Yuri Choi
Introduction
Digital
convergence is a flow of new technologies merging with existing media; in other
words, old media is transformed into new digital platforms as a method of enhancing
the consumers’ experiences of various contents (Dwyer 2010, p. 4). According to
Dwyer (2010, p.8-9), the effects of digital media convergence has propelled the
social, cultural and economic change; moreover, it has re-shaped the features
of many industries, especially, online music video media. The convergence of
music and television industries of MTV has changed the way of listening to
music (Temporal 2008, p.2), and new Internet devices and software programs such
as Youtube and ITunes has spawned a resurgence of the music industry by playing
music videos online (Hilderbrand 2007, p.48). Furthermore, as Jenkins (2006,
p.3) mentions, the creation of such programs encouraged consumers’ active
participation to exchange information and interact with each other; thus,
various forms of music videos has been generated.
MTV, YouTube and music video industry
A music video is a short film illustrates a song with images on screen for artistic purposes (Temporal 2008, p.2); accordingly, it can be seen a convergence culture as audio and visual effects are combined. The first music video of MTV was The Buggles’ “Video killed the radio star”. Since MTV found the business potential of the new music form, many videos were highly released and MTV could be one of the leading global youth brands (Temporal 2008, p.5).
And, YouTube, founded in 2005, is a video sharing
website and its exchangeable and documentary features have hugely impact on
online music video industry. In the past, people could record a video, copy the
tape with using a traditional media, video cameras and watch the video at home
by television; however, free and limited uploading and sharing videos are
appeared on the new media, YouTube. Also, it enables consumers to broadcast
their life, share the videos and give some comments each other (Hiderbrand 2007,
p.54). For example, people can rate the uploaded video by clicking ‘like’ or
‘dislike’ and add it into the favorite list if they like it; accordingly, the
video can be played anytime on the list without the number of limitation.
Consequently, those systems of YouTube expanded the growth of online music
video business due to the fact that the music videos can be streamed easily by
anyone according to individual taste. It was revolutionary because only
television could decide when and how many times a music video would be played
and the only thing that the audience could was to watch the videos literally in
the past (Burgess & Green 2009, p.15).
MTV firstly converged television with the music video industry by combining the sound and visual effects of a song, then the Internet promoted the interaction between consumers and technologies (Temporal 2008, p.2-3). According to Dwyer (2010, p17), the creation of social networking websites can also explain the relationship between digital convergence and online music videos because it enables people to communicate easily. For example, a recommended music video from YouTube is uploaded on Facebook; then, a viewer makes some commentaries and evaluate by clicking ‘like’ button or not about the video. Also, the video can be shown on the viewer’s Facebook as well by just adding a tag. Consequently, the consumers can interact with each other about their preferences and swiftly share the opinions via digital convergent online music websites. Additionally, YouTube offers several charts of online music videos according to the popularity; so, people can also check the famous music videos recently. Here is a link shows the chart; http://www.youtube.com/channel/HCcCivR4nS5p0. In this sense, two converged features are shown because not only people can control the streaming of music videos online, but also can comprehend the trend of the industry on YouTube simultaneously.
Participatory Culture
The digital media convergence in this new era of music videos drives the birth of participatory media as well. It allows individuals to creatively express themselves within the online environment; accordingly, the borders that existed between the filmmaker, artist and the consumer have been blurred (Barker, D 2010, p.142). As a result, the digital media convergence boosts a huge increase of user-generated music videos and the creation of new music video styles. Lo-fi production is one of the common examples and it is used to give a home-made feeling and the artists emphasize the concept of the video rather than the video equipment and techniques (Barker, D. 2010, pp.143-144). The video “Here it goes again” of Ok Go directed by James Frost is an example of a music video uses the lo-fi techniques. It has now streamed 14,464,629 times (31 Aug, 2012) and it could be a huge sensation in the world because of YouTube’s popularity and its main structures of streaming music videos. Here is another music video "End love" of Ok Go represents lo-fi production.
As Hilderbrand (2007, p.54) states,
online music videos would no longer have the ability to gain this level of
attention on the Internet without the effects of digital media convergence. The
convergence of media formats has also resulted in the creation of more innovative
marketing methods of music videos (Dwyer 2010, pp.18-20) and Jason Mraz is one of artists used YouTube
for marketing. Last April, Jason Mraz proposed a cover song contest to upload
home-made videos of singing his songs for celebrating new released album, “Love
is a four letter world”. It can be seen a convergence culture that the
publicity activities of the music video and the interaction with music fans
exist together by YouTube marketing.
According to YouTube Hot 100 list on 31 August, 2012, “Gangnam style” of PSY, a Korean singer, has firstly
been lanked and played 77,875,884 times. The main reason why the unpopular
Asian singer high-ranked over Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Maroon 5 was the digital
media convergence of YouTube. What is more, as Jenkins (2006, p.17) mentions, the convergence has affected to international
and cultural exchanges and it presents the importance of new media platforms to
develop the music video industry.
Conclusion
Through analyzing the recent trends in music videos, it is clear that digital media convergence has become a huge phenomenon within the world of online music videos. New media platforms have changed the way we create, produce, record and consume music videos. It is also evident that the result of media convergence culture of music video industry is driven by the individual rather than the demands of record labels and television stations.
References
Barker, D. 2010, Internet saved
the video star: The Renaissance of the Music video, Metro Magazine, Vol. 160,
pp.142-144.
Burgess, J,
Green, J 2009, Youtube: Online Video and Participatory Culture, Polity Press.
Dwyer, T 2010, Media convergence, McGraw
Hill, Berksire.
Jenkins, H 2006, Introduction: Worship at the
Altar of convergence, Convergence culture, New York University press, New York.
Hilderbrand, L 2007, ‘Youtube: Where cultural
memory and copyright converge’, Film Quarterly, Vol. 61, pp. 48-57.
Temporal, P 2008, The branding of MTV: Will
Internet kill the video star?, Jons Wiley & Sons, Singapore.
Images
MTV logo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MTV_Logo.svg
The buggles album, http://1to24fps.com/tag/canon-5d-markii/
YouTube logo, http://www.ijailbreak.com/jailbreak/ijailbreak-com-looking-for-youtube-producer/
Videos
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