Nancy Baym, who studies "Online Freedom" at the University of Kansas, recently finished a study on Swedish Independent Music Fandom.
It's a brilliant topic and, for scholarly writing, quite interesting. Since most of us can only experience SIMF from afar, I'm glad she's put together this paper to give us the full scoop... and asking of the question “isn’t this just the MySpacification of Facebook?”
She's got all kinds of neat things to say in the paper (posted here) as well as on her blog.
Even her usage of the word "Abstract" gets my collegiate feathers all excited (I was a Fighting Blue Hen after all).
ABSTRACT:
Online groups are taking new forms as participants spread themselves amongst multiple Internet and offline platforms. The multinational online community of Swedish independent music fans exemplifies this trend. This participant–observation analysis of this fandom shows how sites are interlinked at multiple levels, and identifies several implications for theorists, researchers, developers, industry and independent professionals, and participants.
(Hat tip to smartie-pants Courtney Bfor finding this gem!)
1 toby said on October 5, 2007
do you guys remember benno? it was a swedish indie music site that was sponsored by a government grant. they did gigs and posted them online, had a radio webcast, and music store. it seems like benno, which is no longer around, was a precursor to the swedish indie juggernaut.
also Nancy Baym writes for It's a Trap which is based down in Olympia and is a scandinavian indie music paradise. IAT also has a fabulous mail order.
2 Nancy Baym said on October 5, 2007
Geez, make my day, why don't you? Thanks!
The good news is that I haven't finished my study at all, there's at least one more paper to come when I finish making sense of all the interviews I've collected (better quit reading blogs and get back to it).
Toby is quite right that IAT, run by Avi Roig and housed in your backyard, is the epicenter of Scandinavian indie pop on the net.
3 keenan said on October 6, 2007
"I was a Fighting Blue Hen after all"
ok, enough said, toooooo darn cute, my day is complete :)
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