Persona Studies (May 2024)
"I Don't Feel Hate"
Abstract
In (media) popular music, “personas” are usually media personalities. They mainly appear in mass media. As the media landscape has changed over the last 150 years, so have the media appearances of these musician-personalities - from sheet music to radio, records, film, television, music videos and finally YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Popular music is dominated by stars, media personalities who present a musical performance - but the way this performance is presented has varied historically. In “old” media, record companies had considerable power with regard to access to markets, but also regarding production, marketing and perpetuation of star images. This has changed dramatically with the rise of the internet and various social media platforms. Now potentially everyone has access, everyone can present oneself publicly, everyone can have his or her “15 minutes of fame” (Andy Warhol). The article describes these transformations to the principle of stardom using a case study: the creation of the German entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam 2021. The previously unknown singer Jendrik Sigwart talks about his application on TikTok and in particular about the production of a music video for it. His application on TikTok for one of Europe’s oldest TV events is an interesting moment in media history, in which old narrative strategies mix with new ones.
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