Popular Music, Technology, and the Changing Media Ecosystem from Cassettes to Stream
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POP MUSIC, CULTURE AND IDENTITY Popular Music, Technology, and the Changing Media Ecosystem From Cassettes to Stream Edited by Tamas Tofalvy · Emília Barna Pop Music, Culture and Identity Series Editors Steve Clark Graduate School Humanities and Sociology University of Tokyo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan Tristanne Connolly Department of English St Jerome’s University Waterloo, ON, Canada Jason Whittaker School of English & Journalism University of Lincoln Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK Pop music lasts. A form all too often assumed to be transient, commer- cial and mass-cultural has proved itself durable, tenacious and continually evolving. As such, it has become a crucial component in defining various forms of identity (individual and collective) as influenced by nation, class, gender and historical period. Pop Music, Culture and Identity investigates how this enhanced status shapes the iconography of celebrity, provides an ever-expanding archive for generational memory and accelerates the impact of new technologies on performing, packaging and global market- ing. The series gives particular emphasis to interdisciplinary approaches that go beyond musicology and seeks to validate the informed testimony of the fan alongside academic methodologies. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14537 Tamas Tofalvy · Emília Barna Editors Popular Music, Technology, and the Changing Media Ecosystem From Cassettes to Stream Editors Tamas Tofalvy Emília Barna Department of Sociology and Department of Sociology and Communication Communication Budapest University of Technology Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Economics Budapest, Hungary Budapest, Hungary Pop Music, Culture and Identity ISBN 978-3-030-44658-1 ISBN 978-3-030-44659-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44659-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa- tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Anton Dos Ventos/Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Praise for Popular Music, Technology, and the Changing Media Ecosystem “Popular music and technology have always been intertwined and co- constituted. With the emergence of digitalization, the meetings of mu- sic and technology have changed, possibly diversified, but still stayed de- pendent on cultural contexts. Tofalvy and Barna have edited a collection that clearly displays these diversified practices of digital music cultures. With examples from different countries, genres and musical communities, From Cassette to Stream is breaking new ground for a research area often focusing on Anglo-American examples and discussions.” —Ann Werner, Associate Professor of Gender Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden, co-author of Streaming Music (2017) “The post-Spotify world of streaming has failed to kill off the cassette tape. Today’s pop music is technologically embedded in an array of dif- ferent devices, platforms and media. This wide ranging book by a new generation of media scholars tracks a fascinating assortment of case stud- ies from China and Japan through to European underground scenes. It powerfully shows how this digital ecology, arises from the complex inter- action of different cultures, technologies and social groups.” —Trevor Pinch, The Goldwin Smith Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, author of Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer (2004) v vi PRAISE FOR POPULAR MUSIC, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE CHANGING … “This is a timely collection that provides much-needed guidance on how we should navigate the vexing thickets of music in a changing media land- scape. The pace of change afflicting music cultures–from taste formations to the dominance of streaming platforms, stylistic transformations to how we discover new music—is bewildering at best and unintelligible at worst. The essays here provide clear-headed thought on the ruptures, continu- ities and challenges facing contemporary music. The collection will not merely embellish existing debates on music and technological change, but set new agendas running on how we should come to terms with these changes without falling into reductionism, polemic or panic.” —Nick Prior, Professor of Cultural Sociology, University of Edinburgh, UK, author of Popular Music, Digital Technology, and Society (2018) “With an eclectic collection of chapters, this book provides a significant update on how music and (digital) technologies shape one another, by featuring numerous perspectives on the constant reconfiguration of music through the adoption of new technological affordances and the survival or revival of others. The editors Tamas Tofalvy and Emília Barna have compiled a very informative and influential book that will no doubt appeal to numerous readers interested in all things that have to do with music, cultures, materiality, and (digital) technologies.” —Dr. Raphaël Nowak, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research Contents 1 Continuity and Change in the Relationship Between Popular Music, Culture, and Technology: An Introduction 1 Tamas Tofalvy Part I Networks of Technology and Popular Music 2 Music Scenes as Infrastructures: From Live Venues to Algorithmic Data 23 Paolo Magaudda 3 From Music Scenes to Musicalized Networks: A Critical Perspective on Digitalization 43 Stéphane Costantini 4 Niche Underground: Media, Technology, and the Reproduction of Underground Cultural Capital 59 Tamas Tofalvy vii viii CONTENTS Part II Taste, Authenticity and Digital Media 5 The Relentless Rise of the Poptimist Omnivore: Taste, Symbolic Power, and the Digitization of the Music Industries 79 Emília Barna 6 Frictionless Platforms, Frictionless Music: The Utopia of Streaming in Music Industry Press Narratives 97 András Rónai 7 The Sex Playlist: How Race and Ethnicity Mediate Musically “Composed” Sexual Self-Formation 115 Samira van Bohemen, Julian Schaap, and Pauwke Berkers 8 Authenticity and Digital Popular Music Brands 129 Jessica Edlom Part III Materialities of Music Consumption 9 Listening to the Scrap: Contested Materialities of Music in 1990s China 149 Zhongwei Li 10 Obsolete Technology? The Significance of the Cassette Format in Twenty-First-Century Japan 165 Benjamin Düster Part IV Scenes and the Uses and Discourses of Social Media 11 “Do You Have a Moment to Talk About Vaporwave?” Technology, Memory, and Critique in the Writing on an Online Music Scene 185 Andrew Whelan CONTENTS ix 12 Discovering Music at Sofar Sounds: Surprise, Attachment, and the Fan–Artist Relationship 201 Loïc Riom 13 Delicate Balances: The Roles of Amateur Concert Videos in the Galician Underground Scene 217 Cibrán Tenreiro Uzal 14 Cassetteboy: Music, Social Media, and the Political Comedy Mash-up 233 James Williams Index 253 Notes on Contributors Emília Barna, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociol- ogy and Communication of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. She completed a Popular Music Studies Ph.D. pro- gram in 2011 at the University of Liverpool. Her main research interests include music scenes and technology; the music industries and digitiza- tion; popular music and gender; and cultural labor. Together with Tamás Tófalvy, she has co-edited the volume Made in Hungary: Studies in Pop- ular Music (Routledge, 2017). She is a member of the International As- sociation for the Study of Popular Music, and Working Group for Public Sociology “Helyzet.” Pauwke Berkers, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Sociology of Art and Culture at the Department of Arts and Culture Studies, Erasmus Uni- versity Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He has published widely on issues of ethnic/racial and gender inequality in arts and culture in, among oth- ers, Cultural Sociology, Gender & Society, Journal of Gender Studies, Metal Music Studies and Poetics. Stéphane Costantini, Ph.D. is Doctor in Communication Sciences and Associate Researcher at the University of Paris 13. His work, which relies on socio-economy of cultural and communication industries, focuses on the strategies of industrial players and the practices in the field of digital and collaborative web, and the uses of amateurs and professionals