The Participatory Culture of Interpersonal Music Sharing

## Overview

As true with any other form of culture, music defines those
who listen to it. But do you remember how you came across your favorite song?
Perhaps it was a product of a suggestion based on your prior listening habits?
Meaning it was brought to your attention by an algorithm that predicted your
tastes correctly. Or it may have been showed to you by a friend? Meaning your
friend saw it as media worthy of spreading. In this post, I aim to explain how
subjectively new music comes into the lives of its listeners or discoverers.

## Spreading Music Interpersonally

Beginning with the latter of the two, whereas Jenkins
would describe a song as a piece of ‘spreadable media’ in "[it doesnt spread its dead p 5.html|If It Doesn't Spread , Its Dead (Part 6)]*”.* In this passage, [Jenkins|Jenkins](the author)
lists a few traits well-spread media tends to have in common, the first of
which being the capacity for a piece of media to “articulate the experiences
and values that identify oneself as belong to a particular community”. In 2014,
the song “[o|Glory]”, by the rapper Common and recording artist, John Legend was
released as the theme song for the movie *“[(film)|Selma]”*,
a movie based on the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. The song details trials faced
by the African-American community culminating with the current racial climate
where blacks are held equal to whites in society. The song refers to the
listeners as ‘we’ and the glory of success in becoming equal as ‘ours’. This is
obviously aimed at a particular group of listeners, namely the black community
in addition to other equal rights advocates and bolsters comradery in calling
for strength and a united community in fighting the “sins against our
skin”(alluding to the conflict in Ferguson which was at large at the time of
the song’s production). Jenkins also mentions a particular media’s capacity to
“gather information and explain difficult to understand events or
circumstances” as another trait which makes media more likely to be shared,
which the song does possess in explaining the trials of the black community to
outgroups, in addition to shining light on the mentality to Civil Rights
leaders such as [Luther King, Jr.|Martin Luther King Jr]. and [Parks|Rosa Parks] in Common’s verses. The
third trait Jenkins lists is the media’s ability to “establish the boundaries
of an ‘in-group’”, which is done blatantly done through the use of the words
“us” and “our” in reference to the racial community.

### **For Example**

Let’s say you’re a member of another
community, for example, the ever increasing population of bullied youths, a
song such as “[Love]” by Eminem may speak to you on these levels because it
bolsters comradery around those in such a state by showing how bullied kids

are
not alone, and that even high-profile artists such as [Wayne|Lil Wayne] and [[1]] (who
are exemplars of toughness) have been in those same shoes. It displays the
difficult to understand circumstances plaguing these individuals who often lack
a voice for themselves, and establishes an in-group of the oppressed against
their oppressors in the “fuck what *they* say”
lines reminding listeners that they are not the insults they receive from the
out-group.

## Sources

* Jenkins, Henry. "If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s

Dead (Part Six): Spread­able Con­tent." *Confessions of an AcaFan*.
23 Feb. 2009. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.

* Jenkins,

Henry. "Why Participatory Culture Is Not Web 2.0." *Confessions of*
an AcaFan*. 4 May 2010. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.*

* Beer, David. "Chapter 4. Algorithms: Shaping Tastes

and Manipulating the Circulations of Popular Culture pages 63–100" *Popular Culture and New Media the*
Politics of Circulation*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 63-100*