Subcultures groupwork

Make a decision about who will be responsible for each of the areas above and ensure that the division of work is equal.
Find all the sources of information you will need to fulfil your part of the research (see hints below)
Read all your sources, make notes and keep all your info in a folder on your network space. Post a summary of your findings to the forum on the VLE by end of first week of study - date to be set in class.
You will be expected to collaborate in your designated subculture group, using the discussion group/forum set up on the VLE for you and will be assessed on your contribution to this forum.
After your summaries have been posted to the forum, you will be expected to collaborate either by using MSN or Forum to collate a group powerpoint presentation by a date to be set in class.
Research

You can find material on your chosen subculture from:

Links in the right-hand margin on this website
Books - Culture and Identity by Warren Kidd Chapter 8, page 112
College Library - use the on-line search facility on the Intranet
Your own experience – friends, relatives, yourself!
Newspapers and magazines
Radio programmes – try the BBC website, Radio 4 section and then Woman’s Hour – archive programmes on Goths etc or go to the links further down this page
The Internet - see some suggested links in right-hand margin.

Presentation methods

Use your experience from last year to decide on how to present your findings – handouts, Powerpoint presentations, audiotapes, CDs, posters etc. Make each person responsible for an area and preparing the audiovisual resources for that area. There are some sample presentations in the right hand margin (but bear in mind they were just on subcultures and didn't include music and music videos)

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Assessment

You will be formally assessed on the following areas:

Your understanding of the concept of subcultures, their music and their place in culture (in presentation and individual report)
The quality of your background research (in presentation and individual report)
Your understanding of the concept of subcultures and how they relate to individual identity and culture
The quality of your resources and delivery of material in presentation
The quality of your collaboration on the forum

Please hand in individual report at the end of your presentation - see details of this assignment on next page - click the arrow on the right-hand side of the screen.

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Music - Videos and Song Lyrics

Practical Tasks
Writing a Report
Song Lyrics
Video
Artist
Record Company
Conclusion

The task is to analyse a song and its video in terms of ideology, post-modernism etc.

PRACTICAL TASKS

1. Choose a song and video (if available) to analyse – something of interest in terms of ideas expressed so that’s Steps out of the picture!

2. Get hold of the lyrics to the song and print them out.

3. Record or acquire the video you wish to analyse

4. Find out the name of the record company who produced the song and video. Find out as much as you can about this company – what other artists do they handle?

5. Find out about the artist singing your song – writes their own music, creative a real musician or a manufactured star?

1. Introduce the song, video and artist briefly – what is the song about, what is the artist’s genre, history etc.

2. Choose a couple of perspectives – Marxism, feminism, post-modernism or post-colonialism. Your particular song will suggest which two are most suitable. See the article on female drummers in the right hand margin for a suggested feminist perspective.

3. Read the articles in the right hand margin (top of page) about music videos and make notes. Use them to help you analyse your lyrics. Do an analysis of the meaning of the song lyrics and video, the underlying ideology and perspectives apparent in them.

SONG LYRICS

Are your lyrics expressing any particular ideology? Is this reflected in the video? Are your lyrics turning ‘visions of the extraordinary into the ordinary’? Are love and romance the theme? Are they reinforcing dominant ideas about this?

Use the articles on Song Lyrics (in Popular Music Guide - click here) to get ideas for what to consider there.

• products of bourgeois capitalism urban landscapes, fast cars, flashy, glitzy style,
• fast cutting, the high visual gloss, the extreme camera angles and vertiginous movement
• visual images often have no meaningful connection to the words of the lyric

Is your video simply an advertisement? A way of manipulating audience? A documentary like record of performance? A modern art form?

Does it have post-modern features?

1 Breakdown of the distinction between high culture and mass culture
2 Breakdown of the barriers between genres and styles
3 Mixing up of time, space and narrative
4 Emphasis on style rather than content
5 The blurring of the distinction between representation and reality

Does it represent men and women differently?

Does it represent black and white people differently?

ARTIST

How does your artist and their work fit generally in the pop world? Are they good representatives of their gender, class and ethnicity? Are they real musicians or manufactured stars? Are they in control of their creative output or is their record company? How do they represent themselves to the public in terms of their gender, class etc?

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RECORD COMPANY

What sort of artists does this record company have apart from the one you have just looked at? Are they going for a ‘formula’ in terms of ensuring commercial success? How much influence are they having on the artist and audience, do you think? See also, the article on the Music Business in the right hand margin.

CONCLUSION

In terms of the example you have looked at, what do you conclude is going on in terms of the ideology and culture being transmitted by this song and video? Is it representative of pop music generally?