Academic literature on the topic 'Pearl Jam (Musical group)'

Abstract In this review article, I focus my attention on the so-called grunge subculture, originally derived from the musical style of the Seattle scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and in particular on the rock band Pearl Jam, sometimes emphatically defined as the “grunge survivors” and as the only major Seattle band to survive the ’90s intact. Pearl Jam—inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, and committed in 2021 to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Ten, their legendary debut album, and also the twenty-fifth anniversary of No Code, their fourth, most experimental, and perhaps most “philosophical” work so far—have undoubtedly established themselves as one of the best rock bands of all times. Starting from a general analysis of the music of Pearl Jam, in my review article I subsequently take into examination some aspects of the band's artistic work that allow to connect in an original way popular music and social criticism, including some questions concerning political commitment, the critical relation with the culture industry, and also feminism.

The recent Global Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Jam takes “jam” from the musical term where musicians improvise in a group. Extending the musical analogy, I recount my AI Jam experience while unpacking what can we learn from improvising musicians for a vision of the future of AI practice?

These quasi-experiment research aims to identify any effect of music activities as media to reduce stress hassle on the subject which attend in the choir group. The musical repertoire which was used was the pop genre which technically did not have much complexities and the lyric straightforward to understand. Hassle stress is a stressor that involves minor everyday events such as traffic jam, activities of queuing, forgetfulness in putting the things, or turmoil. Manipulation or treatment treated to the subject as a member of the choir is totally N=10. The treatment was the singing rehearsal. The tools for collecting data were a questioner of self-report which contained questions and QRMA (Quantum Resonance Magnetic Analyzer) measurement which also focused on group discussion. The result shows that there is an effect of musical activities as media for reducing the stress hassle and promoting the previous research results. Some analysis shows that there should be an experiment with a different musical repertoire because a difference genre needs a different skill and there should be a necessity to measure a physical condition more accurately by QRMA to all participants.

At the end of January I travelled to the States to speak at and attend the first O’Reilly Bioinformatics Technology Conference [14]. It was a large, well-organized and diverse meeting with an interesting history. Although the meeting was not a typical academic conference, its style will, I am sure, become more typical of meetings in both biological and computational sciences.Speakers at the event included prominent bioinformatics researchers such as Ewan Birney, Terry Gaasterland and Lincoln Stein; authors and leaders in the open source programming community like Damian Conway and Nat Torkington; and representatives from several publishing companies including the Nature Publishing Group, Current Science Group and the President of O’Reilly himself, Tim O’Reilly. There were presentations, tutorials, debates, quizzes and even a ‘jam session’ for musical bioinformaticists.

Asian Americans experience on marginalization and their struggle against it is distinct yet not unrelated to other ethnic groups in the United States. They have been racially discriminated and othered while their gender identity suppressed, which amounted to oriental stereotypes of Asian Americans. The Asian American movement between the 60s and the 70s is a historic turning point that gave voice to the people once considered “foreigner” by the White culture and enabled them to counter the imposed images. Among other significant achievements, the movement stimulated a consciousness towards self-determination. Music is one platform that allows Asian Americans to express the desire. Yellow Pearl stands as the pioneer of Asian American political musicians with their oft-cited tracks from Yellow Pearl. Fred Ho is another proactive figure whose improvisatory jazz compositions challenge hegemonic social norms. Sean Miura, though himself not a musician, represents a younger generation who advocates artistic expression of Asian American. Despite these contributions, I still wonder how Asian Americans are recently doing in the popular music industry. Do they still strive for the same ideology as those mentioned above, and how? With this question in mind, my final paper will be a study of 88rising, a group of Asian American rappers. I will specifically focus on their music videos and lyrics and look for embedded political messages about Asian American struggles. I will also draw on relevant materials assigned from the class and online sources. I argue that self-determination is continuous process for Asian Americans. It is always a work in progress that permeates through generations and cuts across all musical genres.

AbstractThis article reports on a study of participants in a Weekend Warriors Program for ‘lapsed’ rock musicians in Melbourne, Australia. It observes musicians over a six-week period that included a jam session, coaching sessions and a gig (concert). It examines the learning pathways of participants and their goals and experiences alongside those of the programme organisers within the comparative context of music learning practices among young and older musicians and in the light of academic research into the midlife ageing process. A question that arises from the data is the extent to which the experience and actions of middle-aged women musicians coincides with the literature on gender in youth rock music scenes and the literature on music, ageing and gender. The article concludes that the Weekend Warriors Program draws on the learning practices that the musicians involved had adopted in their youth and which act as a catalyst for their further musical and social participation and self-directed group learning. Age appeared to create no barrier to their enjoyment or their achievements; indeed in many ways it seemed to make them less inhibited and self-conscious in realising individual objectives that were further encouraged by working within a supportive if loosely bonded group.

Kurikulum di Indonesia dinilai terlalu kompleks dibandingkan dengan kurikulum yang ada di beberapa negara maju sehingga beban siswa dalam belajar semakin berat. Atas dasar inilah diperlukan KTSP, kurikulum operasional yang dikembangkan dan dilaksankan oleh sekolah. SMP Negeri 4 Ambon merupakan sekolah yang mengembangkan kurikulum sesuai dengan karakteristik dan kebutuhan sekolah. Permasalahan yang akan dibahas dalam penelitian ini adalah, apa saja kendala dalam pelaksanaan KTSP di SMP Negeri 4 Ambon, bagaimana upaya guru dalam menyelesaikan masalah dalam pelaksanaan KTSP, dan bagaimana upaya guru dalam menyumbangkan pikirannya dalam pelaksanaan pembelajaran musik. Penelitian ini juga dilandasi dengan beberapa teori-teori terdahulu yang telah meneliti efesiensi pembelajaran musik. Proses penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi kasus dan FGD (Focus Group Discussion) yang diperoleh dari wawancara terbuka dan diskusi terpadu. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan, kendala yang ditemui dalam penerapan KTSP pada pembelajaran seni musik antara lain, kendala siswa dalam mengaransir lagu, guru masih menggunakan ruangan kelas umum pada saat praktek, alat musik yang digunakan belum memadai, alokasi waktu yang masih kurang dan kurangnya tenaga guru. Dalam penerapan KTSP guru berusaha mengatasi kendala-kendala tersebut dengan menyumbangkan pemikirannya melalui solusi-solusi yang diterapkannya, antara lain dengan memudahkan anak mengaransir lagu, melalui lagu sederhana yang diaransirnya dan memanfaatkan waktu diluar jam sekolah untuk menyelesaikan materi yang tertunda.The curriculum in Indonesia is considered too complex compared to other countries so that students in learning is getting harder. On this basis KTSP is needed, an operational curriculum developed and implemented by the school. SMP Negeri 4 Ambon is a school that develops a curriculum in accordance with the characteristics and needs of the school. The problems to be discussed in this study are, what are the obstacles in the implementation of KTSP in SMP Negeri 4 Ambon, how are the efforts of the teacher in solving problems in the implementation of KTSP, and how the teacher attempts to contribute his thoughts in the implementation of music learning. This research is also based on several previous theories that have examined the efficiency of music learning. The process of this research uses qualitative research methods with a case study approach and FGD (Focus Group Discussion) obtained from open interviews and integrated discussions. The results showed that the obstacles encountered in the application of KTSP in the learning of musical arts included the constraints of students in arranging songs, teachers still using public classrooms at the time of practice, inadequate musical instruments, lack of time allocation and lack of teachers. In applying the KTSP the teacher tries to overcome these obstacles by contributing his thoughts through the solutions he applies, among others by making it easier for children to organize songs, through simple songs arranged and utilizing time outside of school hours to complete the delayed material.

In tracing how Pearl Jam consciously and unconsciously create their fans by their actions, I argue that work and fandom of the band are synonymous for fans who wish to become producers in a metaphorical marketplace of fandom. I use theories of fandom to examine and explain two important (and related) phenomena: first, the relationship between fans and musicians and the creation, adoption, and promotion of a sphere in which fans themselves can becomes producers as well as consumers; and second, the backlash of fans against musicians endorsing a particular political orientation through their compositions and performances. In particular, I focus on that group of Pearl Jam fans who took issue with the band's public disapproval of George W. Bush during their 2003 tour, but whose opposition to the band's position cannot be explained by ideological differences or a belief that music and politics are spheres that should not overlap. Instead, these fans oppose a shift they perceive in the band's attitude toward a democratic exchange of meanings, an important way for Pearl Jam fans to become producers rather than just consumers. As a result, the backlash from these fans, while sparked by Pearl Jam's anti-Bush live performance of "Bushleaguer," is due more to a disjunction between the band's long-term endorsement of democratic and participatory politics and what the fans saw a shift toward counterdemocratic prescriptive politics.

Introduction – Polish GrungeThe main objective of this article is to examine the grunge scene of the 1990s in Poland in the context of acculturation and assimilation processes. Polish grunge was, on the one hand, the expression of trends that were observable in music industry since the late 1980s. On the other hand, it was symptomatic of a rapid systemic transformation. Youth culture was open for the diffusion of cultural patterns and was ready to adopt certain patterns from the West.Thus, we suggest that the local grunge scene was completely modelled on the American one: the flow of cultural practices and subcultural fashion were the manifestations of the assimilation processes in Poland, observable not only in art (i.e. rock music), but also in the domains of politics and economy, as well as in the broader social sphere. We explore how young people were ready to adopt only the surface level of the phenomenon as they were familiar with it through the media coverage it received. Young people in Poland circa the early ‘90s primarily wanted to gain access to an imaginary Western lifestyle rather than learn about real living conditions in capitalist societies, and they could do this through their involvement in grunge culture.Grunge as a Cultural PhenomenonGrunge as a popular music trend arose in the USA during the late 1980s and early 1990s, in the work of bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains. Grunge was initially opposed to consumerism and capitalist values. Nevertheless, A&R scouts recognised the commercial potential of this music: for example, Nirvana’s Nevermind was released by Geffen Company, and Pearl Jam’s Ten by Epic. As Grzegorz Brzozowicz and Filip Łobodziński put it (313),the success of Nirvana was a post-mort triumph of punk rock and, more importantly, it indicated the potential of alternative music, which suddenly stepped outside an aesthetic ghetto and became a hot stuff. This influence was also visible as regards fashion and customs – Dr. Martens’ shoes, flannel shirts, frayed jeans, and wool caps became an outfit common for the young (…). Grunge influenced visual art, film and photography.In Poland, grunge as a subculture and sub-genre of rock music emerged in the early 1990s following the international commercial success of bands such as those listed above, and it entailed the assimilation of the Western cultural patterns. Although assimilation processes were typical primarily for youth culture, they were observed in the wider context of the changes and adaptations that Polish system underwent after the fall of the centrally planned economy and subjugation to the communist party power after the Yalta agreements (1945-1989/1990).In this context, the concept Centre/Periphery (Gopinathan, Saravanan and Altbach; Hannerz; Langholm; Pisciotta) appears as the field for the dissemination of popular culture. Popular culture is a battlefield for creating and negotiating the meanings that are inherent within cultural practices (Barker). Cultural practices play a double role in the dissemination of ideas or objects. Firstly, they come as a result of adaptation in a defined culture, and secondly, they make new cultural patterns stabile, visible, and easy to practice by people as flexible patterns of behaviour. This point is clearly visible in the context of the East European states that underwent rapid acculturation processes in which new patterns of economic and social solutions were established in centre-planned economies: the tensions of the “old” and the “new” patterns dominating in the political and social systems of those countries (e.g. Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, etc.) were visible and affected societies to a considerable degree (Pisciotta). Thus, the practices generated in cultural Centres tend to disseminate easily and to “conquer” other cultural systems, especially in the Periphery.In the case of popular culture, the flow of influences usually takes a one-dimensional form and is disseminated from the Centre to the Periphery. As Marek Jeziński (162-163) argues, both Centre and Periphery are functional systems. These systems have generated their own mythology, which separates one from another. However, as in the case of mythological systems in general, Centre and Periphery tales overlap frequently, and there are evidence that the bands that originated in the Periphery were assimilated by the Centre. For example, Nirvana and Pearl Jam were both successful in market terms and both built their own status based on the Peripheral components that were skilfully overtaken by the Centre narrative. While the Peripheral narratives are concentrated mainly on the undermining of the definition of situation and present dysfunctional character towards cultural system as such, the Centre narratives aim to maintain the definition of situation supporting mainstream values and their prevailing position in a system (Jeziński 164). Grunge is the epitome of such an implementation of cultural patterns. That is, grunge started as a fringe peripheral cultural phenomenon. The major records companies, however, recognised its potential and provided the space in the music market to support the new bands. Most of the groups in the US started as independent local acts related to independent record companies that built their status.In relation to the assimilation of grunge culture in Poland, we can distinguish two key phenomena. The first is concerned with the adaptation of general subcultural components, e.g. fashion and group identification. Here, the acculturation processes run as a primary form of mimicry, as the Polish grunge scene adopted elements typical of the grunge subculture, such as oversize sweaters, flannel shirts, Dr. Martens shoes or Converse trainers, long hair, and beanies. A newly formed subculture was different from the others popular in the 1990s. For example, punk and metal subcultures implied strong group identity, style homogeneity, rigid group limitations, and firm membership rules. Conversely, it seems that the grunge subculture was based more on a level of liquid and fragmented patchwork identity than on very inflexible group values and internal ideology or political attitudes (cf. Muggleton). Such patchwork identity formation was a result of a rapid clash between the adaptation of grunge cultural patterns from the West and the Polish economic transformation of the early 1990s.Poland underwent rapid changes that were also visible in the politics, culture and social domain, joining liberal democracies and liberal free market economies of the West. These changes resulted from a transformation of the system as a whole: from a central planned system to decentralisation of the power at both local and state levels (Sarnecki). Equally important were the changes in the political culture of Poles and their value system: they accepted the democratic changes but simultaneously, the mentality of Poles remained traditionalist (which is visible in surveys— the most important values for them were “family” and “work”), and their attitude towards the processes of cultural and institutional changes was impermanent (Garlicki; Jasińska-Kania).During the transformation, the changes were visible in the everyday lives of Polish citizens: examples include the shortages in the market that were evident after the socialist regime ended, and the easy availability of Western clothes such as jeans, shirts, denim jackets in ordinary stores. Consequently, the economic rates in the 1990s were higher in comparison to the previous decade (Bałtowski and Miszewski). Those changes resulted in a phase shift in the modernisation process, where patterns of economic and cultural development and were faster than the enculturation and socialisation processes.On the one hand, the free market allowed for almost unlimited commodification with unprecedented access to goods and services. On the other hand, the low cultural capital and economic possibilities of the citizens evolved rapidly. The communist-shaped social division fell apart, and the new class designations based of consumption/commodification patterns were established (Jeziński; Wojtkowski). Those factors resulted in high cross-generational mobility, lower entrance barriers, and higher openness indicators (cf. Polska klasa średnia; O ruchliwości społecznej w polsce).Hence, in cultural conditions based on capitalist consumption practices, the grunge subculture evolved with a commodified sense of style rather than with a firm identity. Yet, in the case of grunge style, relatively high costs of subculture commodities (e.g. Dr. Martens shoes, Converse trainers, or band t-shirts) led to DIY practices such as buying cheaper no-name shoes, and sewing badges with the names of bands and albums on jackets or backpacks.The second phenomenon encompasses the adaptation of music patterns. The Polish grunge scene was not as diversified in terms of genre variations as its US counterpart. In the beginning, the Polish grunge scene was more distressed geographically, with no specific Centre-Periphery relations. However, one of the most important bands, Hey, was established in the Northwest. When one looks at Polish grunge evolution as a ‘clash’ of American genre and the specific character of a time and place where Polish bands were recording, she or he will notice multiple similarities with the US scene.Firstly, we could name two approaches to grunge music among Polish performers: ‘intellectual’ and ‘rebel’. The ‘intellectual’ approach encompasses the group Hey. This band was established in Szczecin (the Northwest Poland), but after the success of their first album – Fire (1993), they moved to Warsaw. Hey released 11 studio records, but only the first three could be classified as “grunge” (cf. Sankowski). On the level of musical references, Fire sounds like a mixture of early Pearl Jam combined with Alice in Chains. With English lyrics and song topics that were typical for grunge— e.g., The Choice (“You’ve got a gun/You can use it now”)—similarities with Pearl Jam, in particular, are striking. The band evolved, and on their second album, Ho! (1994), Hey mixed equally Polish and English lyrics with the dynamic and specific Seattle sound (cf. Prato). Hey’s most distinctive feature comparing with other Polish grunge bands is its highly developed melodic approach to music and the poetic, sensual style of its lyrics. The third record, ? (1995), closes the band’s early stage. The next album, Karma (1997), opens the period when the amalgamation of electronics, hard rock and grunge dominated Hey’s music, with the album [sic!] (2001) representing the turning point in the group’s music style. The band suspended their work in 2017 and will probably never reunite.Over time, Hey gained one of the most dedicated audiences in Polish rock music. The music industry and critics have acknowledged Hey as one of the best Polish groups in the post-communist period. Hey has received the most nominations in the history of Fryderyki, the key Polish music awards. The group and Nosowska have won twenty-three times in multiple categories. As the longest-operating grunge-origin band in the country, Hey could be considered as a most important trend setting and scene-forming group.The more “rebellious” approach to grunge encompasses bands such as Illusion (1992-1999, 2014-present) and Houk. The former was based on the grunge and hardcore mixture of influences from Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Rage Against the Machine (especially in terms of rap-oriented lyrics). With the preservation of certain consistency, the band named first three albums: Illusion (1993), Illusion II (1994), and Illusion III (1995). Illusion marks the band’s aggressive style and lyrics simplicity but the studio production flattens the whole and gives an impression of a post-punk DIY venture rather than a coherent composition. The second record, however, is entirely conceptualised and thought out in terms of music and lyrics. Sharp riffs, hard rock tuning of instruments and aggressive lyrics that were focused on Polish life gave the album a needed consistency. The band’s third record is the most varied stylistically and politically engaged in their history. The harder-edged tunes from previous releases are accompanied by more psychedelic compositions (Wrona) that recall Alice in Chains’ slow songs and Layne Staley’s voice.Houk’s music similarly to other Polish grunge bands was the amalgamation of various genres and their style evolved in time. Initially, the band was regarded as an example of alternative rock music. The first album Soul Ammunition (1992) was named by music monthly Tylko Rock as a debut of the year (polskirock.art.pl). The combination of grunge, hardcore, hard rock, reggae and socio-politically engaged lyrics helped the group to establish a strong fan base. The band’s unique style was recognised internationally and Houk supported New Model Army and Bad Brains during the performances in the mid-1990’s (polskirock.art.pl). The band’s second studio release Generation X (1995) was recorded prior the multiple membership reorganizations that finally ended the grunge-orientation period of Houk’s history. One of the songs, Sleep, was dedicated to Kurt Cobain and reflected Nirvana’s approach to songwriting, which can be heard in songs such as “Lithium” (1991). Such a commemoration of Cobain’s figure is characteristic of Polish grunge culture’s establishment of strong ties with the American equivalent. Here and in many similar cases, Cobain serves not only as a grunge hero (or even a martyr) but also as a commodified pop culture figure (cf. Strong). Concerning both spheres - that is, the adaptation of grunge subculture and a development of the music scene -Polish grunge follows a different pattern to the US genre. Grunge was introduced to Poland after it was popularised and commodified by the major labels and media industry in the USA, so the adopted version was the mainstream one rather than the underground movement. Hence, the simplistic dichotomy between “underground” and “mainstream” culture does not function in terms of the Polish grunge culture, and probably is misstated even when it comes to the American phenomenon. Grunge could be perceived in Poland as both the first and the last “true” subcultural trend. At the same time, though, it was an affirmation not of ‘the rebel’ and ‘the underground’ but of capitalism and the cultural values of the West. Indeed, the Polish grunge culture couldn’t be fully aware of what grunge was warning us against while Polish society faced the rapid market and cultural transformation that allowed for its opening to Western trends.Conclusion – Is Grunge Really Dead?Although the popularity of grunge phenomenon in Poland was relatively short, the most important groups of this sub-genre - Illusion, Hey, Ahimsa, Houk, and Kr’shna Brothers - widely contributed to the emergence of the new wave of fashion for rock and hard-rock music in Poland in the mid-1990s. The most successful group of the era, Hey epitomises the transformation of grunge in Poland. Starting as a typical grunge band (modelled heavily on the US groups), they underwent a serious transition, substantially changing their music into more mainstream-oriented rock (that is, as music that was considered acceptable by rock music and AOR-focused radio stations). At the same time, grunge as a rock sub-genre underwent the contrary changes: it broke into the mainstream relatively quickly in the first half of the 1990s, establishing new rock stars of the scene (Illusion, Houk, Ahimsa, Hey), but in the late 1990s it went back to being a rock niche again. It seems that today grunge serves as a point of reference (in fact, it was an important period of rock history) for the new bands that intentionally use this sub-genre as a form of commodified, media-friendly nostalgia.ReferencesBałtowski, Maciej, Miszewski, Maciej. Transformacja gospodarcza w Polsce. Warszawa: PWN, 2006.Biografia Houk. 25 Nov. 2018 <https://www.polskirock.art.pl/houk,z346,biografia.html>.Brzozowicz, Grzegorz, and Filip Łobodziński. Sto płyt, które wstrząsnęły światem: Kronika czasów popkultury. Warszawa: Iskry, 2000.Domański, Henryk. Polska klasa średnia. Wrocław: FNP i W. Wrocławskie, 2002.Domański, Henryk. O ruchliwości społecznej w Polsce. Warszawa: IFiS PAN, 2004.Garlicki, Jan. “Tradycje i dynamika kultury politycznej społeczeństwa polskiego.” Dylematy polskiej transformacji. Ed. Jan Błuszkowski. Warszawa: DW Elipsa, 2007. 155-174.Gopinathan, Saravanan, and Philip G. Altbach. “Rethinking Centre–Periphery.” Asia Pacific Journal of Education 25.2 (2005): 117-123.Hannerz, Ulf. “Culture between Center and Periphery: Toward a Macroanthropology.” Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology 54.3-4 (1989): 200-216.Houk. Soul Ammunition. 23 Nov. 2018 <https://www.polskirock.art.pl/soul-ammunition,houk,3051,plyta.html>.Jasińska-Kania, Aleksandra. “Dynamika zmian wartości Polaków na tle europejskim: EVS 1990-1999-2008.” Polska po 20 latach wolności. Eds. Marta Bucholc, Sławomir Mandes, Tadeusz Szawiel and Joanna Wawrzyniak. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2011. 225-239.Jeziński, Marek. Mitologie muzyki popularnej. Toruń: WN Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2014.Jeziński, Marek, and Łukasz Wojtkowski. “Nostalgia Commodified: Towards the Marketization of the Post-Communist Past through the New Media.” Medien und Zeit 4 (2016): 96–104.Langholm, Sivert. “On the Concepts of Center and Periphery.” Journal of Peace Research 8.3-4 (1971): 273-278.Muggleton, David. Inside Subculture. The Postmodern Meaning of Style. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.Pisciotta, Barbara. “The Center-Periphery Cleavage Revisited: East and Central Europe from Postcommunism to Euroscepticism.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 22.2 (2016): 193-219.Sankowski, Robert. “Hey, czyli któtka historia polskiego popu.” Wyborcza.pl, 3 Nov. 2012. 1 Aug. 2018 <http://wyborcza.pl/1,75410,12788097,Hey__czyli_krotka_historia_polskiego_popu.html>. Sarnecki, Paweł. “Od kumulacji do podziału władzy.” Transformacja ustrojowa w Polsce 1989-2009. Eds. Maria Kruk and Jan Wawrzyniak. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2011. 37-58.Strong, Catherine. Grunge and the Memory. London: Routledge, 2016.

‘Jam’ enjoys a varied set of associations. It’s a responsive term that reflects shifts in technologies of all sorts – from the kitchen to the web and just about everything in between. Over the past century, associations of jam, jamming and being jammed have collided with and guided popular culture in innumerable ways. An example being Mel Brooks’ humorous problematisation of the word via his ‘jamming’ skit in Spaceballs, where the use of a particular flavour of jam (hurled in a giant space jam jar shatter on the radar of Dark Helmet’s flagship) signified a particular enemy of the empire – Lonestar. In this issue the papers present us with considerations of jam and of jamming that explore some of the more familiar uses of the terms with some of the more surprising. Firstly, and as one might have expected, we have papers looking at musical improvisation using digital technologies; at mash-ups and bootlegging of ‘old’ content to create ‘new’; at live coding as a cultural practice to create digital content involving the remixing of cultural ideas and materials; and, at the potential of software to create environments for ‘networked jamming’. Less expected, and more literally, two papers take as their point of departure the ‘jam factory’. On the one hand we learn that a repurposed jam factory presents us with an historically important Australian cinema complex aimed at providing an entertainment experience with a focus on stimulating all five senses, while on the other hand we learn that the mass production of jam in such spaces made the practice of making jam at home more of a cultural and resistance activity than a practical one. We go on to think about a French feminist making jam – well – using jamming as a term to disrupt the theoretical machinery of a patriarchal academy, before returning to new technologies, in this case weblogs, and their role in jamming or disrupting linear histories. Finally, theory-jamming is proposed as an antidote to the downward spiral of communication theory into an ontological black hole. According to David Toop, who kicks off this issue with an invited feature article, “jamming is associated predominantly with a known form, the participants play in order to exercise their skill, even to the point of competitiveness, but also for the pleasure of interaction without the need for perfection”. UK based writer, sound artist and curator Toop questions the notions of what contemporary improvisation may share with the ideas traditionally associated with ‘Jam’ in the musical setting. How does technology shape the interactions of concurrent layers of sound in space? Does the flexibility of the interface bring with it inherent qualities and furthermore how might those be resolved as a means of creating meaningful interaction? Possibly no longer does the idea of jamming rely on the interaction of multiple players in one space, as was traditionally the case with musicians, DJs, cultural appropriators or VJs. Increasingly performance possibilities online and via other virtual spaces mean that the gesture and visual languages of ‘Jam’ are being rethought, reshaped and in many cases removed as a means of inviting new possibility to the interactions of jammers. This removal of certain stimulus potentially heightens other states of awareness in these Jam spaces. “Mash-ups” are put forward by Em McAvan as a form of jamming that is about producing new works from old. This draws upong the idea of jamming as the remixing or reuse of content and its presentation in a new form. Sometimes called bootlegs (not to be confused with illegal copying), mash-ups ‘mash’ together already released songs, often bringing together unusual or unlikely musical collaborations. McAvan problematises the idea that mash-up is a wholly anti capitalist activity, pointing to the mash-up artists who have “made the leap from bootlegger to major-label sanctioned artist”. Andrew R. Brown’s piece on the potentials of ‘live coding’ as an improvisatory jam environment suggests new ways in which the computer can be utilised in the creation of realtime creative content. Acknowledging the two main uses of the term ‘jamming’ as digital manipulation and reuse of materials (by musicians and other performers) and improvisation, especially in collaborative situations, Brown draws our attention to live coding which he argues is a “practice that gets to the heart of both these meanings… where digital content (music and/or visuals predominantly) is created through computer programming as a performance”. In live coding it is the code that is the medium of expression, and it is the processes involved in the creation of musical output that are of interest. Next up, and touching again on the use of software in musical jamming, is Steve Dillon’s piece on the software Jam2Jam in which the application allows for controlled but varied interactions between a variety of users in both actual and virtual spaces. The paper describes the research and processes involved in the creation of the software, initially based on research into the musical tastes of a group of 8-14 year old children in the US. Through analysis of the styles identified by the children, numerical values and algorithms were created that form the structure for the software. The software is used to allow for and study ‘networked jamming’. Moving away from music and new technologies, to a more literal understanding of the term ‘jam’, in Leanne Downing’s paper we learn that an old Jam Factory building has been repurposed to present a cinema complex that appeals to vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Within the complex the overpriced confectionary counter, colloquial known as ‘Lollywood’ somehow fittingly makes the link between current and past use of the space. Downing presents us with a compelling account of the creation and manipulation of a ‘cinema anchored’ destination that jams together a variety of leisure and entertainment experiences, in which the sugar based lineage of the ‘Jam Factory’ is preserved (sic). Before the mass production of jam in jam factories, the ‘putting up’ of seasonal fruit – as jam making used to be called – was a practical activity aimed at the preservation and storage of valuable foodstuffs. While contemplating the romantic notions she holds of jam making, Lynn Houston shows how the practice has changed over the years to form various resistance practices, such as, at times and by some, resisting consumption of distrusted factory-produced jam. Houston presents jam making in the home as a means of thwarting capitalism, and a cultural practice whose ultimate pleasure lies perhaps in the community building, gift giving practice of offering friends and neighbours a pot of homemade jam. And just as Houston likes to imagine herself a baker and jam maker as symbol of her preference of domestic identity, Alison Bartlett imagines the jamming of machinery in quite literal form, jam on the machinery of the printing press, clogging it and making it ineffective – the domestic overcoming the industrial. As a doctoral student in the early 1990s Bartlett found the writing of French philosopher Luce Irigaray appealing. Irigaray had described a female writing or écriture féminine as disruptive, akin to female sexuality itself. In an interview in the mid 1970s Irigaray had said that women’s discourse needed consideration outside of the hermeneutic grids that were ‘excessively univocal’, she claimed that a ‘jamming of the theoretical machinery’ and its pretence to truth was needed. ‘Jamming’ in this paper then is used as a means of overcoming established and partial truths – jamming the machinery. This brings us nicely out of a literal discussion of jam as a sticky sweet substance, to ideas around jamming as disruption. Weblogs (blogs) are presented by Yasmin Ibrahim as ‘disrupting the linearity that the history of a nation proposes’. Just as Bartlett writes about female writing as a style different to the dominant, Ibrahim is presenting blogging as a writing style that is both personal and disruptive – in this case of the linearity of dominant discourses, somewhat alike the non linear female writing that Irigaray describes. Ibrahim explores the relationship between individual narrative, personal stories told on blogs, and their disruptive potential in the construction of national identities and histories. In so doing she is examining the potential of blogging to re-cast historicity and renegotiate national identity. Jam is evoked in this paper as the way that personal narratives are ‘jamming’ or flooding electronic spaces with competing narratives, and we move from the previous paper’s focus on French feminist philosopher’s thoughts on locating the self in writing to Russian philosopher Bakhtin’s thoughts on self and authorship. Weblogs, jamming electronic spaces, provide ‘new public spaces of private commentary, public commemoration and global communion’. In the last paper in this issue, Stephen Stockwell draws on German-born philosopher Nietzsche and Walter Benjamin (among others) to propose theory-jamming ‘as an antidote for the confusion and disarray that typifies communication theory’. Stockwell observes a downward spiral with competing and entrenched divisions across a range of paradigms. He suggests a solution may lie in a communication practice and its theoretical underpinnings, that if we look at ‘the jam’, (‘the improvised reorganization of traditional themes into new and striking patterns’) we might confront the downward spiral. There is too much contention and not enough connection between schools that practice communication theories, dating back to Lazarsfeld’s split with Adorno and the Frankfurt School whereby the competing disciplines of mass communication studies and cultural/media studies began, and according to Stockwell marks the foundation of the ‘ontological black hole in communication theory’. Drawing on the practice of the musical jam, Stockwell draws us back nicely to Toop’s observations on the necessity of understanding the importance of taking part in a jam session sensitively, and by carefully listening. For Stockwell theory-jamming provides a means to think new thoughts. In this issue then, a variety of flavours of ‘Jam’, incorporating the literal and figurative are explored, deconstructed, boiled and bottled. We consider not just the food stuff jam, or the creative or resistant act of jamming, but rather the writers in this issue ask where Jam is headed, and in some cases is ‘Jam’ still ‘Jam’ or a new sticky substance that glues together our proverbial pieces of cultural bread or prevents the machinery from moving. Our writers ask can the mannerisms of particular musicians, cultural plunderers and other creatives uniformly become recognised through their approaches to ‘Jam’. They propose that while the shapeless form of ‘Jam’ suggests a particular aesthetic sensibility both in terms of the eatable object and the form of interaction at a creative level – perhaps it is possible to envisage unfamiliar ‘jars’ in which the concepts of ‘Jam’ might be formed and shaped? Citation reference for this article MLA Style Tacchi, Jo, and Lawrence English. "Jam." M/C Journal 9.6 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0612/00-editorial.php>. APA Style Tacchi, J., and L. English. (Dec. 2006) "Jam," M/C Journal, 9(6). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0612/00-editorial.php>.

The chapter focuses on projects designed to enhance student engagement with, and exploration of, mobile devices. Helping preservice teachers manage the often steep learning curve that goes hand in hand with connecting theory to practice is but one aspect of music teacher preparation. For the methods student and university professor alike, staying abreast of the current PK-12 school population’s musical needs poses unique conditions for curriculum development. Learning how to use technology while working with a diverse range of students presents challenges for all who are involved in teaching music with technology. The App Scavenger Hunt is an introductory project intended to foster collaboration by exploring the variety of apps available for later projects such as spontaneous musical jam sessions, group composition, and the (re)creation of cover tunes. These musicking experiences, in conjunction with field experiences in music methods classes, aided university students’ embrace of the potential for creative music making with mobile technology.