Why dont Guitar Hero players just pick up real guitars? What happens when millions of people play the role of a young black gang member in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas? How are YouTube-based music lessons changing the nature of amateur musicianship? This book is about play; performance; and participatory culture in the digital age. Miller shows how video games and social media are bridging virtual and visceral experience; creating dispersed communities who forge meaningful connections by "playing along" with popular culture. Playing Along reveals how digital media are brought to bear in the transmission of embodied knowledge: how a Grand Theft Auto player uses a virtual radio to hear with her avatars ears; how a Guitar Hero player channels the experience of a live rock performer; and how a beginning guitar student translates a two-dimensional; pre-recorded online music lesson into three-dimensional physical practice and an intimate relationship with a distant teacher. Through a series of engaging ethnographic case studies; Miller demonstrates that our everyday experiences with interactive digital media are gradually transforming our understanding of musicality; creativity; play; and participation.
#2401267 in eBooks 2011-12-13 2011-12-13File Name: B006TCBGOW
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