Abstract
In annual air guitar competitions, performers choreograph routines that simulate and exaggerate gestures needed to play “real” guitar. Before competitions, they edit and alter popular music to facilitate routines. Based on fieldwork at local and national competitions in the United States and the international competition in Finland, my research demonstrates connections between remix aesthetics offstage and choreographies onstage, where competitors configure, conjure, and consume popular music. Rather than viewing competitions as evidence of uninhibited interpretive agency of popular music consumers, I argue that power differentials emerge where identity, sensibility, physical skills, and acquired skills determine types and degrees of participation possible for practitioners.
