Monday, August 17, 2009
Chocolate Rain and Folk Culture
Tay Zonday’s song “Chocolate Rain” provides a good example of how digital technology is bringing about a “new folk culture” according to The Wealth of Nations (54). This song is not likely to have landed the singer a record deal, but thanks to the capabilities of the internet, it spread virally and essentially became a hit song. This song exemplifies the idea that with digital technology people “participate actively in making cultural moves and finding meaning in the world around us.” Some guy with no semblance of musical talent created a hit song and cashed in on it, appearing on talk shows and in a Pepsi commercial. While this is not entirely new, as talentless musical acts have dominated the charts for years, one no longer needs to be either marketable or good looking to make money off of music. This video also shows how viable the hacker ethic is in the digital age – Tay Zonday released this song for free and has never, as far as I know, attempted to collect royalties from it. He simply accepted the advertising and endorsement deals that were offered to him as a result of the song’s rise to fame via the internet.
-Adrian Crom
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In response to Adrian I would agree that this video is an excellent example of how digital folk culture has become an influential force for mass culture. In a network society, sharing is inevitable and autonomy enhanced. With these two factors Tay Zonday was able to use YouTube for individual self expression that would circulate quickly among a network of users sharing a virtual space. As the video went viral, YouTube users built a discourse on what the meaning of the video was. The buzz of the video grew as users questioned the intentions and seriousness of the song and artist, ultimately trying to discern some type of meaning for the oddness of the content. the overall hype grew to such an extent virtually, that traditional media began to cover the phenomenon and commercial opportunities arose, eventually pushing the video into mainstream culture.
ReplyDelete-Steve Huerta