Music and Participatory Culture - Cover Videos

## Participatory Music - Instrumental Covers

Technology has altered the course of musical composition by providing artists with a variety of new age tools and techniques that greatly enhance an artist’s sound making capabilities. This phenomenon has resulted in modified versions of traditionally instrumental music, as well as, completely new genres of music that can be seen as direct products of new technology (EDM, Dance Music, Disco, etc.). One would think that the introduction of technology to music would permanently change the sounds that musicians would choose to produce however, this is not the case. Musical forms that pre-date the introduction technology maintain a huge following of listener's while also bleeding into the work of tech-savy composers. The directionality of this influence is not a one way street. That is to say, aspects of traditionally based musical forms have also incorporated elements from music that was originally generated using digital techniques and tools.

## (YouTube) A Platform for Participatory Culture

“According to Henry Jenkins, the rise of digital technology is challenging our traditional notions of creation, curation, and community. YouTube, for example, is more than just an archive of individual home movies; it is also a medium that mobilizes a diverse range of video production methods that operate alongside a diverse range of cultural resources.”

One such example of You Tube as a "mobilizing medium" for musical participatory culture (Link to Music Participatory Culture Page) exists within the community of musicians who post instrumental covers on Youtube.

“In affinity spaces people ‘bond’ first and foremost to an endeavour or interest and secondarily, if at all, to each other.” (Gee, 2007 p.98)

Spaces (general) have the following features:

Gees Definition : Content, both design content and interactional content, i.e. how people play and how they organize their behaviors, beliefs, values and actions around the content. Design content is created by content generators.

Content generators in this context would be the (professional/ amateur) musicians who are posting on Youtube. Some of these musicians have decided to make a career out of their work while others just play as a hobby

Organization of content and interactions. Content organization arises from the design of a game. Interactional organization comes from interactions on and with the space and the people in it.

and

Portals, which are entrances into the space, e.g. a website to discuss a game, the game disc itself, wikis, etc. Some of these become content generators in their own right.

Interactions within this context occur on the blogs, message boards or Portals of Youtube. Interaction occurs between producers (musicians who generate cover) and consumers ( Youtube members) who make request, praise and bash the content put forth by these musicians. Youtube suggests provided by Youtube generally allow access to other cover videos by the same composer or offer other covers that were generated by another author. This system results in a network of videos, producers and channels that constitute the backbone of this participatory cultural form.

## Critiques

 Many critiques would argue that instrumental cover's are a lesser form of composition than generating original content. I would argue that the skill, creativity and raw talent displayed by the musicians who are able to capture a digitally based composition on an instrument is unquestionable and any question to the completeness of their form should only be raised after viewing a few of these clips.

Building off of this I would also like to point out that each cover is not a note by note remake of the original song that it is based off of. Within each cover these musicians maintains originality in the added flourishes and modified harmonic/melodic contours that they contribute to their cover.

Within this form of participatory culture there is also overlap with other forms discussed. For example, some musicians will string pieces of popular songs together within their cover video to create a their own Mashups

A fundamental component to any community that displays participatory culture is the way in which members of this community learn from each other. Continue to

☀Music and Participatory Culture - Instructional Cover Videos Wiki to learn more about how learning occurs within this affinity space!