Music Festival Video: A “Media Events” Perspective on Music in Mediated Life

Abstract

This essay conceptualizes this recent development of promotional video in the media culture of music festivals, with implications for the disciplinary framing of audiovisual studies. The argument is that the development of music festival video can be conceptualized as a new form of music video with a promotional purpose, but unlike previous forms of music video it is defined by media event dynamics and provides a case for developing emerging critiques of media-centricity and textualism in audiovisual studies. The essay begins by situating music video discourse in broad developments in the media landscape and in the humanities. I argue for a stronger integrating of music video research with audiovisual studies and media studies. The following sections illustrate an anthropological approach to music festival media culture. Section two reviews the literature on media events. Section three employs this concept in an interpretation of audiovisual mediations of music festivals in the context of the musical and cultural transformation of EDM (electronic dance music) from 1990s’ club culture into contemporary festival stages. A key point is that all mediations of a festival, from video to text messages, are shaped by the ritual process.