The Sound of BookTok: Exploring the evolving role of music in promoting Young Adult literature on TikTok

Description

Contemporary technological developments have made ‘the literary’ inseparable from ‘the digital’ (Andersen et al., 2021), resulting in the emergence of a digital literary sphere characterised by complex interactions between digital platforms and readerly practices (Murray, 2018). In relation to children’s and YA literature, such interactions are seen markedly on TikTok that has taken centre-stage in the sale and marketing of YA literature (Merga, 2021). Moreover, research on young people’s actual practices on BookTok demonstrates that they actively renegotiate literary taste and criticism in the (post)digital era (Kulkarni & Owens, 2022), shedding new light on children’s literary agency and participation. However, this nascent strand of research on BookTok is incomplete without examining the significant role played by music on this platform. The proposed research aims to build on our on-going research on the intersection of the literary and the digital on BookTok by expanding into ‘the aural.’
Music has always been central to TikTok – and therefore, BookTok - with users creating short videos to the tune of pre-existing sound-bytes. This is done according to a set framework of actions or events specifically associated with one song: the video is a routine of practices embedded in and predetermined by music. Music thus works as an integral part of the ability of video creators and viewers to make meaning and construct affect through the app. This has been described using the term “sound meme” (Shane, 2022; Darvin, 2022), referring to the way in which specific sounds become associated with particular meanings and feelings through repeated use (Shifman, 2014). Young BookTokkers harness these sound memes to promote particular books, making the concept a valuable addition to the theoretical apparatus for understanding BookTok and its impact on YA reading and promotion. Thus, this research will ask the following question: How does the memeification of sound on BookTok contribute to or expand the digital literary sphere of YA literature? We specifically focus on affect and the (sound) meme as a mediator of affect on BookTok.

Period	17 May 2023
Event title	The Child and The Book Conference 2023: The Magic of Sound: Children's Literature and Music
Event type	Conference
Location	Podgorica, MontenegroShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International