Module overview
In this module, you will explore how internet platforms shape music and culture—and vice versa. Music consumption, production, promotion, and fandom have all transformed in the era of streaming and social media platforms, which host a range of everyday interactions with music culture. Furthermore, the aesthetics of the internet have themselves permeated popular music culture across a range of genres and styles.
But technology does not simply change music or how we engage with it: users continue to participate in complex power relations with platforms.
This module addresses topics including platformisation, on-demand streaming, social media sharing, music video and shortform video, fan cultures and fan labour, internet music aesthetics, virtual music, livestreaming, and music generative artificial intelligence. By engaging with relevant scholarly literature and online music culture itself, you will gain nuanced understanding of how individuals listen, like, share, comment, stan, and duet in the present day.