This book explores the relationships between popular music, technology, and the changing media ecosystem. More precisely, it looks at infrastructures and practices of music making and consuming primarily in the post-Napster era of digitization with some chapters looking back on the technological precursors to digital culture marked by the emergence of digital tools and platforms such as YouTube or Spotify. The first section provides a critical overview of theories addressing popular music and digital technology, while the second section offers an analysis of the relationship between musical cultures, taste, constructions of authenticity, and technology. The third section offers case studies on the materialities of music consumption from outside the western core of popular music production. The final section reflects on music scenes and the uses and discourses of social media.

        

Emília Barna, PhD is Assistant Professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

Tamas Tofalvy, PhD is Associate Professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

       

1. Continuity and Change in the Relationship between Popular Music, Culture, and Technology: An Introduction.- 2. Music Scenes as Infrastructures: From Live Venues to Algorithmic Data.- 3. From Music Scenes to Musicalized Networks: A Critical Perspective on Digitalization.- 4. Niche Underground: Media, Technology, and the Reproduction of Underground Cultural Capital.- 5. The Relentless Rise of the Poptimist Omnivore: Taste, Symbolic Power, and the Digitization of the Music Industries.- 6. Frictionless Platforms, Frictionless Music: The Utopia of Streaming in Music Industry Press Narratives.- 7. The Sex Playlist: How Race and Ethnicity Mediate Musically Composed Sexual Self-formation.- 8. Authenticity and Digital Popular Music Brands.- 9. Listening to the Scrap: Contested Materialities of Music in 1990s China.- 10. Obsolete Technology? The Significance of the Cassette Format in Twenty-First Century Japan.- 11. Do You Have a Moment to Talk About Vaporwave? Technology, Memory, and Critique in the Writing on an Online Music Scene.- 12. Discovering Music at Sofar Sounds: Surprise, Attachment, and the Fan-Artist Relationship.- 13. Delicate Balances: The Roles of Amateur Concert Videos in the Galician Underground Scene.- 14. Cassetteboy: Music, Social Media, and the Political Comedy Mash-up.