Monday, 28 March 2011

How have subcultures influenced music?


According to the CCCs  there are three theories on how subcultures are formed.
1. The working class and middle class young culture believed the mainstream values are fake. 2. A significant group of people wanted to dress in a manner that reinforced their class origins and displayed their roots.
3. there are counter cultures who need the mainstream values and beliefs as a platform to react against. The resistance is in short an intense burst, before the members re-enter the mainstream. This is also known as Quadrophenia. 


The difference between a subculture and a counter culture is; the subculture depends on the mainstream for something to rebel against while the counter culture desires a revolutionary change.


Mods: 50s Sasha
The Mods were a subculture of the working class late 50s / mid 60s England. They dressed in suits, neat trousers and pointed shoes emulating the middle class generation. Female Mods adopted a boyish image with short hair and dark eyes in order to look more masculine. In the mid 60s there was an employment boom which resulted in teenagers having greater disposable income to spend on weekend away and music. These weekend away were often spent fighting other subcultures such as rockers as this helped both groups reinforce their identities. The film Quadrophenia was a typical interpretation of a Mod lifestyle and the soundtrack music featured such as ‘The Who’ reinforced the Mod values. The music often represented the emotions and feelings which Mod people felt, they rebelled against their parents as they did not want to be like them and so they liked the black culture and music. Consequently dancehall music was popular at soul nights and jazz music was most appreciated by the Mod crowd. Mod fashion was heavily influenced by the European fashion of Italy and France, the band ‘The Who’ wore tailored suits, mohair clothes and thin ties. The revolution of the miniskirt was worn by women for the first time and the big hype behind liberated dressing began.


Hippies: 60s Zara
Hippies were a subcultures derived from the middle class background in Sans Francisco USA. Their ethnic look consisted of head bands, beads, crafty accessories and tie-dye. Their values were more relaxed and casual then other social groups and this was reinforced by their actions of causal sex, taking LSD and smoking weed. Their values often questioned society in an educational manner and had a willingness to conform if they were right, unlike Punk’s they did not necessarily want to attack society.  Although hippies smoked weed, they were oblivious to the negative health implications and instead the hippies used the drug to explore different states of consciousness and alleviate music into a different dimension then it already was within from 50s Elvis Presley era. Music was one of the central means of hippies diverting their values to society and artists such as The Beetles as well as Jimi Hendrix are examples of hippie superstars.  Jimi Hendrix was a black guitarist/singer who performed to the majority Caucasian audiences  and he managed to blend the racist lines through the means of music.


Ravers: 70s Me
Ravers enjoyed having dual lifestyles, one fitted into the mainstream norm while the other was the raving aspect that found blasting a mixture of base and house music entertaining. The raving subculture was derived from the working class homes, and the majority of Ravers found solitude with football. They rebelled against institutions and often had no boundaries to having fun. In the 70s football hooliganism was at its peak and the Raver’s collective identity of loving the passé time of  football resulted with the subculture being involved in the world’s biggest football related riots and fights. Their music is timeless as the Ravers ability to switch between their dual lives will always exist in the world we live in as an alternative to the mainstream is inevitable with varying opinions. In today’s generation the song ‘Flowers’ by Sweet Female Attitude is still hugely enjoyed by Ravers as it was in the 70s.


PUNKS: 70S Zara
The punk culture emerged in the 70s, they were a reaction to the 60s hippies and their physical appearance was to shock and rebel against mainstream society. They achieved this by dyeing their hair bright colours and shaving different parts of the hair and allowing the rest to stand tall and scary. Like many sub-cultures the punk cultures was derived from a poor working-class background. The type of music which they enjoyed listening to were loud, violent music that help put across their values which were often angry and critical of the society they lived in.  In addition to the wild hairstyles they liked to express themselves through cosmetics such as tattoos and piercings. Their nihilistic views of life; doesn’t have to have an objective meaning, often help their artist such as the sex pistols stand out from the crowd. The basic name of ‘sex pistols’ combines the two taboo subject of violence and sex,  and objectifies themselves but in so doing they are in control of empowering themselves.


Goths: 80s Mimz
The Gothic culture was made in 1980s england , it collaborated a mixture of punk, death and Victorian fashion. The values of Goths were spurned by the mainstream perception of normality. They like being ostracised by society and are empowered by the isolation, this is evident through the way they dress in heavy black with platform boots that make them taller and more dominating.  They are a mistaken subculture as many mainstream views of them being sad, unhappy people are often misconceptions as Goths enjoy not being a part of society and are fascinated by the concept of immortality. They are also non-violent pacifist and tolerant people who put up with society’s critique of their elaborate dark clothing  and their music mirrors this. Often the messages sent in their music are deep, dark thought-provoking messages that the Gothic society feel need to be addressed and explored.


Diversity: 00s
Today’s generations has resulted in a number of subcultures growing out as the young generation become the old generation and society’s liberal ways have resulted with very few cultures existing. Inevitably the views of previous subcultures exist, but the desire to rebel against society has died downed because the Youth of today have little worries of being like their parent’s Youth generation. In fact their parent’s Youth generation was far more cooler then the present Youth generation and effectively music has diversified so much that different genre’s are overtly influenced by other musical genres. The Black Eyed Peas an RnB group now make music to cater for the electro fans as well as house fans, this is mainly done through the collaboration of artists such as David Guetta but it also has been done so that music evolves with its time. The Youth of today embrace change and do not like everything being the same as two years previous, but they only like change in small dosage and change that is not extreme. Technological advancements have also helped audiences gain various means of outlets to rebel e.g. Blogging and Facebook allow teens to express their views in a safe environment more easily.

Music Timeline

Advance Portfolio: Deborah Holdstein

Advance Portfolio: Deborah Holdstein: "Music Video Theorist: Deborah HoldsteinDeborah HoldsteinView more presentations from habigail."

Webpage Outlines

Sunday, 27 March 2011

Other Music Theorists

Andrew Goodwin Goodwin stated that there were 5 key aspects that music videos can be broken down into:
1) Though beats (seeing the sound)
2) Narrative & performance
3) Star image
4) Relations to the visuals of the video
5) Technical aspects of the video


Akon and Eminem's 'Smack That' is a music video that conveys most, if not all of these elements to an extent: from telling a narrative which somewhat corresponds to the visual stimulations, to the importance of the star's image.

Monday, 21 March 2011

Unique Videos!

and the one which inspired me most:
 I felt it was most appropriate to study this video in depth and to see how an artist singing to the camera can be effective and entertaining. Even though Beyonce is not dancing in the video or their isn't a story line, she still manages to bring what Sven Carlsson considers the performance aspect to the camera. Similarly 'The Awakening' is a song that would not fit a cherographed dance video, and consequently Beyonce's Listen video inspired me to think of ways in which I could make an artist still perform and seem interesting without cherography.

Friday, 11 March 2011

Feminist VS Post Feminist views on WOMEN!

Are women REALLY objectified?
There are two angles in which you could challenge this question, the obvious being a feminist angle where women are sexually objectified. Laura Mulvey a radical feminist believes in a film narration women are often voyeuristically objectified for the male gaze. How the female behaves on screen is determined by the fantasy of males and what they would like a passive woman to be like. While on the other hand Post feminist look at the portrayal of women’s sexuality on screen in an empowering angle. Women choose to embrace and show off their sexual dominance to the inferior males whose desires control them

Case Study Shakira She Wolf
From analysing this video from a post-feminist view these are a few points I have found:  
·         Shakira uses her sexuality to exploit the male onlooker as oppose to being a victim of the male desire. This subverts the typical passive female victim role as the male becomes the victim and Shakira is empowered
·         Shakira is confident with her body and knows she is sexy, this is shown by the way she dances sexually in the video and the fact she is dressed in a tight skin toned body suit also emphasizes her femininity
·         The narration of the play is Shakira being liberated as she leaves her boyfriend in bed and leads a double life at a night club. This is where her inner wolf comes out and her erotic pleasures are displayed to the audience
·         The cage is placed in the video as a prop rather than to restrict Shakira, her sexuality comes out through her thrusting dance moves  
·         Shakira knows she is being watched and is toying with the male spectator. We know this because she is performing to the camera (the audience) rather than a male character in the video
·         Shakira empowers women because she is secure within herself to allow men to sexually admire her body. Consequently a female audience with low self-esteem can aspire to be as confident as Shakira is with oneself

Although AbbieSinger’s character in her music video will not necessarily be sexually focused, I believe it is important to study how women and men are presented in current and past music videos.  It’s clear women in different genres have different roles, for example in a Nelly’s Tip-drill video women are openly objectified, while in Shakira’s She Wolf video she has more control over her actions. In fact she dominates both the narration and performance of the video, I hope to embrace AbbieSinger’s sexuality and empower women but not in the same ways Shakira manages to do so in this video. In order to keep this video appropriate to a young audience I will make sure the content of my music video is suitable to a continental audience of all age.

Artist: Nine Inch Nails

Thursday, 10 March 2011

Controversial Music Videos

It's important to have a target audience in mind while coming up with the concept of our group music video. It is the job of music censorships to regulate music videos so that they are not offensive towards different people. This may be a sexual or racial offence or even gender conflicts that often arise with shocking/controversial music videos.




Studies by OFCOM (2005) points out that parent are worried with the context of music video that can be watched by young children at all hours of the day. Often these videos have explict sexual scenes and glamourize the adult appropriate concept. I linked this finding to a contemporary music video; Rihanna's S&M music video. The video supports the idea of sex and violence pleasing the role model that is Rihanna. Not only do her lyrics confirm her desire to be 'whipped' but the narration in the video explicitly displays this to the audience.



Distressing scenes of violence and sexual innuendos become problematic when Rihanna's young girls/young teenage fan base are influenced by the context of her video and find it 'OK' to behave in similar ways. The music video regulator has restricted the viewing of this video on YouTube - Rihanna - S&M to over 18s only and MTV is considering re-editing it for daytime TV plays. http://www.nme.com/news/daily-gossip/54791




Innovative Marketing Strategy

Jango Airplay:

Step 1: Type the artist name in the box
Step 2: Select what song you would like to listen to

Step 3: Enjoy your music with facts and comments from followers. Also there is a list of other artists you may appreciate as their music is similar to your selected artist

I could use this website in order to market AbbieSinger's music. Unlike billboard and TV advertising, this website is a free promotional service for emerging and established artist. It manages to converge the internet with music, allowing the culture of music to spread globally. Once logged in artists can upload their music and select their target audience. In order to further their target audience, Jangoairplay allows the emerging artist to label similar artist beneath their song list. This will help new and existing users of Jangoairplay to immediately understand what type of genre their music is and if it fits their musical taste, the user is more likely to become a fan of the emerging artist.



Saturday, 5 March 2011

What am I doing now?


I'm currently struggling to stay awake at 23.10 because I'm inspired by various pictures of everyday objects in my house that link closely to my album cover ideas! I thought i'd blog it before I lose the 'moment'!
Rihanna's skirts been photoshoped just for fun; here's the original picture

Currently feeling like this..

Music can bring out all different types of emotions!