Living Life Through Youtube
After reading Lingel and Naaman's (2012) You Should Have Been There, Man: Live Music DIY Content and Online Communities, I have some thoughts to share!
The Study
Lingel and Naaman (2012) wanted to find out motivations for and the practice of taking and sharing videos of live music concerts. DIY (do-it-yourself) videos have become popular and are used to document the Youtuber's experience at the concert and to share it with the world and fan communities. Youtube has become part of a notion called gift economies, meaning users post content and devote their time and energy in order to share without expectations of compensation; they are gifting their content. The study had 10 participants that were considered "DIY video producers" (found through Youtube); half of the participants filmed mainstream, large concert venues and the other half filmed Indie music in smaller venues with less of a following.
This study sought to find out three main questions:
1) What are the motivations for recording these DIY videos (at concerts)?
2) What practices are used to take and share these videos on Youtube?
3) What roles do these videos and the video producers play in the online communities?
There is Sacrifice Involved...
The DIY video producers have to sacrifice some of their experience as they record some of the concert for later sharing on Youtube. Some of the participants mentioned that they have plans and strategies when they record at a concert and tend to record the first song and favourite songs of bands. Some of the DIY video producers brought up the obstacles, which included stigma of videoing during a concert and concert security that either prohibit some cameras or discourage recording.
It can be Motivating...
So, why bother videoing during the concert if it takes away from the experience of actually being there. DIY video producers in the study say that the videos are a great memory and are like journal entries or scrapbooking; they want to look back on the videos and remember going. The DIY videos become artifacts, that can also be shared with a wider community and allow others, who were not able to or could not afford to attend, to experience the performance through Youtube.
There is Nothing like Community...
The study participants were motivated to take and share their concert videos because they become 'fanvids' and foster relationships between fans and the Youtube posters. The participants in the study share that they have been the ones on the other side, waiting in anticipation for someone else to upload and share a video of a specific song by a band being played in concert. Sometimes, collaborative archiving takes place where commenters name the songs in the video or add information to the concert footage. Often, DIY video producers will share their footage in other platforms and fan communities and it becomes a large pool of sharing- it is a way to connect and collaborate with like-minded music enthusiasts. Among some of the smaller Indie music DIY video producers, they enjoyed the connection to the bands and shared that occasionally, they will contact the bands to seek permission for posting. In this way, the video producers have a role in promoting the band's music. These DIY concert videos provide a 'point of contact' between individual users, fan communities and (in some cases) bands.
My Thoughts
At first, I was wondering why Youtube users would prefer to watch and share DIY videos of concerts, but as I began to read the anecdotal evidence of the study participants, I began to see the beauty in the perspectives of a DIY video. I realized that when I want to watch an experience that I wish I could have experienced myself, I prefer the DIY videos that are real and authentic, rather than the professional ones that seem cold and distant from what I would be experiencing if I was there.
Before going to places or events, I would watch DIY Youtube videos to get myself excited. I love being able to watch someone walking around Universal, going on a ride and videoing their experience from their perspective. I prefer DIY videos to professionally made videos because it feels more like I am there.
There have been so many times (especially during the pandemic) where I have thought about Disney or Universal Studios, vacationing and going to concerts, and how much I miss all of those things. So, what do I do? I run to Youtube to find a DIY video and I put it to full screen and I enjoy. I go to the comment section and read through to see if people are here at the video for the same reasons and I find my own little community in those comments. Youtube and 'vlogging' (video blogging) have allowed Youtube users to live life through Youtube.
This blog post reminded me of one of the interesting websites that we've tried in one of my classes. Here's the website: https://www.window-swap.com/! I really liked the concept in this website which opens a random window across the globe! Have you heard about this before?
ReplyDeleteHi Omer, this is one of the coolest things I have seen, what an incredible idea! During the early pandemic days, there was lots of sharing related to this 'experiencing life through your computer and I found two really neat sites. One is called Drive and Listen: https://driveandlisten.herokuapp.com/ where you can choose a car driving in a part of the world and it will play its local radio while you watch (like you are in a car). The other is called, I Miss My Cafe: https://imissmycafe.com/ where you can adjust certain sounds of a coffee shop to make it seem like you are at your favourite coffee shop. I love how creative people are and how open they are to sharing. Thanks for sharing!
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