My digital artefact will feature content posted to TikTok, with supporting content on Spotify. I will be making TikToks that feature Australian indie bands and artists and my music recommendations. I’ve found lots of new indie music on Tiktok recently but it is predominantly American and British. This means there is already a demand for music content on the app, and an opportunity to introduce more Australian artists. I will then accompany my TikToks with Spotify playlists including the featured artists and additional music.
I chose these two platforms as I believe they are two of the most accessible platforms right now to discover new music, and have both been ways I’ve recently found lots of new music. I also think creating content through these platforms will help me immerse myself even deeper into the community and inspire me to find unconventional ways of discovering new music to feature in my content.
Questions:
There are a few particular questions I’m looking to answer through my auto-ethnographic study. These include:
Where and how do listeners of Australian indie music discover new music within the genre?
What are the most unique ways people have discovered some of their favourite bands and artists?
What kind of stories come with discovering different artists? Are there similarities between fans of the same artists?
Does the way you discover an artist impact on the engagement you have with them? (eg. are you more likely to become a big fan of a band by listening to them on Spotify or in a live setting first?)
Hi, this was meant to be my first post but I got a bit carried away with my other post so I’ll backtrack…
My name is Abbey (if you couldn’t figure that out from the URL and title of the blog) and I’m a first year student studying a Bachelor of Communications and Media (Marketing Communications and Advertising) at UOW.
I have 3 major passions:
BASKETBALL. Particularly NBA and NBL. My teams are the San Antonio Spurs and Illawarra Hawks, but I also have a soft spot for the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers. If you want some betting tips, I’m your girl.
LIVE MUSIC, or music in general. Every single penny of my measly savings is spent on live music. It’s currently March and I’ve been to Field Day (not my proudest musical moment), Gang of Youths, Laneway and RÜFÜS DU SOL. I’m also seeing Matt Corby this month, and going to Groovin’ the Moo in April and Ball Park Music in May. My Spotify is linked on this blog too if you want to check it out. I also love finding new music, so follow me or send through some of your recommendations!
SOCIAL JUSTICE. This may be evident from my previous blog post. A lot of my social media sites consist of posts trying to educate and raise awareness. This passion has mostly stemmed from doing Aboriginal Studies for my HSC, where my major work focused on the importance of teaching Aboriginal history, culture and heritage and identity in schools.
Anyway, I’ve been forced to make this blog, like the rest of Comms + Media, but I’m going to try my best to make some quality content that is somewhat interesting to read. So if you’ve stuck around til the end of this post, welcome and I hope you enjoy my blog 🙂
TRIGGER WARNING: this post contains information about the Christchurch terrorist attack.
Artwork by Ruby Jones Instagram: @rubyalicerose
Whilst sitting in my MGNT102 lecture on Friday, I admittedly was having a quick scroll on Twitter when I came across the devastating news of the Christchurch terrorist attack. I sat in complete shock for the rest of the lecture, and that day. Today (Sunday), even as I write this, it still doesn’t seem real. 50 confirmed dead and many more injured in what can only be described as a horrific act of white supremacist terrorism. My heart goes out to the victims, their whanau and friends, New Zealand, and the Muslim community around the world.
Originally, I had planned to write this blog post about my experiences as a member of an audience to concerts and music festivals, but that simply did not feel right after what had taken place on Friday. The past few days have emphasised to me the major role media plays in tragic events like this, and how we, as an audience, influence it.
It has been hard to miss the constant bombardment of information seeping through our televisions, phones, computers, conversations and radios over the past 48 hours. It has contained floods of love and support for the Muslim community and victims, and heartbreaking news updates. It has also contained the complete opposite. Racist opinions and hate speech also leaked into our news and social media sites. The world, as an audience to the media, have watched on with intrigue and disgust.
From a national perspective, I was infuriated when Australian Senator Fraser Anning excused the terrorist act. I could go on for days about how predominant figures using their platform to spread xenophobic views are a major reason as to why attacks like Christchurch take place.
However, I was glad to see I was part of a majority of the media audience when (as of 4:21pm Sunday 17th March) over 856,000 people had signed a www.change.org petition titled, ‘Remove Fraser Anning from parliament’. Australia’s new “national treasure”, known as “Egg Boy”, also gave many people watching the media intently a reason to smile in a dark time as he cracked an egg over Senator Anning’s head during a live interview.
Overall, with the attack happening so close to home, and the way it has deeply affected such a large amount of people worldwide, it has highlighted to me the role in which we, as an audience of national and international media, impact the way in which news is shared. Our varying values and ethics as an audience influence our reactions to events, and what we decide to support or speak out against. We shape the media. It is our responsibility to take action against discrimination within it.
I would like to end this post with some words Osman Faruqi posted to his Twitter page in the wake of the Christchurch attack:
“ I feel so sad. We begged you to stop amplifying and normalising hatred and racism. But you told us we were ‘politically correct’ and ‘freedom of speech’ was more important. The more you gave the far-right a platform, the more powerful they got. We begged you.” – https://twitter.com/oz_f
Kia Kaha, Christchurch.
DISCLAIMER: I refuse to promote the agenda white supremacists try to spread through media, so certain names and information are missing from this blog post. I’m not sure this really counts as a disclaimer but I would just like to say that we as an audience to the media need to stop allowing racists to have a platform. We are all responsible. Speak up if you know something isn’t inclusive. If you excuse racism and xenophobia committed in any form, you are part of the problem. Any comments on this page featuring hate speech will be deleted.
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