Music community in digital society: The social and cultural capital of the indie music fans in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Chen, Jhih-Hao, 陳之昊
• Other Authors: Chang, Yu-Pei
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/zp43qa

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 傳播研究所 === 102 === The use of social media which is now quite common in Taiwan has already become a way many people use for daily social interaction. Social media also plays an important role in one of Taiwan's subcultures, that is, the indie music, which greatly change how the indie music bands interact with their fans and the way those fans interact with one another. Meanwhile, the indie music bands rely heavily on social media as particular tactics to manage and operate themselves. With the intention to clarify the features of the indie music subculture and find out the changes and differences made in the information circulation of this subculture, the concepts of social and cultural capital are used as well as the concepts of culture and community. Also, with the help of fifteen in-depth interviews and twice live house participant observations, I could have a close look on the feature and change of the indie music subculture and analyze both of them. This study mainly indicates three things. First, with the help of social media, the members in the indie music subculture can connect with each other more than ever and form a stronger sense of belongingness to their culture. Second, on the social media, their social capital and cultural capital get to be integrated, which is reciprocal for both capitals. Recently, the increasing show-ups of audio platforms and video-sharing websites allow the indie music bands to save much more. Third, even though there is circulation of information on the video-sharing websites, the resource gaps among the indie music scenes in different regions still exist. At the same time, social media make information "cheaper" and less worthy. This isn't a good outcome as people expect.