Not a Moment but a Movement : The cultural, social, and political resonance surrounding the musical Hamilton
(2022) MKVM13 20221Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
- Abstract
- Hamilton tells the story of the life and career of Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant who came to America at a young age and grew up to be a founding father as well as the first Treasury Secretary of the United States of America and the face of the US ten-dollar bill. Since premiering in 2015, the hip-hop-musical grew into a popular culture phenomenon, resonating with people all over the world while transcending its theatrical boundaries and creating a
dramaturgical world in the digital sphere.
Almost seven years after its premiere on Broadway, this thesis project investigates Hamilton’s presence in the digital sphere, critically analyzing the musical’s cultural, social, and political
resonance as evidenced through social media data... (More) - Hamilton tells the story of the life and career of Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant who came to America at a young age and grew up to be a founding father as well as the first Treasury Secretary of the United States of America and the face of the US ten-dollar bill. Since premiering in 2015, the hip-hop-musical grew into a popular culture phenomenon, resonating with people all over the world while transcending its theatrical boundaries and creating a
dramaturgical world in the digital sphere.
Almost seven years after its premiere on Broadway, this thesis project investigates Hamilton’s presence in the digital sphere, critically analyzing the musical’s cultural, social, and political
resonance as evidenced through social media data sets. The context-sensitive multi-method study combines the semiotic analysis of images and videos posted on online platforms with the qualitative text analysis of respective captions and comments in order to paint a comprehensive picture of Hamilton’s digital media dynamics.
Hamilton’s transition from the dramatical space of the stage production to the mediated space of social media platforms as well as its reappropriation into real-world contexts is critically
analyzed employing the concept of inter-generic spaces. Through digital media affordances, users are able to create and share personal interpretations and adaptions of the musical, remixing or recontextualizing its original content. Hamilton’s theme and narrative further inspires socially or politically charged digital media creations, giving the musical meaning in its role as a provider of cultural citizenship as analyzed in the context of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement during the thesis.
As a historical fiction musical, Hamilton has a dynamic between the historical facts and the fictional adaption in the musical’s storyline that turned out to be omnipresent in the analysis of the data. Together with the musical’s inter-generic character, this phenomenon acted as a resource for both individual and collective resonances surrounding Hamilton. This study further points towards the musical’s real-world impact, showcasing how the creators make
use of Hamilton’s popularity, platform and reach in order to take stances towards issues that have meaning for its fans.
The original approach of analyzing textual and (audio-)visual social media data proved to be a successful way of critically analyzing resonances surrounding Hamilton which is why the
methods toolkit provided in this thesis may be relevant for further popular culture studies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9079290
- author
- Herrmann, Max LU
- supervisor
-
- Annette Hill LU
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Hamilton, popular culture, resonance, musical studies, social media studies, digital media, inter-generic spaces, memes, transmedia, social justice, black lives matter
- language
- English
- id
- 9079290
- date added to LUP
- 2022-06-13 08:22:35
- date last changed
- 2022-06-13 08:22:35
@misc{9079290,
abstract = {{Hamilton tells the story of the life and career of Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant who came to America at a young age and grew up to be a founding father as well as the first Treasury Secretary of the United States of America and the face of the US ten-dollar bill. Since premiering in 2015, the hip-hop-musical grew into a popular culture phenomenon, resonating with people all over the world while transcending its theatrical boundaries and creating a
dramaturgical world in the digital sphere.
Almost seven years after its premiere on Broadway, this thesis project investigates Hamilton’s presence in the digital sphere, critically analyzing the musical’s cultural, social, and political
resonance as evidenced through social media data sets. The context-sensitive multi-method study combines the semiotic analysis of images and videos posted on online platforms with the qualitative text analysis of respective captions and comments in order to paint a comprehensive picture of Hamilton’s digital media dynamics.
Hamilton’s transition from the dramatical space of the stage production to the mediated space of social media platforms as well as its reappropriation into real-world contexts is critically
analyzed employing the concept of inter-generic spaces. Through digital media affordances, users are able to create and share personal interpretations and adaptions of the musical, remixing or recontextualizing its original content. Hamilton’s theme and narrative further inspires socially or politically charged digital media creations, giving the musical meaning in its role as a provider of cultural citizenship as analyzed in the context of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement during the thesis.
As a historical fiction musical, Hamilton has a dynamic between the historical facts and the fictional adaption in the musical’s storyline that turned out to be omnipresent in the analysis of the data. Together with the musical’s inter-generic character, this phenomenon acted as a resource for both individual and collective resonances surrounding Hamilton. This study further points towards the musical’s real-world impact, showcasing how the creators make
use of Hamilton’s popularity, platform and reach in order to take stances towards issues that have meaning for its fans.
The original approach of analyzing textual and (audio-)visual social media data proved to be a successful way of critically analyzing resonances surrounding Hamilton which is why the
methods toolkit provided in this thesis may be relevant for further popular culture studies.}},
author = {{Herrmann, Max}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Not a Moment but a Movement : The cultural, social, and political resonance surrounding the musical Hamilton}},
year = {{2022}},
}