Music has always been about social connection, but in a time when musicians and audiences can connect with a tweet, the rules are being rewritten not just for musicians, but for workers in many fields. Musicians, the original gig workers, are under pressure to “connect” with their audiences, building personal bonds that will (hopefully) sustain their careers. But what happens when being “authentic” becomes as important as being good at your work? Join author Nancy Baym and journalist Clive Thompson for a conversation about the pushes and pulls of engaging audiences through social media as they discuss Baym’s new book Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection.
Nancy Baym is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft in New England and Research Affiliate in Comparative Media Studies and Writing at MIT. She began researching online fan community at the start of the 1990s, when she often had to explain the concept that networked computers were used to communicate. She’s written on how people make sense of new communication technologies and weave them into their everyday lives in her books Personal Connections in the Digital Age (Polity), now in its second edition, Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community (Sage), and, Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method (co-edited with Annette Markham, Sage). She has spoken at music events including MIDEM, by:Larm, All2GetherNow, and Rethink Music. She’s appeared in the New York Times, the BBC, NPR, WIRED, Mother Jones, and other news outlets.
A lifelong music fan and former independent-record store employee, her new book Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection (NYU) draws on years of ethnographic participation and interviews with dozens of artists to show how social media have – and have not – changed the relationships between musicians and audiences and what that portends for workers in other fields.
Photo credit: Kelly Davidson Studio
Clive Thompson is a journalist who writes about the impact of technology and science on everyday life. He's a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, and a columnist for Wired and Smithsonian magazines. He's the author of "Smarter Than You Think", a book on cognition and technology, and his next book for Penguin -- "Coders: The Making of a New Art and the Remaking of the World" -- comes out in March 2019. Clive is also a part-time musician and recording artist, playing guitar for the country/Americana group The Delorean Sisters. He's @pomeranian99 on Twitter and on the web at www.clivethompson.net.
Betaworks Studios is a new membership club for individuals looking to make a dent in the universe. Supported by innovative technology, this space is designed for connectivity within a curated community.
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