Hi Jess, can you tell us what your PhD study was all about?

My PhD was about the online music community of synthwave, studying its genre formation, stylistic functions, and subcultural capital. I did a longitudinal ethnographic study of this community - which means immersing myself into the community over the course of several years. My study utilised mostly virtual ethnography but also included concert ethnographies. In short, I researched everything about synthwave - its people, its music, its values, its usage of online and offline spaces, etc.

Your research focused heavily on online music communities – what challenges did you face collecting data in this space, and what advice would you give to others exploring similar methods?

One challenge with virtual ethnography was that websites or blog posts would disappear overnight sometimes, so I had to take loads of screenshots and organise them all by date and platform etc! There was one odd upside to virtual ethnography though, in that when Covid-19 happened, my research was uninterrupted.

Generally, I would advise anyone doing virtual ethnography should account for disappearing online data, as well as ensuring that their knowledge of ethics is very very up to date, as the way it should be handled can vary from platform to platform and alongside nuances of (technically) public and private spaces.

I found two sources particularly helpful for this: Christine Hine’s ‘Ethnography for the Internet Embedded, Embodied and Everyday’* (2015) and Kozinet’s ‘Netnography: The Essential Guide to Qualitative Social Media Research’* (2019).

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You also brought your own songwriting into the research – how important was it to include that creative practice, and what challenges did it raise?

It was really important for me to engage with synthwave through songwriting and music production experimentation. It was also generally a huge benefit to the research to be a practitioner of synths and production myself, which supported not only the triangulation of data but also my credentials as a researcher in the community.

Everyone I interviewed or spoke to knew who I was (especially as the research progressed) and even if they didn’t, they could see I was invested in the genre on a personal level just from my Twitter account (or my website or my Apple Music etc). I also made a conscious choice (ethically speaking but also from a general methodological point of view) to make my identity as a researcher known right from the off - it was never a secret that I was researching synthwave. The study was always from an upfront perspective. In other words, I was an insider doing the research - a synth artist and music producer investigating synthwave.

What were your motivations for starting a PhD whilst teaching, and where do you hope your career in research and teaching will take you?

I was studying an elective on my MA degree (Popular Music and Culture), and I had chosen to study synthwave. When the elective ended, I was gutted to have finished my research on the genre and community, and I was telling my elective tutor Dr Steve Parker about it. He asked me if I had ever considered doing a PhD.

The cost of PhDs is high, especially when self-funded, but then Student Finance started doing loans for PhDs, so I was able to apply! This was back in 2018 and I have really enjoyed being a Senior Lecturer and researcher ever since. I have particularly enjoyed my research on feminism, genre theory and subcultural theory, and I am very passionate about the rights of women and LQBTQIA+ folk. As a woman in tech myself, I am very proud to support other female music producers - we are underrepresented in our field and it’s so important to shout about the amazing and creative work that we do!

What were some of the challenges of full-time teaching whilst studying for your PhD?

It definitely took a lot of discipline, and a lot of multi-tasking. Every week was jam-packed with dipping in and out of loads of different things (e.g. paid work - supply teacher work and guest lecturing, literature reviewing/reading, writing drafts, songwriting and producing etc). I do consider myself very organised but that skill is definitely necessary to balance a PhD alongside everything else in your life.

What support was available to you – through your supervisors or school community – to help you balance your teaching and research commitments?

My biggest supporter was Dr Tenley Martin, one of my supervisors. She always had kind and encouraging words, and her research area was so useful to support me with my own research. She also has a wicked sense of humour, and cheered me up a lot when I was bogged down in draft after draft! She has continued to be a wonderful bank of knowledge (and kindness!) as I have been converting my PhD into a book, called ‘Making Synthwave: How an online music community invented a genre’, (upcoming 2025).

What advice would you give to a colleague starting out on their PhD journey?

The best piece of advice I could give anyone about doing a PhD is to not think of it like a degree (e.g. an undergrad degree or MA degree), it’s much more like a temporary lifestyle. You’re constantly reading, reviewing, writing, drafting, and generally managing one big research project (the PhD!) mostly by yourself. You obviously have your supervisors but really you are the expert in your area and it’s your job to finish that final PhD thesis draft!

Based on your experience, what could LBU do more of to support colleagues who are also undertaking a PhD?

They do offer quite a few things (not all of which I took up) e.g. skills and training sessions, researcher meetups, writing sessions, etc. Many of these sessions were in person, and a lot of them were at Headingley Campus at the time. Somewhere between issues of time and physical distance I struggled to balance attending those sessions alongside my working hours. This is partially related to having done a self-funded PhD, as my student finance didn’t cover everything, and I had to work at least four days a week.

I think if more of those sessions had been online, I would have been able to juggle some of them into my week a little easier. Having said that, the first half of my PhD was pre-Covid, and online meetings or training online wasn’t as common as it is now. I did attend some sessions on different methodology types, and I found those helpful. Mostly, I appreciated talking to my colleagues who were also doing PhDs - it was so nice to talk to people who understood what it was like!

Find out more about Jess’s music and research on Link Tree.

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