- Go to Cambridge Libraries to obtain interesting quotes to add to Genre and Representation investigations
- Update my blog entries with the information, and also with responses to primary research
Problem: Arriving at 10:30 on the dot, and departing after 11, my trip to the library was, surprisingly, unsuccessful. I asked at the help desk on the main floor and on the top floor in the BFI section if they had any books relating to media, music video production or similar. The one and only book they were meant to have which was relevant wasn't available. Leaving town, I went back to the LRC at college and found more than 10 books relevant to my chosen area of study. I couldn't help but take more notes than probably necessary, since what I read is of such interest.
This is what I found;
Topic: Representation, author's view on music videos, influence of music videos
Book: Music & Youth Culture (2006)
Author: Dan Laughey
Quotes:
Page 48, "[...] the homologous bodily manifestations of Jonathon Epstein's (1998) crudely labelled Generation X are couched in the same characteristics and manifestations of subcultural style - tattoos, body piercing, grunge music, drug use, long 'punk' hairstyles - without detailing any differential permutations in the deployment of these characteristics beyond their media-generated stereotypes."
Notes: Example of how negative representation leads to bad assumptions and stereotyping. Limiting people's perception of somebody dressed similarly because of the assumptions made about that group.
Page 93, "MTV [...] subtly targets music videos - which function as low art forms like advertisement - that pastiche forms of high art such as film noir to youth audiences who are required to acquire skills in detecting these intertextual moments. (1991:69)"
Notes: This clearly states Laughey's view of music videos; that they lack in skill and borrow from more skilled art forms.
Page 116, touches on the "complexities of audience reception," mentioning Katz et al. 1974 'uses and gratifications' theory, and Halls 1992 'encoding and decoding'.
Page 187, "Radically contextual narratives on music media influences only occasionally include persona declarations of being influenced by global cultural practices. [...] Perceptions of media influence on the clothing fashions of other youth practitioners also articulate a sense of radical contextualism [...] Amy remembered the reaction to Geri Halliwell's public appearance dressed in a butterfly top: 'every shop started selling it[...]"
Notes: This is an example of how the media, influences people. It can be applied to music videos too.
Notes: This is an example of how the media, influences people. It can be applied to music videos too.
Topic: Genre
Book: Media & Film Studies handbook (2007)
Author: V.Clark, P.Jones, B.Malyszko, D.Wharton
Quotes:
Page 88, "a genre is a loose category or classification of media product (e.g. tabloid newspaper, soap opera, science fiction film). Classification into one genre or another is governed by codes and conventions, and each has its own more or less obvious iconography. The codes and conventions of a genre refer both to the cultural signals contained in the text, and to the ways in which the text's content is presented."
Page 89, "[Genre] helps audiences know in advance what to expect of the product, and many become fans of certain genres; for producers, genre helps to make clear what is being proposed when they are pitching ideas for new products. Conversely, a media product that does not fall into a clear genre, and is therefore more challenging to describe, may be less successful than one that does."
Page 189, "...the people involved in making the representation (the writers, the presenters or actors, the editors) are all governed by their ow beliefs, values and attitudes. This means that no representation in the media is ever objective. Most media products tend to reproduce dominant ideologies in the way that they represent the world. This has led many minorities to complain that they are misrepresented in media texts."
Notes: Representation.
Page 140, "a visual rendition of a piece of music [...] made as a means of promoting it to the public. As such, music videos are a subgenre of the TV advertisement, and hence a very cheap form of programming, since royalties do not have to be paid. Music videos became widespread in the 1980s around the birth of MTV [...] The modern era of music video began with Qyeen's Bohemian Rhapsody (1957) and the Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star, the first song to feature on MTV at its launch in 1981."
Page 141-2, "narrative: a story, whether factual of fictional. Narrative is a macro element in any film, which can only be understood by looking at the film as a whole." Then mentions; Vladmir Propp, Claude Levi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Tzvetan Todorov, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Robert McKee, and Christopher Vogler.
Page 88, "a genre is a loose category or classification of media product (e.g. tabloid newspaper, soap opera, science fiction film). Classification into one genre or another is governed by codes and conventions, and each has its own more or less obvious iconography. The codes and conventions of a genre refer both to the cultural signals contained in the text, and to the ways in which the text's content is presented."
Page 89, "[Genre] helps audiences know in advance what to expect of the product, and many become fans of certain genres; for producers, genre helps to make clear what is being proposed when they are pitching ideas for new products. Conversely, a media product that does not fall into a clear genre, and is therefore more challenging to describe, may be less successful than one that does."
Page 189, "...the people involved in making the representation (the writers, the presenters or actors, the editors) are all governed by their ow beliefs, values and attitudes. This means that no representation in the media is ever objective. Most media products tend to reproduce dominant ideologies in the way that they represent the world. This has led many minorities to complain that they are misrepresented in media texts."
Notes: Representation.
Page 140, "a visual rendition of a piece of music [...] made as a means of promoting it to the public. As such, music videos are a subgenre of the TV advertisement, and hence a very cheap form of programming, since royalties do not have to be paid. Music videos became widespread in the 1980s around the birth of MTV [...] The modern era of music video began with Qyeen's Bohemian Rhapsody (1957) and the Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star, the first song to feature on MTV at its launch in 1981."
Page 141-2, "narrative: a story, whether factual of fictional. Narrative is a macro element in any film, which can only be understood by looking at the film as a whole." Then mentions; Vladmir Propp, Claude Levi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Tzvetan Todorov, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Robert McKee, and Christopher Vogler.
Topic: Purpose of music videos
Book: Make your own music video (2004)
Author: Ed Gaskell
Quotes:
Page 8, "The fact is that music has always been used to sell visuals, and now the visuals sell the music."
"They create word of mouth and tabloid headlines, they give a band a personality [...] Most of all, they get musicians and bands remembered."
Page 8, "The fact is that music has always been used to sell visuals, and now the visuals sell the music."
"They create word of mouth and tabloid headlines, they give a band a personality [...] Most of all, they get musicians and bands remembered."
TOTAL TIME SPENT: 3 hrs (half at the Library and LRC, half typing up).
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