Blurb:

This chapter presents the perspectives of four participants on the northern soul scene followed by academic analyses from three academic approaches. Following the editorial position of the whole book, as academic authors of this chapter we seek to let participants on the scene speak “for themselves”, while at the same time offering up distinct academic analyses of what they say and do. This is not because as academics we think the voices cannot be understood in their own terms, but because we want to place the talk of scene participants side-by-side with the sorts of analyses usually undertaken by academics. In doing so, we want to show how the experience of “being there” can be framed to draw out what such experience offers to those outside the scene who study popular music cultures more generally.