Alco‐pop? The Use of Popular Music in Glasgow Pubs

Abstract

In recent years popular music studies has witnessed a turn towards concentrating on music at a local level (Cloonan) and its use in what DeNora calls everyday life. In a separate, but overlapping, development there has been a growing interest in the night‐time economy. At an academic level this has included some interest in the role popular music plays in that economy (e.g. Bennett; Björnberg and Stockfelt) and at the UK governmental level it has included responses to “binge drinking” (Home Affairs Select Committee; Prime Minister's Strategy Unit; Scottish Executive) and to licensing.1 But there has been less attention paid to the role that music plays within a key part of that economy—pubs. In this article we examine the use of music in city centre pubs in Glasgow, Scotland. We include the role of music in attracting customers to pubs, the different types of clientele attracted, the relationship between music and alcohol sales, and the ways in which music can act as both a trigger for disorder and a means of preventing it. We develop a typology of uses of music and explore the implications for popular music studies.

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to Peter Doyle, Katie Hunter, Sarah Menzies, Tony McKee, and Steve Parkin (all University of Glasgow) for conducting the field observations of pubs described in this paper, and also to the eight anonymous interviewees from these pubs.

This research was funded by a grant from Greater Glasgow NHS Board. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the funding body.

Notes

1. In 2005 the UK parliament introduced new legislation to liberalize licensing regulations and, subject to certain conditions, to allow pubs to remain open longer. See <www.culture.gov.uk/alcohol_and_entertainment/ licensing_act_2003/default.htm>.

2. The UK alcohol industry's social responsibility “watchdog” the Portman Group's code of advertising practice states that (among other things) the “naming, packaging and promotional material pertaining to alcoholic drinks… should not in any direct or indirect way…suggest any association with sexual success” or “encourage…immoderate consumption such as binge drinking.”

3. In this context the term “cheesy” refers to songs of dubious musical merit (i.e. kitsch) that most listeners would prefer not to admit to liking (i.e. guilty pleasures), though with the lowering of inhibitions brought about with alcohol consumption this view changes. In practice many of the “cheesy classics” observed here were songs from movie soundtracks such as Grease, Dirty Dancing, or There's Something about Mary.

4. Celtic and Rangers are the main football clubs in Glasgow (and Scotland). The former is associated with a largely Catholic following, the latter with a Protestant one. To lower the potential for trouble, their home games are generally held on alternate weekends.

5. The term “on the pull” is used here to describe those visiting a pub in search of a casual sexual partner for the evening, the act of which is known as “pulling.” Premises where such activity is commonplace are described as “meat markets.”

6. It also seemed to work in deterring one of our observers from ever going back to the Railway—“the bloody music was a constant source of irritation for me and as such I doubt I would return through choice.”