Liveness online in deadly times

How artists explored the expressive potential of live-streamed concerts at the face of COVID-19 in Norway

Authors

  • Yngvar Kjus University of Oslo, Department of Musicology
  • Hendrik Storstein Spilker Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Sociology and Political Science
  • Håvard Kiberg Kristiania University College, School of Communication, Leadership and Marketing

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v27i6.12398

Keywords:

streaming, covid-19, live-streamed concerts, modes of liveness, music industry crisis

Abstract

This study was initiated as the pandemic erupted in the spring of 2020, triggered by our curiosity about the wave of Internet-mediated concerts which followed in the wake of COVID-19. The article examines what kind of social and cultural phenomenon these events were, and how their presentational and participatory potential was explored within a few, hectic spring months. Basing our analysis on interviews with 13 performers and four promoters in Norway, we find that the performances transcended traditional modes of live concerts in innovative ways, while responding to the stresses associated with the pandemic crisis. We identify three performance strategies, intimization, intensification and expansion, which in different ways rearticulated established modes of live musical expression by fusing them with the liveness of mediated communication.

Author Biographies

Yngvar Kjus, University of Oslo, Department of Musicology

Associate professor of music and contemporary media in the Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo, Norway

Hendrik Storstein Spilker, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Sociology and Political Science

Professor in sociology of media and technology at the Institute for Sociology and Political Science at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim

Håvard Kiberg, Kristiania University College, School of Communication, Leadership and Marketing

Doctoral research fellow at Kristiania University College in Oslo, Department of Communication, and at the University of Bergen, Department of Information Science and Media Studies

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Published

2022-06-04

How to Cite

Kjus, Y., Spilker, H. S., & Kiberg, H. (2022). Liveness online in deadly times: How artists explored the expressive potential of live-streamed concerts at the face of COVID-19 in Norway. First Monday, 27(6). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v27i6.12398

Issue

Volume 27, Number 6 - 6 June 2022

Section

Articles

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