Abstract

This study is about resistance. More specifically, it is about resistance using music to empower. This ethnography looks at the processes of resistance in a local punk scene in Hawai'i between 1995 and 2003. The diverse socioeconomic environment of Hawai'i affected the processes of a local punk scene and its scene participants, creating three sub-scenes within the local scene: metal/hardcore, ska/punk, and indie. Scene members' uses of music and the meanings attached to the musics and styles were highly creative in developing different kinds of resistance to mainstream society. The different types of resistance could be categorized as: romantic (metal/hardcore), DIY (ska/punk), and sexually subversive (indie).

Resistances in the local scene involved distinction. This distinction, while integral to resistance by separating one's scene or sub-scene from others, also contributed to processes of intersecting oppressions. This double-edged sword of distinction was useful in understanding the dynamic of the local scene. In addition to distinction as being value-based (i.e., not neutral), hierarchies within sub-scenes emerged, creating conditions where various gender, class, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation were “rad” (i.e., hip and radical, respected) in some sub-scenes while devalued (i.e., uncool, weird, and second class) in others. Core participants were considered “rad” and were involved in the creative process of the scene, usually as band musicians.

Over a span of eight years, the Hawai'i local scene changed drastically with regards to how women participated in the scene. In 1995, there was no indie sub-scene. However, younger scene members' exposure to the music, style, and especially the punk- and feminist-ideas of the Riot Grrrl and indie movements on the mainland led to sexual resistance that led to more core participation of women in the Hawai'i local scene via the indie sub-scene. Women's sexual resistance was an especially significant development in this local scene, in which core scene participation was achieved through being in bands.