Value Creation in Online Bedroom Pop Scenes

Three artists were selcted as case studies for this examination of the creation of value in online ‘bedroom pop’ scenes. Using the Instagram accounts of these three artists, namely, Still 2 Woozy, The Marias and Orion, it is possible to examine how fans interact with each other as well as the artists themselves. Bedroom pop is an internet based genre of music whose creators write, produce and distribute their music from the comfort of their own homes, aided by the development of high quality home production software and equipment. This study will use pervious research on scenes to examine how ‘bedroom pop’ differs from traditional music genres. Specifically, this will examine online scenes which are the primary space for scene creation rather than suplimentary to the space specific scene, as this is what is unique about bedroom pop. Instagram comments and captions were scraped from 57 total posts. A thematic analysis was conducted on the comments and captions in order to answer the research question; ‘How is value created in emerging online “bedroom pop” scenes?’. Findings showed a lack of interaction between fans and the artists, as well as bridging between fans, and an emphasis on social capital. Moreover, the artists used the space to create a narrative of authenticity in oder to utailise indie underground aethetics to connect to fans.