Week 5: J-Pop’s Industrial Production Culture

My ideas for the individual digital artefact are still quite loose whilst staying within a singular concept. I have been strongly inspired by J-Pop as some of you may have noticed by the fact that I have used it as a lens for the weekly discussion posts. As I have been exploring it in this way I have found myself drawn to the culture of industrial production of the “genre”. I would like to investigate this further through the artefact. For a mode of interaction I have been strongly inspired by a community set up by a British record label Night Slugs, called Club Constructions. They set up a simple web page where producers can contribute tracks for consideration; these tracks however have to conform loosely to a manifesto that Night Slugs have established. This manifesto describes the sound and elements of the track for example the tracks should contain as little melody as possible three notes maximum.

I would like to create a community similar to this though incorporating the ideas I have had into it’s structure are where it gets difficult. The first question is whether the tracks should be able to be seen by others as inspiration for further contributions. In the further research I have conducted so far, it seems as if the Club Constructions set up of invisible contributions might better mirror j-pop’s industrial culture or at least elements discussed in the Guardian, where the simple contributions are compiled by “the producer” whose name is the only one attributed by the track. This dilemma highlights questions as to how blatant the discussion of the industrial culture needs to be within the community which might be confirmed through further research, should the culture be perpetuated externally or internally? It seems as if the project might manifest itself as a commentary on the industrial production culture rather than a mirror of it, questions arising such as how can you sustain a culture of contribution in an environment where the majority of people want to be producers? Do they need to be a more active part of the development of the product?