Global frictions and the production of locality in Kenya’s music video industry

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between global imaginaries, frictions, and the production of locality through an examination of the Kenyan music video industry. Localities are constructed, in part, through the constitutive work of the imagination. Friction occurs when divergent constructions of the global imaginary become entangled with each other. Through an examination of the production, distribution, and reception of Kenyan music videos, this study identifies three types of friction that occur in cultural production: collaborative frictions, in which collectivities work across differences toward a common cause; combative frictions, in which collectivities are positioned in direct opposition to each other; and competitive frictions, in which the interests of different collectivities conflict at times and align at others. This study contributes to scholarship on cultural production in non-Western contexts by articulating hybridity as both an antecedent to and outcome of transcultural exchange.

Clashing cyphers, contagious content: The digital geopolitics of grime

“…In this case, Bugz admits that Chip's lyrics are effective, but does so in order to highlight his physical weakness ( you can only get brave with a pen ) in the real world. Through these narratives, they are able to deliver a more encompassing message that, “through the constitutive work of the imagination” (Ekdale, 2018, p. 211), enables them to construct a more engaging dialogue between themselves, and by extension, their audiences. Not only that, but through cultural avatars, grime artists become disembodied representations of who they really are, thus offering audiences an expanded of the artist‐as‐self that is rooted in the materiality of the body, but is represented in multiple, and sometimes (in)congruent, ways.…”

‘Yo Te AMLO’: Sentimentalism, threat and affective flows in political campaign song videos in Mexico

“…In turn, contemporary Mexican campaign song is best interrogated as a rich, audiovisual medium mostly circulated within music videos. Recent research has highlighted the music video as a hybrid form, able to link cultural expressions on multiple scales and connect the global and local (Boxman-Shabtai, 2019; Ekdale, 2018); indeed, Richardson and Gorbman appeal to ‘the explanatory value of boundary phenomena’ (2013: 20) as a principle for research into the audiovisual. Listening attentively to contemporary campaign song invites us to explore how the multiscalar, hybrid music video format may constitute a resource for political coalition-building.…”