The Musical Madeleine: Communication, Performance, and Identity in Musical Ringtones

Abstract

In this paper, we consider musical cell-phone ringtones as virtual, communicative and cultural performances. They appear unpredictably, they are interpreted by variegated and dynamic audiences, and they establish stages upon which cultural meanings are portrayed. We will argue that the musical ringtone functions as a musical madeleine in Marcel Proust's sense, an involuntary mnemonic trigger of a complex web of individual and collective memories. Having this quality, the ringtone lends itself perfectly to the performative manifestation and display of (sub)cultural identities in the public sphere. We will illustrate these workings of the ringtone by way of a small case study taken from gangsta rap culture, the song and ringtone “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent.

Notes

^[1] With the notable exception of recent work by Sumanth Gopinath.

^[2] It is important to note that we distinguish our use of inner and outer from that of Sadie Plant, who uses similar terms to describe two forms of mobile phone use “[a]mong small groups of friends or associates”: innies take to themselves and try to shield mobile conversations from group interaction, whereas outies tend to integrate their mobile phone usage into ongoing proceedings (Plant 32–33).

^[3] Except, of course, in cases where the caller accidentally calls a person without knowing it, for instance when redial or preference keys are pressed when tucking away the mobile phone in a tight space.

^[4] In 2005, the US music industry had a revenue of $12 billion; $600 million came from selling ringtones (Gundersen).

^[5] See for instance http://ringtonesociety.com/.

^[6] Cf. also Deleuze and Guattari (291–309) on the (de- and re-territiorializing) mnemonic powers of music and its functioning as mémoire involontaire.

^[7] This is an important extension of Caroline Bassett's idea (352) of the mobile phone as a mnemonic operator.

^[8] Cf. Fischer-Lichte's analysis of emergent meanings in aural performances (Ästhetik des Performativen 209–26).

^[9] If, very hypothetically, she were a member of some postmodern eclectic art scene, her combination of two musical lifestyles might be considered perfectly original and acceptable.

^[10] One of the results of these developments is the critical reworking of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) subculture theory. This is not the place to discuss the distinctions between subcultures, neotribes, Bünde, and scenes. For brevity's sake we will employ the term subculture here for less or more coordinated, music-based youth cultures, without attaching stringent or generalizing characteristics to them.

^[11] “Got the magic stick”, for instance, is a reference to “P.I.M.P.,” the song with (among others) Snoop Dogg that established 50 Cent's fame and career.