The Reasons for the Use of YouTube Among Musicians in India – Using Dependency Theory A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Media Studies by Nrithya Maria Andrews (Reg. No. 1134002) Under the guidance of Dr. SagarikaGolder Assistant Professor DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA STUDIES CHRIST UNIVERSITY BANGALORE, INDIA MARCH 2012 Property of Christ University. Use it for fair pur pose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. Approval of Dissertation Dissertation titled ‘The reasons for the use of YouTube among musicians in India - using Dependency Theory’ by Nrithya Maria Andrews, Reg. No. 1134002 is approved for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in Media Studies. Examiners: 1. ___________________ ___________________ 2. ___________________ ___________________ 3. ___________________ ___________________ Supervisor(s): Dr. Sagarika Golder ___________________ ___________________ Chairman: Mr. John Joseph Kennedy ___________________ ___________________ Date: ___________ (Seal) Place: Christ University Property of Christ University. Use it for fair pu rpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. i DECLARATION I, Nrithya Maria Andrews, hereby declare that the dissertation, titled ‘The reasons for the use of YouTube among musicians in India- using Dependency Theory’ is a record of original research work undertaken by me for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in Media Studies. I have completed this study under the supervision of Dr. Sagarika Golder, Assistant Professor, Department of Media Studies I also declare that this dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship or other title. It has not been sent for any publication or presentation purpose. Place: Christ University Date: 30 March 2012 Signature of the candidate Nrithya Maria Andrews Reg No. 1134002 Department of Media Studies Christ University, Bangalore Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. ii CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the dissertation submitted by Nrithya Maria Andrews (Reg. No.1134002) titled ‘The reasons for the use of YouTube among musicians in India- using Dependency Theory’ is a record of research work done by him/her during the academic year 2011-2012 under my/our supervision in partial fulfillments for the award of Master of Philosophy in Media Studies This dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship or other title. It has not been sent for any publication or presentation purpose. Place: Christ University Date: 30 March 2012 Signature of the Guide Dr. Sagarika Golder Assistant Professor Department of Media Studies Christ University, Bangalore Property of Christ University. Use it for fair pu rpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Nervous and anxious about the form in which my thesis would turn out initially, I cannot but smile at the sense of accomplishment I feel having finished it. There are several people without whom this would not have been possible. I take this opportunity to thank each and every one of them. I owe my deepest gratitude to my guide, Dr. Sagarika Golder, without whose guidance I would have not been able to complete this task. She has been immensely supportive, encouraging and approachable from the initial to the final level which made this venture that much simpler and enabled me to develop a better understanding of the study. I thank the Head of the Department, Mr. John Joseph Kennedy and other faculty members of the Department of Media Studies, Christ University for their support. I am deeply indebted to my respondents from the musician community for being highly co-operative and understanding. My research required their time and patience and they made the time and grew the patience for it. I would like to thank my fellow classmates for being there whenever I needed them the most. I would like to thank my parents for their constant support and words of encouragement. I thank my Lord for blessing and guiding me through every step of the way through this endeavor. Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. iv Table of Contents Declaration ii Certificate iii Acknowledgement iv Table of Contents v List of Figures vi List of Tables viii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter II Review of Literature 9 Chapter III History of Music in India 29 Chapter IV Data Analysis 42 Chapter V Conclusion 69 Works Cited 77 Appendix Property of Christ University. Use it for fair pu rpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. v List of Figures Figure1.1 Shows the number of male and female musicians in the sample size 38 Figure 1.2 Shows the percentage of those who are vocalist and instrumentalists 40 Figure1.3 Shows the number of professional and amateur musicians in the sample. 42 Figure 1.4 Shows that getting visibility is important 44 Figure 1.5 Shows the percentage of those who have considered professionally shot videos 45 Figure 1.6 Shows the use of YouTube downloader among musicians 46 Figure 1.7 Shows the percentage of those who YouTube songs before download 47 Figure 1.8 Shows the percentage of those musician who use YouTube tutorials 48 Figure 1.9 Shows the percentage of vocalists who use YouTube for practice 49 Figure 1.10 Shows the percentage of musician who found inspiration in YouTube artists 50 Figure 1.11 Shows the percentage of those who cover YouTube artists 51 Figure 1.12 Shows the percentage of those who have put up music related Property of Christ University. Use it for fair puvideosrpose . G i v e c r e d i t t o t h e a u t h o r b y c i t i n g p r o p e r l y , i f y o u r a r e u s52in g it. vi Figure 1.13 Shows the percentage of those who have uploaded videos on other sites 54 Figure 1.14 shows the percentage of musician who receive comments or messages 56 Figure 1.15 Shows the percentage that have a YouTube app on their mobile phones 57 Property of Christ University. Use it for fair pu rpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. vii List of Tables Table 1.1 Shows the different age groups the samples are from 37 Table 1.2 Shows the percentage of hours musicians spend online 39 Table 1.3 Shows the most popular genre among the sample musicians chosen. 41 Table 1.4 Shows the most preferred medium of the sample 43 Table 1.5 Shows the percentage of kind of content the sample has uploaded 53 Table 1.6 Shows the reason why YouTube is most popular 55 Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. viii Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. ix Chapter I Introduction Gone are the days when audiences waited around for music to be served to them on the usual platter of mediums such as the radio, television or print. With the age of New Media, audiences don‟t just remain audiences but they are transformed and uplifted into the „user‟ category as well. YouTube is a website that allows any person with an email address to upload, share and view videos. YouTube is still a growing phenomenon that makes video sharing a very important aspect of our Internet culture. YouTube has also turned into the favorite music-discovery tool that favors both record labels stars and the „ordinary person‟. This research tries to measure all the reasons musicians‟ use YouTube because, looking at the amount of music that is shared on a social network there have been traces to believe that the dependency on this aspect of New Media, YouTube has increased in comparison to the other media such as radio, television or even print. There are numerous videos on YouTube, which the site itself allows us to categorize them into specific fifteen categories. If the research were to look into how each of those categories, the scope of the research would be too vast. Music, being one of the categories on the set list of YouTube, scope will be limited to just this one category and to finding out how YouTube had been benefitting the creators of music, the musicians. We know for a fact that it has Property of Christ University. Use it for fair pubeenrpo sa eboon. Gi vtoe musicianscredit to because the au tofh other bseveraly citin YouTubeg prope successrly, if ystoriesour a we‟vere usi ng it. 2 heard internationally. This research aims to find out if Indian musicians have tapped the potential the westerners have seen in YouTube knowing that this is a global platform of opportunity. The research also delves into areas through the dependency theory to check if the users/ audience shares an important relationship with YouTube and hence the larger social system. To know if to be a musician, it‟s important to use YouTube to feel like a part of this musician community race.