Broadcasting the Bedroom: Intimate musical practices and collapsing contexts on YouTube

This chapter investigates how users deal with the opportunities and challenges that come with practising their musical activities online. It illustrates the concept of a context collapse can be an important tool in understanding the daily worries and struggles of bedroom musicians on a platform such as YouTube. YouTube has become famous for its slogan 'Broadcast Yourself'. As other media scholars have pointed out, however, one can question the extent to which 'broadcasting' is the correct term for the types of transmission made on this platform. On YouTube, bedroom musicians find new possibilities to disclose their otherwise private musical practices and establish new connections with people all around the world. At the same time, their activities are met with criticism and misunderstanding, especially from relative outsiders to the community of practitioners. Moreover, many bedroom musicians see their practices as opportunities for learning.