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A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Amateur Concert Filming for YouTube: recalibrating the live music experience in an age of amateur reproduction Steven Colburn PhD University of Sussex 2013 Statement I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature:……………………………………… Steven Colburn University of Sussex Steven Colburn – PhD Media and Cultural Studies Amateur Concert Filming for YouTube: recalibrating the live music experience in an age of amateur reproduction Summary This thesis explores the recent phenomenon of music concert goers filming these concerts and uploading the footage to YouTube. This contemporary practice poses several questions of the nature of contemporary music culture. The status of the concert as live event is problematised by this mediation of the experience. The videos create producers of fans and allow these fans to make a substantive contribution to music culture as authors of music texts consumed through a major distribution network. The fact that these fans are not paid for their efforts begs the question as to what they gain from this enterprise; particularly as it serves as a distraction for filmers from the immersive concert experience. This thesis will use the work of Walter Benjamin on the ‘aura’ as a yardstick against which to judge current attitudes amongst music fans as to the status of live music alongside other ways of experiencing music. The thesis will also offer a contemporary reappraisal of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘cultural capital’ that accounts for the recognition that filmers receive from other music fans for their efforts in filming concerts. Concerts are restricted spaces in which music is simultaneously produced and consumed. Broadcasting videos of these events on YouTube provides recognition for filmers both for having attended and managed to capture footage to be shared with those unable to attend for various reasons. Filmers are not paid for their efforts and so this recognition serves as a form of cultural capital in lieu of financial reward. The thesis is based upon interviews with a global sample of music fans who either film concerts or watch these films on YouTube. For Claire Table of contents Pages: 1. Introduction 1 – 26 Locating live music within the sphere of cultural studies 2 – 5 Live music as text and event 6 – 8 Digital media, YouTube and participation 8 – 13 Bourdieu, ‘habitus’ and ‘cultural capital’ 13 – 14 Walter Benjamin: technology, art and ‘aura’ 15 – 19 Embodying and articulating authenticity 19 – 21 For and against recognition 21 – 23 Lexicon for the project 23 – 24 Structure of the thesis 24 – 26 2. Methodology 27 – 45 Literature review 27 – 29 The development of the project 29 – 34 Pilot study: identifying lines of inquiry 34 – 43 The legacy of the pilot study 43 – 44 Conclusions 44 - 45 3. Filming Concerts: negotiating spaces through the lens of a camera 46 – 71 Music, space and place 46 – 48 The pleasures of going to concerts 48 – 52 ‘Furtive filmers’ 52 – 55 ‘Determined filmers’ 55 – 58 ‘Pragmatic filmers’ 58 – 60 ‘Surrogate filmers’ 60 – 61 ‘The secret filmer’: a case study 61 – 65 Enjoy the concert and do not film 65 – 67 Making concerts last beyond the encore 67 – 70 Conclusions 70 – 71 4. Broadcasting Yourself 72 – 95 How do filmers present footage on YouTube? 72 – 87 Complete songs 72 – 75 Snippets of songs 75 – 78 Edited footage 78 – 80 Unedited footage 80 – 82 Quality control 83 – 85 No quality control 85 – 87 Why put the footage on YouTube? 87 – 93 Reaching (global) audiences 87 – 90 Closed communities of friends 90 – 91 Archiving 91 – 92 Journal 92 – 93 Conclusions 94 – 95 5. Different Music Texts and the Nature of Music Reproduction 96 – 120 Recording concerts from the mixing desk 97 – 100 The live concert 100 – 102 Amateur live video 102 – 105 High quality live video 105 – 107 Studio recording 107 – 109 A paradigm of authenticity 109 – 116 First notion of authenticity: Raw 110 – 111 Second notion of authenticity: Professional 111 – 114 Third notion of authenticity: Unique 114 – 116 Walter Benjamin’s notion of authenticity 116 – 118 Conclusions 119 –120 6. Taste and Recognition: an economy of YouTube 121 – 139 Filming and learning 122 – 129 Seeker of recognition 129 – 132 Tastemaker 132 – 134 Collaborator 134 – 135 Being an archivist 136 – 137 Conclusions: an economy of YouTube 137 – 139 7. Different Ways of Consuming Music 140 – 152 Experiencing the concert through YouTube 140 – 147 Listening in private 147 – 147 Background listening 147 – 148 Private listening in public 149 – 150 Conclusions: calibrating the different ways of consuming music 150 – 152 8. Conclusions 153 – 163 Being at a concert 153 – 155 The specific case of live music on YouTube 155 – 157 The authenticity of live music 157 – 159 Instances of recognition in this project 159 – 160 Cultural capital as a metric of YouTube participation 160 – 162 Opportunities for further research 162 – 163 Bibliography 164 – 171 Appendices 172 – 173 1 Chapter one – Introduction My motivation? Genuinely, it is altruism. I share them with other fans. However, it is altruism tempered by a need for regard. I do these things, people thank me; either it's a recollection for them or a peek into something they couldn't attend. If people thank me, they are grateful. Others notice it, others give me respect. Respect heightens my profile and can lead to popularity and it happens time after time on sites I use; not just video clips but photos too, and not just of concerts. Patrick1 Patrick is in his thirties, from Guildford in Surrey, and he films concerts. He attends these concerts as a paying audience member and then chooses to film portions of the concert with his digital camera. I interviewed him as part of a research project exploring the impact of concert filming on music culture. Developments in digital media technologies have enabled concert goers to capture portions of the concerts they attend using portable video recorders or other media devices that incorporate this functionality. These concert goers are then able to upload these videos to video sharing websites such as YouTube and broadcast to an audience that is, in theory, global. The thesis will concentrate on two implications of this cultural phenomenon: the current status of the live event and the cultural economics of user / fan generated content. In other words, how the ability to film has changed the concert experience and how the ability to broadcast these films has created new roles for fans / audiences to perform in music culture. A live concert is a space and a time in which music is simultaneously produced and consumed. Fans who choose to place a camera between themselves and the concert are, therefore, making a statement about their cultural sensibilities. This thesis will investigate the relationship between these filmed digital memories and the ‘authentic’ experiences of being at a concert. These two phenomena will be explored with reference to Walter Benjamin’s (1991) notion of the ‘aura’; a theory that persuasively argues for the authenticity of original works of art. Benjamin’s ideas were inspired by an era of cultural production that has been superseded by the digitization of popular culture and so are ripe for reconsideration. Consequently, the thesis will explore the notion that many media consumers have become subsumed by media representations; to the extent that live cultural productions are too disorganised and lacking in coherent narratives to be particularly enjoyable. This aspect of the thesis is concerned with exploring the authenticity of live music but also reflecting on how this authenticity is articulated by music fans / consumers in relation to Benjamin’s envisioning of authenticity. 1 Research participants have all been given pseudonyms. 2 Concerts by their nature are scarce events that can only be accessed by a finite number of people. Broadcasting concert videos on YouTube or a similar website is a case of amateurs (the filmers) providing professional content (the music / musicians). This poses the question as to what motivates concert goers to withdraw themselves from this experience through filming and also providing access to a larger public who were unable to be there in person. The thesis will also explore the levels of professionalism in both the sound and visual quality of their output that amateur filmers aspire to. Above all, to consider this act of filming as potentially a form of recognition seeking in the sense of broadcasting evidence of attendance at concerts and also filming these concerts at a standard that makes the videos valuable music performance texts to other fans. This is a form of recognition unlike the explicitly political use of the term by Axel Honneth (1995, 2003) and other post Marxist theorists. It is argued in this thesis to be the repositioning of fans as cultural intermediaries and actors within limited spheres of music culture. Recognition in this sense is better understood as a facet of cultural capital; a concept introduced by Pierre Bourdieu (1984) and subsequently refined and redefined as befitting ongoing cultural developments. In the mid 1990s academics such as Sarah Thornton (1995) and Ben Malbon (1998, 1999) offered ‘subcultural capital’ as a refraction of Bourdieu’s concept that better encapsulated the more fragmented and obscure nature of cutting edge popular culture at that time.

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