Sonic Gift-Giving on TikTok - Norient
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Sonic Gift-Giving on TikTok | norient.com 13 Jan 2023 03:12:44
Sonic Gift-Giving on TikTok
C O M M E N TA R Y by Luca Bruls
Since the advent of COVID-19, Algerian youth, artists, and
studios have taken to TikTok to sell, promote, and binge-
listen to the latest raï hits. So called «sonic gifts» are
remarkable in this context, as they show that young people’s
music consumption is not simply the result of algorithmic
content curation or commodity exchange. Rather, as I argue
in this commentary, TikTok cultures enable the use of sound
in spontaneous ways. Studying sonic gifts is meaningful
because these gifts reveal the complexity of how people
build relations and reputations in digital media spheres.
While conducting fieldwork on TikTok usage among Algerian youth, I
participated in trends where people combined «audio memes» (Abidin and
Kaye 2021) of raï songs with lip-synching and the local dance style way way.
This performance style originates in the playgrounds, wedding halls, and
cabarets of urban districts (Bouziri 2014). Singers like Chaba Warda
Charlomante and microcelebrities like Choukri Pirate have attracted
thousands of followers through performances to new raï. Some Algerians
frown upon these TikToks, while others are proud to creatively spread their
«sensory knowledges» (Hirschkind 2006). TikTokers derive social capital
from dancing to anthems. They gain likes, gratitude, and followers, and
establish bonds with others. One unique way for young people to engage in
musical sociality is through didikas: what I call «sonic gifts».
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From Cabaret to TikTok
I first encountered didikas in the comment section of an account whose
TikToks I enjoyed watching. Didikas (Arabic phonemic orthography for the
French word dédicace) literally translates as dedication, but also means
request. It originated in radio shows and cabarets featuring raï performances,
where audiences offered money to the singer (or a middleman) to praise their
family or people present and perform their favorite song (Schade-Poulsen
1999, 47). This long-standing ceremonial act has spread to digital media,
where audiences can request a didikas by commenting on a TikTok. Contrary
to the cabarets, there is no money involved in this exchange, nor is it a
competitive game where people make bids to get their tune played. Instead,
it is a pleasurable gift-giving exchange.
The Soundedness of Belonging
Fans ask for a specific song, artist or – more commonly – for a TikTok
dedicated to themselves, their kin, or their wilāya (district). In so doing, they
proudly call attention to offline geographical origin and social relations inside
online spaces. For example, a fan might comment «didikas khoya sohaib
(bartout)» (didikas for my brother Sohaib (Bartout)). Audiences thus turn
their comment into a gift for relatives or their communities and
simultaneously get to enjoy a performance in their favorite genre. The
performer directly responds to the fan’s comment with a gift in the form of a
TikTok. At the heart of the giveaway is the highly celebrated genre raï, which
represents young people’s refined class taste. Algerian youth who admire
these TikToks send them to others, whereupon the maker gains prestige in
return.
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Like in Bronisław Malinowski’s ethnography of the kula in the Trobriand
Islands – a ceremonial exchange of gifts that demonstrates the social value
of objects beyond exchange and utility – the value of didikas lies in the
relations and reputations that these gifts bring about. Sonic gifts are
meaningful to young people who seek intimacy in a geographically dispersed
digital network. On the one hand, the gifts represent translocal performance
styles through which young people share a sense of belonging with Algerians
at greater distance. On the other hand, through gifts, young people sustain
intimate local networks with those nearby. In a viral world, sounds make life
endurable and gratification lasting.
→ list of references
Abidin, Crystal, and Bondy Valdovinos Kaye. 2021. «Audio Memes, Earworms, and
Templatability: The ‹aural turn› of Memes on TikTok». In Critical Meme Reader, edited
by Chloë Arkenbout, Jack Wilson and Daniel de Zeeuw. 58–68. Amsterdam: Institute of
Network Cultures.
Bouziri, Amira. 2014. «Le ‹Way way›, la nouvelle danse festive et subversive de la jeunesse
algérienne». France24. Last modified on December 24, 2014.
(https://observers.france24.com/fr/20141224-algerie-way-way-danse-festive-
subversive-jeunesse-rai-ey-ey).
Hirschkind, Charles. 2006. The Ethical Soundscape. New York: Columbia University Press.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native
Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. London: G.
Routledge & Sons.
Schade-Poulsen, Marc. 1999. The Social Significance of Raï: Men and Popular Music in
Algeria. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Luca Bruls, also known as Lulu, is a junior researcher at Leiden University as part of
the project «Decoding Digital Media in African Regions of Conflict». She holds a BA
in Arabic language, a BA in cultural anthropology and a ResMA in Middle Eastern
studies. Her experience working for various music platforms, alongside her DJ
activities, led to an interest in understanding sound from a socioscientific
perspective. In her master’s thesis she examined the role of sound on TikTok in
Algeria.
→ links
Thomas Burkhalter: «Mit dem Mikrofon gegen die Stille» (Norient)
→ published on march 25, 2022
→ last updated on may 06, 2022
→ topics
belonging
dance
digitization
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