Frieder Behrens

PhD Project: Musical Short Videos. Intermedial Aesthetic Practices of Musicians at the Intersection of the Auditory and the Visual

In his doctoral project, Frieder Behrens deals with musical-aesthetic practices in short videos. On TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, we see musicians filming themselves performing their tracks, singing their songs and playing their instruments in the studio, in the park or in the living room. This reveals an audiovisual presentation of music-making that raises a wide range of questions regarding the relationships between auditory and visual action in musical practice.

The theoretical starting point of the work is a reflection on media convergence: the visual and auditory levels of musical practice can only be separated as such after the invention of phonography and photography. This led to the development of a musical practice that was primarily aimed at capturing musical events in auditory media. Smartphones and platforms now evoke a musical practice in which the visually capturable dimension of musical action functions as a genuine part of the aesthetic strategies of pop artists.

When working primarily towards an audiovisual product, traditional, powerful distinctions between sound and image become blurred. This is where the study sets in and focuses on the question of how the visual and auditory are intertwined in the concrete production processes of musicians. The intention is to highlight new forms of music-making in which musicians also make their musical and compositional decisions on the basis of their visual presentability.

Selected journalistic works:

„Hits aus dem Baukasten? Sampling in digitalen Zeiten“ Tonart, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 5. Februar 2025. Available online: www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/hits-aus-dem-baukasten-sampling-in-digitalen-zeiten-100.html

„Wie live ist elektronische Musik?“ Tonart, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 15. Juli 2024. Available online: www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/wie-live-ist-elektronische-musik-auf-der-buehne-dlf-kultur-c2c91b71-100.html

„Synth-Fluencer: Leidenschaft oder Marketing?“Tonart, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 7. Dezember 2023. Available online: www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/synth-fluencer-leidenschaft-oder-marketing-dlf-kultur-39d903b1-100.html

"Welche Bedeutung hat das Musikvideo in der Streaming-Ökonomie?“ Tonart, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 2. Oktober 2023. Available online: www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/welche-bedeutung-hat-das-musikvideo-in-der-streaming-oekonomie-dlf-kultur-69b14823-100.html