Reading Songs, Experiencing Music: Co-creation, Materiality and Expertise in Beck’s Song Reader
Antoni Francesc Roig, Gemma San Cornelio · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · 2016
This chapter presents a detailed case study of the Song Reader project by Beck Hansen as a significant exponent of the changing relationship between musicians and their publics, in the framework of the continual attempts to reinvent the music industry. Song Reader was released in late 2012 in book format, containing music sheets of 20 new unrecorded songs, illustrations and some introductory notes inviting fans to perform and adapt them freely. Consequently, a wide range of creative outcomes of Song Reader appeared, from live performances to video material, graphic art or even recorded albums. Indeed, although it was not planned, different Beck-curated versions have been performed and released, thus constituting a valuable source for a cultural analysis in terms of participation, materiality, affection, authority and expertise. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.