu, J. (1997). Navigating the media environment: How youth claim a place through zines. Social Justice, 24(3), 71-85.
10.
Davis, A. Y. (1998). Blues legacies and black feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. New York: Vintage.
11.
de Certeau, M. (1984). The practices of everyday life. London: Routledge.
12.
Denzin, N. K. (2003). Performance ethnography: Critical pedagogy and the politics of culture. London: Sage.
13.
Dimitriadis, G. (2001a). Coming clean at the hyphen: Ethics and dialogue at a local community center. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(5), 578-597.
14.
Dimitriadis, G. (2001b). “In the clique”: Popular culture, constructions of place, and the everyday lives of urban youth. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 32(1), 29-51.
15.
du Gay, P., Hall, S., Janes, L., Mackay, H., & Nagus, K. (1997). Doing cultural studies: The story of the Sony Walkman. London: Sage.
16.
Fine, M. (1998). Working the hyphens: Reinventing self and other in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The landscape of qualitative research (pp. 130-155). London: Sage.
17.
Fiske, J. (1989). Understanding popular culture. London: Routledge.
18.
Fox, K. (1995). White awareness and our responsibility to end racism. In K. Warren, M. Sakofs, & J. S. Hunt, Jr. (Eds.), The theory of experiential education (pp. 175-186). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
19.
Frith, S. (1983). Sound effects: Youth, leisure, and the politics of rock. London: Constable.
20.
Giroux, H. A. (1992). Border crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education. London: Routledge.
21.
Giroux, H. A. (1994). Disturbing pleasures: Learning popular culture. London: Routledge.
22.
Grosz, E. (1995). Women, chora, dwelling. In S. Watson & K. Gibson (Eds.), Postmodern cities and spaces (pp. 47-50). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
23.
Hall, S. (1997a). The spectacle of the ‘other’. In S. Hall (Ed.), Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (pp. 223-290). London: Sage.
24.
Hall, S. (1997b). The work of representation. In S. Hall (Ed.), Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (pp. 13-74). London: Sage.
25.
hooks, b. (1989). Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking black. Boston: South End.
26.
hooks, b. (1990). Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics. Boston: South End.
27.
hooks, b. (1994). Outlaw culture: Resisting representation. London: Routledge.
28.
Jones, S. H. (2003). The way we were, are, and might be: Torch singing as autoethnography. In Y. S. Lincoln & N. K. Denzin (Eds.), Turning points in qualitative research: Tying knots in a handkerchief (pp. 105-118). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
29.
Kivel, B. D. (1997). Leisure, narratives and the construction of identity among lesbian, gay and bisexual youth. Journal of Leisurability, 24(4), 31-38.
30.
Krims, A. (2000). Rap music and the poetics of identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
31.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Denzin, N. K. (2003). The methodological revolution. In Y. S. Lincoln & N. K. Denzin (Eds.), Turning points in qualitative research: Tying knots in a handkerchief (pp. 239-242). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
32.
Lipsitz, G. (1994). We know what time it is: Race, class, and youth culture in the nineties. In A. Ross & T. Rose (Eds.), Microphone fiends: Youth music & youth culture (pp. 17-28). London: Routledge.
33.
Madison, M. S. (2003). Performance, personal narratives, and the politics of possibility. In Y. S. Lincoln & N. K. Denzin (Eds.), Turning points in qualitative research: Tying knots in a handkerchief (pp. 469-486). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.
34.
Richardson, L. (1997). Fields of play: Constructing an academic life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
35.
Rojek, C. (2000). Leisure and culture. London: MacMillan.
36.
Sakolsky, R. (1995). Boyz from the rez: An interview with Robby Bee. In R. Sakolsky & F. Wei-han Ho (Eds.), Sounding off! Music as subversion/resistance/revolution (pp. 163-170). New York: Autonomedia.
37.
Simons, P. (2003, January 7). Native plight at root of troubles. Edmonton Journal. Retrieved January 9, 2006, from http://www.recomnetwork.org/articles/03/01/08/0158242.shtml
38.
Soja, E. W. (1996). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
39.
Sweetman, P. (2001). Stop making sense? The problem of the body in youth/sub/counter-culture. In S. Cunningham-Burley & K. Backett-Millburn (Eds.), Exploring the body (pp. 183-200). London: Palgrave.
40.
Wearing, B., & Wearing, S. (1996). Refocusing the tourist experience: The flâneur and the choraster. Leisure Studies, 15, 229-243.
41.
White,E. (2001). The flâneur: A stroll through the paradoxes of Paris. London: Bloomsbury.
42.
Willis, P. (1990). Common culture. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press.
43.
Willis, P. (2000). The ethnographic imagination. London: Routledge.
