Music Video: end of unit index

We need to produce a final index for our Music Video unit. 

As we've established now, keeping an index of all your work is extremely good practice from a revision perspective. This keeps the vital CSP information fresh in your mind and also highlights if you've missed anything for whatever reason. This is particularly important with an end-of-year assessment approaching and remember music video will appear in Paper 1 Section A. 

Music Video: index

Your final Music Video index should include the following:

1) Music Video: Introduction - factsheet questions
2) Music Video: Old Town Road CSP
3) Music Video: Postcolonial theory
4) Music Video: Ghost Town CSP

5) Music Video: Postmodernism and music video

For your index, it needs to link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work and revision notes quickly and easily. This also means if you have missed anything you can now catch up with the work/notes and won't underperform in future exams due to gaps in your knowledge.

Due date on Google Classroom.

Music Video: Postmodernism in music video

Our music video CSPs give us a great opportunity to further our understanding of postmodernism.

These ideas are difficult to get our head around but once we understand postmodern references it gives us a much deeper understanding of how media products are constructed and consumed - particularly in the digital age.

Ghost Town and Postmodernism

The hybrid mix of references and music video forms – an experimental combination of narrative (the journey), performance and concept – means that the video can be read through a postmodern approach with reference to intertextuality and hybridity.

We can see examples of bricolage and pastiche – a merging of British film genres such as social realism and hammer horror in order to create something new (as music videos were in 1981). The lighting, colour and camerawork also create intertextual references to these film genres. Arguably, the narrative offers an example of bricolage - a postmodern take on the 'road movie' but with no destination or quest to complete (which is perhaps why the video ends with them aimlessly throwing stones into the River Thames).

Finally, it could be argued that the combination of an arthouse film-style with a popular genre of music (the song reached #1 in the British chart) provides an example of Strinati’s definition of postmodernism as a blurring of art and popular culture.

Old Town Road and Postmodernism

Audience theorist Henry Jenkins coined the term textual poaching for sampling or re-editing existing texts – a classic postmodern signifier. The original song was created from a riff Lil Nas X bought for $30 from someone he saw on YouTube. It became famous from Tiktok memes and the ‘Official Movie’ contains many elements designed to be shared separately or imitated online.

The video also taps into celebrity culture. As well as featuring country music legend Billy Ray Cyrus and superstar Chris Rock, the video also stars various names from the music industry such as Diplo, Vince Staples and Rico Nasty. This creates intertextuality and further encourages rewatching and sharing.

Yeehaw movement, bricolage and pastiche

The initial release of the song attached itself to the then emerging Yeehaw movement that was reclaiming the cowboy aesthetic for Black fashion and culture. This could be viewed as a combination of bricolage and pastiche.

Lil Nas X also used footage from the popular Western-genre videogame Red Dead Redemption in promoting the song on TikTok and other social media platforms. The song became a meme on TikTok with viral videos and Yeehaw challenges. The controversy about whether it was a country song then kicked off further debate regarding hybrid genres and what makes something ‘country’.

Playing with reality

Finally, Old Town Road plays with our understanding of reality. With the text on screen announcing ‘Old Town Road 2019’ there is the suggestion it is now based in the present. But is the video offering a genuine representation of modern-day reality or a comment on the lack of racial equality and harmony in American society? 

Postmodernism in music video: Blog tasks

Media Magazine Theory Drop - Postmodernism

Create a new blog post called 'Postmodernism in music video: blog tasks'. Read ‘The Theory Drop: Postmodernism’ in MM66  (p26). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here - remember you'll need your Greenford Google login to access. Answer the following questions:

1) How does the article define postmodernism in the first page of the article?

2) What did media theorist and Semiotician Roland Barthes suggest in his essay 'The Death of the Author'?

3) What is metatextuality?

4) What is the repeated phrase on the cartoon on postmodernism on page 28?

5) How does postmodernism link to media representations and reality?

Music video CSPs and postmodernism

Now apply postmodern ideas to our music video CSPs by answering the following questions:

1) How does the music video for Ghost Town incorporate elements of postmodernism?

2) What film genres are alluded to in the music video for Ghost Town? Which scenes in particular created these links?

3) How does Old Town Road use postmodern elements in its music video?

4) How does the Old Town Road music video reflect technological convergence and modern digital culture?  

5) What do YOU think Lil Nas X was trying to say about reality and American culture in the music video for Old Town Road?

A/A* extension reading: Medium article

Read this Medium article on the Postmodern Pop Artist. Do any of the ideas in this article apply to Old Town Road or Ghost Town? How? 

Due date on Google Classroom

Magazines: Front cover production task - learner response

The magazine cover production task was a brilliant introduction to Photoshop and the kind of work we will be doing for coursework next year. 

Thank you for your patience in receiving feedback on this - we've been snowed under with coursework marking and exam preparation! 

Depending on lesson timetabling and staff availability, you will receive this feedback either via email or verbally/handwritten in class. It will be marked out of 15 using the NEA (non-exam assessment) mark scheme. This divides up your mark using the different Media concepts: Media Language, Media Representations, Media Industries and Audiences. For this front cover assignment, we are only using the mark scheme for Media Language:

Magazine front cover - Learner response

Create a new blogpost called 'Magazine cover learner response' and complete the following tasks:

1) Add your finished magazine cover as a JPEG image.

2) Type up your feedback from your teacher. If you've received this by email, you can copy and paste it across - WWW and EBIs. You don't need to include a mark or grade if you don't want to.

3) Consider your mark against the mark scheme above. What are the strengths of your production based on the the mark scheme? Think about magazine cover conventions and the media language techniques you have used to communicate with your audience (e.g. mise-en-scene, camera shot etc.)

4) Look at the mark scheme again. What can you do to move your mark higher and, if required, move up a level?

5) What would be one piece of advice you would give a student about to start the same magazine cover project you have just completed? 

Complete for homework - due date on Google Classroom.

Magazines: The Gentlewoman - Language and Representations

The first part of our case study on The Gentlewoman will focus on media language and representations.

The Gentlewoman deliberately offers an alternative version of the women's fashion magazine genre and we need to explore how page design, content and conventions are used or subverted to create this effect. We also need to consider the different representations that can be found in these features.

You need to really get to know the selected CSP pages for this edition of The Gentlewoman featuring Scarlett Johansson on the cover. You can download the Gentlewoman selected CSP pages as a PDF here - you'll need to log in to your Greenford Google account to download them.

Notes from the lesson

The Gentlewoman: an introduction

The Gentlewoman is an alternative independent women’s fashion magazine aimed at a niche audience.

It was launched in 2010 and is published just twice a year with around 100,000 copies distributed worldwide. 

Social and cultural contexts

The Gentlewoman is part of a development in lifestyle and environmental movements of the early 21st century which rebrand consumerism as an ethical movement. 

Its representation of femininity reflects an aspect of the feminist movement which celebrates authenticity and empowerment. As part of the design-led, independent magazine sector, The Gentlewoman can also be seen as part of a movement responding to the idea of ‘Internet fatigue’.

The Gentlewoman editor: Penny Martin

Penny Martin has edited the magazine since its launch. "I'm interested in how modern women live, from the way they drink, dance, drive and speak to the way they sign their letters or conduct their divorces. It's about putting those women at the centre of the material world around them. That balance is important to us." 

Cover stars have ranged from 88-year-old actor Angela Lansbury to popstar Beyoncé, looking calm, strong and composed in Dior with a face free of make-up. 

What is a gentlewoman?

In the first issue – called ‘Modernist’ – Penny Martin defined the term:

The magazine’s subjects would be “stylish, intrepid, and often hilarious” contemporary women, and they would be depicted in journalism and portraits that reflected “women as they actually look, sound and dress.” 

In contrast to “the passive and cynical cool of recent decades,” Martin wrote, “The Gentlewoman champions the optimism, sincerity, and ingenuity that actually get things done.”

The Gentlewoman: Language and Representation blog tasks

Close-textual analysis

Work through the following tasks to complete your close-textual analysis of the Gentlewoman CSP pages:

Gentlewoman front cover 

1) What do the typefaces used on the front cover suggest to an audience?

2) How does the cover subvert conventional magazine cover design?

3) Write an analysis of the central image.

4) What representations of gender and celebrity can be found on this front cover?

5) What gender and representation theories can we apply to this cover of the Gentlewoman? 

Feature: Modern Punches

1) How does the feature on Ramla Ali use narrative to engage the audience? Apply narrative theories here.

2) What representations can you find in this feature - both interview and image?

3) What representation theories can we apply to the Modern Punches feature? 


Feature: Isabella Tree interview

1) Why is this feature unconventional for a women's lifestyle and fashion magazine? Comment on the use media language in these pages. 

2) How does the Isabella Tree feature reflect the social and cultural contexts of contemporary Britain? Think about AQA's discussion of lifestyle, environmental issues and ethical movements.

3) What representations of nature can be found in this feature?

Feature: Stella McCartney and vegan fashion

1) How does this feature reflect contemporary social and cultural contexts?

2) Comment on the typography and page design in this feature.

3) What representations can be found in the image accompanying this feature? 

Representations

Read this Business of Fashion interview with The Gentlewoman editor Penny Martin. If you don't want to sign up to the website (free) then you can access the text of the article on Google Drive here (you'll need your Greenford Google login). Answer the following questions: 

1) What type of magazine did Penny Martin, Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom want to create? 

2) What representations of modern women did they try to construct for the magazine?

3) What examples of cover stars reflect the diversity in the magazine's content? 

4) What is Penny Martin's view on feminism and whether the magazine is feminist?

5) Look at the end of the article. How does the Gentlewoman help readers construct or reflect their identity by engaging with events and spaces beyond the magazine? 

A/A* extension tasks

Read this extended profile of editor Penny Martin in The Cut. What does it suggest about the representations in the magazine and how they might appeal to an audience?

Similarly, this Stack interview with Penny Martin has some really interesting points on pop feminism and how women are represented and addressed by the magazine.

Due date on Google Classroom