Technologies of the Musical Selfie

doi:10.1017/9781316676639.009

4 - Technologies of the Musical Selfie

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 August 2019

Sumanth Gopinath and

Jason Stanyek

Edited by

Nicholas Cook ,

Monique M. Ingalls and

David Trippett

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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

selfie selfhood facial analysis playlist curation headphones Spotify Beats by Dre YouTube surveillance

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to Music in Digital Culture , pp. 89 - 118

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316676639.009 [Opens in a new window]

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.CrossRef Google 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.CrossRef Google 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