Lauren Brown

Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Clark, Maribeth

Keywords

YouTube, Bollywood, Globalization

Area of Concentration

Music

Abstract

This thesis explores how the advent of YouTube merged participatory culture and internet-based video sharing into a global participatory culture, thereby expanding the reach and cultural familiarity of Bollywood dance style beyond South Asian culture. With the Indian and Desi culture of creating filmi dances already participatory, the international market for Bollywood films gives Bollywood-style dance global exposure. Bollywood-style dance had a successful model for helping participants to achieve flow in face-to-face groups, which translated well to the Internet. The low learning curve and high ability to maintain interest in performing Bollywood-style dance made it a successful element of participatory culture on the Internet. Through youth culture's influence on the process of globalization, these international dances become isolated from their original context, migrate from their native culture, and are localized by the receiving culture. Although trend analysis indicates YouTube's ability to accelerate the globalization process is anecdotally apparent, further research involving comprehensive statistical data would help quantify its significance in facilitating creative collaboration on a global scale. Nonetheless, the publically available trend data supports the thesis.

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