UPDATE:
As I reread my proposal against other students' ideas, I understand that the breadth of my subject might be too much for the undertaking. To narrow, I believe I am going to focus specifically on the idea of iPods and personal identity. Through interviews, field research, and historical readings, I will attempt to outline some of the aforementioned changing trends in personal identity by interviewing young people about the contents of their iPods, how they use this music, and how they identify with both the music and the technology. As a point of contrast, I will also interview older adults about their record collections and analog technologies. Within these interviews, I aim to address subjects such as personal choice, emotion, identification, musical geography, cultural boundaries, distribution, and other aspects of music that affect personal identity.
Added source ideas:
Tia DeNora, "Music as a technology of the self"
Steven Levy, The perfect thing: how the iPod shuffles commerce, culture, and coolness
Chris Anderson, "The Long Tail"
Mark Levine, "Pandora Maps the Musical Genome"
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Steve, this is a very important topic and I think you're beginning to narrow it down to something that's doable for this class. Your previous topic would have been ambitious even as the proposed subject of a Ph.D. dissertation, so I'm glad you're already refining it without prompting from me. As you might expect, I have many, many relevant references for a topic of this kind. For a start, you might browse some of the readings in my Music and Technoculture syllabus (see the download link on the wiki). I know there have also been recent SEM and/or IASPM-US conference panels devoted to the iPod, so that would be something to investigate (if you can find the names/institutions of the presenters, you may be able to email them and request copies of not-yet-published work).
ReplyDeleteI love it. Actually, when I was on a cruise in Canada, I was running on the treadmill while watching a documentary about Steve Jobs and they talked about how, more so than the accessibility of the Pod itself, the white earbuds were what drove the iPod craze. Immediately people could recognize each other on the street, knew that they were listening to iPods, felt a sense of connection and intimacy in a cold, dark city, that otherwise could never be felt.
ReplyDeleteBut in terms of iPod content, that is cool too. Especially because the iPod+iTunes market have been argued by some to be the sole destroyer of the music industry in addition to a key shaper in how we listen to music today. I cannot wait to learn more about this!!