Hello!
The term 'star' refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.
Common values of music stardom:
- Youthfulness
- Rebellion
- Sexual Magnetism
- An anti-authoritarian attitude
- Originality
- Creativity/talent
- Aggression/anger
- A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour
- Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods
- Success against the odds
Richard Dyer
Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music. Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common:
- A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music])
- Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.
- Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media - magazines, TV, radio, the internet - in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed for their target audience.
- The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences.
- Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and 'open'. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.
Paradox 1
- The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.
Paradox 2
- The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.
The Star Image
- The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to 'complete' or to 'make sense of' of the image.
- This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products.
- In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying.
- This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.
- Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominate social values (that is hegemony).
- Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system).
Friday, 30 September 2016
Monday, 26 September 2016
Media Regulation
This is just work we're going through in lesson. So 'Media Regulation' can be described in this way:
- Regulation/Regulator – set of rules or guidelines usually agreed between media organisations and public organisations in order to make media organisations more accountable for what they publish. Usually this is overseen by an independent regulatory body who may have the power to issue fines or warnings.
- IPSO regulate newspapers, voluntarily though. They may issue fines.
TV Stations - answerable to Ofcom:
- They have to have editorial standards which fall within Ofcom's code of conduct
- A government or court can place reporting restrictions on a case. So, for example, if a teenager is involved in a serious crime the court can order that his/her identity is not revealed.
- Celebrity super-injunctions: Ryan Giggs case.
User Generation Content: where the content is created by the person not just shared piece of reporting from a media organised (TV/News) - or re-tweeted.
BBFC Regulate Music Videos, voluntarily, it's not the law. Sony Music UK, Universal Music UK and Warner Music UK:
- Drug misuse
- Dangerous behaviour presented as safe
- Bad language
- Sexual behaviour and nudity
- Threatening behaviour and violence
'Light touch regulation'
Thursday, 22 September 2016
Creative Practice
Hey!
So I was a little bored and decided to mess around with some editing software and came up these ideas for a film company logo and another(!) CD Cover:
So I was a little bored and decided to mess around with some editing software and came up these ideas for a film company logo and another(!) CD Cover:
Monday, 19 September 2016
Music Video Genres: Features of Rock
Hey!
So for our theory lessons we have been studying features of certain genres and what makes them, them. I made my genre features study on Rock, which I turned into a presentation:
So for our theory lessons we have been studying features of certain genres and what makes them, them. I made my genre features study on Rock, which I turned into a presentation:
CD Cover Ideas
Hey,
I've been messing around with the shots Alex and I took for CD covers, check them out!
I've been messing around with the shots Alex and I took for CD covers, check them out!
Friday, 16 September 2016
Music Video Analysis
Hey,
For this post, I'll analyse the 'Take On Me' music video using media theories we have learnt about over the last week.
For this post, I'll analyse the 'Take On Me' music video using media theories we have learnt about over the last week.
Thursday, 15 September 2016
Rihanna BBHMM
Hey,
In lesson we reviewed an article discussing the controversy surrounding Rihanna's music video 'Bitch Better Have My Money.' It's fair to say that a lot of news outlets, journalists and the general public are more-than-a little displeased about the video.
The 'Video Games' column, firstly explains what the video actually is: "Rihanna's accountant has stolen her money so Rihanna kidnaps his snooty wife, stuffs her into a trunbk, strips her half-naked, hangs her upside down, gets her drunk, half-drowns her and then stabs the accountant to death. Finally, she has a relaxing smoke in a trunk full of cash while naked and covered in blood."
The article goes onto to explain the backlash the video received on the internet, following its release. After watching the video myself, I can see just in fact how the video caused controversy; the gore, the violence against women and drug usage all paints quite a dark picture for Rihanna. The lyrics themselves aren't exactly family friendly either, with the reoccurring line 'Bitch better have my
Money' appearing several times throughout the song.
The general consensus from the article is that Rihanna's video is 'just something pop do at a certain point in their careers.' The article explains that the "event video" has its own conventions, as if it were a genre,: it must be long, self-regarding, hubristic and flamboyantly expensive.The article goes into further detail by saying that pop-stars like 'Micheal Jackson' and 'Axl Rose' have all made this sort of video which usually concern the pop star's fantasies. Is it saying then that Rihanna's fantasy is to be a drug-smoking, sex-crazed woman-beater? Apparently an event video is 'designed' to project power and money but usually ends up revealing an artist's fatal flaw just before it swallows them. It's all quite serious.
Personally I think Rihanna is just trying to convey a message about society, to show how we've grown to be relaxed around this sort of taboo media - sex, crime, violence and drugs. All she has done is put it all together into one video. But really, we see it in drips and drabs everywhere, on adverts, TV, films, games and even clothing. Rihanna's video doesn't cross any sort of boundary, we crossed that with films like the Human Centipede and GTA V. (which has sex, drugs, violence and crime - all of which teenagers can play by the way).
Rihanna has bridged a gap aswell - she has shown how the music industry is at fault too, that lyrics has been vulgar, racist, violent and other things too. But by putting it in a music video, she has reached to parts of society that may be blind to the fact that the media harbours a lot of negative things.
In lesson we reviewed an article discussing the controversy surrounding Rihanna's music video 'Bitch Better Have My Money.' It's fair to say that a lot of news outlets, journalists and the general public are more-than-a little displeased about the video.
The 'Video Games' column, firstly explains what the video actually is: "Rihanna's accountant has stolen her money so Rihanna kidnaps his snooty wife, stuffs her into a trunbk, strips her half-naked, hangs her upside down, gets her drunk, half-drowns her and then stabs the accountant to death. Finally, she has a relaxing smoke in a trunk full of cash while naked and covered in blood."
The article goes onto to explain the backlash the video received on the internet, following its release. After watching the video myself, I can see just in fact how the video caused controversy; the gore, the violence against women and drug usage all paints quite a dark picture for Rihanna. The lyrics themselves aren't exactly family friendly either, with the reoccurring line 'Bitch better have my
Money' appearing several times throughout the song.
Personally I think Rihanna is just trying to convey a message about society, to show how we've grown to be relaxed around this sort of taboo media - sex, crime, violence and drugs. All she has done is put it all together into one video. But really, we see it in drips and drabs everywhere, on adverts, TV, films, games and even clothing. Rihanna's video doesn't cross any sort of boundary, we crossed that with films like the Human Centipede and GTA V. (which has sex, drugs, violence and crime - all of which teenagers can play by the way).
Rihanna has bridged a gap aswell - she has shown how the music industry is at fault too, that lyrics has been vulgar, racist, violent and other things too. But by putting it in a music video, she has reached to parts of society that may be blind to the fact that the media harbours a lot of negative things.
Monday, 12 September 2016
More Music Video Theory
More theory...
Goodwin's Features:
- Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
- There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (lyrics are represented with images)
- There is a relationship between music and visuals (tone and atmosphere of the visuals reflects that of the music)
-The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist, and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work. (a visual style)
- There is frequently reference to notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
- Often intertextual reference.
The Process
- Record company/label/artist approach a video production company.
- The director listens to the music and comes up with their own idea, 'a treatment'. S/he pitches it to the company/artist.
- If they like it, they buy in. If not, they go elsewhere.
- Some directors specialise but will take on other genres.
- Some also go onto direct features films.
Goodwin's Features:
- Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
- There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (lyrics are represented with images)
- There is a relationship between music and visuals (tone and atmosphere of the visuals reflects that of the music)
-The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist, and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work. (a visual style)
- There is frequently reference to notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
- Often intertextual reference.
The Process
- Record company/label/artist approach a video production company.
- The director listens to the music and comes up with their own idea, 'a treatment'. S/he pitches it to the company/artist.
- If they like it, they buy in. If not, they go elsewhere.
- Some directors specialise but will take on other genres.
- Some also go onto direct features films.
Music Video Genre Theories
During our media lesson, we learnt several theorists for music video genre.
John Hartley (1994) - argue that genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the meaning-potential of a given 'text'. (Suggest genre acts as a straight jacket, limiting creative potential)
Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress (1988) - says genres 'control the behaviour of producers of such texts, and the expectations of potential consumers.' (Again, suggest that genres can limit creativity and often merely conform to the audience expectations.)
John Fiske (1987) - asserts that generic conventions 'embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular.' (This suggest that genres tell us something about the way of the world in the time they popular.) (The zeitgeist)
Rick Altman (Film theorist) - argues that there is no such thing as "pure" genre anymore. That genre is progressive, in that it will always change. He says that generic conventions are very much a thing of the past. His theory suggest that audiences, in general, have become tired of the same formula and need more to keep them entertain and to generate appeal.
John Hartley (1994) - argue that genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the meaning-potential of a given 'text'. (Suggest genre acts as a straight jacket, limiting creative potential)
Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress (1988) - says genres 'control the behaviour of producers of such texts, and the expectations of potential consumers.' (Again, suggest that genres can limit creativity and often merely conform to the audience expectations.)
John Fiske (1987) - asserts that generic conventions 'embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular.' (This suggest that genres tell us something about the way of the world in the time they popular.) (The zeitgeist)
Rick Altman (Film theorist) - argues that there is no such thing as "pure" genre anymore. That genre is progressive, in that it will always change. He says that generic conventions are very much a thing of the past. His theory suggest that audiences, in general, have become tired of the same formula and need more to keep them entertain and to generate appeal.
- Altman also said that genre is only surviving due to hybridisation - or genres "borrowing conventions from one another and thus being much more difficult to categorise."
Keywords:
Intertexuality - reference to other media texts.
Pastiche -
imitate the style of (an artist or work).
Parody - makes fun of something.
Genre - type of music with similar characteristics.
Sub-genre - a branch or off-shot of a genre which shares some characteristics but perhaps develops or challenges usual characteristics e.g trap music.
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