Music in Digital Media: a Study with Brazilian Youth on Global Consumption

Abstract

Abstract One of the spheres of transnational consumption of young Brazilians today is the consumption of music in digital media, mainly in different audiovisual formats. Music, which is the main cultural product consumed by young people everyday, is listened to and watched, with different software, apps and devices, mainly through the use of smartphones. In this digital relationship with music, young individuals present different forms of consumption, both in relation to formats – listening only to music, watching a video clip, watching a video with a performance related to the song, recording videos using the song as background or as content – as well as in relation to frequency/speed – in the variety of formats used for consumption, in the edition of songs to micro formats. Based on these perspectives, we present a study developed with Brazilian youth that sought to understand music consumption, analyzing quantity, frequency and diversity, through the application of a questionnaire (N=450), three focus groups (N=24) and an interactive game technique developed by the research team (N=180). Music consumption by Brazilian youth is omnivorous, due to the different musical genres, from different parts of the world, and in different formats, elements that go beyond the idea of transnational taste. It is also the cultural product that is mostly connected to local culture, with local influencers, which show a strong relation to popular culture and also draw possibilities of interaction of local culture with global elements. Voracity is one key element that explains the audiovisual consumption of music by Brazilian youth, in a combination of playlists and videos suggested by algorithms that form an almost endless quantity of references, which are both desired by individuals and recommended by global or local cultural influencers.