Taking Flight: Creative Cultures and Beyond

Abstract

The extracts and image that head this chapter underpin our central arguments about how performative creativity and experimentation occurs through music cultures as ‘serious play’, as we have discussed and illustrated throughout this book. Photo 7.2 of a mural at the Pie Factory, deliberately juxtaposing the creative space of the music studio with a more mechanistic factory assembly line, draws our attention to the use of self-reflexive irony, humour and fun, typifying the ways young people approach their self-making through music.

There are times when I wish I could turn back the glass Take me back to the old times Things happen so fast… Life’s full of memories Dreams are my enemies. (Extract from ‘Smooth’, rap by Genuine Voices student)

It was August 2010 when I met him, and he was dealing with 2 huge open cases as a very heavy hitter in a gang (Blood). He’d been shot at, stabbed, and was coming to realize the unfairness of life, an issue he would later address in his rap.¹ … I once asked his caseworker if he had changed [after taking the Genuine Voices music program]. She said ‘Yes, big time! He’s no longer afraid to confront new challenges and is willing to try things outside of his comfort zone!’ (Juri, personal correspondence, 1 September 2010)