Deadhead Social Science: 'You Ain't Gonna Learn What You Don't Want to Know'

by Rebecca G. Adams (Editor), Robert Sardiello (Editor)

Overview

Deadhead Social Science is a collection of papers examining various aspects of the complex subculture surrounding the rock band, the Grateful Dead. Deadheads, as Grateful Dead fans are called, followed the band from venue to venue until the band announced their dissolution in December of 1995 and have continued to follow bands including various surviving members of the Grateful Dead since then. Deadhead Social Science addresses the questions: What is a Deadhead? How does a Deadhead identity evolve? Why would a person choose an identity that would be viewed negatively by a larger society? Why are Deadheads viewed negatively by the larger society? Is the Deadhead community a popular religion? How did a rock band develop a religious following? The book also examines the music, the role of vendors, and the reaction by "host" communities to the Grateful Dead and its following. One key theme in Deadhead Social Science is the interconnections among teaching, research, and personal interests written from a variety of social science disciplinary traditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759117174
Publisher:	AltaMira Press
Publication date:	05/30/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	300
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Rebecca G. Adams, PhD, Professor of Sociology and gerontologist in the School of Health and Social Sciences at University North Carolina Greensboro, has published 5 books and more than 70 scholarly articles and chapters, including more than 15 on Deadheads. She has taught about Deadheads on tour (1989), on campus, (2000s), and online (2019); presented at the SWPACA Grateful Dead Caucus, at other professional meetings, and to student audiences; written popular press articles about Deadheads, published a fictional piece situated on Dead tour, conducted audience research for Grateful Dead Productions, and narrated Deadheads an American Subculture (1990). She attended her first Dead show in 1970.

Robert Sardiello, MA, is adjunct professor of sociology at Nassau Community College and has published several scholarly pieces concerning Deadheads. He attended his first Dead show in 1977.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Chapter I: Introduction
Chapter 2 What Goes Around Comes Around: Collaborative Research and Learning
Chapter 3
Chapter II: Music
Chapter 4 The Grammar of the Grateful Dead
Chapter 5 Other People Play the Music: Improvisation as Social Interaction
Chapter 6
Chapter III: Spirituality
Chapter 7 The Deadhead Community: Popular Religion in Contemporary American Culture
Chapter 8 We Were Given this Dance: Music and Meaning in the Early Unlimited Devotional Family
Chapter 9
Chapter IV: Outside the Show
Chapter 10 Vending at Dead Shows: The Bizarre Bazaar
Chapter 11 Community Reaction to Deadhead Subculture
Chapter 12
Chapter V: Identity
Chapter 13 Becoming a Deadhead
Chapter 14 An Eriksonian Perspective on the Journey Through Deadhead Adulthood
Chapter 15 Self-Concept and Ego Extension Among Grateful Dead Fans
Chapter 16 Deadheads and Dichotomies: Mediated and Negotiated Readings
Chapter 17
Chapter VI: Conclusion
Chapter 18 Studying Deadhead Subculture

Editorial Reviews

Coeditor Adams (sociology, Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro) has compiled a dozen essays by undergraduate and graduate students who studied the Grateful Dead subculture of the 1980s and early 1990s with her. After outlining the Dead's history and subculture and the cooperative learning of her Deadhead social-science class, Adams offers a quantitative analysis of the songs the Dead played and the evolution of a Dead cover band. In an engaging section on spirituality, one student examines the Dead subculture as a secular religion, and another focuses on a communal, dervish-like group that incorporated Dead lyrics into their beliefs. Four essays describe the characteristics of the Dead subculture and examine various motivations for joining the Deadhead community. Though usually professing to be Deadheads, the authors over-intellectualize a band and fans who pride themselves on spontaneity and serendipity. They tend to shackle the free-minded Deadhead spirit with sociological theories that add little to an understanding of the Deadhead phenomenon. Not recommended.--Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal

Well-edited and clearly written...it should appeal to lay or academic audiences interested in subcultures, identity and those who would like to meld their teaching and research interests into that of teacher/scholar. As a whole, the books shows us how a subculture can lead to interest among students, how they can see the world through various lenses, and the richness that can result when students and teachers collaborate. It seems that rarely do researchers have a chance to match their research and leisure activities. In this instance, they have done both and produced scholarly results.

Contemporary Sociology - William F. Danaher

Research can be fun, fun can be research. Teachers can be students, students can be teachers. Adams and Sardiello prove that beyond doubting in this well-researched and interesting book.

Howard S. Becker

This book is a must read for those with a passion for teaching, for those who are truly engaged in their research and, perhaps most importantly, for those who can conceive of research and teaching as one in the same enterprise.

Qualitative Sociology - Vincent J. Rosigno

the book is a very well written and edited example of the value of encouraging students to pursue their own interests in their academic endeavors. There are likely areas of study—such as Deadhead subculture—that almost require the work of students, less constrained by academic career concerns than their professors, to get the ball rolling. The Grateful Dead were so loved by their fans in large part because the fans were an integral part of the ongoing musical and cultural exploration, and Adams and Sardiello demonstrate the fruits of applying the same collaborative spirit in an academic context.

Journal of Anthropological Research - Russell Cole