SIMPLY TAYLORLANI THE MUSICAL
Contextual Report, BCM206, Future Networks
Author – Taylor Housman, 2021
Overview/Summary:
This semester, a collaboration between this blog and my content based Instagram, Simply Taylorlani (ST), worked to develop and create a Digital Artifact project. This project as a whole was to produce written content centred and exploring a particular interest. This niche was decided by a poll on ST’s stories, choosing between books or music. Music won with 86% to 14% difference, much to my excitement.
Before the commencing of this DA, written blog posts, Instagram and Twitter were something I utilised to engage with and contribute to music. Written content is where this started, which eventually branched to Instagram stories and posts.The idea that music scenes are more than a hobby, but a lifestyle, especially one’s like Pop Punk and Emo, is a large concept I work within separate from University. It is work and something I’m focused on furthering career wise. Which is why this was a perfect opportunity to attach a University DA to.
There are many people who have been an inspiration to my writing over the years, but someone who is working within a similar realm to what I’m trying to do is Yasmine Summan, a media writer from the music scene.
Process/Analysis:
The process of this project was, as I have mentioned in progress posts, not too difficult for me. This, I believe, is strongly because I chose a niche/subject to centre this DA around that I am strongly invested in in my outside life. That being said, there were certainly ups and downs and growth.
The first piece I wrote was an album ranking, and while I’m not disappointed in what I produced there was little to no engagement. At this point I was not creating Instagram posts for the blogs either. I wasn’t exactly digesting readings or analytical content around this time either, and largely diving into my personal experiences.
The second post is where this project started to take off. I wrote a piece shouting out artists and bands within the Pop Punk scene, ones that were not a part of “celebrity circles” benefiting off the bands that kept a genre alive for over a decade when it faded out of the mainstream spotlight. There is an immense amount of creatives who are doing more for the scene than those celebrities and I felt it was important to highlight them. After sharing the post on Twitter, a band which I featured took notice, retweeted, and liked it while the vocalist of the same band did the same, followed me, and quote-tweeted it “This!!!”. They later followed me on my other platforms.
From this, artist recognition was something that became a regular, which was a very shocking result of this project. I am incredibly appreciative of it too, and the few connections I have thus created. Around this time I started sharing weekly songs and albums on Instagram stories, and created a playlist to keep them in one spot. I got some engagement from audiences separate from University peers as bands/artists would retweet. This led me to making tweeting at those within the scene a thing, and from this new followers etc arrived.
I started to regularly partake in readings and research. A full reference list will be at the end, but some notable quotes and points are:
I continued on with this streak, writing blog posts, tweeting, stories, Instagram posts. It was fun, and allowed me to explore further in depth the styles of writing I prefer, which gain tracking and such. The other aspects of this project were my graphic design changes, making my blog and ST more professional, and maintaining industry relationships.
I managed to feature on a friends podcast during this experience, where I do briefly touch on how I got into music. I received a lot of nice feedback as well, which was really comforting and motivating. I spent a lot of time trying to make lecture and framework connections to this project, and some feedback was very insightful in assigning Postmodernism framework and ideas to it. I go deeper into this here.
Over the course of this DA I have learnt how to properly engage within the subculture and media sphere that I desire to work within. I have accomplished more than what I ever thought I could have, and found a larger passion for it while developing it to fit a work identity. Adapting this further to online professionalism, and persona, more than I already put out there, has increased my comfortability with presenting myself. For example, I never included my writing on Twitter much or ST before this DA out of fear. I have grown in ways I wouldn’t have without taking this leap.
References:
10 music industry pros fueling the pop-punk revival behind the scenes (2021) Altpress.com. Available at: https://www.altpress.com/features/music-industry-pros-pop-punk-revival/
Album review: Lil Lotus – ERRØR BØY (no date) Kerrang.com. Available at: https://www.kerrang.com/reviews/album-review-lil-lotus-error-boy/
Berkland, D. (no date) Androcentrism and misogyny in late twentieth century rock music, Core.ac.uk. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/145050367.pdf
Boas, S. (2020) Boas: Pop punk has a diversity problem, Northbynorthwestern.com. North by Northwestern. Available at: https://northbynorthwestern.com/boas-pop-punk-has-a-diversity-problem/
Davis, J. R. (2006) “Growing up punk: Negotiating aging identity in a local music scene,” Symbolic interaction, 29(1), pp. 63–69.
FQS (no date) View of autoethnography: An overview, Qualitative-research.net. Available at: https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589/3095
From Lil peep to paramore, Emo and rap have been related for years (no date) Kerrang.com. Available at: https://www.kerrang.com/features/from-lil-peep-to-paramore-emo-and-rap-have-been-related-for-years/
Gaponov, S. A. (no date) YOUTH SUBCULTURE, Sfu-kras.ru. Available at: http://elib.sfu-kras.ru/bitstream/handle/2311/4694/5201.pdf?sequence=1
How Emo rap has redefined rock music (no date) Kerrang.com. Available at: https://www.kerrang.com/features/how-emo-rap-has-redefined-rock-music/
Kay, B. (2012) History of pop-punk music with timeline, Spinditty. Available at: https://spinditty.com/industry/History-of-Pop-Punk-Music-with-Timeline
The Art of Punk and the Punk Aesthetic (no date) Designobserver.com. Available at: https://designobserver.com/feature/the-art-of-punk-and-the-punk-aesthetic/36708
The rise and popularity of mixed genre music (2015) Tremr.com. Available at: https://www.tremr.com/michaelab/the-rise-and-popularity-of-mixed-genre-music
West, E. (2015) “where is your boy tonight?”: Misogyny in pop punk, Athena Talks. Available at: https://medium.com/athena-talks/where-is-your-boy-tonight-misogyny-in-pop-punk-669eccedc811
yasminesumman (2021) Pop punk’s inevitable comeback – how the hell did it even survive?, Loudwire.com. Available at: https://loudwire.com/pop-punk-comeback-how-survive/
(No date) Researchgate.net. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265416952_The_Aesthetics_of_Punk_Rock
Tangled In The Great Escape 