“The hammer so heavy
The work is so hard
The chains that bound us together
Left us all scarred”
From “Phantom Lim” by GWAR
This week on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast we had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Michael Bishop, otherwise known as The Beserker Blothar from the band GWAR. GWAR is a heavy metal band hailing from Richmond, Virginia known for their outrageous music and live shows. GWAR confronts the audience with their larger than life personas as well as their stinging satire and social commentary. GWAR is a circus, cabaret, amusement park, intergalactic spaceship and wrecking ball all rolled into one. And their enduring success speaks for itself. This week GWAR is celebrating the 30th anniversary of their classic album Scumdogs of the Universe. To celebrate, GWAR has announced the Scumdogs Triple X Live live streaming concert event that will no doubt be welcomed by their adoring fan base.
Many people may not know that the lead vocalist of GWAR (which Bishop has been since the death of the late GWAR founder David Brockie) also holds a Ph.D. in music from University of Virginia. When considering GWAR’s persistent examination of our cultural norms and societal patterns through their music, Bishop’s expertise is clearly evident. And one only has to listen to Bishop’s TED Talk on the concept of musical and regional identity to get a sense of the depth of his curiosity and understanding of human nature.
In his research, Bishop takes an ethnographic approach. Ethnography is the systematic study of individual cultures, whereby the researcher focuses particularly on examining an individual’s interpretation of their own behavior in a given sociocultural situation. In other words, ethnography approaches human beings as a blank slate, with the goal of seeing the world from the perspective of the individual. What feels very open and exciting about an ethnographic approach to studying human behavior is the utilization of an observational method that values the individual’s unique personal constructs. Ethnography appears to be a very complimentary field of study to more traditional experimental psychology that often seeks to apply and test the validity of an existing theoretical model on a given population. In fact, ethnography has been proposed as a strong theoretical and methodological bridge between sociology and psychology that would allow for the best of both worlds – open-ended observational analysis and hypothesis generation in combination with rigorous theory testing.
Further, Bishop explains his use of the notion of social aesthetics or the interplay between our understanding of artistic processes and social relationships. Bishop uses an ethnographic and social aesthetic approach to develop and study his concept of the interplay between regional and musical identity and how that informs our understanding of ourselves. In our conversation, Bishop explains how GWAR’s emergence and development can be understood in part as a reflection of the musical culture of Richmond.
To a certain degree, many of us understand ourselves based on where we live and what music we love, and in some cases, both. But beyond it being a fun topic of discussion, understanding the connection between our regional and musical identity holds a great deal of potential to improve our health and well-being. There is already substantial evidence that music therapy – whether listening to or playing music, can have mental health benefits, including reduced depression and anxiety. And yet these studies do not focus on how, in addition to the basic enjoyment of interacting with music, a connection with one’s musical and regional identity could be harnessed to influence well-being. When considering the more general importance of identity in our physical and emotional health, the potential of advancing our understanding of musical and regional identity and how they may interact to promote a healthy self-concept is worth further study.
So, check out what Bishop has to say about musical and regional identity!
Photo Credit: Shawn Stanley
