Ethnomusicology on cyberspace: creative and dissemination processes of the amateur video clips

Luciano Caroso – [email protected]

This thesis discusses the creation and dissemination of amateur video clips on YouTube. Case studies are analyzed for innovations, idiosyncrasies, and confluences of behavior with particular attention to the motivations of video producers and the ways that they utilize audiovisual material. Also explored are the different relationships formed through various processes of video creation and distribution.

The first chapter contextualizes the study and establishes general characteristics of the processes of YouTube music video creation and dissemination. Key concepts such samplerthropophagy and virality are introduced and the musical and extra-musical skills and knowledges particular to this type of musical practice are explored.

The second chapter engages with the historical and conceptual issues that provide theoretical support for the study. It also pursues and theorizes the demarcation of the field researched through a discussion of notions such as virtuality, materiality, and otherness. In problematizing these concepts, new paradigms for ethnomusicology as a discipline are considered.

The third chapter addresses methodology. Issues of description in virtual ethnography are considered as are concerns related to analysis through qualitative research with quantitative support.

The fourth chapter is an ethnography consisting of several case studies. It describes and analyzes the audiovisual practices of participants in the making and circulating of YouTube videos with attention to through their musical and contextual specificities.

The fifth chapter presents final considerations. It emphasizes issues related to the experience of virtual ethnography, assesses the present state of the research, and offers ideas and concerns for future investigation.