Abstract

In this article, we explore the transfer of functional music as a social control technology from pre-digital to digital media. Muzak, the closest ancestor of online functional music, was expert-designed to improve worker productivity. Ironically, today users themselves are creating mood playlists to enhance their work performance and to manage their emotional states in everyday life contexts. We examine the motivations and practices of users by analyzing their comments on online forums and the descriptions they attach to the mood playlists they create. Our findings indicate that functional music goes through a significant transformation in online media, which brings forth both an expansion of its social control effects and the emergence of novel uses that have a rather ambiguous relationship with social control. We propose that this double mechanism can be used as a basic model for analyzing the interactions between biopower and new media.

摘要

在本文中，我们探讨了功能音乐作为一种社交控制技术从前数字媒体到数字媒体的转移。在线功能音乐最亲密的祖先Muzak经过专业设计，旨在提高工作人员的生产力。具有讽刺意味的是，今天，用户自己正在创建情绪播放列表，以提高他们的工作表现并管理他们在日常生活中的情绪状态。我们通过分析用户在在线论坛上的评论以及对他们创建的心情播放列表的描述，来检查用户的动机和做法。我们的发现表明，功能音乐在在线媒体上经历了重大变革，既带来了其社会控制效果的扩展，又出现了与社会控制有相当模糊关系的新颖用途。