After discussing with my Digital Asia class this week about the actual aims of our own investigation into different aspects of Asian culture in a digital sense being to investigate from an autoethnographic level, I found that I needed to restructure the way in which I have been going about and recording my research as a whole.
This week I have thoroughly researched what it means to be successful in the practice of autoethnography, and I established an appropriate definition by my understanding – ‘the way that an author studies and in turn discusses a certain culture’s relational practices, values, beliefs and shared experiences to assist outsiders better understand the culture, while relating this back to the author’s own past opinions, stereotypes and experiences’.
I primarily decided on this definition through Carolyn Ellis’ (et. al) article ‘Autoethnography: an Overview’ from 2011.
In terms of my research topic, the alternative music genre in Thailand, and different artists’ experience with various social media platforms, this autoethnographic perspective will be entirely relevant, due to the high interest I personally have into alternative music.
Ever since I can remember, I have had an immense interest in music, along with my entire family. I am a fan of almost any genre under the alternative umbrella – indie pop, garage rock, heavy metal, hardcore, punk – with my favourite at the moment being Australian stoner pop (it seems that this is an official thing now – Dune Rats anyone?).
In addition to this, I have a high interest in the way that the music industry works, not only here in Australia but around the world.
It’s also fascinating to discover how different countries interact with one another in terms of their own industries.
For the remainder of my research, I aim to look into the social media practices of artists from Thailand, while also contrasting the actual music content with that of Australian artists who may be similar. It will be interesting to find similar artists, and discuss my experience of the two – do I like one more than the other? Why might this be?
After finally fully understanding the basis behind autoethnography as a research methodology, I think I will be able to reach the full potential that comes with my research topic!
Digital Asia 
Your investigation will be really interesting because you already have an interest in the genre you’re discussing. As you clearly already know how most musicians use social media platforms, you’ll be able to provide an interesting insight into how Thai bands might be different or the same. I think it will be interesting to see if you prefer one over the other, and whether this comes down to language barriers, use of different platforms or other cultural norms that vary between cultures. In a way, it’s determining how accessible the band is to anyone who is not from their culture.
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Your topic is so interesting! How are you going about actually finding the music/videos/social media, because I know for my own research I am struggling to find sources in English. Do they use similar social media platforms as us in Thailand? I think that your love for alternative music gives you a great ability to do a comparative analysis of the Australian alternative music scene v Thai alternative music scene, is that something you’ll be looking at? Thanks for the autoethnography explanation too, it really helped with my own understanding.
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Hey Keely,
It does seem to make everything that little bit clearer once you have a better understanding on what is required and what you should be focusing on. I felt the same after this weeks post also!! I think that it was such a great idea to pick a topic that you are already so passionate about, and I think this will give you a great advantage when thinking about the social media practices of music artists and the music content of both Thailand and Australian music.
I think you are well on track with this and goodluck with finding some interesting information for next weeks post!
Hannah
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The connection between musicians and social media is something that I also find very interesting. Internet, social media especially, has really changed a lot in the music industry. I find is fascinating that there are even musicians being discovered on YouTube!
I’m also researching into this topic, but with regards to pop music. I look forward to reading your posts and seeing how both of our topics bring up new and interesting ways musicians are using social media.
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