From Normative Propositions to Affective Screens: Algorithmic Architecture, Visual Femininity, and the Domestication of Sacred Texts in Islamic Pop Music
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66277/jims.1.1.248Keywords:
Mediatization of Religion, Platform Algorithms, Islamic Pop Music, Reception Analysis, Religious AuthorityAbstract
This study deconstructs the linear thesis of religious mediatization, which often equates digital commercialization with the secularization of sacred texts. Through a diachronic-comparative analysis of three key examples of Nusantara Islamic pop music—Raihan, Maher Zain, and Sabyan Gambus—this study argues that sacred texts are not abandoned but instead undergo structural taming. They shift from a normative propositional mode to a cyber-affective configuration. Applying Stuart Hall’s framework to platform comments reveals audience fragmentation that fosters a communal-temporal, negotiated reading, thereby eroding deep theological internalization. Furthermore, an analysis of metric disparities highlights a radical transition from a substantive aesthetic to a visual-feminine aesthetic, a shift accelerated by platform algorithms. This study contributes to the theory of digital religion by demonstrating that, under cyber-metric governance, the deconstruction of authoritative media occurs when the interpretation of revelation is delegated to the visual performativity of non-clerical figures—giving rise to the characteristics of fluid religiosity.References
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