Approaching semiospheres through lists of songs: The semiotics of musical playlists
By: Sebastián Moreno Barreneche
| ARTICLE INFO: Volume: 09 Issue: 01:Summer 2023 ISSN: 2459-2943 DOI: 10.18680/hss.2023.0002 Pages: 13-29 Lic.: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
KEYWORDS: Playlists Semiosphere Music Lists Collections |
ABSTRACT
This article uses a cultural semiotic perspective to examine how musical playlists can serve to define and characterize semiospheres. It begins with a discussion of cultural semiotics and the analytical challenge of accessing a semiosphere through music. Then, it focuses on the role the lists play in defining, describing, and characterizing a semiosphere. Finally, it discusses how musical playlists – collections of songs grouped following a rule or criterion – can define and characterize a semiosphere. The analytical section studies three general types of semiospheres linked to (1) space, (2) time, and (3) collective identities.
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