Production, Identity and Inherited Aesthetics: Digital Technology, Authenticity and Location in Independent Music Practice

Abstract

I combine an ethnographic study with the construction of a varied, reflexive theoretical framework for exploring the role of digital technology in independent music practice. I argue that independent musicians’ use of digital technology is inextricably bound to issues of place, authenticity, and social interaction. Specifically, I assert that Dunedin musicians’ use of digital technology manifests a range of reactions to historically grounded classifications of their musical practice, as occasionally propagated by media and promotional organisations. I investigate their preference for production methodologies that foreground live performance, and their intrinsic desire for self-determination. I suggest that they are particularly aware of their agency towards the technologies that they deploy, and the aesthetic significance of their musical, and extra–musical constructions of identity online. I explore the economics shaping independent Dunedin musicians’ use of digital technology, both in terms of their often-fraught relationships with established industry structures, and in the political economy of their move away from a focus on the production of manufactured physical objects. In seeking to understand the complex relationships between authenticity, location and technology use, this thesis argues against utopian and deterministic conceptions of the ‘democratising power’ of digital technology. It also critiques similarly couched assertions that Internet use contributes to the ‘disembodiment’ of music. Rather, I assess musicians’ online presentation and distribution methodologies as attempts to foster closer relationships with their diverse audiences. I further suggest that artists’ use of specific online technologies gives rise to opportunities for music promotion to move away from industrially and geographically circumscribed models. In evidencing these claims, this thesis maintains a clear focus on the actions, rather than the products of independent musicians’ technology use. Above all, it seeks to delineate a productive understanding of the nexus between independent music practice, digital technology use, history and location.