Playing Along Digital Games, YouTube, and Virtual Performance [Paperback]

Why don'tGuitar Heroplayers just pick up real guitars? What happens when millions of people play the role of a young black gang member inGrand 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 Alongreveals how digital media are brought to bear in the transmission of embodied knowledge: how aGrand Theft Autoplayer uses a virtual radio to hear with her avatar's ears; how aGuitar Heroplayer 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.

About the companion website
Introduction: Playing Along
Part One: Playing Along with Grand Theft Auto
1. Straight Outta Ganton: Virtual Tourism, Fieldwork, and Performance
2. Jacking the Dial: Radio, Race, and Place in San Andreas
Part Two: Playing Along with Guitar Hero and Rock Band
3. How Musical is Guitar Hero?
4. Just Add Performance: Staging Schizophonia
Part Three: Playing Along with Communities of Practice
5. Music Lessons 2.0
6. Amateur-to-Amateur
Endgame
References
Index

Taking music making in video games and online cultures as her focus, Miller develops powerful ideas that go far beyondGuitar Heroand YouTube to offer fundamental insights into performance and partl.