Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Social Networking

    In the final of my three main entries, I will discuss the use of social networks, particularly Twitter, by members of the underground hip hop scene in the UK.  Specifically, I will discuss the role of Ruth Page's term attention economy, and how Twitter is used by micro-celebrities to accrue status within this attention economy.  I will also discuss how Simon Frith's theories on the opinions of taste present in fan conversations on Twitter work to determine identities and boundaries of multiple communities simultaneously.
    In mid November of this year, a popular rapper within the underground hip hop community in the UK named Micky Worthless ignited a Twitter battle with a British popular singer named James Arthur (Mos Prob).  The argument was so widespread and popular, especially the updates posted on the Don't Flop website that it "broke the website" (Mos Prob).  Micky Worthless is a primarily a battle rapper featured in many Don't Flop videos.  Being a battle rapper he is naturally a rather opinionated and aggressive person, and his Twitter account reflects that.





    James Arthur is a previous winner of X Factor which is a singing competition show popular in the UK (Mos Prob).  James Arthur recently got a spot on a popular rap radio show, and Micky did not appreciate a non-rapper getting a chance to shine on such a large stage before many others who he deemed more worthy (Micky Worthless).  This resulted in aggressive tweets from both sides.

Both Arthur and Micky made "diss tracks."

    The way they each kept the back and forth going demonstrates their knowledge of the significance of visibility in the "attention economy" present on Twitter (Page 182).  They continuously posted their opinions of each other constructing fine lines between between good and bad music and culture.  Through their spat, they concrete identities for themselves which allows for more effective and immediate self-branding.  This illustrates Page's point about how micro-celebrities use Twitter to "place particular emphasis on the construction of identity as a product" and then try and make that product as visible as possible through hashtags and (@) tags.  Online conflicts such as this also illustrate how the commodity of discourse can be harnessed into generating support from fans (Page 182).  This Twitter battle also exemplifies how searchable talk on Twitter increases visibility, for one can simply search for things such as #TeamFuckMicky to find Twitter member that align with particular tastes or interests (Page 182).
    In his article on value and cultural taste, Simon Frith says "to be engaged with popular culture is to be discriminating" (4).  By discriminating what you think is good or bad culture, you are solidifying yourself into an identity (18).  These identities help define the boundaries of fandom.  This is important in two sided conflicts such as these because fans simply need to be able to identify who is with them and who is against them.  Frith suggests a definition of popular culture as "that cultural sector in which all participants claim authority to pass judgment" (9).  This is evident by the massive response by Twitter users contributing to this Twitter fight.
    The whole ordeal resulted in a public relations catastrophe for James Arthur and a huge publicity bump for Micky Worthless.  Within 48 hours after the diss tracks were released, and within another 36 hours the Sun had branded Arthur as a homophobe and Sony, Arthur's label, had removed his diss track and taken control of his Twitter account (Mos Prob).  The social event proved to be an excellent example of the restrictive nature of the traditional music industry and the freedom of speech available to independent music artists (Mos Prob).

Works Cited
Frith, Simon (1997) "The Problem of Value in Cultural Studies," in Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 3-20.

Mos Prob. "What Happened This Week (18/11/13)." Weblog post. Dont Flop. N.p., 18 Nov. 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.

Page, Ruth. (2012). "The Linguistics of Self-Branding and Micro-Celebrity in Twitter: The role of Hashtags."  Discourse & Communication, 6(8), 181-201
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