Hip Hop DJs as Technocultural Signifiers: Participatory Culture, Labor, and the Affordances of Twitch.tv

This study explored how Hip Hop DJs creatively and communally adopted Twitch.tv as a venue in 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, to sustain their craft and to continue their work within the gig economy. The dissertation investigated the DJ’s transition from performing in physical venues to exploring and navigating the Twitch digital economy by creating their own channels, leveraging the platform’s affordances, and relying on the support of the communities they formed. This dissertation positions DJs as technocultural cultural signifiers who reshaped their labor through strategic creativity. The research requestions driving this study were: 1. How do Hip Hop DJs use Twitch to engage with audiences? 2. How do the platform specific affordances of Twitch enable and/or constrain forms of DJs’ engagement and participation within the gig economy? 3. What connections, disruptions, and other movements exist between forms of participation supported by Twitch and those supported by the many cultural practices of Hip Hop? Methodologically, this study employed a triangulation of critical technocultural discourse analysis, observations of 43 DJs, and interviews of 30 DJs who performed on Twitch. The relevant theoretical frameworks to guide this study included affordance theory and vernacular affordances. Additionally, this research engaged in literature regarding the gig economy, participatory culture, and emotional, relational, and visible labor. The analysis of the platform and of the Hip Hop DJs who engaged on Twitch resulted in several key findings including: Hip Hop DJs experienced a relational dynamic shift, Twitch affordances enabled DJs to engage in performative capitalism, and Hip Hop DJs participated in technocultural labor to establish themselves on a platform where their work was initially prohibited. This study concluded that although DJs were participating on a masculine-dominated interface, their engagement, and presence disrupted hegemonic systems. The Hip Hop DJ community navigated Twitch’s habitus as a counterculture, ultimately leading to the platform’s integration of the DJ category. This acknowledgment solidified the Hip Hop DJ community’s presence on Twitch and within its digital economy.