4-String, 6-String, Red Amp, Blue Bass: My Experiences at Martin Music

Abstract

Next to the piano/keyboard, the guitar is the most commonly played musical instrument, nearly omnipresent in all popular music. I play it myself, and I bet at least a couple of people reading this abstract do too! But for all the attention given to the guitar itself, there is a comparative lack of it given to the stores which sell them and the cultures therein. I focused on one such store, Martin Music, located on Poplar Street in Memphis, Tennessee. For four months, I spent an hour and a half a week there, over time acquainting myself with the many employees, patrons, amps, pedals, ukuleles, and, of course, guitars, quite well. I learned that the people there express an inordinate amount of passion for music, inviting anyone to come in, talk and play, let alone buy anything. Through participant research and numerous conversations, my ethnography, a report on my experiences, draws upon my conversations and interviews regarding music and guitars as hobby, art, and lifestyle with customers and employees alike.