Influence of social media on the uptake of emerging musicians and entertainment events

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how emerging musicians use social media to achieve exposure of their music and entertainment events. The Parasocial Engagement Model and the multiple case research design guided the study. A sample of 20 emerging musicians was selected from Ibadan and Lagos in Nigeria through snowballing. An initial questionnaire schedule was used to collect data about the respondents’ backgrounds while an interview guide was used to collect data about the role and use of social media. Contact between the researcher and the musicians was created using video call approaches. The musicians are motivated to use social media to express themselves, connect with other musicians, and expand their audiences. Social media platforms allow audiences to be more expressive because they do not involve face-to-face interactions, but rather the disclosure and organization of information. Viral social media challenges, remaking of popular and trending songs, and other video contents related to various fields of interest are ways emerging musicians use social media to form impressions and reduce ambiguity about their personalities. Collaboration with social media influencer accounts and social media magazines has also been identified as a social media usage strategy.