La popular music in una prospettiva transmediale: il caso della trap in Italia

The ways we listen to, and engage with, popular music in the contemporary world suggest that an important shift is underway, driven by the digital revolution, the development of music platforms and social media, and the ubiquitous presence of smartphones as “prosthetic” devices in everyday life. In this new context, the relations between sound and visual needs to be rethought through new categories and paradigms. The case of Instagram, which since 2016 (with the introduction of “Stories”) has evolved from being a visual social media to a multimedia platform, is particularly relevant. This article aims to contextualize the rise of Trap music in Italy in the mid-2010s in relation to its diffusion through social media, and, specifically, Instagram. Through the examination on how smartphone-based music practices work, the article will then propose some suggestion for the study of popular music from a transmedia perspective.