WHAT SUCCESS DOESN'T TELL US: failure as performance gap in the digital dynamics of pop music
Digital Culture. Failure. Pop Music. Performance.
In pop music, the idea of failure is a debate that defines the amount of artist sales as a marker of success. This concept highlights commercial threads that guide a substantial amount of the expectations of the recording industry. Over and above the reductive perception of the defect of a financial aim, failure can be perceived as an analytical detour, revealing unforeseen events that complexify the music industry. This dissertation articulates this digressive power in which there is a constant gap that sometimes attracts formulas sealed by capitalism’s approach
and sometimes repeals it. I use Diana Taylor’s (2013) performance studies and Thiago Soares’s (2021) theoretical-methodological updates on media theatricality to approach culturally marked industry scripts and to what extent the social actors will dramatize them. With this in mind, I seek to frame the performance gaps of failure in the context of digital culture, pointing out staging from both fans and pop artists on social media sites.