UNDERSTANDING MUSICKING ON SOCIAL MEDIA: MUSIC SHARING, SOCIALITY AND CITIZENSHIP Raquel Campos Valverde http://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-3712-6152 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of London South Bank University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy This research programme was carried out with an ACI Doctoral Scholarship March 2019 ii Abstract Based on online and offline ethnographic fieldwork among the Spanish community in London, this thesis investigates why people circulate and share music on social media platforms, particularly within a context of migration. Written from the perspective of an insider-outsider, it combines research data from ethnographic participant observation and interviews to understand how music media circulates online, studying the different roles it fulfils within these contexts as different forms of musicking. The thesis responds to these questions by addressing six areas. Chapter 1 explores the uses of music to perform and articulate cultural and gender identity on social media profiles. Chapter 2 investigates how music sharing and compiling can be used to maintain relationships and social capital and to participate in transnational sociality. Chapter 3 addresses how the circulation of music parody as citizen engagement in contexts of political conflict such as the Brexit and Catalonian referendums gives rise to temporary political alliances in the form of citizen assemblages. Chapter 4 considers the circulation of music on social media from the perspective of fandom and how it is influenced by post-object ephemeral and reflexive practices. Chapter 5 analyses how the ubiquitous and imagined character of online music media fosters its circulation as a silent and visual element of online sociality, effectively generating practices of imagined listening. Chapter 6 examines ritualistic practices of music exchange on social media and their relationship with emerging moral economies of music circulation as foundational elements of online sociality and citizenship. I conclude by arguing that, in circulating music online through their social media and streaming profiles, users develop new forms of (im)material culture-making. Online musicking enables new ways of being in the world, turning the intangible, time-bound aural and visual experience of online music into something that has a materialised impact in the social lives of users. Through the circulation of music online users form, dissolve and inhabit temporary music-based alliances and expand their social worlds. iii Acknowledgements This thesis is the result of a collective effort, and my sincerest thanks go to all that have contributed in making this research project possible. Since the very beginning when I first started thinking about this PhD research during my Masters’ degree, I was encouraged and supported by Keith Howard and Somnath Batabyal to pursue a career researching music and the internet. I am fortunate to still have their guidance and mentorship. Sincerest thanks go to my PhD supervisor Hillegonda Rietveld for her guidance throughout these three years, as well as to Phil Hammond and Lizzie Jackson for their feedback. Many thanks are also owed to academic colleagues Shzr Ee Tan, Luis-Manuel Garcia, Simon Weaver, Tiziano Bonini, Ioannis Tsioulakis, Matt Hills and Chris Charles for their help during the writing process. I am indebted to those who participated in this study, whose insights form the core of this thesis. Conversations with Anabel and Cynthia, Daniel, Diana, Elisa, Jasmin, Fernando and Teresa, Javier, Jose, Rose, Sandra, Sue and Veronica made this thesis possible. Their patience and openness were crucial to this project, and I feel privileged to have been able to enter their public and private lives online and offline. I also appreciate the contributions of all of those who allowed me to observe them on social media such as Ramon and Luisa, and of those who I interviewed but I did not include in the final manuscript. Special thanks go to musicians, promoters and other people in the music scene that I cannot name but who contributed to help me understand what being a Spanish migrant in London means. I also want to acknowledge all those who contributed greatly to the success of the survey by circulating it within their networks, such as Maddalena Di Rosa, David Carril Castiñeira and Gonzalo Campos, and to all who responded. Before and during the PhD I have been surrounded and helped by many excellent friends. Scholarly and moral support came from my LSBU PhD colleagues Ioanna Zouli, Gaia Tedone, Zeta Kolokytopoulou, Nicolas Maleve, Lozana Mehandzhiyska, Nicola Baird and Carolyn Defrin. Special thanks go to my friends Deirdre Morgan and Robert Barnes for their PhD survival guidance over long phone calls and chat conversations, and other academic colleagues Rafael Caro Repetto, Alex Cannon, Carlos Yoder, Katia Chornik and Daniel Gouly, who inspired me with their intellect and passion for music. The seeds for this project began iv germinating over email conversations with Agustin Frizzera, who I thank for his enthusiastic support of the project. I also thank Anna De Mutiis, who always reminded me that there is life outside of the PhD. I am forever indebted to my parents, who taught me the value of the education that they could not have and kept me in school until I could fund myself. I also thank Stefano Scarano, who was there before the start of this PhD and is still there nearly four years after, giving me unconditional moral support (especially when editing images drove me to despair) and making delicious dinners every evening. Finally, I acknowledge the generous support of the School of Arts and Creative Industries Doctoral Scholarship, which made this research project possible. I also thank the British Forum for Ethnomusicology and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music for funding that has enabled me to present my research in conferences in the UK and internationally. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Table of contents vi List of figures x 0. Introduction 1 0.1 Research Topic and Rationale 1 0.1.1 Research Topic 1 0.1.2 Conceptual Framework 2 0.1.3 Rationale 8 0.1.4 Thesis Outline 10 0.2 Literature Review 13 0.3 Research Design and Methodology 30 0.3.1 Fieldwork Stages and Data Collection 31 0.3.2 Population 36 0.3.2a Legal Context 37 0.3.2b Demographic Context 37 0.3.2c Research Sample 39 0.3.3 Survey Results 43 0.3.4 Ethics and Reflexivity 45 Chapter 1 – Performing Identity 48 1.1 Introduction 48 1.2 National and Regional Identity 51 1.2.1 Context 51 1.2.2 Identities and Political Affect 55 1.2.3 Social Media Musicking and Identity 59 1.2.4 Beyond Cultural Identity 66 1.3 Gender and Sexuality 68 1.3.1 LGBTQ and non-Normative Performativity 68 1.3.2 Heteronormative Performativity 71 1.3.3 Gender Performance as Culture Production 73 1.4 Case Study: Reggaetón and Identity Performance 73 1.4.1 Reggaetón and Social Media Musicking 81 1.5 Conclusion 85 vi Chapter 2 – Relationships and Social capital 87 2.1 Introduction 87 2.1.1 Context 91 2.2 Genre, Identity and Authenticity 94 2.2.1 Identity, Authenticity and Genre Performance 94 2.2.2 Genre Canon and Authenticity 95 2.2.3 Playlists in Belonging and Canon Performance 98 2.2.4 Privacy and Authentic Identities 100 2.3 Genre, Social Capital and Distinction 102 2.3.1 Distinction and Group Boundaries 103 2.4 Relationships, Genre and Cultural Nodes 108 2.4.1 The informal DJ 108 2.4.2 The Informal Archivist: Hashtags as Index Cards 111 2.4.3 The Musical Family Guardian 113 2.4.4 Musicking Nodes and Relationships 114 2.4.5 Locality, Migration and Polymedia Privacy 116 2.5 Towards a Post-Bordieuan Perspective on Social Media Musicking 117 2.6 Conclusion 120 Chapter 3 – Politics and Comedy 122 3.1 Introduction 122 3.1.1 Media, Comedy and Music Practices 123 3.1.2 Legal Context 125 3.1.3 Music, Politics, and Comedy Assemblages 129 3.2 Case Studies 133 3.2.1 Musical Satire and the Brexit Referendum 134 3.2.2 Musical Satire and the Catalonian Referendum 140 3.3 Discussion 145 3.3.1 Engagement and Musical Politics in Context 145 3.3.2 Coping Strategies and Online Citizenship 149 3.4 Conclusion 153 vii Chapter 4 – Post-Social Media Music Fandom 156 4.1 Introduction 156 4.1.1 Context 156 4.2 Fandom and Performativity 158 4.3 Fan Agency and Online Communities 160 4.4 Fan Reflexivity and Solidary Fandom 163 4.5 Algorithmic Fandom 166 4.6 Temporary Fandom 170 4.7 The Unlistened Playlists 175 4.8 Post-Object Music Fandoms 176 4.9 Conclusion 180 Chapter 5 – Imagined Audiences and Imagined Listening 182 5.1 Introduction 182 5.2 Social Media Audiences 183 5.3 Imagined Audiences 185 5.4 Mediatised Liveness 188 5.5 Ubiquitous Music and Imagined Listening 191 5.6 Excessive Ubiquity and Silent Music Commodities 195 5.7 Reflexive Abundance: Music as Visual Object 197 5.8 Conclusion 203 Chapter 6 – Musicking Rituals and the Moral Economies of Music Circulation 205 6.1 Introduction 205 6.1.2 Music, Social Media and Rituals 207 6.2 Music and Media Rituals on Social Media 208 6.2.1 Visual Context 208 6.2.2 Music as Meme 212 6.2.3 Mourning Rituals 218 6.2.4 Music Games and Ritual 222 6.2.5 Online – Offline Hybrid Music Rituals 226 6.3 Meta-Rituals in Social Media Musicking 230 6.4 The Moral Economies of Music Circulation 233 6.4.1 Critical Perspectives on Moral Economies and Ritualised Algocracies 236 6.5 Conclusion 239 viii 7.