From Microsound to Vaporwave: Internet-Mediated Musics, Online Methods, and Genre

Born, Georgina; Haworth, Christopher

doi:10.1093/ml/gcx095

Cited by 36 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Our participant-observation activities in the comments sections and live chat of several lofi hip hop channels, in particular the live chat for "lofi hip hop radio -beats to relax/study to", left us with the impression that many of the genre's most enthusiastic participants are current school or university students, who may be using the music simultaneously for its stated functional purposes of productivity and relaxation, for the emotional exploration which both its often supportive and caring social structures, and its complex use of nostalgia, facilitate. Born and Haworth's (2017) work on internet music identifies what we believe to be a series of predecessors of this genre, but in contrast to these earlier genres, lofi hip hop eschews many of the tendencies which scholars have previously identified within "internet-born" music; we suggest that this might call into question the often cynical narratives applied to these musics, and provide an alternative lens through which to view online musical participation. We ultimately conclude that the contradictions which characterize lofi hip hop might be expressive of a particular contemporary mindset; lofi hip hop's student participants are among the first generation too young to remember a time before what Jonathan Crary (2014: 8) refers to as "the paradoxes of the expanding, non-stop life-world of twenty-first-century capitalism…inseparable from shifting configurations of sleep and waking, illumination and darkness, justice and terror, and…exposure, unprotectedness, and vulnerability".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Beats to Relax/Study To: Contradiction and Paradox in Lo-Fi Hip Hop

Winston

Saywood

2019

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Lofi hip hop is a musical genre which is distributed and mediated entirely via the internet, and which, to our knowledge, is currently unexamined academically. This article serves as an introductory investigation into the genre, which we hope may inspire further research and perhaps call into question existing trends in the analysis of "internet-born" music genres, which, as Adam Harper (2017) notes, often emphasize the degenerative effects of digital technology. We briefly define lofi hip hop stylistically and aesthetically, before exploring its contradictory relationship with nostalgia. We then consider the genre's mediation and reception in terms of its participants' relationship with the material conditions of late capitalism. We conclude that lofi hip hop is characterized by a series of complex paradoxes navigated effortlessly by its listeners, highlighting a shift in everyday reality amongst a generation of young people for whom the social internet is simply an ordinary part of life.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Beats to Relax/Study To: Contradiction and Paradox in Lo-Fi Hip Hop

Winston

Saywood

2019

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“…In others, it acts as a starting point for localized reworkings. An engagement with Georgina Born and Christopher Haworth's work on Internet mediation, Antoine Hennion's sociology of mediation, and Monique Charles' work on grime and the online sphere will strengthen this discussion (Born and Haworth 2017;Hennion 2003;Charles 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

‘Wot do u call it? Doof doof’: Articulations of glocality in Australian grime music

Lacey

2020

Global Hip Hop Studies

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Grime music emerged at the turn of the millennium in the United Kingdom. While grounded and street-level at its outset, the form has since become global in reach. This article focuses on performance practice in the East Australian grime scene and its development over time. Principally, it attends to how MCs and DJs articulate a sense of belonging to both the UK and their local communities in Melbourne and Sydney, through lyrical and musical signification. These articulations are shown to be an example of ‘glocal’ performance practice, which is locally situated yet globally rendering. The article also demonstrates how these artists’ conceptions of legitimate practice are heavily mediated by YouTube videos of canonical UK practice, owing to their geographical dislocation from the genre’s initial point of origin. As a result, radio performances ‐ known as ‘sets’ ‐ and live shows are often prioritized over recorded releases. These findings are supported by interviews with Australian artists, and musical analysis of two key performances: a radio set on Australian broadcaster Triple J from November 2018 and a global grime showcase on London’s Rinse FM from January 2019.

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“…Andrew Barry is a political geographer, a social theorist and Professor of Human Geography at University College London, where he is Head of the Department of Geography. Eisenberg and Perullo 2014;Valiquet 2014;Baker 2015;Born and Devine 2015;Born and Haworth 2017;Durham 2017. [3] We take the concept of mediation to refer to the bidirectional transmission, translation and/or transformation of one relatum (eg musical sound) by another relatum (eg technologies, discourses, social relations, sites and spaces).…”

Section: Disclosure Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%