DIY Music and the Politics of Social Media (Alternate Takes: Critical Responses to Popular Music)

"The emergence of social media in the early 21st century promised to facilitate new "DIY" cultural approaches, emphasizing participation and democratization. However, in recent years these platforms have been criticized as domineering and exploitative. For DIY musicians in scenes with lengthy histories of cultural resistance, is social media a powerful emancipatory and democratizing tool, or a new corporate antagonist to be resisted? DIY Music explores the significant challenges faced by artists navigating this fraught cultural landscape. How do anti-commercial musicians operate in the competitive, attention-seeking world of social media? How do they deal with a new abundance of data and metrics? How do they present their activity as "cultural resistance"? This book shows that a platform-enabled DIY approach is now the norm for a wide array of cultural practitioners; this "DIY-as-default" landscape threatens to depoliticize the call to "do-it-yourself.""-- Provided by publisher "The emergence of social media in the early 21st century promised to facilitate new "DIY" cultural approaches, emphasizing participation and democratization. However, in recent years these platforms have been criticized as domineering and exploitative. For DIY musicians in scenes with lengthy histories of cultural resistance, is social media a powerful emancipatory and democratizing tool, or a new corporate antagonist to be resisted?DIY Music explores the significant challenges faced by artists navigating this fraught cultural landscape. How do anti-commercial musicians operate in the competitive, attention-seeking world of social media? How do they deal with a new abundance of data and metrics? How do they present their activity as "cultural resistance"? This book shows that a platform-enabled DIY approach is now the norm for a wide array of cultural practitioners; this "DIY-as-default" landscape threatens to depoliticize the call to "do-it-yourself."--Page 4 de la couverture An Investigation Into The Contemporary Practices Of Diy Musicians On Social Media And Diy's Status As Cultural Resistance.-- The Problem? : Welcome To The Democratic, Diy Music Business -- The Past : Diy, Popular Music, And Cultural Resistance -- The Personal : Subjectivity And Self-representation On Social Media -- The Players : Hierarchy, Ownership, And Collectivism In Diy Scenes -- The Public : Performing Politics And Elucidating Difference -- The Popular : Metrics, Measurements, And The Diy Imagination -- The Platform : Alterity And The Political Economy Of Social Media -- The Plan... : Potential Futures For Diy Music, New Media, And Social Justice. Ellis Jones. Includes Bibliographical References. Also Published In Print. Mode Of Access: World Wide Web. Cover Contents Acknowledgements 1 The problem?: Welcome to the democratic, DIY music business 2 The past: DIY, popular music and cultural resistance 3 The personal: Subjectivity and self-representation on social media 4 The players: Hierarchy, ownership and collectivism in DIY scenes 5 The public: Performing politics and elucidating difference 6 The popular: Metrics, measurements and the DIY imagination 7 The platform: Alterity and the political economy of social media 8 The plan ... : Potential futures for DIY music, new media and social justice References Index