Fieldwork Proposal

For my fieldwork project, I am going to interview buskers in downtown Asheville. I want to examine this community of musicians because I think that Asheville's busking scene is very interesting. It seems to me that it is almost like a subculture of people. I want to get to know these people's stories... what they did before they found themselves in Asheville and how they ended up there. I am going to speak to anyone I can find playing music downtown. If possible, I will try to interview a wide array of people, old and young, men and women, people who are playing different styles of music. I think it would be really cool to discover how some of their stories differ and what aspects of them are similar, if any. I want to ask them things like when they first started playing music, where they're from, if busking is their primary way of making money or if they just like to do it on the side, if they have ever busked in other cities and how their experience in Asheville compares to that. I am also really interested to know about the unspoken rules of the Asheville busking scene that spectators don't know about.

I am going to start my research the week after fall break, before it gets too cold and there probably will not be as many musicians around to talk to. I will try to go down on a Friday night and Saturday during the day. I will do this probably two or three times total, depending on how successful I am the first couple times. I hoping to interview five different musicians. I will aim to be done interviewing by mid November. I will be writing field notes, taking photos of performances and maybe recording some of the interviews as well if it's okay with the person I am interviewing. I will record videos of the musicians performing. As a result of the project, I hope to have a better understanding of street performers and a new appreciation for the art. I will submit an interview transcript and photos with my final report.