Deadlines/Brief

Music videos are so 80s/90s, right? They belong with the era when MTV screened wall-to-wall vids instead of 'reality' TV? Try telling that to the millions who bought Gangnam Style; were they really simply loving the music? 1.6bn (and still climbing) have viewed the video on YT, not to mention the many re-makes (school eg, eg2), viral ads + celeb link-ups (even political protest in Seoul) - and it doesn't matter how legit it is, this nightmare for daydream Beliebers is making a lot of money, even from the parodies + dislikes. All this for a simple dance track that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1990 ... but had a fun vid. This meme itself was soon displaced by the Harlem Shake. Music vids even cause diseases it seems!
This blog explores every aspect of this most postmodern of media formats, including other print-based promo tools used by the industry, its fast-changing nature, + how fans/audiences create/interact. Posts are primarily written with Media students/educators in mind. Please acknowledge the blog author if using any resources from this blog - Mr Dave Burrowes

Tuesday 25 August 2015

Pop getting dumber claims study

I'm always a little wary of the elitist high/popular culture binary being at play with reports such as this, but its intriguing nonetheless.

The academic study assessed the literacy level required to follow the lyrics of chart music over time, and found that this has declined so far as to be of primary (junior in US parlance) level, and even kindergarten in some cases.

Can language be safely quantified in this way? That's at least debatable.

The website carrying the report is a left-wing alternative news outlet, and they make a specific link to the monopolization of a handful of huge conglomerates and the homogenisation this produces.

They're referring to the USA, but of course their major media conglomerates dominate media production, distribution and exhibition globally, including the music industry - a process Marxist critics term cultural imperialism, but can more blandly be labeled globalisation.

Even if this is true, does it matter? That's a question for you to decide

http://theantimedia.org/how-popular-musics-lyrics-perpetuate-american-idiocy/

No comments: