The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality

by Sheila Whiteley, Shara Rambarran

Overview

Has the virtual invaded the realm of the real, or has the real expanded its definition to include what once was characterized as virtual? With the continual evolution of digital technology, this distinction grows increasingly hazy. But perhaps the distinction has become obsolete; perhaps it is time to pay attention to the intersections, mutations, and transmigrations of the virtual and the real. Certainly it is time to reinterpret the practice and study of music. The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality, edited by Sheila Whiteley and Shara Rambarran, is the first book to offer a kaleidoscope of interdisciplinary perspectives from scholars around the globe on the way in which virtuality mediates the dissemination, acquisition, performance, creation, and reimagining of music.

The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality addresses eight themes that often overlap and interact with one another. Questions of the role of the audience, artistic agency, individual and communal identity, subjectivity, and spatiality repeatedly arise. Authors specifically explore phenomena including holographic musicians and virtual bands, and the benefits and detriments surrounding the free circulation of music on the internet. In addition, the book investigates the way in which fans and musicians negotiate gender identities as well as the dynamics of audience participation and community building in a virtual environment. The handbook rehistoricizes the virtual by tracing its progression from cartoons in the 1950s to current industry innovations and changes in practice. Well-grounded and wide-reaching, this is a book that students of any number of disciplines, from Music to Cultural Studies, have awaited.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190061906
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2019
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	720
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

The late Sheila Whiteley was Professor Emeritus (the University of Salford, UK) and a Research Fellow at the Bader International Study Centre, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada. She is author of Too Much Too Young: Popular Music, Age and Identity (2005).

Shara Rambarran is an Assistant Professor of Music and Cultural Studies at the Bader International Study Centre, Queen's University, Canada. Shara gained her PhD in Music and Cultural Studies at the University of Salford.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
Companion Website and List of Musical Examples
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements

Preface
Andy Bennett

Introduction
Sheila Whiteley

PART 1 The Pre-Digital Virtual
Introduction
1 In Seventeenth Heaven: Virtual Listening and its Discontents
Christian Lloyd
2 Nothing is Real: The Beatles as Virtual Performers
Philip Auslander and Ian Inglis
3 Tom, Jerry and the Virtual Virtuoso
Sheila Whiteley
4 Bring that Beat Back: Sampling as Virtual Collaboration
Rowan Oliver
5 An Analysis of Virtuality in the Creation and Reception of the Music of Frank Zappa
Paul Carr

PART 2 Vocaloids, Holograms and Virtual Pop Stars
Introduction
6 Vocaloids and Japanese Virtual Vocal Performance: The Cultural Heritage and Technological Futures of Vocal Puppetry
Louise H. Jackson and Mike Dines
7 Hatsune Miku and Japanese Virtual Idols
Rafal Zaborowski
8 Hatsune Miku, 2.0Pac and Beyond: Rewinding and Fast-Forwarding the Virtual Pop Star
Thomas Conner
9 "Feel Good" with Gorillaz and "Reject False Icons": The Fantasy Worlds of the Virtual Group and their Creators
Shara Rambarran

PART 3 Second Life
Introduction
10 Avatar Rockstars: Constructing Musical Personae in Virtual Worlds
Trevor S. Harvey
11 Performing Live in Second Life
Justin Gagen and Nicholas Cook
12 Live Opera Performance in Second Life: Challenging Producers, Performers and the Audience
Marco Antonio Chávez-Aguayo

PART 4 Authorship, Creativity and Musicianship
Introduction
13 We Are, The Colors: Collaborative Narration and the Experimental Construction of a Non-Existent Band
Alon Ilsar and Charles Fairchild
14 Music in Perpetual Beta: Composition, Remediation, and 'Closure'
Paul Draper and Frank Millward
15 Justin Bieber Featuring Slipknot: Consumption as Mode of Production
Ragnhild Brøvig-Hanssen
16 Human After All: Understanding Negotiations of Artistic Identity through the Music of Daft Punk
Cora S. Palfy
17 Virtual Bands: Recording Music Under the Big Top
David Tough

PART 5 Communities and the World-Wide-Web
Introduction
18 "Uploading" to Carnegie Hall: The First YouTube Symphony Orchestra
Shzr Ee Tan
19 The Listener as Remixer: Mix Stems in Online Fan Community and Competition Contexts
Samantha Bennett
20 Sample Sharing: Virtual Laptop Ensemble Communities
Benjamin O'Brien
21 Stone Tapes: Ghost Box, Nostalgia, and Post-War England
David Pattie
22 From Hypnagogia to Distroid: Postironic Musical Renderings of Personal Memory
Adam Trainer
23 Bands in Virtual Spaces, Social Networking and Masculinity
Danijela Bogdanovic

PART 6 Sonic Environments and Musical Experience
Introduction
24 From Environmental Sound To Virtual Environment Enhancing: Consuming Ambiance as Listening Practice
Thomas Brett
25 App Music
Jeremy Wade Morris
26 Alternative Virtuality. Independent Micro Labels Facing the Ideological Challenge of Virtual Music Culture: The Case of Finnish Ektro Records
Juho Kaitajärvi-Tiekso
27 Everybody Knows There is Here: Surveying the Indexi-Local in CBC Radio 3
Michael Audette-Longo
28 Mind Usurps Program: Virtuality and the "New Machine Aesthetic" of Electronic Dance Music
Benjamin Halligan

PART 7 Participatory Culture and Fundraising
Introduction
29 Virtual Music, Virtual Money: The Impact of Crowdfunding Models on Creativity, Authorship and Identity
Mark Thorley
30 With a Little Help From My Friends, Family and Fans. DIY, Participatory Culture and Social Capital in Music Crowdfunding
Francesco D'Amato
31 Music and Crowdfunded Websites: Digital Patronage and Artist-Fan Interactivity
Justin Williams and Ross Wilson

PART 8 Authors' Blog: Final Thoughts on Music and Virtuality
Ed. Paul Carr

PART 9 Glossary
Ed. Shara Rambarran
Index

Editorial Reviews

"[The Oxford Handbook of] Music and Virtuality is a strong contribution to the literature on popular music and on computers and technology more broadly. Recommended."—Choice

From the Publisher