scholarly journals Idols you can make: The player as auteur in Japan’s media mix

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110156
Author(s):  
Dorothy Finan
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Mobile Games ◽  
Mobile Game ◽  
Music Production ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Media Mix

Japan has recently seen an upsurge in idol ikusei (nurturing) games: networked mobile games where one nurtures and produces an idol pop group. These games are a significant part of Japan’s contemporary ‘media mix’, influenced both by virtual pet games and by discourses of nurturing surrounding the production of ‘real’ girl idol groups by male producer-auteur figures. Previous analyses have considered affection for simulated or virtual girl idol figures as a detached longing for stylised characteristics ( moe). This article uses a case study of a mobile game at the centre of the Love Live! girl idol-nurturing simulation franchise to suggest that we cannot only speak of players’ affection for nurturing games’ characters in terms of postmodern disembodiment; we must also consider how in playing idol-nurturing games, players take the place of real male producer-auteur figures in Japanese popular music production, where discourses of gendered nurturing abound.

scholarly journals Artificial Intelligence & Popular Music: SKYGGE, Flow Machines, and the Audio Uncanny Valley

Arts ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Avdeeff
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Markov Models ◽  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
New Era ◽  
Music Production ◽  
Music Generation

This article presents an overview of the first AI-human collaborated album, Hello World, by SKYGGE, which utilizes Sony’s Flow Machines technologies. This case study is situated within a review of current and emerging uses of AI in popular music production, and connects those uses with myths and fears that have circulated in discourses concerning the use of AI in general, and how these fears connect to the idea of an audio uncanny valley. By proposing the concept of an audio uncanny valley in relation to AIPM (artificial intelligence popular music), this article offers a lens through which to examine the more novel and unusual melodies and harmonization made possible through AI music generation, and questions how this content relates to wider speculations about posthumanism, sincerity, and authenticity in both popular music, and broader assumptions of anthropocentric creativity. In its documentation of the emergence of a new era of popular music, the AI era, this article surveys: (1) The current landscape of artificial intelligence popular music focusing on the use of Markov models for generative purposes; (2) posthumanist creativity and the potential for an audio uncanny valley; and (3) issues of perceived authenticity in the technologically mediated “voice”.

Gender Differences of Popular Music Production in Secondary Schools

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Michael Abramo
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Original Music ◽  
Music Production ◽  
Musical Production ◽  
Music Class ◽  
Opposite Gender

In this case study, the author inv estigated how students’ gender affected their participation in a secondary popular music class in which participants wrote and performed original music. Three same-gendered rock groups and two mixed-gendered rock groups were observ ed. Would students of different genders rehearse and compose differently? How would same-gendered processes compare to mixed-gendered processes? Research suggests that girls learn differently from boys and that gender—as distinct from sex—is formed in social env ironments. In research on popular music education, howev er, the participation of girls has been under-documented and under-theorized. This study found that boys and girls rehearsed and composed differently: Whereas the boys combined musical gestures and nonv erbal communication into a seamless sonic process, the girls separated talk and musical production. In the mixed-gendered groups, tensions arose because participants used different learning styles that members of the opposite gender misunderstood. Broadening popular music pedagogies to incorporate different practices is suggested.

scholarly journals Dynamics between Disturbances and Motivations in Educational Mobile Games

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eeva Liisa Nygren ◽  
Teemu H. Laine ◽  
Erkki Sutinen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Middle School ◽  
Educational Games ◽  
Mobile Games ◽  
Mobile Game ◽  
Game Features ◽  
Motivation Level ◽  
Game Developers

<p class="0abstractCxSpFirst"><span lang="EN-US">Understanding engagement in games provides great opportunities for developing motivating educational games. However, even good games may induce disturbances on the learner. Therefore, we go further than presenting only results and discussion related to the motivation aspects and disturbance factors of the playing experience in UFractions (Ubiquitous fractions) storytelling mobile game. Namely, we define the dynamics between these two important game features. Sample of the case study was 305 middle school pupils in South Africa, Finland, and Mozambique.</span></p><p class="0abstractCxSpLast"><span lang="EN-US">Guidelines for game developers, users and educators were derived from the interplay of disturbance factors and motivations. Furthermore, we defined six different learning zones deriving from disturbances the player is facing and the player’s motivation level.</span></p>

scholarly journals Preferences of UNIPIN Mobile Application Using Conjoint Analysis (Case Study: Pt. Dua Puluh Empat Jam Online)

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marliana Marliana Marliana ◽  
Natalia Natalia Natalia
Keyword(s):  
Conjoint Analysis ◽  
Mobile Application ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Mobile Games ◽  
Mobile Game ◽  
Mobile Gaming ◽  
The One ◽  
High Level ◽  
Collection Methods

The purpose of this study is to determine the customers preferences in developing UNIPIN’s mobile application that can help PT. Dua Puluh Empat Jam Online increases their sales of mobile games vouchers. Data collection methods using questionnaires and interviews on 100 gamers of UNIPIN. The research method used in this study is conjoint analysis which was preceded by Cochran Q-test to test the validity of application attributes and conjoint analysis to know the utility value of each attribute that became the main preference of gamers. The attributes tested include the attributes contained in the 7C Framework such as context, content, community, customization, communication, connection, and commerce. The results of this study are application attributes that can be applied by UNIPIN to increase their sale of mobile game vouchers which are context, content, communication, and commerce attributes. The results of this study are attributes that meet the need to develop UNIPIN’s mobile application in order to increase sales in the mobile gaming market are the integrated level of the contex attribute, the product-dominant level of the content attribute, the one-to-one non responding user level of the communication attribute, and high level of commerce.

scholarly journals Learning the ‘tracker’ process: A case study into popular music pedagogy

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan Anthony ◽  
Paul Thompson ◽  
Tuomas Auvinen
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Digital Audio ◽  
Music Pedagogy ◽  
Online Technologies ◽  
Music Production ◽  
Digital Audio Workstation ◽  
Specialist Knowledge ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Professional Contexts

The ‘tracker’ production process is a modern form of music production agency where top-line songwriters work with music programmers called ‘trackers’, primarily within the confines of the digital audio workstation. In this case, production, songwriting and performance often happen concurrently, and collaboration involves the synthesis of ideas, musical negotiations and expertise in using digital and online technologies. In providing popular music production learning activities that translate to professional contexts, higher education institutions face a number of challenges, particularly where much of the collaboration is undertaken online. This article reports on a cohort of Bachelor of Popular Music students who undertook a tracker process module. Students’ perceptions of ‘engagement’ and ‘learning’ were captured via an assessment item and survey, and a themed analysis indicated that the pedagogy promoted the use of diverse social skills, was highly collaborative, relied both on specialist and non-specialist knowledge, and involved the use of digital and online communications.

Jaco Pastorius, the Electric Bass, and the Struggle for Jazz Credibility

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 121-138
Author(s):  
Brian F. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Electric Bass ◽  
Public Persona

This article explores Jaco Pastorius’s efforts to legitimize himself as a jazz electric bassist. Even though the instrument had existed at the margins of jazz for decades, by the 1970s it was overwhelmingly associated with rock and funk music and therefore carried with it the stigmatized connotations of outsider status. Building on the work of Bill Milkowski, Kevin Fellezs, Lawrence Wayte, and Peter Dowdall, I situate Pastorius’s career within the broader context of 1970s jazz fusion. I then analyze how he deliberately used his public persona, his virtuosic technical abilities, the atypical timbre of his fretless electric bass, and his work as a composer and bandleader to vie for acceptance within the jazz tradition. As I argue, Pastorius specifically attempted to establish his jazz credibility through his first two solo albums, initially by disassociating himself from his own instrument, and then by eventually abandoning the musical style that had made him famous. Ultimately, Pastorius’s story serves as a useful case study of the tangible ramifications of authenticity disputes and the complicated ways in which musicians have attempted to navigate contested musical spaces within popular music.

Candy and Drugs for Dinner

2019 ◽  
pp. 572-588
Author(s):  
Sean Guynes
Keyword(s):  
Comic Book ◽  
Gender Politics ◽  
Media Production ◽  
Comics Studies ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
The Aesthetic

This chapter links the seemingly disparate but deeply interconnected discourses and practices of contemporary media production, genre, aesthetics, and comics. It offers these arguments through a case study of the popular fantasy comic book Rat Queens and in the process demonstrates the critical utility to comics studies of reading genre, aesthetics, and industry together. The chapter reads Rat Queens through Sianne Ngai’s conception of the zany, cute, and interesting, showing how each of these categories is part of the aesthetic logic of the series, while also showing how each performs or critiques the series’ (superficial) investment in gender politics and the fantasy genre.

Literal Media Ecology: Crisis in the Conditions of Production

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 486-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett R. Caraway
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Environmental Responsibility ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Matter Energy

This article outlines a socio-political theory appropriate for the study of the ecological repercussions of contemporary media technologies. More specifically, this approach provides a means of assessing the material impacts of media technologies and the representations of capitalist ecological crises. This approach builds on the work of ecological economists, ecosocialist scholars, and Marx’s writings on the conditions of production to argue that capitalism necessarily results in ecological destabilization. Taking Apple’s 2016 Environmental Responsibility Report as a case study, the article uses the theory to analyze Apple’s responses to ecological crises. The article asserts that Apple’s reactions are emblematic of the capitalist compulsion for increasing rates of productivity. However, unless the matter/energy savings achieved through higher rates of productivity surpass the overall increase in the flow of matter/energy in production, ecological crises will continue. Ultimately, capital accumulation ensures continued ecological destabilization.

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