New and Improved?: From Analog Vinyl records to DVS Technology MA Thesis New Media and Digital Culture – Graduate School of Humanities – University of Amsterdam Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 2 1. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Marshall McLuhan: Media as the extensions of man ............................................................ 4 1.2 Friedrich Kittler: New materialism and German media archaeology .................................... 8 1.3 Media Archaeology ............................................................................................................. 13 1.4 Cultural techniques .............................................................................................................. 17 1.5 Cultural and Subcultural Studies ......................................................................................... 20 2. Rewriting hip hop’s history ....................................................................................................... 24 3. Methodological Framework ...................................................................................................... 27 3.1 The Emergence of Digital Vinyl Systems and Mixvibes ‘Cross’ ........................................ 28 3.2 Software and Platform Analysis .......................................................................................... 32 3.3 Autoethnography ................................................................................................................. 33 3.4 Semi-structured Interviews .................................................................................................. 34 3.5 Approaching and Interviewing Hip Hop DJs ...................................................................... 36 4. Findings ..................................................................................................................................... 37 4.1 A Note to Remediation ........................................................................................................ 37 4.2 Getting into the Groove: The hardware components of ‘Cross’.......................................... 38 4.3 The ‘Cross’ User Interface .................................................................................................. 42 4.4 Interviews and Autoethnography ........................................................................................ 45 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 49 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 52 Mediagraphy .................................................................................................................................. 57 1 Introduction From its genesis, during the 1970s in the South Bronx, hip hop has not been only about music. In addition to its oral (MCing or Rapping) and aural (DJing/Turnatablism) incarnations, this heterogeneous artistic form is also defined by its physical (B-Boying or Breakdancing) and visual (Graffiti) manifestations. Despite the multiplicity in the elements that constitute hip hop culture, this thesis will focus on the influence the turntable has on it. Although the analog era of hip hop has been thoroughly analyzed, the effects of digital technologies have not yet been examined enough. Thus, the relevance of this thesis stems from the still unexamined influence digital technologies have on the art of hip hop DJing. The advent of digital technologies has been considered a controversial issue within the circles of hip hop DJs. On the one hand, many claim that DJ software is a convenient tool that renders hip hop DJing a more easy and accurate practice. On the other hand, people who started DJing in the analog era of hip hop have a more critical view on software considering it as a cheat, because beginners rely on it in order to bypass the fundamentals in the process of becoming a DJ. Hence, the research question of this thesis is the following: How have the turntable and its attendant cultural techniques historically shaped the aesthetic and cultural values of hip hop, and to what extent does the introduction of digital DJ technologies remediate and transform hip hop’s cultural heritage? By answering the research question, this thesis will contribute to the New Media field by demonstrating the impact software has on hip hop culture in general and DJing in particular. The innovative aspect of this thesis lies in the analysis of digital vinyl system technology, which has not yet been explored by scholars from both software and hip hop studies. In order to substantiate my argument, this procedure must be followed: The first chapter discusses the literature and theories relevant to the study of the turntable with the intention to examine the influence media have on the shaping of culture. Marshall McLuhan’s insights concerning the agency of a medium when it comes to create new environments, and bring changes into the ways in which we understand the world will be used to introduce the general theoretical framework of this thesis. In order to pay more attention to technological media and by extension the turntable, I will continue with the 2 theories and methodology developed by Friedrich Kittler, who is also considered as one of the originators of media archaeology. The purpose of using media archaeology is to explain how the past and the present can be encapsulated in a medium, and thus how software remediates its analog precedent. The theories and concepts mentioned above are characterized by technological determinism, and therefore deny any human agency in the shaping of cultures. In order to address this issue I will then introduce the concept of cultural techniques which attributes agency to the practices and process that enable and constitute cultures. Finally, the connection between the hip hop values and the turntable will be established through subcultural studies. In the second chapter I will briefly introduce the analog era of hip hop with the intention to provide an account about the birth and evolution of hip hop. As mentioned above this thesis will mainly focus on the digital era of hip hop. Thus, the third chapter introduces the methodical framework employed in this research. It will be consisted of my case study, and the three different methods employed to examine it; namely software/platform analysis, autoethnography, and semi-structured interviews. Software/platform analysis will be made on the level of the ‘interface’ which according to Bogost and Montfort (2009b) is situated “between the core of the program and the user” (146). While software analysis provides this thesis with objective data, autoethnography and interviews offer the subjective perspective of the users. The combination of autoethnography and interviews will also highlight the commonalities and differentiations between my self-experience and the participants. The findings of the empirical analysis will be discussed in the fourth chapter, and then I will conclude in the fifth. 3 1. Theoretical Framework In this chapter, my aim is to discuss the literature and theories relevant to the study of the turntable, for the purpose of understanding and analyzing the material technologies and techniques that shaped the aesthetic and cultural values of hip hop as a subculture. Here, I intend to offer a thorough explanation of the different theoretical concepts and debates that are essential to this study and that fit hip hop’s unique characteristics. This includes an outline of medium theory and its related concepts of media materialism and medium specificity based on the writings of Marshall McLuhan and Friedrich Kittler; an account of the the growing field of media archaeology; and an outline of the concept of cultural techniques. Finally this section contains an overview of cultural and subcultural theory. Taken together, this theoretical framework provides a fertile conceptual ground for – and a set of alternative perspectives on – the study of hip hop’s historical evolution, given that they enable a focus on its material techniques and technologies, as well as their remediation into new digital formats. 1.1 Marshall McLuhan: Media as the extensions of man Drawing inspiration from the work of his intellectual teacher and colleague at the University of Toronto, Harold Innis, and more precisely his explorations on the role of media in shaping the culture and development of civilizations, McLuhan formulated his communication theory, which can be summarized as ‘the training of perception’.1 This rather broad explanation, though, captures neither his significance in the field of media studies, nor his relevance to this thesis. What McLuhan is perhaps best-known for is his famous dictum ‘the medium is the message’ elaborated on in his book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, first published in 1964. As far as the “message” is concerned, McLuhan argues that it is “the change of scale or pace or pattern” that any medium or new technology “introduces into human affairs” (1994, 8). Here it is 1 See http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/biography/ 4 important to note that for McLuhan it is not the content or the way a medium