The iTunization of pop
Mobile music and youth social networks
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v15i1.16737Keywords:
iTunes, music consumption, technology, mobile music, youth cultureAbstract
This article explores the cultural consequences of music on iPhone, iPad and iPod, a context in which youth today use the same digital and online iTunes platform to download, play, store and organize music. iTunes, coupled with smartphones (either iPhones or Android phones) and the availability of other social network sites (e.g. Facebook, YouTube) constitute a set of ready-made tools for young people to connect themselves with music, which serves as a common interest for networking under the context of a new internet culture. In other words, former massmediated music choices are being replaced by the selective choices of peers, who can now use the available platforms and new music technologies to locate their own musical tastes. Based on systematic in-depth interviews and analysis of lists of songs provided by interviewees, the article argues for a process of iTunization—a term describing the cultural phenomenon in which youth of the same cohort store and share much the same music resources, with these resources being quite stable over time.
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Bull, Michael. 2008. Sound Movies: iPod Culture and Urban Experience. London: Routledge.
Burgess, Jean, and Joshua Green. 2009. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Burkart, P. 2006. Digital Music Wars: Ownership and Control of the Celestial Jukebox. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Campbell, M. l. 2008. Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On. Boston, MA: Schirmer.
Chen, C., and R. Chellappa. 2009. ‘Music Sales and Online User Activity at Social Networking Sites’. Paper presented at the fifth symposium of the Heinz College's iLab Center for Digital Media Research, Carnegie Mellon University on Statistical Challenges in Electronic Commerce Research, Pittsburgh, 30-31 May.
Christenson, P., and D. Roberts. 1998. It’s Not Only Rock and Roll: Popular Music in the Lives of Adolescents. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Denisoff, S., and M. Levine. 1970. ‘Generations and Counter-culture: A Study in the Ideology of Music’. Youth and Society 3(1): 33–58.
Fiske, J. 1992. ‘The Cultural Economy of Fandom’. In The Adoring Audience, ed. L. A. Lewis, 30–49. London: Routledge.
Frith, S. 1998. Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gross, J. 2002. An interview with Simon Frith. Perfect Sound Forever, May. http://www.furious.com/perfect/simonfrith.html (accessed 20 January 2013).
Grossberg, L. 1992. ‘The Affective Sensibility of Fandom’. In The Adoring Audience, ed. L. A. Lewis, 50–68. London: Routledge.
Harrison, Anthony Kwame. 2012. ‘Post-colonial Consciousness, Knowledge Production, and Identity Inscription within Filipino American Hip Hop Music’. Perfect Beat 13(1): 29–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v13i1.29
Hefflinger, M. 2010. ‘Report: iPhone Shipments Up 131%: World Market Share Rises’. Cult of Mac, 7 May. http://www.cultofmac.com/42111/first-quarter-iphone-shipments-up-131 (accessed 20 February 2013).
HKFYG. 2010. Digital Mobile Life of Hong Kong Youth. Youth Opinion Survey No. 200. Hong Kong: Youth Research Centre, Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups. http://yrc.hkfyg.org.hk/chi/p200.html (accessed 20 February 2013).
Ito, Mizuko et al. 2009. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kotarba, J., and P. Vannini. 2008. Understanding Society through Popular Music. London: Routledge.
Millward, Steven. 2011. ‘Web, Smartphones and Social Media are Thriving in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau’. TechinAsia. http://www.techinasia.com/web-social-media-hong-kong-taiwan-macau-infographic (accessed 30 September 2013).
Murray, James. 2012. ‘Instagram and Pinterest: The New Global Stars of Social’. Expertian Marketing Record, 22 August, http://www.experian.com/blogs/hitwise-uk/2012/08/22/instagram-and-pinterest-the-new-global-stars-of-social (accessed 30 September 2013).
Ross, A., and T. Rose, eds. 1994. Microphone Friends: Youth Music and Youth Culture. London: Routledge.
Schwichtenberg, C., ed. 1993. The Madonna Connection: Representational Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Segrave, K. 2002. Jukeboxes: An American Social History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.
Shepherd, J., and P. Wicke. 1997. Music and Cultural Theory. Maiden, MA: Polity Press.
Sterne, J. 2003. The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Production. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/9780822384250
Subrahmanyam, K., S. Reich, N. Waechter and G. Espinoza. 2008. ‘Online and Offline Social Networks: Use of Social Networking Sites by Emerging Adults’. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 29(6): 420–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.07.003
Suwa, Junichiro. 2009. ‘Music as Territory: Aksim Siming and Stringband Music in the Madang Area’. Perfect Beat 10(2): 197–219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v10i2.197
Vernallis, Carol. 2004. Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wee, Willis. 2011. ‘Social Media in Asia’. TechinAsia, 24 May. http://www.techinasia.com/social-media-in-asia (accessed 30 September 2013).
Williams, Raymond. 2003. Television: Technology and Cultural Form. New York: Routledge.
Wortham, J. 2007. ‘Bliss in a Box: How iPods Insulate City Dwellers’. Wired, 27 December. http://www.wired.com/gadgets/portablemusic/news/2007/12/bull (accessed 29 March 2013).
Published
2015-03-09
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Fung, A. Y. (2015). The iTunization of pop: Mobile music and youth social networks. Perfect Beat, 15(1), 23-43. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v15i1.16737
