Telephone
The full paper is available here: https://www.academia.edu/3819637/Spreading_the_cult_body_on_YouTube_A_case_study_of_Telephone_derivative_videos This case study of spreadability analyzes the Lady Gagamusic video "Telephone," which has been appropriated and reworked byYouTube users sharing derivative works online. What properties of the musicvideo stimulate user appropriation? What hybrid audiovisual forms areemerging from its reworking by users? In order to answer these questions,between January and August 2010, I conducted participant observation onLady Gaga's official social network profiles and collected 70 "Telephone"derivative videos on YouTube. I identified three main categories of videocreativity: (1) music (which includes covers, "me singing" videos, musicmashups, and choreography); (2) parody (in which YouTube users andcomedians humorously imitate Gaga, creating spoofs); and (3) fashion (inwhich makeup artists and amateurs appropriate the star's image to createmakeup and hair tutorials). "Telephone" has become spreadable because itintegrates dance music and choreography, costume changes, cinematicreferences, and product placements that work as textual hooks meaningful todifferent target markets: live music, dance, chick, and postmodern cinematiccultures. In particular, Gaga is a cult body that explicitly incorporates previouscinematic and pop music icons. Users are stimulated to reenact Gaga's cultbody online. On YouTube, spreadability is thus strictly related to theappropriation of cult bodies. Fans, comedians, independent musicians,fashionistas, and pop stars construct their own cult bodies by deliberatelyborrowing characteristics from previous media icons and reenacting them inonline videos in order to fulfill their expressive and professional needs.
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Telephone
- 1. Telephone Mania Musical performances and derivative video on YouTube Agnese Vellar Department of Social Sciences Università degli Studi di Torino Workshop on Advanced Research Methods – Sep. 30th 2010 Department of Communication Studies – University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”.
- 2. Music cultures in the Web 2.0 derivative works transmedia brand appropriation Recording industry Music fans grassroot promotion Spreading: “consumers do not simply pass along static content; they transform the content so that it better serves their own social and expressive needs”. (Jenkins et al., 2009) music star
- 3. A case study on Telephone derivative videos (70) users’ profile popular culture Music (40) Fashion (12) Parody (18) Lady Gaga Haus of Gaga (Lamerichs, 2008; Lange, 2008; Burgess & Green, 2009)
- 4. Serial music short films as cult text product placement merchandise Paparazzi (7’ 10’’) "To Be Continued..." Telephone (9’ 34’’) cinematic quotation Auterism, endessly deferred narrative, hyperdiegesis (Hills, 2002)
- 5. a) music amateursemi-proprofessional Live medeley (2) “me singing” (8) Coreography (8) Cover (11) acapella acustic instrumental Pro (4/11) Semi pro (7/11) Remix (9) mash-up (2)
- 6. From “Me singing” to “Cover” amateurcommercial fans Independent getting attention online expressing their passions #43 - Most Subscribed (All Time) - Musicians karaoke
- 7. b) Parody amateur YouTube star “spoof” (parody by imitation) “Bananaphone” pro Repetition based on difference and self-reflexivity. Create awareness of a cultural repertoire: moking at certain conventions reaffirm them (Lamerichs, 2008) semi-pro The telephone object as a spreadable logo (appropriation + recreation in different versions)
- 8. YouTube Star #20 – Most subscribed (all time) Behind the scenes Vlogging: commenting comments parody paratexts “Weekly musical comedy show spoofing celebrities, pop-culture and the latest internet memes.”
- 9. c) Fashion amateur remix tutorial pro make up tutorial hair tutorial Video blogging: dialogic model
- 10. Make up artist #17 - Most Subscribed (All Time) – (Gurus) & EnKorinne parody vlogging ibridation
- 11. Spreadable video Music Parody Fashion derivative video Music(al) culture YouTube culture stardom/fandom choreography look humor + vlogging
- 12. “Performative consumption” in the Web 2.0 stardom cult body The mimicry and impersonation are intrinsic to the phenomenon of stardom; it is not only fans who impersonate their idols: the stars themselves also self- consiusly borrow from prior celebrites (Hills, 2002, p. 164) fandom costuming - impersonation culture and technological platform New genre (spoof, make up tutoria, …) + More visibility (persistency replicability scalability searchability )
- 13. Getting pro
- 14. reinforce parodic or emulative derivative video Lady Gaga stardom Telephone stardom YouTube users gain visibility stardom previusly cult text and cult body UGC
Editor's Notes
- Nella cultura convergente, l’emergere di un flusso di contenuti generati dagli utenti (UGC), apre nuove opportunità per lo studio delle relazioni tra produttori e consumatori mediali. La naturale predisposizione dei fan ad appropriarsi dei contenuti prodotti professionalmente per creare “opere derivate”, può infatti diventare uno strumento di promozione grassroot. Nel settore discografico un caso esemplare di relazione simbiotica tra artisti e fan è Lady Gaga, una star musicale transmediale creata dalla House of Gaga e performata dalla cantautrice Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Per comprendere la relazione tra le performance video-musicali di Lady Gaga e la produzione grassroot, ho analizzato 70 UGC derivati dall’appropriazione di Telephone (singolo e videoclip di successo transnazionale durante la primavera 2010) e condivisi in YouTube. Il videoclip stimola tre forme di ri-creazione da parte dei fan: (i) parodiche, (ii) musicali (fan e musicisti semi-professionisti performano nuove interpretazioni della canzone originale quali “re-singings”, cover, live medley, DJ remixes e coreografie), e (iii) fashion (make up artist e fan si appropriano dell’immagine della star per creare “make up tutorial”). L’analisi qualitativa dei “video derivati” ha consentito di identificare alcuni generi di UGC emergenti in YouTube e di ipotizzare le motivazioni che inducono i fan a ri-creare, sia attraverso l’emulazione che la parodia, le performance di star musicali. Tuttavia, per comprendere, da un lato, il ruolo dei video derivati nella cultura audiovisiva di YouTube, dall’altro l’impatto della performatività grassroot nella promozione della star Lady Gaga, sarà necessario integrare tecniche di analisi quantitativa. Il dialogo tra l’analisi del contenuto degli UGC audiovisivi e l’analisi dei network sociali che emergono attorno ad essi, potrebbero ad esempio consentire di monitorare le evoluzioni geografiche e temporali e comprendere dunque le specificità locali della creatività audiovisiva grassroot, piuttosto che testare la sedimentazione (o al contrario, verificare la volatilità) delle icone audiovisive costruite dall’industria dell’intrattenimento.