IASPM: Ecology

Laura Glitsos from Curtain university gave a paper this afternoon on the ecology of sacred space in relation to indie music and web 2.0. Laura spoke of the Ayahausca Ritual which is an indigenous practice that involves the consumption of a psychotropic vine commonly referred to as the vine of death. Laura sees the adoption of indigenous spirituality by western artists such as Ben Lee, The Bees and The Claxtons as a need to embrace religious sanctity because of the profane and unnatural quality of the digital space. Noting the improper and perhaps disrespectful appropriation of traditional cultural practices she stated that the deep sense of loss of history and tradition has led in these cases to a desire to elevate non materialistic lifestyles and thus sounds beyond the cold interface of cyberspace. Laura suggests that the nostalgic return to community is further driven by a sense of exploitation by firms such as Google and Facebook. She suggests the homogenisation of space itself disrespects musicians, particularly independent artists. Discourse by these artists seeks to priviledge traditional approaches to appease the artist's loss of creative input in the digital communication modes as well as introduce spirituality to the youth. The reaction is against the cultual imperialism and profanity of neocapitalism as reflected by digital architectures.  

IASPM: Fandom, Celebrity and Industry

Victor Vicente gave a great paper this morning on viral phenomenons on youtube. He discussed the early days of youtube going back to its original instability when launched as a dating site in 2005 and how after its purchase by Google in November 2006 it became very popular as an educational tool, was used as an archive or repository, offered an ethnographic field to study and became a primary source for music. Victor noted that it is now available in 54 languages with 43 localised versions. In his recent study he concluded that music remains its predominate use with the top 5 videos being commercially produced music videos, indeed 29 of the top 30 videos featured music. Of these, 2 (6%) were user generated with the remaining 28 (94%) being commercially produced). Twenty videos in the top 30 were distributed by VEVO. 

Victor's study concerned hybrid stars - user generated songs/clips that became famous. In particular he looked at 3 case studies - Muhammed Shahid Nazir "One Pound Fish", Psy "Gangnam Style" and Rebecca Black "Friday". After playing the clips he went on to note that common elements in user generated success appear to be: the juxtapositioning of the narrative of an ordinary person with qualities such as irony, kitschiness, flawed masculinity, humour, simplicity, repretitiveness and a whimisical air. A great paper! He's a picture of Victor (and another groovy musicologist, Julie) from last nights conference dinner. 

IASPM: Popular Music and Collective Experience

The papers presented in this session were fantastic. Kath Nelligan presented on Seeker Lover Keeper and feminism in popular music. Kath noted in particular the denial of feminism as an approach by this band but nonetheless its ability to embrace solidarity and reciprocity. Kath noted post feminist tendancies of femininity as opposed to feminism. She spoke of how music has become less overt since Helen Reddy and how feminism has become a dirty word - with women these days less likely to identify themselves in that way as a move away from collective identites to individualism.

David Hesmondhaigh presented a paper on collective experience and sociability. He spoke of the ecstacy of collectives, the envy of missing out, how music and dance establish new friendships and revive old ones as well as emotional intelligence and the dynamics of self realisation. He went on to discuss pub singing, sport singing and karaoke. David noted the psychosocial need for collective identity and participation, and how this can become a site for struggle in the formation of modern personhood. 

IASPM ANZ 2013: Communities, Places, Ecologies

Just arrived at the IASPM ANZ Conference. I will be here for the next 3 days and will be blogging about the fantastic papers being presented. The conference program looks fantastic. If you are near Southbank in Brissy drop in to the Queensland Conservatorium of Music if you would like to hear more yourself!!