Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:46:57.280Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Technologies of the Musical Selfie

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2019

By
Sumanth Gopinath  and
Jason Stanyek
Edited by
Nicholas Cook ,
Monique M. Ingalls  and
David Trippett
Nicholas Cook
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Monique M. Ingalls
Affiliation:
Baylor University, Texas
David Trippett
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

The photographic selfie that bulks so large in popular digital culture has given rise to a musical equivalent, in which a facial image is analysed into a set of features used to generate a sonic output – the musical selfie. Michel Foucault coined the phrase ‘technologies of the self’, and Tia DeNora applied it to music, but the musical selfie reveals a different conception of selfhood that relates to many other aspects of digital culture – a conception that is both performative and intimately linked to technology. This chapter explores the musical selfie from three perspectives, in each case a digital form that is linked to a key technological platform and a key practice. These are: the playlist, linked to Spotify and the practice of curation; headphone listening, linked to Beats by Dre and enclosure; and the self-produced video, linked to YouTube and broadcasting. Seen in this light, digital selfhood (or selfiehood) is generated in relation to other selves and through shared activities, and closely linked to such fundamental features of digital culture as self-quantification, algocracy and surveillance.

Keywords

selfieselfhoodfacial analysisplaylistcurationheadphonesSpotifyBeats by DreYouTubesurveillance
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Music in Digital Culture , pp. 89 - 118
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

For Further Study

DeNora, Tia. 1999. ‘Music as a technology of the self ’. Poetics 27(1): 31–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drott, Eric. 2018. ‘Music as a technology of surveillance’. Journal of the Society for American Music 12(3): 233–67.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1988. ‘Technologies of the self ’. In Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault, edited by Martin, Luther, Gutman, Huck and Hutton, Patrick, 16–49. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Gopinath, Sumanth and Stanyek, Jason. 2013. ‘Tuning the human race: Athletic capitalism and the Nike+ sport kit’. In Music, Sound and Space: Transformations of Public and Private Experience, edited by Born, Georgina, 128–48. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rose, Nicholas. 1996. Inventing Ourselves: Psychology, Power and Personhood. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senft, Theresa M. and Baym, Nancy K.. 2015. ‘What does the selfie say? Investigating a global phenomenon’. International Journal of Communication 9: 1588–606. (Introduction to featured section on ‘Selfies’, 1588–872.)Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×