Telephone

Telephone ManiaMusical performances and derivative video on YouTube

Agnese VellarDepartment of Social Sciences

Università degli Studi di Torino

Workshop on Advanced Research Methods – Sep. 30th 2010Department of Communication Studies – University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”.

Music cultures in the Web 2.0

derivative works

transmedia brand

appropriation

Recording industry

Music fans

grassroot promotion

Spreading: “consumers do not simply pass along static content; they transform the content so that it better serves their own social and expressive needs”.

(Jenkins et al., 2009)

music star

A case study on Telephone

derivative videos (70)

users’ profile

popular culture

Music(40)

Fashion(12)

Parody(18)

Lady Gaga Haus of Gaga (Lamerichs, 2008; Lange, 2008;

Burgess & Green, 2009)

Serial music short films as cult text

product placement

merchandise

Paparazzi(7’ 10’’)

"To Be Continued..."

Telephone (9’ 34’’)

cinematic quotation

Auterism, endessly deferred narrative, hyperdiegesis (Hills, 2002)

a) musicam

ateu

rse

mi-p

ropr

ofes

sion

al

Live medeley

(2)

“me singing” (8)

Coreography

(8)

Cover (11)acapella acustic instrumental

Pro (4/11)

Semi pro (7/11)

Remix (9)

mash-up (2)

From “Me singing” to “Cover”am

ateu

rco

mm

erci

al

fans

Independent getting attention online

expressing their

passions

#43 - Most Subscribed (All Time) - Musicians

karaoke

b) Parodyam

ateu

r

YouTube star

“spoof” (parody by imitation) “Bananaphone”

pro

Repetition based on difference and self-reflexivity. Create awareness of a cultural repertoire: moking at certain conventions reaffirm them (Lamerichs, 2008)

sem

i-pro

The telephone object as a spreadable logo

(appropriation + recreation in different versions)

YouTube Star#20 – Most subscribed (all time)

Behind the scenes

Vlogging:commenting comments

parody

paratexts

“Weekly musical comedy show spoofing celebrities, pop-culture and the latest internet memes.”

c) Fashionam

ateu

r remix tutorial

pro

make up tutorial

hair tutorial

Video blogging: dialogic model

Make up artist#17 - Most Subscribed (All Time) – (Gurus)

& EnKorinne

parody

vlogging

ibridation

Spreadable video

Music Parody Fashion

deriv

ativ

e vi

deo

Music(al) culture YouTube culture stardom/fandom

choreography look

humor + vlogging

“Performative consumption” in the Web 2.0

stardom

cult body

The mimicry and impersonation are intrinsic to the phenomenon of stardom; it is not only fans who impersonate their idols: the stars themselves also self-

consiusly borrow from prior celebrites (Hills, 2002, p. 164)

fandomcostuming - impersonation

culture and technological platform

New genre (spoof, make up tutoria, …)

+

More visibility (persistency replicability scalability searchability )

Getting pro

reinforce

parodic or emulative derivative video

Lady Gaga stardom

Telephone stardom

YouTube users gain visibility

stardom

previusly cult text and cult body

UGC

Thank you.

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http://agneseh.wordpress.com

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