if the past could access facebook.....

Net 102 READING #2

Week 2 Topic 1.1: Music: I Want My MP3
Laughey, D. (2007). Music Media in Young People's Everyday Lives
My review
Laughey, Dan. (2007) discusses in his paper "the lack of research on how (young) people use music media in everyday situations."(p 172) That even though there has been more studies done since, there still isn't a great deal known and surprised that even in economically developed countries more studies haven't been done. He goes on to describe the cultural shift and impact over the past 80 years through the advent of pre-war gramophone use and later post war radio, especially with American musical influences that came across the Atlantic and spread around Europe (early 1930's). Mass produced recorded music was also spread by the advent of the commercial BBC (British Broadcasting Commission) post war (even though commercial radio had begun in America a decade beforehand). Laughey writes that the twenty-first century has greater music availability by a wider array of multimedia formats, i.e. vinyl, cassette, CD players. Mediated music specialists i.e. specialist music television channels, DVD's, karaoke equipment. The internet (including MP3 file sharing sites, fan sites, music news and band sites with interactive discussion forums like MySpace), phones with downloadable ring tones. Not forgetting the ubiquitous iPod.
He draws on empirical research via young focus group interviews and addresses three central themes that emerge from previous studies of music media use. Private and Public. Intensive and Casual. Alternative and Populist.
Public and Private: (user context) Laughey states that "the impact made by music media on a public sphere has been largely neglected by classic youth cultural studies of privatised media use in teenage bedroom cultures (p 176)". That the public and private are closely intertwined and an overlapping of character in public (say on a bus) and private play (in a bedroom) (iPods etc) is a enmeshing of zones. In contrast to codes. (Codes of romance, beauty etc). Intensive and Casual: (involvement) Intensive, an emotional response to which ever song is being heard. Evoking thoughts associated with emotional (bond) events in their lives that the music is associated with, which could also be associated with fan based actions(collecting every single music medium associated with a specific group i.e. vinyl in many forms (bootleg, legitimate)cd's etc. Casual - listening to music that reflects their everyday mood albeit fluctuating and not following any particular artist. The third category Alternative and Populist: (taste) Realising that in the context of clubbing cultures, alternative music followers denote that mass-mediated (populist) music is dismissible and seen as shallow, commercialised, and a sell out to mainstream music tastes. Quite a distinction in a music fan (fanaticism).
My thoughts
What an interesting article. I am glad I read it, interesting that there hasn't been many studies done particularly on youth subculture music use and youth peer music use. I remember being part of a music subculture in Hobart where groups such as The Cure were idolised not only in listening to the music but also emulating the clothing style.
Q. How is music interlaced with our everyday lives in general? What has been the impact of the Internet in the way music is used by young people privately and publicly (and the way this intermingles)?
Addressing the first sentence: (Personally) Music is an integral part of my everyday life. It is there in the soft undertones of background house noise for relaxation, driving in my car for semi distraction, or motivating my gym routine via the use of an iPod. Secondly the impact of the internet has aided the way music is utilised in both personal and public space. Young people are able to access the internet via iPhones whilst in public, but still keep it private by way of earphones. The use of Wi-Fi in the majority of cafes means that they are able to download a new song that has been suggested by another who is doing that same exact thing.
References:
Laughey, D. (2007). Music Media in Young People's Everyday Lives. In Music, Sound and Multimedia: From the Live to the Virtual (pp. 172-187).

NET 102 1.1: I want my MP3's TASK 1.1 (ASSIGNMENT 1):

NET 102 1.1: I want my MP3's TASK 1.1 (ASSIGNMENT 1):

Open up an account with a music discovery and streaming service.
Pandora, Last.fm, or Grooveshark

My account:  http://www.last.fm/listen/user/loulounilly

 Use their tools for discovering new music and other listeners with similar tastes and build upon your profile there. If you have an mp3 player, try to download playlists and music from the service. In your task portfolio, include a link to your profile and not more than 500 words reviewing the service (note: you do not have to write up to 500 words--this is a maximum limit only). For those of you who already have such a profile, describe your profile and how you use it in your everyday life and the role played by the internet on your music listening.

After finding Last.fm and being ‘shouted’

LAST.HQ wrote: Welcome aboard, loulounilly! Happy listening.

I discovered what ‘scrobbing’ actually meant (1) Running a program that tracks songs a person is listening to then uploading to a social network.

I have had infinite trouble navigating and downloading the playlist from Last.fm. I have been unsuccessful in my endeavour to do so.  Last.fm is a streaming site and therefore has been easier to listen to the music "on line. This has been quite inconvenient as unless I take the laptop to an area that has Wi-Fi capabilities I am unable to access the site. Interestingly it is also a pay site after a certain number of songs streaming. You are allowed 30 tracks on the "free" radio before you have to subscribe albeit for only $3.00/month.
The site also plays songs that I have not selected but has "considered my tastes" and that they are within the music genre that I first signed on with. I don't understand how Miley Cyrus can be included in a line up that includes bands such as the clash, the Jam, Souxie and the Banshees and Guns and Roses! My music tastes vary but seem to be mostly post modern rock and punk (80's) and alternative bands of the 70's and 80's. So where does she and Whitney fit in?

 I will not be using last.fm and as such have only built a small profile.  I actually prefer the easy utilisation of iTunes (it seems that last.fm is able to scrob to iTunes) more so now that they have devised a new program that is meant to emulate MySpace which Apple have called PING. The internet has broadened my range of music capacity in that I now have more access to songs that I hadn't heard from in a while and are  able to listen to either in the back ground at home or on my iPod when I'm exercising but utilising iTunes to do so.

References

            Last.fm http://www.last.fm/

(1)    “Scrobbing is the act of running a program that tracks what songs you are listening to and uploads them to a social network such as the website that coined the phrase Last.fm. This is a voluntary action and though it sounds like an invasion of privacy, the users consent to scrobbing so they can compare music tastes with the community and friends.” http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=scrobbing