USER-GENERATED PARODY AS NEGOTIATION OVER MEANING:A TYPOLOGY OF FRAME ALIGNMENT IN MUSICAL RENDITIONS

Abstract

The practice of parodying music videos is becoming increasingly widespread, to the extent that parodies now generate, on aggregate, more revenue than “official” material (IFBI Digital music report, 2014). The wealth of the YouTube parody scene extends beyond such tangible rewards: for researchers interested in audience engagement, this sphere presents unique opportunities for gauging mechanisms of interpretation.

Addressing a common critique about the hyper-sexualization of female musicians in the music industry (Lieb, 2013), in this paper I focus on how parodists align with frames pertaining to sexuality and gender roles in popular music videos. Traditionally defined as a genre that criticizes the text it imitates (Hutcheon, 2000), “parody” is often used nowadays to describe what Jameson (1990) labeled as "pastiche”, namely, the use of familiar references for the inducement of uncritical pleasure.