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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $42.50

Format:
Paperback
288 pp.
28 images, 6.125" x 9.25"

ISBN-13:
9780199753468

Publication date:
January 2012

Imprint: OUP US


Playing Along

Digital Games, YouTube, and Virtual Performance

Kiri Miller

Series : Oxford Music/Media Series

Why don't Guitar Hero players just pick up real guitars? What happens when millions of people play the role of a young black gang member in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas? How are YouTube-based music lessons changing the nature of amateur musicianship? This book is about play, performance, and participatory culture in the digital age. Miller shows how video games and social media are bridging virtual and visceral experience, creating dispersed communities who forge meaningful connections by "playing along" with popular culture.

Playing Along reveals how digital media are brought to bear in the transmission of embodied knowledge: how a Grand Theft Auto player uses a virtual radio to hear with her avatar's ears; how a Guitar Hero player channels the experience of a live rock performer; and how a beginning guitar student translates a two-dimensional, pre-recorded online music lesson into three-dimensional physical practice and an intimate relationship with a distant teacher. Through a series of engaging ethnographic case studies, Miller demonstrates that our everyday experiences with interactive digital media are gradually transforming our understanding of musicality, creativity, play, and participation.

Readership : This book will appeal to members of the public with an interest in digital media and amateur musicianship. It will also appeal to a broad audience of university students at the undergraduate and graduate levels (ethnomusicology, popular music studies, media studies, performance studies, and digital game studies including the burgeoning field of digital game design), and to media industry professionals.

About the companion website
Introduction: Playing Along
Part One: Playing Along with Grand Theft Auto
1. Straight Outta Ganton: Virtual Tourism, Fieldwork, and Performance
2. Jacking the Dial: Radio, Race, and Place in San Andreas
Part Two: Playing Along with Guitar Hero and Rock Band
3. How Musical is Guitar Hero?
4. Just Add Performance: Staging Schizophonia
Part Three: Playing Along with Communities of Practice
5. Music Lessons 2.0
6. Amateur-to-Amateur
Endgame
References
Index

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Kiri Miller is the Manning Assistant Professor of Music at Brown University. She is the author of Traveling Home: Sacred Harp Singing and American Pluralism (2008). Her research stands at the intersection of ethnomusicology, popular music studies, and digital media studies. Her work has been supported by fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the American Council of Learned Societies.

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Tuning In - Ronald Rodman
Shadows in the Field - Gregory F. Barz and Timothy J. Cooley
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Nor-tec Rifa! - Alejandro L. Madrid
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American Popular Music - Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman

Special Features

  • Illuminates the actual experiences of everyday players/practitioners, instead of relying on abstract theory.
  • Demonstrates deep connections between playing games, playing music, and playing a theatrical role.
  • Shows how Web 2.0 platforms provide new channels for teaching and learning.
  • Features an extensive companion website with audio and video examples.