Analyse one of your products in relation to genre.

I will analyse my group's music video of Good Life. As OneRepublic is a pop rock band who has a high profile and large following the music video had to fit the mainstream pop genre, which required research into the typical paradigms of the pop genre to ensure it included the key aspects of Pop.

In research and planning I looked into the key conventions of a pop music video. Andrew Goodwin's theory of a relationship between the lyrics, music and visuals suggests that typically in pop videos the visuals relate to the music and in some cases amplifying the meaning of the lyrics. Therefore the ideas of the Good Life had to come across in the video through the narrative and imagery. Shooting in London related to the lyrics as it is referenced in the song which was edited to fit with the parts of the song that link, for example when the singing begins the line lost near Piccadilly, was edited to link to the visuals with shots of Piccadilly. Like most music videos the cuts of the video matches the tempo and beat of the song. Also the London location creates a luxurious, iconic image which is typical of pop music videos most pop bands and artists will shoot their music video in a iconic location to make it easily recognisable and to make the audience aspire to their pop star lifestyle. For example, OneRepublic’s Say All I Need was shot in Paris although it does not have any obvious connection to the lyrics. This is to get across the touring life of the band and to appeal to the audience who like to see places they might not get the chance to visit. We used iconography of typical London locations, the underground, St Paul’s, London Eye, Big Ben and Piccadilly, to make it clear to the audience where the story was set. This does not make the video exclusive though because these locations are well known and a worldwide audience could easily identify them, this fits the pop genre which has a wide appeal. Other iconography used in our music video like the Blackberry is typical of pop music videos which try to sell the celebrity lifestyle of the band. Although we did not completely conform to typical pop convention by making the city an unhappy bad place to be through the narrative and editing; Katie is much happier in the country which is amplified by the fact the footage is in colour whereas the city is portrayed as a dark lonely place to be. Even though this does not conform to pop genre by selling the cool expensive lifestyle of the pop band, it still appeals to the audience because the other conventions of the genre are present. As Neale’s theory explains “Pleasure is derived through repetition and difference.” The audience know that it is a pop music video because of the music and the lead singer star status, however they enjoy the fact the concept of the narrative is different from other pop music videos. Furthermore if the music video followed all the conventions of the pop genre it might be overlooked by the audience as it does not differ enough from other music videos they have seen. It would be dull if all pop music videos were completely similar so breaking some of the conventions makes it more interesting to the audience. The fact it is different makes it more likely that the audience will want to watch it again, a music videos’ repeatability makes it popular which increases the interest, and ultimately sales, for the band. The iconic London location and natural country setting makes the audience comfortable and they can also easily relate to the narrative which makes it a repeatable music video.

As most Pop music videos focus on the luxurious, “cool” lifestyle of the band, Andrew Goodwin identifies that this achieved by portraying a star image especially for the lead singer who will often be the main protagonist in the narrative, which Bank is in the music video. Glenhill identifies that genres rely on audience having knowledge and expectations about the genre’s content, in terms of Pop this implies that the audience expect to see the band, or at least the lead singer, feature in the music video performing or lip syncing to sell the band with a recognisable face. Most pop bands who are similar to OneRepublic; Coldplay, The Script and Snow Patrol for example, will feature the band, focusing mainly on the lead singer, throughout all their music videos. As the audience expect to see that will pop bands the image of the lead singer had to be a dominant in the music video. A further expectation of pop music videos is the use of narrative mixed with performance to amplify the meaning of the lyrics while still appealing to the star image of pop bands. In the research and planning we saw that it was a dominant feature in OneRepublic, Coldplay and The Script’s music video, as these bands fit the genre we took inspiration from creating a mixed narrative and performance music video.

As pop is expected to appeal to both a male and female audience, pop music videos will often feature male and female protagonists however Laura Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze comes into this as often the females in pop music videos are viewed in a voyeuristic way as an object belonging to the lead singer rather than the subject within the narrative. Although our narrative suggests that the female character is more independent and in control it can be argued that she is still seen as passive because she does not engage with the audience. As pop genre narratives more often than not will be about romance the audience assume the relationship between Bank and Katie is a romantic one. Konigsberg’s theory that enduring genres, like pop, use universal dilemmas as they appeal to the psychological needs of the audience, as break-ups are a common occurrence in everyday life and in other media; films and TV soaps for example, it is easily identifiable and relatable to the audience which makes the narrative easy to understand and interpret. Although the nature of their relationship is up for interpretation because it is not explicitly explained in the narrative the majority of the audience would identify it as a romantic one because romance is typical of the pop genre. It is also popular because people like to see the equilibrium resorted which happens in the narrative when Katie is seen free in the country which is her natural environment, this gives the audience a feeling of satisfaction and hope in real life. This links to Richard Dyer’s theory that the pop genre can provide escapism for the audience through the iconography and star image that can distract them from reality and introduce an audience to a luxurious lifestyle. As well as escapism as Knight’s theory suggests the genre offers emotional pleasure which allows them to escape into the fictional narrative and create empathy for the characters especially if it is a recognisable situation like a break-up.

Using Summer Camp + a band of your choice explain how some artists can be called postmodern.

Summer Camp and Queen can be seen as postmodern because they fit into several of the criteria that make them postmodern. They reject the idea of categorised genres, and take influence from the past and present to create something new. 

Postmodernism originated from a rejection of modernism which states we should always look to the future and forget the mistakes of the past. Postmodernists argue that you can not improve and move forward without looking at the past. Beniton’s phrase, “If you look to the future and keep one eye on the past you are blind in one eye but if you keep both eyes on the future and no eyes on the past you are blind in both eyes.” Which backed up by Desiderius Erasmus, who said “In the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is King”, goes some way to explaining why postmodernism is such a large part of popular culture in today’s society. In terms of music it allows unpopular genres and the past generations music to be changed and introduced and made popular in current music. This can be done through remixes where a certain sound is taken and changed or simply through bricolage sampling which often gives the sample a new meaning when put into a different context. However there is a fine line between being postmodern by taking previous music to create something new and just copying another artists work. An example of this difference would be Weezer and Led Zeppelin. Weezer use sampling in their song The Greatest Man That Ever Lived as a pastiche to the music that is sampled which is seen as postmodern because they do not try to cover up the sources of their sample. Whereas Led Zeppelin took lyrics and musical styles and passed them off as their own, by not crediting their source or changing the copy enough it is not seen as a postmodern cover but as a rip off of other artists’ work. 

Summer Camp are a current band who are relatively unknown and are not likely to appeal to a large audience because they can be seen as quite niche in their approach to their music. They have a hyper-real approach to their music, for example their website and blog are set in the fictitious town Condale which the band say is the setting for their songs and music videos. The idea being the audience are brought into a different alternative reality to listen to the music which is backed up by the fake nostalgia created by the band through the use of old photographs. The structure of their website with the short samples of songs playing on loops and repeating footage almost makes the audience feel trapped in this hyper real world without much understanding of why this relates to Kramer’s theory of a postmodern artist impressing meaning onto its audience and leaving it open interpretation. They also create a hyper reality by showing the audience what they actually look like on their album artwork. Although this would be acceptable to an audience who are familiar with alter-egos and stage names in pop culture, for example David Bowie who took on the persona of Ziggy Stardust and changed his image, it does not quite work for Summer Camp as the audience are left wandering why they don’t chose to make themselves identifiable. In terms of using bricolage and changing the meaning of something, Summer Camp use all found footage in their music videos Ghost Train and Round The Moon, which was uncopyrighted footage from a Swedish film “En Karlekshistoria”. They changed the context of the footage and made it fit with the rest of their concept of two people from the 80’s. Their heavy influence from the 80’s shows that they do not respect boundaries of the past and present which is seen as postmodern. Also they attempt to make what was cool for a teenager in the 80’s appeal to a modern audience through the feeling of nostalgia. However to a mainstream audience Summer Camp will never be seen as cool because the 80’s are seen as ancient history to a young audience today and even though mainstream pop artists make reference to the 80’s, for example Katy Perry in her music video for Last Friday Night, it is used by a mainstream artist once, they don’t rely entirely on this concept and will be seen as cool for a short period of time then they have to find something new to keep the audience interested.  Even so, it can be argued that Summer Camp are “cool” solely based on the fact they do not appeal to a wide audience. A niche audience will like them because they are influenced by the “uncool” 80’s both in their music and artistic concept, and because they reference fairly unknown subject, “En Karlekshistoria” for example. However some would argue that although this Summer Camp can be called postmodern is approach to music, with heavy influence on the 80’s and nostalgia, is pointless because it is so niche and unfamiliar that it can never appeal to a wider audience. For example the hyper real town of Condale has no meaning because it is a fictitious place which links to Frederic Jameson theory that self-reference has no purpose.

Queen are a rock band that had their high point the 70’s and 80’s and can be seen as postmodern because they rejected sonority, now being labelled as glam rock they helped to create a new direction for rock, incorporating opera and theatrics into the shape of a traditional rock band. The rejection of sonority is seen as a positive aspect of postmodernism in music because it allows diversity and can make an artist appeal to a wider audience than it would if bands stuck within one genre. For example Queen in their early albums took opera, which can be seen as quite elitist and inaccessible to a mass audience, and made it massively popular by mixing it with hard rock which was very big in 70’s. This links to Kirby Ferguson’s theory that everything is a remix because they took influence from British operatic style, influenced by the likes of Gilbert and Sullivan and Noel Coward’s satires, which doesn’t make it original but by putting it with rock they created their own original sound. By putting Victorian opera, which would be seen as very archaic, into the 70’s rock scene it shows they rejected the boundaries of past and present and of elitist and popularist values that in Kramer’s theory make a band postmodern. To add to this they ignore structural unity by changing and adapting their sound from album to album which in time contradicts their initial ideology which Kramer also states is postmodern. For example on several of their early albums; Queen, Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, they explicitly state they did not use synthesizers not wanting to be mistaken as a soft disco band. They go back on this later in their discography when they use synths in their music which is heavily used in Hot Space. However this contradiction may not have been intended to make an ironic statement but to keep up to date with the movement of the music industry at the time. They changed styles and used a wide range of influences with the singles Another One Bites The Dust and Under Pressure with David Bowie being funk inspired with a heavy bass beat, which sounds very different to Crazy Little Thing Called Love which is almost a homage to 50’s rock n’ roll. Like Summer Camp, for some of their music videos they take found footage and put it into a new context. For example Radio Ga Ga uses scenes from the sci-fi film Metropolis and mix it with footage from previous Queen videos. As a lot of their later work was sci-fi inspired this explains why they used the footage, by referencing Metropolis and their previous work they can be called postmodern as they are making intertextual references to pop culture which includes themselves as they had become quite popular at this point. They also use intertextual references in their I Want To Break Free music video which begins with a parody of Coronation Street with the band dressed as housewives. To some extent Queen can be called postmodern because they used a wide range of genres in their music including genres that can be seen as elitist like opera, and unfamiliar to the UK mainstream audience at the time like funk. They also used intertextual references in their work and rejected structural unity within songs and albums.

I think that postmodernism in music is unlikely to ever really stop because it is a very easy way of producing music, in the sense that sampling, remixing, covering and mashing up songs is quicker and simpler than creating a whole album from scratch. Some believe this will lead to a prosumer dominance in music where people like DJ Audacity, who is a 16 year old boy who takes current songs and mixes them together on his laptop. He has received become very popular and millions of views on YouTube. Although this is an example of someone who does not need the technology and label behind him, mash-ups like this are unlikely to dominate because audiences want the band/ artist star image to go with it. However through Brian Eno’s theory of the Death of Uncool, nothing is seen as outcast through the mixing of genres, through mash-ups and sampling. Frederic Jameson’s criticises postmodernism and says that it just traps the media in endless circular references, in terms of music, there is a concern the use of sampling and covers will wear away the quality and validity of bands. For example 5ive’s cover of We Will Rock You takes a very popular song, tries to make it fit in 00’s music by incorporating hip-hop and rap but fail in making it good as the original is seen as being a lot better.  

In conclusion, Summer Camp and Queen can be called postmodern as they reject modernist rules for structure and genres, by taking sounds from the past and putting it into the present. They both also use found footage in their work which gives the footage a new meaning in a different context. Summer Camp can be seen as postmodern in the way the interact with their audience through the use of hyper reality. Both can be used as examples of postmodernism in music as sampling in their work shows the state of modern day music industry where a majority of music and influence has been borrowed from a previous artist. 

Apply Theories of Narrative to One of Your Coursework Products.

The music video for Good Life by OneRepublic follows Andrew Goodwin's theory of a relationship between the visuals and music by amplifying the meaning of the lyrics through a narrative. The narrative follows a linear structure, typical of mainstream pop music videos. To some extent the music video follows Steve Archer's theory that videos tend to only suggest storyline and focus on fragments of the lyrics, in this music video the lyrics become the focus during the lip syncing clips the rest of the time it is used to narrate the story. Like most pop videos the lead singer is the main character in the video who acts as both the narrator, through lip syncing, and protagonist as part of the plot with his connection with Katie.  As there are only two characters in the music video, Propp's theory of character roles does not really apply to it, however Bank is clearly the hero of the story as the lead singer of the band. The roles of the characters in the narrative conforms to Mulvey's theory of the male gaze as Katie is viewed passively because she does not connect to the audience by making eye contact with the camera, Bank on the other hand can be seen as a subject rather than an object because he looks directly at the audience while singing. Similarly Schwichtenberg's theory that "action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen" applies to the narrative however there is a contradiction because Katie is the more active character being seen walking around and searching for her freedom, Bank is the more passive in the sense he is always in the same setting. However again Katie is viewed as being passive because she does not interact with the audience were as Bank does making him more of a subject than an object to watch. 


In terms of the narrative it follows David Bordwell's theory of fabula, changing meaning from viewer to viewer, the relationship between the two characters is not explicitly explained which leaves it up to audience interpretation. Like most pop videos it relies on the audience having an understanding that the subjects are romantically involved with the plot revolving around getting together, being together or breaking up. Therefore the link between Katie and Bank is seen by most viewers as a breakup as the couple are not seen together, it appears that Katie is the one to leave as the shot of Bank's phone with pictures of her implies to the audience he is missing her. This is an example of Roland Barthes' theory of codes this being a semantic code explaining their break up through connotation rather than explaining it explicitly. Katie's floating dress is an example of symbolic code to signify to the audience she is a country girl who looks very out of place in the city. With the London shots especially the crowded fast pace shots are cultural codes that the audience understand as claustrophobic to Katie because of pre-knowledge of city life. This is also the same for the country shots as the audience understand this is seen as a more relaxed lifestyle due to cultural understanding. The city and country contrast is an example of Levi-Strauss' binary opposites which also symbolises Katie's mood. Using post-production the city and Bank singing is shot in black and white which contrasts and signifies her freedom in the country away from the city and Bank in the country shots which are in colour. Todorov’s theory of restored equilibrium at the end of narratives also applies to our music video as Katie is show in the country where she belongs having escaped from the depression of the city.

Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products.

In my AS year I made a preliminary product and a final product of a cover, contents page and double page spread for a punk music magazine called “Rebel”. In A2 I created a preliminary video for Busted’s “What I Go To School For” and a music video for “Good Life” by OneRepublic with a digipak and poster for a made-up band “The Empty Crowd”.  In every product I have created I have used existing conventions of real media texts to help me produce good quality products. 

In AS for the preliminary magazine and my final product I had to research into existing media conventions of magazines and implement them in my work. For example, magazines will always have a target audience that they have to appeal to the make the magazine sell. I had to consider who my target audience was, and realised the type of music and style I was going for would target teenagers and young adults both male and female who liked alternative music. From this I had to think how I would use representation to appeal to them. I used typical magazine conventions throughout the products to make it look like a real music magazine. For example I used a continuing colour scheme and font style throughout the pages of the magazine. The rule of thirds on the front cover with a clear masthead at the top of the page, coverlines, and made it clear to the reader what was more important information by using bigger font that stood out. On the double page spread I used a typical convention of a band interview with a Question and Answer format, including photographs of the band with photo captions. Although I mostly used typical conventions of real media texts in my music magazine I used a more unusual, art style for the magazine which more conventional popular magazines like NME and Q try to avoid and go for a clear, simple style to have a more universal appeal.

For A2 I researched into the different types of music video, illustration, amplified and disjuncture. As my partner and I were using OneRepublic’s song “Good Life” we decided to create an illustration style music video because it is the one most used by pop bands because it has a wide appeal. As our target audience were male and female teenagers we decided to use a girl of our own age so that the audience could identify with it. According to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of typical conventions of music videos is to mix narrative and performance to create a link with the visuals and music, although initial we were not going to include a performance aspect our draft highlighted that performance was needed to make it more effective.

The only two characters in the story were Bank and Katie. The convention of Mulvey’s male gaze theory applied to our music video; although it was unintentional it could be argued that Katie is passive because she does not connect to the audience by creating eye contact with camera whereas Bank as the lead singer does look into the camera. This makes him an active character which links to the traditional male and female roles within narratives.  Also within the narrative we use Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary opposites with the city as representing sadness for Katie and the country, freedom and happiness. Todorov’s theory of restored equilibrium at the end of narratives also applies to our music video as Katie is show in the country where she belongs. We used typical conventions from Barthes’ theory of connotation and denotation to give the audience clues about what was going on in the narrative because as it was a music video there was no dialogue to explain. For example we used post-production effects to give the impression of dark busy streets in London which denotes to the audience a hectic lifestyle which contrasts well with the sunny landscape shots which denotes nature, freedom and a simpler life.

In terms of filming and post-production we used typical conventions of real media texts to create a music video that looked like it could be real. For example we used Premiere Elements to enhance the shots. We cut and made edits in the video to fit in time with changes in the music which links to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of a relationship between visuals and music. During filming we also tried to shoot with movement to fit to Carol Vernallies’ theory of continuous movement within a music video by creating panning shots, dolly shots and 360˚ to make it more interesting. 

Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of postmodern media.

Postmodernism is a response to and rejection of modernism. Modernists wanted to look to the future and ignore the mistakes of the past, Postmodernists argue that it is not possible to only look to the future and not look to the past because you'd be repeating the mistakes which stops progress. Postmodernists often create texts by chance for fun rather than design them for a purpose. All the text will often go against media conventions, mixing genre, breaking down boundaries "there is no genre less text" and ignoring traditional narrative structures, like Jean Francois Lyotard's Grand Narratives. By using work from previous media texts Postmodernists are able to create something new either to respectfully pay homage to it or to mock it for comedy as a Pastiche. However a criticism of their use of intertextual references is that the audience have to know the source or understand the issue otherwise they won't understand the context of the joke. For example comedy programmes like The Simpsons and Family Guy are constantly making intertextual references to other texts. The criticism is that this makes it less accessible as a movement because it won't connect to the people who don't understand the reference. This is why some people are not convinced by postmodernism. 


Another criticism of postmodernism is that to what extent is using intertextual references copying what has already been done? A good example of this is Dan Black's Symphonies who used the theory of Addition, Deletion, Substitution and Transposition to create his music video taking everything bar the lyrics from previous texts. He makes it very clear that he is using intertextual references which are easy to spot to make a point that nothing is original, which brings up the question to what extent is this his own work. Some people are concerned that originality will become completely lost and through postmodernism we will be reusing the same references and jokes over and over again. 


To add to this the use of hyper-reality in everyday is making things less meaningful. For example, video games take something that could be real but isn't and make it real for a computerised version of ourselves which is then exaggerated but still seems realistic. Call of Duty, for example, takes an ordinary person and turns them into a solider who has an unlimited amount of lives and can choose the battleground and difficulty level. Thepostmodern game Desert Bus points out the ridiculousness of "realistic" video games because it is actually realistic; in real time a bus journey to Las Vegas and back with the possibility of breaking down which results in having to be towed back in real time, the game can't be paused just like reality can't be paused. Although this highlights the lack of reality in other video games some people would argue that it is pointless because the whole point of hyper-reality in games is to escape reality and become someone else who can do things that an "ordinary" person can't e.g. a solider, play in a rock band, manage a football team.