A
Part of the Party!?
Fan-culture
on the web 2.0 as
a way towards a participatory music culture
The
World Wide Web is a place of freedom: of free speech, free choice and
of free creative expression. The latter is
becoming increasingly observable ever since the Web
2.0
is available to the Internet-users. The second generation of the web
has given people the freedom to put their own content online with
only few restrictions. According to media theorist Henry
Jenkins
(2006) this user-generated content has led to a phenomenon called
convergence
culture. Three concepts are the buzz words of convergence
culture:
media
convergence,
participatory culture
and collective
intelligence.
With the first Jenkins refers to a media landscape that is mixing old
and new media, as for instance showing and watching TV series
online. The second and third are about the interaction of the
consumers with the producer and with each other. They do this without
knowing the effect and where “grassroots and corporate media
intersect” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 2). All of this is also expressed in
fan
culture,
which is merging all sorts of media and content and is very
grassroots, participatory and collective. Relating convergence
culture to music culture in the Web 2.0, one could claim that they
will shift the passiveness of the music consumer to a more active and
participatory involvement. It could function as a space for
expressing the fans’ needs rather than being influenced by the
music marketers. In the following I will examine in how far
convergence can be a
way towards a more participatory music business and culture and
how marketers can learn from the music culture online.
Of
all fan-products I found, looking for fan culture on the Web 2.0, the
most interesting subjects were located on the video platform YouTube.
Other communities and networks as MySpace,
Facebook[1]
and LastFM[2]
give room to promote one’s favourite artist[3],
but the creativity is often limited due to the preset character of
the platforms. The works I discovered on YouTube spoke of rather
unlimited creativity. Those were:
Fan-alternatives
to original music clips.
For instance, a SecondLife
version to the song Jein
by the German Hip Hop act Fettes
Brot;
So-called
‘mash ups’ merging
videos and songs of famous musicians, as the mix of Oasis’s
Wonderwall
and Green
Day's
Boulevard
of Broken Dreams;
The
merging
of cuts from movies with popular songs.
For example, a Star
Wars
version of Snow
Patrol’s
Chasing
Cars
The
creation
of completely new music videos,
as the very artsy remix of Madcon’s
Beggin,
not only remixing the video but also the entire song .
These
are only a few examples of how fans have used media convergence to
promote their celebrities. This type of convergence, mixing various
musical genres and creating videos to it, is also called ‘remix
culture’.
Lawrence
Lessig
(2004), the inventor of the term, calls for a culture in which
different types of media-mate
rial should be mixed in order to open up the production of culture to everyone and making it more participatory. Convergence allows for this remix culture as it implies a cultural shift, which makes people look for new sources of information and connect the content of media that usually do not seem to fit, as the abovementioned examples show. According to Jenkins (2006), fans are generally the early adopters of new media technologies. They are also “the most active segment of the media audience” (p. 131) and hence do not appreciate the dictation of the music industry. Moreover, Jenkins states that “the web provides them with a powerful new channel for amateur cultural production” (p. 131). Thus, it seems natural that they have already invaded the Web 2.0 and exploit its opportunities to generate Simon Moretti feat. J.M. Armleder - Remix 2003 their own content. The online grassroots efforts of fandom become an Source: Galerie chez Valentin 2003
rial should be mixed in order to open up the production of culture to everyone and making it more participatory. Convergence allows for this remix culture as it implies a cultural shift, which makes people look for new sources of information and connect the content of media that usually do not seem to fit, as the abovementioned examples show. According to Jenkins (2006), fans are generally the early adopters of new media technologies. They are also “the most active segment of the media audience” (p. 131) and hence do not appreciate the dictation of the music industry. Moreover, Jenkins states that “the web provides them with a powerful new channel for amateur cultural production” (p. 131). Thus, it seems natural that they have already invaded the Web 2.0 and exploit its opportunities to generate Simon Moretti feat. J.M. Armleder - Remix 2003 their own content. The online grassroots efforts of fandom become an Source: Galerie chez Valentin 2003
answer
to the dominance of the mass media. They are hoped to create a
participatory music culture that finally gives a voice to the
consumers in the music business.
Some
bands have already used this potential for their own purposes. The
American alternative-rock band Incubus,
for instance, started the I
Dig Incubus
competition in late 2006. The task was for their fans to create a
video clip to their song Dig
and then post it on YouTube. The winner entry was to become the
official clip to the song. The result was quite a substantial amount
of entries that were not only very creative but also served as an
expression of the fans’ commitment to the band. The competition is
a symbol for how convergence
culture can also be used by bands
(and quite probably their management and marketers) to promote
themselves and their products. However, whereas there is no doubt
that a musical fan culture exists on the Web 2.0, it must be asked
whether it really provides the consumers with participation in the
shaping of a music culture according to their needs. The term
‘participatory’
would require that the consumers become involved
in the process of production and marketing of
products connected to music that has so far been the domain of the
music industry . According to Jenkins, the cultural fan-works can
only achieve marketability if they can obtain collective meaning. The
Internet has provided a platform to the fan culture that can
distribute those cultural artefacts and help them to be adopted by
the rest of the fan community.
The
leaders of the music industry will eventually be forced to pay
attention to their customers’ desires. As Jenkins explains, TV
producers have already started to listen to their series’ fans to
adopt their programmes according to their needs. Furthermore, the
dialogue
with the consumers
through the Web 2.0 is even called the Future
of Marketing
by the
Economist Intelligence Unit
(2006) – a leading economics research unit. The researchers found
out that marketers will have to incorporate online efforts of
web-users as well as the merging of offline and online media into
their strategies. Through this they will be able to achieve a more
holistic branding that is participatory and that suits the medium.
Their advice is to get into a dialogue with the consumers through the
user-generated content on the Internet. Moreover, following Holt’s
(2004) theory on cultural
branding,
marketers should be able to understand
the social tensions
of an era and adjust their product according to them. For the music
industry that means that it must be assessed what the place of music
as a product and brand is within the current music culture. An
instance for such a tension is the consumers’ reluctance to pay for
music and the overall negative attitude towards the major labels. The
marketers would need to find out how the knowledge about this tension
could help the music market out of its dip.
Winner
video of the I Dig Incubus competition
Furthermore,
Holt also attaches importance to the consumers’
role as authors of cultural content and brands.
For him especially those have an influence, which are immersed in
what he calls “populist content”. According to Jenkins (2006),
those who are involved in the creation of fan-culture usually are
immersed in such content. Thus, marketers should accept that fans
are necessary to shape the music culture and business
in order for them to profit. If this view on fan-culture is really
adopted by the music-marketers in the future, then the participation
and integration of the grassroots-level of the music culture will be
possible in the music business. It is possible that this way the
ongoing process of alienation of the music consumers by the music
industry will come to an end or will at least be slowed down. Ideally
the consumers would feel that they are part of a culture that is very
important to them.
Notes
[1]
A social network, mainly to connect friends.
[2]
An online radio, presenting related artists to the listener, when
entering the name of one’s favourite artist.
[3]
See The
“Do it yourself” guide to stardom
on the promoting effects of MySpace.
