by Lance Westrick
Rachel Hopkin
U.S. Folk Experience
Spring 2017
Autumn 2019

For my project, I’ve researched the do-it-yourself, or DIY, music scene in Columbus,  Ohio. I decided on this group for a few reasons, primarily because I am an insider to the group  but also because I wanted to get a deeper understanding of something I already considered  myself a part of and hear perspectives of others in the community. I found the research to be  fulfilling, and indeed gave me a better perspective of the group which I’m happy to have  received.

As far as the do-it-yourself group is concerned, it is comprised of local musicians and  people who go to shows, and the group tries to differentiate itself from mainstream music culture  in a few distinct ways. The majority of shows considered DIY are held in houses, often in a  living room for acoustic acts or a basement if it’s a full band, but if neither of these options are  available performers will play wherever is possible. Occasionally organizers in the community  will book shows at bars that consist of local acts and often a touring band or two, but shows are  predominantly held in houses. Bands that play in the scene aren’t primarily concerned with  making money from playing, as shows rarely have a cover charge and when a touring band plays  money is collected for them on a donation basis. Specifically in the Columbus scene, a large  emphasis is placed on making the DIY community inclusive and accessible for marginalized  groups. Adding all of these elements together allows members of the group to feel a sense of  community in knowing that they’re involved in something that is specific to the area and fairly  active. The purpose of this paper and the project then, is to analyze individual aspects involved in  forming this community.

Before talking about my research, I feel it necessary to talk about my relation to the  community. I first got involved in the Columbus DIY scene three years ago when I drove from  my hometown with a friend to see an artist that was playing a show at a house that is still active  today. Since coming to Columbus at the beginning of the school year, I’ve been going to shows  regularly throughout the year and most of the people I’ve met in the city have been through the  DIY scene. I’m also part of a band that plays predominantly in the scene. While I attended shows  that spanned a variety of genres for my research, personally I’m most fond of punk music and  was more eager to go to those shows. In the same vein, the people in the community I’m closest  with are also punk fans and therefore all of my interviewees for the project would fall under the  punk category.

An initial question one may have when first learning about the scene is exactly how does  someone find out about the community and become active in it? This was a question I brought  up in my interviews, and all of my interviewees recalled that they became familiar with the  group through word of mouth and making connections to those already active in it. As one of my  informants stated, “I was the only person that, I don’t know, looked like I did in my area? And  somebody else took an interest in that and was like ‘hey, you look like you go to shows’! And I  said ‘I don’t, but I’d like to’. They said ‘I don’t know about any shows either, but I want to, and I  figured you do, so we’re gonna look for as much as we can’! From there it was mostly word of  mouth, I’d never seen a flyer. It was ‘Hey, are you coming to the show’? ‘No, how’d you hear  about it’? ‘oh, a friend told me’.” Once a person is familiar with the community, the most  popular ways of hearing about shows are still through word of mouth but also through the  community’s Facebook group. The Facebook group, which as of the time of writing has slightly  over 1,800 members, is a closed group that requires a moderator of the page to accept someone’srequest to join. Once accepted into the page, it acts as a space for organizers to seek out bands to  play dates as well as promote upcoming shows, bands both local and touring to search for  locations and times to play, and general music related discussions such as recommendations for  local bands of certain genres or bands with members that fit certain categories such as all female  bands or bands with LGBT members. Combining all these elements together reinforces the  feeling of a community to members of the group, as membership is exclusive to a degree and  dependent on knowing others in the community and having connections to them.

As mentioned before, inclusivity plays a large role in the Columbus scene. An example of  this is the display of Afropunk related values at houses and running shows by Afropunk ethics.  Afropunk is a movement that began with a documentary showing the experience of black punks  in DIY punk scenes, and has evolved into an ideology that promotes the acceptance and  inclusion of specifically black performers and artists, but advocates for any and all people who  don’t fit the category of straight white cisgendered¹ men that is dominant in music scenes. The  core beliefs of Afropunk are no sexism, no racism, no ableism, no ageism, no homophobia, no  fatphobia, no transphobia, and no hatefulness. In an attempt to be more inclusive some venues in  Columbus follow these rules, but as is to be expected with issues as sensitive as the ones  described some conflict does occur.

During an interview with a member of the scene who is gender non-binary, I asked their  opinion on if the scene felt as welcoming to them as other members of the scene claim it to be or  at least try to strive for. In response, they said “You can say welcoming and inclusive all you  want, but what really throws me off most of the time is when I’m at a show and I look around

The Afropunk values that some venues operate under, here shown painted onto a living room wall of a venue.

and I think ‘these are pretty much all straight white guys’”. They later on added that that will be  the norm in almost any music scene and was to some extent unavoidable, but did also mention  venues in Columbus that do go the extra mile to book a show of all queer bands or search out  bands that have members who are people of color. My other informants, one woman and another  non-binary person, expressed that they felt welcome in the community and believed it did a good  job at being accepting.

The independent music scene in Columbus and the community it tries to build is a good  location to apply the theory of co-culture, which can be used to analyze how already  marginalized people, such as people who are LGBT or African-American, exist and interact  inside of groups which already occupy a fringe portion of society, such as punk music scenes.  Due to their fringe status members often make attempts or at the least claim to make attempts to  create inclusive spaces and communities, but as mentioned before with music scenes the  predominant members are straight white males. As Rubén Ramírez-Sánchez notes in his paper  on the experiences of African-Americans in punk communities, it’s harder for a minority person  to feel a sense of belonging to a group when that person is poorly represented in the group or  perhaps not represented at all (Ramírez-Sánchez, 96). The same sentiment of feeling  underrepresented was brought up by my interviewees, as well as by others I’ve talked to in the  past. While it could seem to some that this detracts from a sense of community as white males  are the majority of members in the community, I would argue that Columbus to an extent  recognizes the problem and tries to address it.

When a show organizer or a person that lives in a house venue is simultaneously LGBT  or a minority race or any other minority category, as many organizers in Columbus are, it’s all  but impossible for them to ignore the marginalized space they occupy in the scene. Because ofthis, venues in Columbus go out of their way to book shows that feature artists who don’t fit the  straight white guy category. As I discussed earlier, the Facebook page for the DIY community is  frequently utilized by show organizers to book shows that include artists of different  intersections and backgrounds. Because of this commitment to inclusion and representation, the  scene feels more welcoming to marginalized members of society and allows them to feel more  comfortable.

Another aspect of the DIY community that builds a sense of insider status is that of  clothing and accessories of certain members. This can include aspects present in typical music  culture such as an increased amount of people wearing tee-shirts of popular bands at shows, but  this can take on a different role when regarding the DIY scene. In my research at shows, I found  that merchandise such as tee-shirts or stickers of local bands, as well as merchandise bought  from a show that was held at a DIY venue, was a popular conversation starter between attendees  or performers at a show. Strangers would often engage conversation over one party’s shirt,  noting that they’re friends with a member in band if it was a local band or that they were also at  the show where the shirt was purchased and would talk about their experiences at it. Wearing the  merchandise of local artists and bands that have performed at local venues not only acts as a way  to gauge someone else’s taste in music and potentially bond over that, but also functions as a  way of showing one’s insider status in the group. Displaying this insider status gives others who  are also a part of the group a reason to approach someone and make conversation about local  music.

Another common clothing practice is that of buying patches, either from bands in person  or buying patches of popular bands online, and sewing them onto pants and jackets. It should be  noted that this activity is predominantly practiced by members who are mostly into punk rock, asthe activity originated in that area and is still prevalent there. While this practice is not specific to  the Columbus music scene, like with tee-shirts of local bands having local patches both shows  one’s insider status in the community as well as displays bands one enjoys. Beyond supporting  local musicians, putting patches on clothing very literally exhibits the “do it yourself” ethic the  community is named for. While patches can be applied purely for aesthetic reasons, often times  they’re hand-sewn onto existing rips and holes in clothing to extend their use.

When doing my research on secondary sources for my project, I read an article that made  me consider to what degree the Columbus DIY music scene was a community as opposed to a  group of people with common interests. The article in question was Longing for Community by  Burt Feintuch, a respected and accomplished folklorist who has wrote a litany of pieces on  musical ethnography. In his article, Feintuch criticizes folklorists for being too liberal with their  use of the word community, and without fully considering what the word implies. Feintuch  explains that in his mind, “community [is] more than what happens in one, occasional sphere of  interaction. To be in community is to participate in a web of connectedness to others that  continues beyond special events” (Feintuch, 149). This caused me some distress as I considered  if I had been using the word community too loosely regarding my project. But after further  considering the subject, I believe Feintuch’s view of what constitutes community is a bit too  restrictive and that to me, the Columbus DIY scene is worthy of being called a community.

Some of the main reasons that I came to this conclusion are the fact that members of the  group invest so much effort in making the space inclusive, and because relationships between  members go beyond just interacting at shows. To me, the fact that members in the community go  to such lengths to make sure that the environment is as welcoming as can be attests to their  attitudes of wanting to make the scene feel like a community to all members. Organizers andparticipants care about the experiences of others in the group and want to provide the safe space  that the scene claims to be. Along with this, interactions between insiders don’t happen  exclusively at shows. After becoming seeing another person at a show frequently enough or  becoming familiar with someone in the group, many people will add each other on Facebook to  stay connected and up to date on each other’s lives. In doing this the relationship between  members changes from strictly interacting at shows to being kept more or less up to date with  their life, and it allows genuine friendships to emerge independent of music or venues.

As shown in this paper and as I’ve become more aware of in doing this research, the  Columbus DIY music community is a complicated but interesting subject. In setting itself apart  from mainstream music culture, it allows for unique practices and ways of operating that could  only function on a small scale. But the most important thing the scene offers to its members is a  sense of belonging to a group that reaches beyond music and is incorporated into other facets of  life. Through the cooperation of all of its participants, it allows something as broad and all-  encompassing as music culture to feel locally defined and communal to its members.

1. Cisgendered is the terminology used to refer to people who identify as the sex they were assigned at birth, opposed to  transgendered and gender non-binary people

Works Cited

Ramírez-Sánchez, Rubén. “Marginalization from Within: Expanding Co-Cultural Theory  through the Experience of the Afro Punk.” Howard Journal of Communications, vol. 19, no. 2,  Apr-Jun 2008, pp. 89-104. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10646170801990896

Feintuch, Burt. “Longing for Community.” Western Folklore, vol. 60, no. 2/3, 2001, pp.  149–161., www.jstor.org/stable/1500374.