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Paper short abstract

This study analyzes 1990s Japanese DTM magazines to argue that early online music scenes developed as extensions of magazine-based participatory cultures of music production, sharing, and evaluation, rather than as disruptions caused solely by new technologies.

Paper long abstract

This study examines Japanese music programming publications, specifically desktop music (DTM) magazines of the 1990s to elucidate the elements of participatory culture embedded in magazine-based submission practices and to analyze the process through which these cultural practices migrated to early online music scenes. Specifically, it focuses on the expansion of music production, sharing, and evaluation practices rooted in print media into networked music scenes through the adoption of communication technologies, such as computer networking services and the Internet.

This study aims, first, to demonstrate that DTM magazines functioned as infrastructural bases for a participatory culture by mediating sharing and mutual evaluation among users. Second, to theoretically situate the continuity between magazine-based submission cultures and early online musical practices. Through this approach, this study seeks to reconceptualize the emergence of online music culture in 1990s Japan as an extension of preexisting cultural practices rather than as a rupture owing solely to new technologies.

This study employs a qualitative analysis of major DTM magazines published during the 1990s, as well as contemporaneous music magazines and related mooks. Specifically, it examines reader submission sections, MIDI data contribution projects, and articles introducing network technologies to analyze how magazines functioned as media institutionally supporting a participatory culture. Additionally, early websites, mailing lists, and net labels were considered to comparatively examine the points of connection between magazines and online culture.

This study concludes that the culture of submission, sharing, and evaluation fostered by DTM magazines in the 1990s already fulfilled key principles of participatory culture, and that these structures were subsequently inherited by music scenes following the spread of the Internet. Guided by the logic of application, DTM magazines offered perspectives that actively integrated communication technologies into musical practice, thereby providing the cultural and practical foundations that enabled user-driven creative communities to transition into online spaces. Consequently, cultural practices in early online music scenes can be understood as reorganized and expanded extensions of print-based submission cultures, rather than entirely new formations.

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Paper short abstract

Serving as a conduit for cultural engagement, Japanese noise music acts as a parasitic force within otaku and dōjin cultures. Sharing “maniac” roots with niche hobbies, noise mutates in a resilient, rhizomatic practice, infiltrating popular media contexts to achieve new forms of cultural relevance.

Paper long abstract

Since its post-war experiments, Japanese noise music has served as a unique conduit for cultural engagement, connecting avant-garde experimentation with deep-rooted traditions and contemporary subcultures. This engagement manifests through diverse stylistic approaches, challenging aesthetic conventions while fostering new cultural dialogues by transcending musical and cultural boundaries, with some artists integrating noise into contemporary pop culture, such as Hijokaidan’s collaborations with idol groups like BiS and Vocaloid Hatsune Miku, bridging underground experimentalism with the mainstream and expanding the audience for noise. Given these premises, this paper examines the parasitic integration of noise music within Japanese otaku and dōjin (coterie) cultures, arguing that noise functions as a subversive “maniac” root shared between underground experimentalism and popular niche hobbies.

The analysis begins by identifying the shared “maniac” roots between punk, noise, and otaku culture, noting that all three are fundamentally underground practices centred on intense personal hobbies. A central case study is provided by Hatsune Kaidan's performance at the Music Media-Mix Market (M3), a long-running event for independent music circles. This performance demonstrated the porous boundaries between these worlds, as fans of polished idol culture and digital Vocaloid music readily embraced the chaotic energy of Hijokaidan’s harsh noise. Then it proceeds to further define dōjin culture as a space of “secondary creation” (niji sōsaku), where amateur creators draw inspiration from mainstream works to produce fan-made music, manga, and software, whose noise releases often feature bishōjo illustrations, signaling an aesthetic link to anime and manga. The study also examines the role of online databases for Vocaloid and the Touhou Project media franchise, which facilitates the large-scale appropriation and reuse of motifs through noise rock, ambient, and experimental styles. Finally, the integration of extreme aesthetics, such as guro and denpa, leads to subversive subgenres supported by independent netlabels. By proving that Japanese noise is a resilient, rhizomatic practice that survives by constantly mutating through contact with pop culture, this paper investigates how noise, often perceived as an inaccessible or marginal art form, functions as a “parasitic” force that infiltrates popular media contexts to achieve new forms of cultural relevance and social legitimacy.

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Paper short abstract

MikuMikuDance (MMD) functions as a memetic engine within Japan’s user-platform-material ecosystem. Through 1,179 MMD-memes, this study shows how skill, performance, idolization, and skit-based production shape digital communication and reflect creative labor in contemporary online media.

Paper long abstract

The ever-expanding online space is predominantly driven by memetic production and creative practices. Japan’s online media demonstrates such an environment, in particular the MikuMikuDance (MMD) program for creating 3D models, which has led to various sub-cultures of memetic productions, such as internet memes, also influencing online communication and commercialism globally. However, Japan’s contribution within digital culture studies, specifically MMD’s global integration, remains underexplored. This study examines how the intricacies of memetic production shape digital connections and online communication through the case of MMD. It situates MMD within a user-platform-material environment through the lens of meme discourse, arguing that MMD mediates frictions of creative and economic powers. Furthermore, the study showcases communicative values users foster through the operating of MMD’s complex functions as well as its memetic production. A qualitative multimodal content analysis (n = 1,179) reveals four communicative expressions: Ability and skill, embodied performance, memetic idolization, and memetic skits.

keywords: Creative labor, digital culture, Memes, MMD, online communication, platforms