Table of Contents

Preface
Jay Bolter, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Introduction: “I feel like I’ve heard it before”: The Musical Echoes of YouTube
Holly Rogers, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, Joana Freitas, CESEM - NOVA FCSH, Portugal, and João Francisco Porfírio, CESEM - NOVA FCSH, Portugal
1. “Technology allows more people to do things”: Artificial Intelligence, Mashups and Online Musical Creativity
Christine Boone, University of North Carolina Asheville, USA, and Brian Drawert, University of North Carolina Asheville, USA
2. From Contagion to Imitation: On Bass Drop Memes, Trolling Repertoires and the Legacy of Gabriel Tarde
Edward Katrak Spencer, University of Oxford, UK
3. Sincere, Authentic, Remediated: The Affective Labour and Cross Cultural Remediations of Music Video Reaction Videos on YouTube
Michael Goddard, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
4. Internet Archiving: The Many Lives of Songs in the YouTube Age
Henrik Smith Sivertsen, Royal Danish Library, Denmark
5. Listening Through Social Media: Soundscape Composition, Collaboration and Networked Sonic Elongation
Holly Rogers, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
6. “Only people with good imagination usually listens to this kind of music”: On the Convergence of Musical Tags, Video Games and YouTube in the Epic Genre
Joana Freitas, CESEM - NOVA FCSH, Portugal
7. Of Clouds and Vapors: Transcending Ironic Distance in Networked Composition
Jonas Wolf, GCSC, Justus-Liebig Universität Gießen, Germany
8. Performing Beyond the Platform: Experiencing Musicking On and Through YouTube, TikTok and Instagram
Juan Bermúdez, University of Vienna, Austria
9. Library Music as the Soundtrack of YouTube
Júlia Durand, CESEM - NOVA FCSH, Portugal
10. Meme and Variations: How Video Mashups of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps Became a Thing
Scott B. Spencer, University of Southern California, USA
11. ‘Spinning Straw Into Gold’: Nacho Video and the Exquisite Corpse of Fan-editing
Lisa Perrott, University of Waikato, New Zealand
12. Music Videos as Protest Communication
Olu Jenzen, The University of Brighton, UK, Itir Erhart, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey, Hande Eslen-Ziya, University of Stavanger, Norway, Umut Korkut, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK, Aidan McGarry, Loughborough University, UK, and Derya Güçdemir, Independent Scholar, Turkey

Index

Promotional Information

An exploration of YouTube as a platform for remix, reuse, and sampling

About the Author

Holly Rogers is Reader in Music at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. She is author of Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art-Music (2013) and Twentieth Century Music (2021). She is editor of Music and Sound in Documentary Film (2014), The Music and Sound of Experimental Film (2017), Transmedia Directors: Artistry, Industry and New Audiovisual Aesthetics (Bloomsbury, 2019), Cybermedia (Bloomsbury, 2021) and The Cambridge Companion to Music Video (2022). Holly is one of the founding editors of Bloomsbury’s New Approaches to Sound, Music and Media series and is the founding director of MIT’s journal, Sonic Scope: New Approaches to Audiovisual Culture.

Joana Freitas is a PhD student in Musicology at NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal, and a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Sociology and Aesthetics of Music on video game music, audiovisual media and cybercommunities. She recently organised the international conference “Like, Subscribe, Share: YouTube, Music and Cyberculture” in Lisbon (2020).

João Francisco Porfírio is a PhD student in Musicology at NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal, and a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Sociology and Aesthetics of Music on domestic soundscapes and music in everyday life. He recently organised the international conference “Like, Subscribe, Share: YouTube, Music and Cyberculture” in Lisbon (2020).

Reviews

This essential book unveils critical approaches to how YouTube has revolutionized the way we (re)create, (re)mix and (re)use sound, music and the moving image in the digital age. The editors and contributors explore innovative and collaborative music practices and trends that pulsate within audiovisual and streaming cultures, including its connection for all users involved, and its influence on contemporary societies, cultures and politics. Remediating Sound: Repeatable Culture, YouTube and Music is an important book for scholars seeking to unravel the entwined worlds of music and digital cultures.
*Shara Rambarran, Senior Lecturer in Music, Business, and Media, University of Brighton, UK, and author of Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era (Bloomsbury, 2021)*

For two decades YouTube has both driven and showcased the emerging genres and aesthetics of new digital media. Central to such media is remediation, the transformation of sounds and moving images as they migrate from one genre, platform or technology to another: the result is a cultural practice in which collage, montage and quotation play an essential role, with fixed works and meanings giving way to dynamic, multimodal networking and emergent meaning. Based on the reworking and transformation of existing materials, creativity is redefined as social interaction. Held together by the focus on YouTube, and encompassing a wide range of digital practices and genres – from fanvidding and reaction videos to protest videos, SoundCloud rap and vaporwave – this multi-authored volume is an indispensable and cutting-edge guide to a technological, social and aesthetic phenomenon that has become a core dimension of life in the 21st century.
*Nicholas Cook, Emeritus Professor of Music, University of Cambridge, UK*