"Thank You for Sharing this Fantastic Performance": Meaning and Form in Transmedia Persona Construction of YouTube Drummers

Christofer Jost

doi:10.21153/psj2024vol10no1art1870

Authors

Christofer Jost University of Freiburg, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/psj2024vol10no1art1870

Abstract

YouTube is one of the most important music media in the world today. Musical practice is reflected there in a variety of forms, from sound recordings to music videos to tutorials. The media environment that YouTube creates as a platform inscribes itself – to some degree – in the actions of those who use it. This is also the case with the YouTube drummer phenomenon, which this article examines in more detail in terms of the interplay between persona construction, music-making, media presentation, and transmedia content concatenation. The thesis is pursued that the practice of YouTube drummers creates a singular interference space of conventions, modes of action, and social roles, which in some places has novelty value with regard to music-related persona constructions and their implementation in platform-based audiovisual media, and which transcends media boundaries. The specificity of the persona construction essentially results from the mediating position of the drum-playing actors: they are not only performers who, like social media influencers, push into the light of publicity, but at the same time musical experts and instructors, quasi-curatorial music communicators who select, prepare, and present music of the past, and intermediaries of the corporeality of popular music. The analyses presented are based on exploratory investigations of the YouTube drummer field itself and a case study.

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