Abstract
This chapter evaluates how surfers mobilize the semiotic resources of surfing, which facilitates the analysis of the phenomenon of socialization through surfing and surf music. The section puts back to back the realizations of identity potentialities and the paradox of cultural immobility addressed in the second part of this book. It discusses the debated notion of authenticity to apprehend better identity issues linked to musical and lifestyle crossovers. In the last segment, the singular ethno-aesthetics of Floridian surfing is illustrated through what I call the surfanization of Cocoa Beach.
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Notes
- 1.
The twang is a vocal technique that allows the singer to make a powerful but nasal sound. It is characteristic of country music.
- 2.
The analytical suitability of musical semiotics in the study of popular music has been a point of contention is musicology (Dunbar-Hall, 1991; Tagg, 1987) However, a number of approaches have emerged that have proven suitable. There are two broad branches of musical semiologies: Analytical semiotics, deemed neutral, focuses on the intrinsic meaning of a musical system. Interpretative semiotics focuses on the links between “musical events and extra-musical concepts” (Dunbar-Hall, 1991, p. 129). It looks at the symbolic aspects of music and what musical events represent. I use interpretative semiotics as a way to explore the meaning of music and musicking for Floridian surfers.
- 3.
Interviewed on September 10, 2016.
- 4.
Identities are represented by nouns that state the being rather than by adjectives that affix a characteristic to the being.
- 5.
Meyer, J. W. (2000). Globalizations: Sources and effects on national states and societies. International Sociology, 15, 233–248.
- 6.
Bourdieu, P. (1993). The field of cultural production. Cambridge: Polity.
- 7.
The term standard indicates that the format is conventional: entry is chargeable, there is a security service, vendors, and the number of participants is high.
- 8.
These dominant players are mostly white males.
- 9.
The status quo refers here to mainstream ideologies, but we could argue that the status quo is surfing’s masculine dominant discourse, which is still viewed as surfing’s authentic discourse (Olive et al., 2015).
- 10.
The strategies described by Beal and Weidman (2003) are: self-selection, sponsorship, advertising, participant control, de-emphasizing competition, individualism, and non-conformity, insider mentality, masculinity, commitment to the sport/lifestyle (pp. 346–350).
- 11.
Benesch, K. (2012). Cultural immobility: Thoreau, Heidegger, and the modern politics of place. Amerikastudien/American Studies, 57(3), 403–418.
- 12.
Interviewed on June 13, 2017.
- 13.
Interviewed on June 13, 2017.
- 14.
In 2016, the average salary in Florida was $48,900 per year compared to 63,790 in California (U.S. Census Bureau).
- 15.
Interviewed on June 7, 2017.
- 16.
Knorr Cetina, K. (2005). Complex global microstructures: The new terrorist societies. Theory, Culture and Society, (22), 213–234.
- 17.
Interviewed on January 16, 2016.
- 18.
Interviewed on June 15, 2018.
- 19.
Keeping in mind Gurney’s (1999) definition of noise as “a sound which is out of place (p. 6),” I focus on music as sound while confronting it to the notion of noise.
- 20.
Sun Bum was inspired by Florida’s laid-back beach lifestyle to build its image. The concerts take place in the backyard of the Cocoa Beach office, hidden from the street by a hedge of palm trees. The rationale behind the implementation of the concerts was that surfers like to get together over a beer and music after a surf session Tom Rinks (Sun Bum’s creator and president) wanted to reproduce for the public, the experience of this backyard party with friends. Dustin implemented the events in accord with his own experience as a surfer. The artists invited to Sonny’s Porch may come from Florida or elsewhere as long as they correspond to the subjective construction of the community’s surf experience, which must promote the “fun and positive” approach. The artists invited to Sonny’s Porch represent, for example, Hawaiian reggae with Mike Love (different from Mike Love of The Beach Boys), Barbadian reggae with Collie Buddz, Californian psychedelic rock with The Growlers, Florida garage rock with The Jacuzzi Boys, or Hawaiian surf rock with Donavon Frankenreiter. The office is in the heart of the city, at the intersection of the beach, Neilson surf shop and Surfinista (supposedly, Kelly Slater’s favorite coffee shop). It is a few hundred feet from Cocoa Beach’s most popular restaurant, Coconuts on the Beach.
- 21.
Music has effects on the body as it makes people dance and triggers emotions. Music also occupies space in its multidimensional organization.
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Barjolin-Smith, A. (2020). Ethno-Aesthetic Synthesis and Perspective. In: Ethno-Aesthetics of Surf in Florida. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7478-8_10
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