BCM241

Simply Taylorlani Goes Musical, Another Pitch

August 19, 2021 — 4 Comments

Previously, I have mentioned how for this semester how Simply Taylorlani will be taking a musical approach to the Digital Artifact. I have been able to map this out and narrow down these ideas further as you can see down below. Music as a whole is a very large and broadly open niche and because of that I have simplified it down to two prominent subcultures. 

THIS DA

For this project I am planning on observing and writing about music that is a part of both the pop punk/emo and metal subcultures, genre and communities that exist online. For example, social platforms such as Tik Tok and Instagram along with their algorithms create very large communities of people with similar interests. This then leads to content creation and, for platforms like Tik Tok where audio and music is such a major aspect of the app, aids in the culture, aesthetics and persona attached to music.

I will be creating content based on these music genres and their personal cultures that are tied and produced along with the music. I will be using my content based Instagram, Simply Taylorlani, along with this Blog, as a means to share and engage with these ideas. The plan is to produce writing content such as reviews, rankings, and opinion pieces around these subcultures. I also intend to be active on Instagram to share my favourites from things from these communities and already have some highlights dedicated to this Digital Artifact.

Map for the Da

CONTENT EXAMPLES

Along with this, I have also previously mapped out the different aspects and networks to my Digital Artifact which I have shown before but will share again here.

chart / calendar

POTENTIAL QUESTIONS

I am interested in this DA because of my own personal connections to both these subcultures and genres. However, I do think that enables me to have a leg up in understanding as I already have a pre-existing persona tied to this niche. But, that of course does not mean I do not have research questions.

What makes a good album?

What seperates a band/artist from the genre as a whole?

What determines the best album?

Why are aestheitcs so important?

With this DA comes risks of being unethical, especially when considering how important someone’s identity and person is to a person, even one that is heavily connected to this genre of music. Even those who create the music, they put a lot of themselves out there into artistry and this DA in no way will be used to discredit or tear down bands, artists, producers, audiences and communities. This Digital Artifact is about music and culture. 

“Practice Your Passion On Me” – Feild Site’s, Huh

August 19, 2021 — Leave a comment

Hey, hey!

My last post was on my niche for my Digital Arteifect for this semester at University and this week I’ll be discussing the feild site which coresponds to that. For a little reminder for what my ethnographic research, I have chosen to work within the niche of music, more specificly music that falls within certain subcultures I listen to.

WHAT IS A FEILD SITE?

A feild site is a great way to map out and understand a niche to refine it further and explore different angles. A feild site is the spacial characteristics between a type of research. Think of it as a web of relations between research, and how they all connect back to one thing. “For ethnographers, defining this space is an important activity that traditionally takes place before and in the early stages of fieldwork.”

MY FEILD SITE

I started with really narrowing down which subculutre’s I’m most interested in researching for this Digital Artifect and came up with mainly metal and the pop punk/midwest emo areas because those are the specific niches I’ve eneged with the most. Not only that, both of those have culutre that is completely seperate but goes in hand with the music.

I will be conducting enthnographic research from engaging with my niche from these key areas: Social Platforms, Live Music, Aestheitcs and Band/Artist themselves and while I’m going to be looking at them seperately, there is of course overlap.

SOCIAL PLATFORMS

Platforms like Instagram and, for a good example of a social platfrom with the music niche, Tik Tok, an app where audio is so largely important. Not only that, but Tik Tok like most other platforms has a very personal curated algorithm and tags. An important part of this to note is how Tik Tok is often refered to as the new Tumblr, where a lot of the pop punk/midwest subculutre bread and grew from in the last decade. This can easily be connected to Aestheitcs.

LIVE MUSIC

Just as important as social media, Live Music exists within the same niche and web, however has it’s own culture and corespondants. For example, concert ediquite which very much depends on the type of music you’re listening too. Within Metal and other heavier genres it is increadibly common knowlegde how agressive the shows can be compared to others. The likelyhood of seeing an agressice death wall at a Rex Orange Country show to Slaughter To Preveil one is vastly different.

AESTHEITCS

People who enage with these types of subculutres are very much tied to the phrase “It’s a life style,” and for most it really is. Just going off pop punk and emo we can tie down how important the aesthetics are to the community. This is why Aesthetics link back to Social Platforms which are all about persona and imagery.

https://www.tiktok.com/@depreston5/video/6917838633743535366?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgowvQljsvKSsItgH0Ljzba%2F0yZIAEkiNSnKaRVXbKUagDIEK6zttg1NsqvNADvUiKBuGgA%3D&checksum=49f3f48d158f555a188126a5c6554ca6b0cd0f42b0429390edf7ab44f4cf390d&language=en&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAANFAHEmI6X1Wes7zwM1pC-duXWwzPZMsOkMoBW6tkCTSCYgxV9VZAb6FDFwsoLFFf&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=6917838633743535366&share_link_id=f3b5fee2-005a-4306-9ff0-8813584115e9&source=h5_m&timestamp=1629179918&u_code=d95ah7f3jd0ddg&user_id=6754913858378531845&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=android&utm_source=copy&_r=1

BANDS AND ARTISTS

Of course to really conduct ethnographic research for music you need to look at who creates the subject in the first place. They are probably the largest connecting factor, they are the curators of content that has allowed for the rest of the webs to branch off. Each one, even within the same genre, are making content for different audiences, different aesthetics – for example Ice Nine Kills is a whole brand relating to horror movies which is very unquie to them.