Configurative Culture Examples

Transforming Positive Principles into a Society Fundamental

Music transforms societal viewpoints through its presence in various media forms and shifts in lyrical content. Often, artists integrate music and controversy, creating configurative culture. Blogger Henry Jenkins interviewed professor, author, and musician Aram Sinnreich about this concept; Sinnreich described configurative culture as “the distinguishing feature [in this] new communications landscape [enabling us] to combine and sequence these atoms of expression at our own will,” (Sinnreich 2010). Mashups, or combinations and rearrangements of two or more elements, specifically songs for musical mashups, are examples of configurable culture. I mixed the lyrics of “Dreaming Alone”

The cover mashup begins with the negative principles presented in “Clarity,” including suffering, pain, and disappointment. The piece transitions into a state of wonder and curiosity. “Is the glass half empty or half full?” is a philosophical question that inspired me to focus on positive principles rather than negative ones. This question argues whether an individual is a pessimist or an optimist. I am an optimist, and I believe that regardless of faults or troubles, something positive always debuts. During the artist’s concession, I added piano music to demonstrate the transition from admitting faults to pursuing the future. These sounds encourage semantic listening which “refers to a code or a language to interpret a message,” according to composer Michel Chion (Chion, 50). In this case, music is the language encoding the message. The music is bound by repeated sounds in the background, supporting and accentuating the lyrics. Media historian and professor, David Hendy claims repetition “[infuses] a speech with a feeling of soaring poetry” (Hendy 65). Repetition, specific word choice, and pathos rhetorical strategies mold the poetry created within the piece. Fusing the lyrics of “Dreaming Alone” and “Clarity” with an array of sounds carefully chosen amplifies the overall message of the

Some artists create a mashup by combining copywrited material from multiple songs and more or less cut and paste sections together. One example of a mashup is “Pop Songs World 2015- Best Mashup 2015” by Yabanci Muzikler consisting of the top pop songs created throughout the world in 2015 (Muzikler, “Pop Songs”). Other artists create a cover mashup by taking an original song and adding their own instrumentals and or vocals. This is the media form I chose to demonstrate configurative culture. Another media form is through the use of video ads. One artist, ParkRidge47, chose to create a mashup between Hillary Clinton’s Vote Different ad and the Apple 1984 Super Bowl ad titled “Vote Different” (ParkRidge47, “Vote Different”). Regardless of the media form chosen to demonstrate configurative culture, rhetorical strategies used in each composition amplify its overall