Monthly Archives: October 2018

Class meeting #9 – Interactive music visualizations – Monday 10/29

Readings:

Collins, Karen. 2013. “Implications of Interactivity.” In The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics. https://www.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199733866.013.0011.
Darley, Andrew. 2000. Visual Digital Culture: Surface Play and Spectacle in New Media Genres. London; New York: Routledge. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/columbia/detail.action?docID=165889.
Moseley, Roger. 2013. “Playing Games with Music (and Vice Versa): Ludomusicological Perspectives on Guitar Hero and Rock Band.” In Taking It to the Bridge: Music as Performance, edited by Nicholas Cook and Richard Pettengill. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Response:

Watch this short video review of the PC version of Dylan Fitterer’s video game Audiosurf (2008), and using ideas from the assigned readings, compare and contrast the experience of playing Audiosurf with that of Guitar Hero and/or Rock Band (described in Moseley). Your short (150-200) response may touch on how varying degrees of “interactivity” (as understood by Collins) are afforded by each game’s distinct mechanics, questions of immersion/virtuality, the (percieved) difference between active and passive listening, and/or score vs. audio-based visualization techniques.

Class meeting #8 – Music in video games – WEDNESDAY 10/24

Originally due for Monday 10/22

Readings:

Cheng: Introduction and Chapter 2 only

Summers, Tim. 2016. “Analyzing Video Game Music: Sources, Methods and a Case Study.” In Ludomusicology: Approaches to Video Game Music, edited by Michiel Kamp, Tim Summers, and Mark Sweeney. Genre, Music and Sound. Sheffield, UK ; Bristol, CT: Equinox Publishing.
Cheng, Willam. 2014. Sound Play: Video Games and the Musical Imagination. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199969968.001.0001.

Response:

Many of the games consoles that were once used to play the games described in these pieces are no longer available or are only available at great cost to collectors. As a result, researchers sometimes use emulators to reproduce some of the experience of these games. In a short (150-200 word) response, reflect on what is lost when emulators are used in the study of video game music. If possible, refer to one or two specific moments in the readings that you think could have been enriched with reference to the “non-emulable” aspects of playing video games.

Class meeting #7 – Online music and sound communities – Monday 10/15

Readings:

Thelwall, Mike. 2018. “Social Media Analytics for YouTube Comments: Potential and Limitations.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 21 (3): 303–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2017.1381821.
Born, Georgina, and Christopher Haworth. 2017. “From Microsound to Vaporwave: Internet-Mediated Musics, Online Methods, and Genre.” Music and Letters 98 (4): 601–47. https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/article/689473.

Optional

Andersen, Joceline. 2015. “Now You’ve Got the Shiveries: Affect, Intimacy, and the ASMR Whisper Community.” Television & New Media 16 (8): 683–700. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476414556184.

Response:

How can the methodology described in Thelwall (2018) be used to supplement the investigation of Born and Haworth (2017)?

In your short response you may consider some of the following questions:

  • Do you think that Thelwall would approve of the use of their method in this context?
  • If not, what problems can you imagine that they would find with such a technique?
  • Do you think that Born and Haworth would accept conclusions drawn from the use of CFTC?
  • If not, what problems can you imagine that they would find with such a technique?

 

Class meeting #6 – YouTube and the music video – Monday 10/8

Readings:

Link to Vernallis (2010)

Link to Harper (2016) if you are having trouble getting access through the library

Vernallis, Carol. 2010. “Music Video and YouTube: New Aesthetics and Generic Transformations: Case Study - Beyonce’s and Lady Gaga’s Video Phone.” In Rewind, Play, Fast Forward: The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video, edited by Henry Keazor and Thorsten Wübbena. Cultural and Media Studies. Bielefeld: Transcript.
Schäfer, Mirko Tobias, and Frank Kessler. 2009. “Navigating Youtube: Constituting a Hybrid Information Management System.” In The YouTube Reader, 275–91. Stockholm: National Library of Sweden. http://mtschaefer.net/entry/navigating-youtube/.
Harper, Paula. 2016. “‘Unmute This’: Captioning an (Audio)Visual Microgenre.” The Soundtrack 9 (1): 7–23. https://doi.org/10.1386/ts.9.1-2.7_1.

Response:

Write a short (150-200 word) response describing a YouTube video of your choice with a significant musical/audio component (e.g. a music video), focusing on how the disposition of your chosen video on that particular platform changes how you might experience the same video if viewed elsewhere (e.g. on a television screen, on the cinema screen, as a download…). In your answer, you can consider any aspect of the platform: the use of video compression, the commenting system, recommended videos, pre-roll ads etc.

Supplementary:

Links to Internet Archive/Wayback Machine snapshots of Beyoncé user page and YouTube video (c. December 18, 2009)