Pop music isn’t pop science for PhD student

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Athena_Elafros.jpg” caption=”Athena Elafros is a PhD student in sociology. Photo by Susan Bubak.”]For Athena Elafros, research is music to her ears. The PhD student in sociology turned her lifelong love of music into a research project that will examine the ways in which values and social differences such as race, class, gender and sexuality are performed, represented
and consumed within urban music and alternative rock.

Her SSHRC-funded research, under the supervision of Graham Knight, chair of the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia, will involve interviewing producers and musicians about their experiences in the music industry as well as concert goers.

“I am focusing on the relationships between values, musical genres and social differences, specifically gender differences, in the production, product and reception of popular music in Canada,” says Elafros.

Her love of music began in childhood. Her father was an avid record collector, and she grew up listening to Greek music. One of her favourite types of music is rebetika, which she describes as “Greek blues.”

“Music has a familial connection for me,” says Elafros.

She translated her passion for music into a job, and worked in record retail for five years as an undergraduate student. At Queen's University, she focused her master's thesis on the lyrics of rap musicians from the late '80s and early '90s, such as Public Enemy and Queen Latifah.

While some may view music, movies and television as nothing more than recreational activities, Elafros sees them as learning opportunities.

“When I teach, I try to give pop culture examples to reach the students,” she says.

For example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer may not seem like an educational program, but Elafros says that it contains references to gender and sexuality that students can identify with.