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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
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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

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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

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