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"Can't you hear me, S.O.S.?": TLG's PhD study blog!

New blog can be found here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7614702

26 year old ethnomusicology student (University of London) researching ABBA fandom, seeks TSR peeps to act as cheerleaders as she battles her way through PhD studies. Apply for cheerleading position(s) by following/posting on this thread :biggrin:

A bit about my PhD topic

A bit about my specific PhD project: I am doing an ethnographic study of ABBA fandom in the 21st century :awesome:

(Ethnographic means that there's a practical element to the research, like going to fan meet-ups/conventions and interviewing people, etc, rather than just theorising ABBA based on my own guesswork/conclusions.)

I chose to do this partly because I am an ABBA fan myself, but also because I think ABBA are an interesting case study, since they continue to be part of mainstream culture despite having never reformed. (They have actually turned down $1 billion USD in the past to reform :headfire:

) I figured there must be some interesting things to say about them!

I have been doing participant-observation fieldwork with the UK branch of the Official International ABBA Fan Club, and have interviewed an ABBA biographer, as well as the curator/director of the ABBA Museum in Stockholm. I've also been keeping tabs on Facebook groups revolving around ABBA. So a lot of my work involves hanging round on Facebook. Such a tough life I lead :emo:

A bit about me/some housekeeping rules

A few bits of contextual info about me/my PhD, for those who don't know me that well:

1. I suffer from schizoaffective disorder and am registered as mentally disabled. This inevitably shapes how my PhD journey goes a lot

2. Ethnomusicology is (put crudely) the social anthropological study of music. It is the study of "music IN culture" and "music AS culture" (Alan Merriam). Traditionally it referred to so-called 'world musics' but now it encompasses everything

3. My undergraduate degree is in music from Woosta College, University of Oxford. My MA degree is in music (ethnomusicology pathway) from Goldsmiths, University of London. Had a **** time at Oxford for many reasons which I will not discuss here, but which again shape the way I approach my PhD. Goldsmiths was much better. I am currently at a different college of the University of London (would prefer not to name it here).

4. If you are one of these people who like to put two and two together and find my uni website page/academia.edu - please DO NOT refer to me on here by my full first name, or my full name (first name/surname). I prefer to keep a degree of anonymity on here

If you wanna call me something, you may call me Shan or TLG.

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 60

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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by gagafacea1

Oh I LOVE the violin. Violinists and pianists to me are the most talented of all musicians. Because let's be honest, everybody can play the guitar these days. I can only play, a little, the piano. I used to be able to play Moonlight Sonata, but I've forgotten most of it due to not touching the piano for years lol.

Do you not like Disco then? Because I've always classified ABBA as disco.

I do like bits of disco - I don't think I've heard everything there is to hear with disco, though :colondollar:

Yeah many people classify ABBA as disco but tbh that was just a small part of their repertoire - they covered a lot of ground musically, which is again what makes them quite interesting and unique, because they're not tied down to a single style :nah:

Reply 61

username1599987

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by The_Lonely_Goatherd

I do like bits of disco - I don't think I've heard everything there is to hear with disco, though :colondollar:

Yeah many people classify ABBA as disco but tbh that was just a small part of their repertoire - they covered a lot of ground musically, which is again what makes them quite interesting and unique, because they're not tied down to a single style :nah:

You should try Donna Summer! You've probably seen that coming cuz of my avatar lol. But I really do ADORE her.

I guess I am wrong for classifying them as strictly disco. Many of their songs are clearly not disco (eg Chiquitita).

Reply 62

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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by gagafacea1

You should try Donna Summer! You've probably seen that coming cuz of my avatar lol. But I really do ADORE her.

I guess I am wrong for classifying them as strictly disco. Many of their songs are clearly not disco (eg Chiquitita).

Dw, you're not the only one to make that mistake!

Donna Summer = :awesome:

Reply 63

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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So I was meant to try and finish reading the book my supervisor let me borrow on the plane today. Total failure - only read one chapter. Now back in the UK and already panicking about next supervision :hide:

Reply 64

username197472

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by The_Lonely_Goatherd

So I was meant to try and finish reading the book my supervisor let me borrow on the plane today. Total failure - only read one chapter. Now back in the UK and already panicking about next supervision :hide:

Girl don't stress it. You have got God on your side! Looking forward to hearing updates.

Reply 65

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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by tradingmyheartforyours

Girl don't stress it. You have got God on your side! Looking forward to hearing updates.

Awww thanks hun :h:

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Reply 66

username1599987

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by The_Lonely_Goatherd

So I was meant to try and finish reading the book my supervisor let me borrow on the plane today. Total failure - only read one chapter. Now back in the UK and already panicking about next supervision :hide:

What would happen if you don't meet the supervisor's demands?

Reply 67

Slowbro93

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by The_Lonely_Goatherd

So I was meant to try and finish reading the book my supervisor let me borrow on the plane today. Total failure - only read one chapter. Now back in the UK and already panicking about next supervision :hide:

Stop stressing, if there was a problem you'd know :hugs:

Keep positive :h:

Reply 68

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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by gagafacea1

What would happen if you don't meet the supervisor's demands?

Realistically, probably not much. Just feel like a total let-down of a student. My supervisor is so nice and supportive, but that kinda makes me feel worse :facepalm:

Original post

by Slowbro93

Stop stressing, if there was a problem you'd know :hugs:

Keep positive :h:

Thanks hun :redface:

Reply 69

username1599987

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by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Realistically, probably not much. Just feel like a total let-down of a student. My supervisor is so nice and supportive, but that kinda makes me feel worse :facepalm:

Well then you'll just have to work harder before the next time you see him. This kind of thing happens with me a lot, and I usually just need a little wake up call to put me back on track. :u:

Reply 70

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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by gagafacea1

Well then you'll just have to work harder before the next time you see him. This kind of thing happens with me a lot, and I usually just need a little wake up call to put me back on track. :u:

Supervisor is a she :tongue:

I'm just fundamentally lazy :colondollar:

Add to that my disability and things get into one big mess :nopity:

Reply 71

username1599987

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by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Supervisor is a she :tongue:

I'm just fundamentally lazy :colondollar:

Add to that my disability and things get into one big mess :nopity:

Woops sorry, I always get this wrong. Cuz in my native language (Arabic) we use the "he" pronoun when the gender is unknown. Which btw, here is a factoid, most of the time male and female singers would use male pronouns when referring to their lovers, which makes most of the songs gender neutral. Hope you enjoyed that factoid lol :biggrin:

And I think you shouldn't focus on disabilities much, people are more about what they CAN do than what they CAN'T do.

Reply 72

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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by gagafacea1

Woops sorry, I always get this wrong. Cuz in my native language (Arabic) we use the "he" pronoun when the gender is unknown. Which btw, here is a factoid, most of the time male and female singers would use male pronouns when referring to their lovers, which makes most of the songs gender neutral. Hope you enjoyed that factoid lol :biggrin:

I didn't know that! That's quite interesting, actually - thanks for telling me. We were never told that in the world music lectures I had at uni. Then again, I didn't do huge amounts on Arabic music :nah:

And I think you shouldn't focus on disabilities much, people are more about what they CAN do than what they CAN'T do.

True. I just get very negative very easily :redface:

Very paranoid too :sigh:

Reply 73

llacerta

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by The_Lonely_Goatherd

True. I just get very negative very easily :redface:

Very paranoid too :sigh:

I totally understand that paranoia, TLG. I keep thinking that my supervisors are judging me or think that I'm not doing a very good job of the whole PhD thing...And yet they're both so nice and supportive that, like you said, it almost makes things worse! Perhaps it will take a while but if our supervisors keep being nice and supportive, maybe we'll eventually realise that we're doing just fine and they're not judging us and IT'S ALL OKAY. :tongue:

Haha. Like Slowbro said, if there were an actual problem then they'd tell us, right? :smile:

Reply 74

The_Lonely_Goatherd

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by llacerta

I totally understand that paranoia, TLG. I keep thinking that my supervisors are judging me or think that I'm not doing a very good job of the whole PhD thing...And yet they're both so nice and supportive that, like you said, it almost makes things worse! Perhaps it will take a while but if our supervisors keep being nice and supportive, maybe we'll eventually realise that we're doing just fine and they're not judging us and IT'S ALL OKAY. :tongue: