The Digital Encore: Preservation, Reinterpretation, and Commodification of the Rock and Metal Fandom and its Media on YouTube

Take a second to think about your favorite music artist. What was the last YouTube video you watched related to them? How do you picture them in your mind? Now ask yourself, why do you see them that way? Whether you realize it or not, the content you consume about your favorite artists shapes your perception of them. YouTube has become a modern archive for old music media and has allowed it to gain new life on the platform, with fans, both new and old, being able to see and interact with the videos. This is very prominent in the communities centered around Rock and Metal music from the 1970s and 1980s, which sees videos ranging from restored concert footage to fan edits of their favorite musicians. This paper argues that fan-created YouTube videos about 1970s and 1980s Rock and Metal artists both preserve and reinterpret these musicians’ legacies, turning fandom into participatory culture. However, as fans become digital archivists on a commercialized platform, the line between authentic vs. commercialized content is blurred. This paper will draw upon YouTube fan content, my personal experience with fan content, media theories, and other research surrounding YouTube and music sharing.