Seemingly trivial software does important cultural work, both reflecting hegemonic norms and providing opportunities for transforming them. Software applications for music production (music apps) within the iOS app store promise to broaden the potential for musical participation through simple, “fun,” user-friendly interface design. Yet, within the dominant user interface convention, “fun” is synonymous with the experience of instant success and effortless musical mastery. Drawing on semistructured interviews conducted with developers, and an analysis of shared user interface design conventions across three case studies of apps, ThumbJam, iMaschine 2, and Skram, I argue that normative conceptions of human perfectibility are assumed to be what generates an optimal user experience. Exploring theories of “queer fun,” and the importance of “failure” in studies of video gaming, I propose alternative conceptions of “fun,” and consider how, and with what effects, these might be implemented in the world of music apps.
RodgersTara. 2010. Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound. Durham: Duke University Press.
30.
RubergBonnie. 2015. “No Fun: The Queer Potential of Video Games that Annoy, Anger, Disappoint, Sadden, and Hurt.” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking2 (2): 108–24.
31.
RubergBonnie. 2017. “Playing to Lose: The Queer Art of Failing at Video Games.” In Gaming Representation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games, edited by MalkowskiJenniferRusswormTreaAndrea M., 197–211. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
32.
SennettRichard. 2008. The Craftsman. New Haven: Yale University Press.
33.
SiebersTobin. 2010. Disability Aesthetics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
34.
SimonVictoria.. 2018. “iMaschine 2: Music-Making Apps and Interface Aesthetics.” In Appified: Culture in the Age of Apps, edited by MorrisJeremyMurraySarah, 266–75. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
35.
SmallChristopher. 1977. Music, Society, Education: A Radical Examination of the Prophetic Function of Music in Western, Eastern and African Cultures with Its Impact on Society and Its Use in Education. Platform Books. London: Calder.
36.
SterneJonathan.. 2019. “Spectral Objects.” In Sound Objects, edited by ChowReySteintragerJames, 312. Durham: Duke University Press.
37.
ThebergePaul. 1997. Any Sound You Can Imagine Making Music/Consuming Technology. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
38.
TreschJohnDolanEmily. 2013. “Toward a New Organology: Instruments of Music and Science.” Osiris28: 278–98.
39.
van DijckJose. 2013. The Culture of Connectivity a Critical History of Social Media. New York: Oxford University Press.
