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

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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 in the
music world. A decade of professional experience in the field of cultural

xi
xii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

communication (music, audiovisual, theater, copyright) has enabled him

to cross-reference the views of cultural and digital world professionals with
academic research.
Benjamin Düster is a Ph.D. candidate at Griffith University and an af-
filiate member of the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research.
His research interest focuses on the use of cassettes and the significance
of materiality in contemporary music consumption as well as the current
dynamics within independent music scenes. He co-authored the chap-
ter “Cassette Cultures in Berlin: Resurgence, DIY Freedom, or Sellout?”
(Routledge, 2018) together with Raphaël Nowak.
Jessica Edlom is a Ph.D. student and Adjunct Professor at the Depart-
ment of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University,
Sweden. She is participating in the three-year Interreg research project
MECO—Music Eco-systems Inner Scandinavia—focusing on a Scandina-
vian music industry in transition. Her research areas are strategic commu-
nication, brand building, social media, cultural industries, fandom, and
audiences. Prior to academia, she worked for 15 years in advertising as a
brand strategist and art director, with a focus on branding. She has worked
with strategic communication for many different public and private orga-
nizations, as well as in the cultural and creative industries.
Zhongwei Li is a Ph.D. research fellow in the Department of Media
and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political
Science. He holds an M.Phil. in Sociology from the University of Cam-
bridge and a B.A. in Pedagogy from Beijing Normal University. His cur-
rent research focuses on the ways and means of non-mainstream music
consumption, the politics of youth subculture, and the cultural history of
Post-Reform China. He has recently completed his doctoral thesis titled
Cut-Out: Music, Profanity, and Subcultural Politics in 1990s China.
Paolo Magaudda, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Culture
and Communication at the FISPPA Department, University of Padova
(Italy), where he is part of the PaSTIS Research Unit (Padova Science
Technology & Innovation Studies). His research interests lie at the in-
tersection of science & technology studies, media studies, and cultural
sociology. He is especially interested in how musical practices are re-
configured by technological innovation. His most recent books are A
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xiii

History of Digital Media. An Intermedia and Global Perspective (with

G. Balbi, Routledge, 2018) and Vite interconnesse. Pratiche digitali at-
traverso smartphone, app e piattaforme (in Italian, with M. Driusian and
M. Scarcelli, Meltemi 2019). He is co-editor-in-chief of the journals Tec-
noscienza. Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies (STS Italia) and
Studi Culturali (Il Mulino).
Loïc Riom is a Ph.D. candidate at Center for the Sociology of Innova-
tion, Mines-Paristech, PSL University. His areas of interest are live mu-
sic, cultural infrastructure, and the music-tech sector. He is the winner of
the 2015 Young Researcher Award of the French-speaking Branch of Eu-
rope of the IASPM and the co-editor with Marc Perrenoud of the book
Musique en Suisse sous le regard des sciences sociales.
András Rónai, Ph.D. is a music journalist. He is the editor of the Hun-
garian music industry blog Dalszerzo.hu and a freelancer at other promi-
nent Hungarian music magazines including Recorder, covering music
from mainstream pop to the fringes of experimental scenes. He has a
Ph.D. in philosophy, his dissertation A kifejezés (Expression) was pub-
lished in 2017. He is currently working with Anna Szemere on a book
about the album Én leszek a játékszered (I’ll Be Your Plaything) by Bea
Palya for the series 33 1/3 with Bloomsbury.
Julian Schaap is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Music at the De-
partment of Arts and Culture Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam,
the Netherlands. His research focuses on social inequalities on the basis
of class, gender, and race-ethnicity in (cultural) consumption and produc-
tion practices, with a focus on (popular) music. His work has been pub-
lished in journals such as Consumption Markets & Culture, New Media &
Society, Popular Communication, and Sociology.
Cibrán Tenreiro Uzal, Ph.D. is a Lecturer in Audiovisual Communica-
tion at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. His work ex-
amines the relations between music and cinema and the creative produc-
tion of fan communities and scenes. He earned his doctorate with a thesis
about fandom and the modes of representation of live music on film. Out-
side the academy, he works as a cultural journalist and plays in bands like
Esposa or Ataque Escampe and participates in projects like the Galician
Bizarre compilations or the Cineclube de Compostela.
xiv NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Tamas Tofalvy is Associate Professor at the Budapest University of

Technology and Economics, Department of Sociology and Communica-
tion, head of the Communication and Media Studies major’s Digital Me-
dia program. He is also fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Me-
dia Research Group and project lead at the MODEM (Hungarian Online
and Digital Media History) Project. Between 2013 and 2017, he was Sec-
retary General at the Association of Hungarian Content Providers (MTE)
and, between 2010 and 2014, co-founding chair of IASPM Hungary and
its sister organization, the Music Networks Association. In 2012–2013,
he was a Fulbright fellow at Columbia University Graduate School of
Journalism.
Samira van Bohemen, Ph.D. is a Grant Researcher and Assistant Pro-
fessor in Popular Culture and Identity Politics at the Department of Pub-
lic Administration and Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her
research deals with questions of how young people perceive and practice
sexuality and how different technologies, cultural associations, and social
inequalities mediate these perceptions and practices. She has published her
first study about music as technology of the sexual self in Poetics, but also
has recent research on techno and ecstasy mediating sexuality forthcoming
in cultural sociology. Her work has been made possible by a large research
grant awarded by the Dutch Fund for Sexuality Research (FWOS) and an
EUR Fellowship grant.
Andrew Whelan, Ph.D. is Senior Lecturer at the School of Humani-
ties and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong, Australia. His research
interests include online music distribution and the social practices con-
ducted around music in digital formats, and bureaucratic administration
through digital documentation. He has published in Social Media and So-
ciety, Open Cultural Studies, First Monday, Sociological Research Online,
Fibreculture, and the edited collections Music at the Extremes (2015), Net-
worked Music Cultures (2016), Researching Music Censorship (2017), and
the Routledge Companion to Global Internet Histories (2017).
James Williams, Ph.D. James is a Senior Lecturer and Programme
Leader at the University of Derby teaching music composition, perfor-
mance, and improvisation. He previously lectured in music composition
at the University of Hertfordshire. Having read Music at the University
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xv

of Bristol (2011), and at Edinburgh University (2012), he wrote his doc-

toral thesis at the University of Wolverhampton (2016) on the collabora-
tive and creative interactions between contemporary acoustic music and
live electronics. His research interests focus on an anthropology of music,
investigating behavioral, social, creative, and collaborative processes. He
is particularly interested in how such musical behaviors exist online within
social media, viral videos and memes, and cyberculture. His research rests
on ethnomusicological methodologies and sociocultural modes of music
analysis.
 List of Figures

Fig. 8.1 Intersection of the level of independence, the level of

commercialization, and real or created authenticity 141
Fig. 9.1 Structure of the cut-out industry (Source Author) 154

xvii
 List of Tables

Table 7.1 Spotify’s “sex,” “love,” and “heartache” playlists 116

Table 7.2 Sunnery’s sequenced sex playlist 120
Table 14.1 Reworked lyrics for “Cameron’s Conference Rap,”
“Cassetteboy vs The Snooper’s Charter,” and “vs. Jeremy
Hunt” 241

xix