Social Modes of Listening: How Racial Identity and Music Shape Hook-up Culture and Erotic Capital at Same-Sex Colleges

Rhodd-Lee discusses how racial identity and music shape hook-up culture and erotic capital at same-sex colleges. He mentions "I first began researching music's relationship to queer nightlife scenes in 2017 while still a student at Wellesley. I conducted ethnographic research on the student bar, Punch's Alley - commonly known as "The Pub" - as part of a class project. The Pub functioned as a queer nightclub on Thursday nights - also known as "pub nights - and was an epicenter for queer hookup culture at Wellesley.™ I gathered ethnographic data from student interviews which highlighted the importance of music in mediating the social dynamics of queer hookup and party culture as well as who feels comfortable engaging in the hookup culture within such spaces.™ However, my search for scholarly material on this subject revealed that: 1) very little ethnographic musical scholarship exists on college-aged students: none of it looks at historically same-sex colleges; and 3} none exists on queer nightlife scenes on college campuses. While my initial findings demonstrated the important role music plays in mediating the social dynamics of queer hookup and party culture as well as who feels comfortable engaging in such spaces, they also raised additional questions about the roles racial identity and cultural background play in this context. The students of color I consulted expressed concerns about participating in predominantly white spaces, like The Pub, because they did not feel welcomed or safe. Unfortunately, this is a common problem for many students of color who attend predominantly white institutions (PWIs)."