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Start Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
After posting a TikTok video to announce her first single, "driver's licence," in January 2021, Olivia Rodrigo went viral. The Filipina American teen immediately soared to pop stardom as her LP, sour, achieved Platinum status only weeks after its May 2021 release, and her singles received millions of streams. Declared a delightfully "post-genre album," sour came under criticism for its stylistic similarities with other pop music (Jenkins, 2021). This essay is not concerned with issues of artistic originality: instead, I argue that Rodrigo's use of TikTok, a micro-vlogging platform built on the recycling and augmentation of already-existing content and genre, uniquely communicates how she re-presents star image to millions of fans and followers. As an imitation public, successful TikTok posts often consist of restyled ideas of already popular video trends (Zulli & Zulli, 2020). Drawing from Banet-Weiser's (2012) work on authenticity and consumer culture, I coin the term imitation pop to reveal how Rodrigo's music and star image uniquely interact with creative modes on TikTok. Imitation pop explains how celebrities-- like Rodrigo-- utilize social influencing as an innovative strategy for promoting cultural content that establishes a unique form of authenticity. Using Rodrigo's self-branding on TikTok as a case study, I consider tensions emerging between platform vernaculars (Keller, 2019) and mediations of Internet celebrity (Abidin, 2021; Kennedy, 2020). Through a feminist platform analysis (Singh, 2020) of TikTok's user interface and Rodrigo's posts, I interrogate how her platform allows Rodrigo to re-present genre and content together as a Generation Z self-branding practice (250 words).
References
Abidin, C. (2021). Mapping Internet Celebrity on TikTok: Exploring Attention Economies and Visibility Labours. Cultural Science Journal, 12(1). DOI: 10.5334/csci.140.
Banet-Weiser, S. (2012). AuthenticTM: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture. New York: NYU Press.
Jenkins, C. (2021, May 24). Rodrigo’s sour Album Studied All the Right Moves. Retrieved from https://www.vulture.com/2021/05/olivia-rodrigo-sour-album-review.html.
Keller, J. (2019). “Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms. Social Media & Society, 5(3), 1-11. DOI: 10.1177/2056305119867442.
Kennedy, M. (2020). “If the rise of the TikTok dance and e-girl aesthetic has taught us anything, it’s that teenage girls rule the Internet right now”: TikTok celebrity, girls and the Coronavirus crisis. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(6), 1023-1076. DOI: 10.1177/1367549420945341.
Singh, R. (2020). Platform Feminisms: Feminist Protest Space and the Politics of Spatial Organization. TSpace Repository-- Graduate Theses. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/103313.
Zulli, D. & Zulli, D.J. (2020). Extending the Internet meme: Conceptualizing technological mimesis and imitation publics on TikTok. new media & society, 0(0), 1-19. DOI: 10.1177/1461444820983603.
Imitation publics, imitation pop: A feminist platform analysis of Olivia Rodrigo's self-branding on TikTok
After posting a TikTok video to announce her first single, "driver's licence," in January 2021, Olivia Rodrigo went viral. The Filipina American teen immediately soared to pop stardom as her LP, sour, achieved Platinum status only weeks after its May 2021 release, and her singles received millions of streams. Declared a delightfully "post-genre album," sour came under criticism for its stylistic similarities with other pop music (Jenkins, 2021). This essay is not concerned with issues of artistic originality: instead, I argue that Rodrigo's use of TikTok, a micro-vlogging platform built on the recycling and augmentation of already-existing content and genre, uniquely communicates how she re-presents star image to millions of fans and followers. As an imitation public, successful TikTok posts often consist of restyled ideas of already popular video trends (Zulli & Zulli, 2020). Drawing from Banet-Weiser's (2012) work on authenticity and consumer culture, I coin the term imitation pop to reveal how Rodrigo's music and star image uniquely interact with creative modes on TikTok. Imitation pop explains how celebrities-- like Rodrigo-- utilize social influencing as an innovative strategy for promoting cultural content that establishes a unique form of authenticity. Using Rodrigo's self-branding on TikTok as a case study, I consider tensions emerging between platform vernaculars (Keller, 2019) and mediations of Internet celebrity (Abidin, 2021; Kennedy, 2020). Through a feminist platform analysis (Singh, 2020) of TikTok's user interface and Rodrigo's posts, I interrogate how her platform allows Rodrigo to re-present genre and content together as a Generation Z self-branding practice (250 words).
References
Abidin, C. (2021). Mapping Internet Celebrity on TikTok: Exploring Attention Economies and Visibility Labours. Cultural Science Journal, 12(1). DOI: 10.5334/csci.140.
Banet-Weiser, S. (2012). AuthenticTM: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture. New York: NYU Press.
Jenkins, C. (2021, May 24). Rodrigo’s sour Album Studied All the Right Moves. Retrieved from https://www.vulture.com/2021/05/olivia-rodrigo-sour-album-review.html.
Keller, J. (2019). “Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms. Social Media & Society, 5(3), 1-11. DOI: 10.1177/2056305119867442.
Kennedy, M. (2020). “If the rise of the TikTok dance and e-girl aesthetic has taught us anything, it’s that teenage girls rule the Internet right now”: TikTok celebrity, girls and the Coronavirus crisis. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(6), 1023-1076. DOI: 10.1177/1367549420945341.
Singh, R. (2020). Platform Feminisms: Feminist Protest Space and the Politics of Spatial Organization. TSpace Repository-- Graduate Theses. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/103313.
Zulli, D. & Zulli, D.J. (2020). Extending the Internet meme: Conceptualizing technological mimesis and imitation publics on TikTok. new media & society, 0(0), 1-19. DOI: 10.1177/1461444820983603.
Bio
Bio: Jessica Sage Rauchberg is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Studies and Media Arts at McMaster University. Jess’s research provides a critical/cultural and crip-informed approach to the study of human-computer interaction, with a particular focus on algorithmic ableism and digital culture. Her published and forthcoming writing is featured in the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, Flow Journal, LGBTQ Digital Cultures: A Global Perspective, and The Palgrave Handbook of Disability and Communication. To learn more about Jess, visit www.jessrauchberg.com.