Masters Degrees (Music)

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https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/646

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Music) by browse.metadata.advisor "Froneman, Willemien"

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    Copyriot: the political economy of digital music streaming
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Froehlich, Anke Hilde; Froneman, Willemien; Lambrechts, Lizabe; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis, based on a discourse analysis of recent scholarship in the fields of popular music studies, international legal theory, and economic-political theory, analyses the political economy of online music streaming, focussing on Spotify’s playlist-oriented business approach. By tracing the shift in the digital music industry from ‘scarcity’ to ‘abundance’, I argue – following the work of Eric Drott (2019) – for a revised understanding of music’s commodification in the digital streaming era. The analysis proceeds along two lines. The first asks how, from a Marxist perspective, Spotify’s practices of rentiership, its positioning within the ‘gig’ economy and its relationship to the so-called ‘Big Three’ record companies may be situated within the circuit of capital, while the second, which draws on the work of Robin James (2021), Friedlind Riedel (2020) and William Mazzarella (2017), considers the affective dimensions of Spotify’s streaming business strategy – particularly its curation of ‘vibes’. Additionally, the thesis offers a historical overview of the hierarchical structure of music copyright law that continues to privilege record companies, showing how music copyright is rooted in Mussollini’s Fascist politics. The study concludes that Spotify harnesses what Martin Scherzinger (2016) has termed music’s ‘experiential liveness’ to produce ‘mana’ moments by engaging users in activity-oriented listening.
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    Queer electronic rave rapping Zulu princesses don’t grow on trees’: a digital ethnography of Toya Delazy’s curated persona as a South African popular musician on Instagram
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Friday, Lindsay; Rontsch, Marc; Froneman, Willemien; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The necessity for an online presence for the popular musician has, with the emergence of social media platforms in the 21st century, become unavoidable. Musical output has become bolstered by the musician’s persona, which is present not only on the performing stage, but also on social media platforms. This thesis uses persona studies as the theoretical lens through which to view South African popular musician, Toya Delazy, and discusses how she presents and curates her intersectional persona on the social media platform, Instagram. Toya Delazy (Latoya Buthulezi) was born in KwaZulu-Natal in 1990. After studying jazz piano performance at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, she entered the popular music industry, releasing the hit singles ‘Pump it On’ and ‘Love is in the Air’ in the early 2010s. Moving to the United Kingdom in 2015, Delazy has since developed her own musical style, ‘Afrorave’, and released two albums independently. She brands herself online as a “queer Zulu princess” and an “independent Zulu queer queen”, thus promoting a persona which has its foundation in her intersectional identity. The research conducted in this thesis utilises a performative understanding of social constructs such as ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality. Identity is therefore performed through visual and textual components in online spaces, in combination with the artist’s musical output. Digital objects (captions, hashtags and emojis) were collected and analysed using a digital ethnographic approach alongside the images and videos posted by Delazy on her Instagram profile (@toyadelazy). Delazy’s music and accompanying lyrics have been critically analysed. Crucial to this thesis is the distinction of persona eras in accordance with the release of Delazy’s studio albums: Due Drop Deluxe (which pre-dated her Instagram profile), Ascension (2014- 2017), Uncommodified (2017-2019) and Afrorave (2019-2022). The finding of the research conducted was that an intersectional identity within Toya Delazy’s online curated persona is articulated through the use of digital objects, image-based content and her music.