As an A2 student you need to develop your analysis further taking into account a range of contexts and approaches which can add to your understanding
E.g.
· What is not there?
· Wider contexts – Production & Distribution
· It’s reception – how it was received by fans, critics
· Ideologies
· Theoretical perspectives
It is important to note texts are polysemic (have different meanings)/ audience shapes it too!
Below are a series of possible questions you could discuss in your exam/ coursework – to point you in the right direction…
Key points highlighted in BOLD
REMEMBER – GENRE CAN BE USEFUL FOR…
AUDIENCE
1. CONSUMPTION
2. GRATIFICATIONS
3. EXPECTATIONS
INDUSTRY (PRODUCERS)
1. BEST CHANCE OF BEING SUCESSFUL (MONEY)
2. PROVIDE BLUEPRINT
3. ASSIST MARKETING/DISTRIBUTION
REPRESENTATION…
AUDIENCE (remember constructionist approach – reflective, intuitional, your thoughts and what’s happening in society)
1. CREATE CHANGES TO IDEOLOGIES
2. LEADING TO MORAL PANICS
3. UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES/ OTHERS
INDUSTRY (PRODUCERS)
1. SAY SOMETHING MEANINGFUL
2. ADDRESS POLITICAL/SOCIAL AGENDAS
SOME OTHER ‘DEBATABLE’ QUESTIONS, WHICH YOU COULD TIE IN
· Can social realism ever be a dominant genre?
· Why is social realism typically British?
· Is Nouvelle Vague the same as social realism?
· Can social realism follow traditional Hollywood Narrative?
· Is social realism contributing to the British film industry’ Booming’?
· Has British film been marginalized or consolidated by convergence culture – think Niche!
· What effect does the rise in reality TV have on audiences’ experience of social realism?
· Can social realism film perpetuate the ideas/ representation of working class people?
· What is the future for British film industry – what kind of films should they be making?
· What are the connotations of the tag ‘British’ and ‘independent’ when applied to the texts?
· Is it useful (or even possible) to discriminate between those films that are seen as a mass audience and those that ‘speak for themselves and will hope would want to listen?
· One of the issues social realist film emphasizes is how little concerned mainstream film is to represent ‘ordinary people’ preferring a world of the significantly attractive/ funny/ charismatic. Is this inevitable?
· It is assumed that social realist filmmakers like ken loach/ Reisz make films with political message/ meanings…to what extent do you agree?
· What are the values exhibited by your films and how appropriate are they for a young audience?
· Are your films a good example of 21st century films – if 20th century was film was the dominated artform!
MS4 - Text, Industry & Audience: Music 'A' Grade Exam Response - EXEMPLAR
Section B: Industry & Audience
B4. Explore how your chosen texts use digital technology in their marketing. (30)
Digital technology such as the internet and online stores such as itunes all present new ways for a consumer to discover or buy new music.
Lady Gaga is a perfect example with her first album/CD 'The Fame' selling over 12 million copies with many of these downloaded from the internet and thus making it the most downloaded release of all time. As a consequence of this new digital system and method for obtaining music, fans of artists can now retrieve albums quickly without the need for going to a music store such as HMV. The internet was also used to promote her album sales with posters and the ability to listen to several of the tracks earlier than their official release on youtube, therefore promoting sales and interest to fans who will then go to buy the physical version of the album. Sites such as itunes also marketed 'The Fame' by creating billboards over their webpage and adding links to the itunes store to the Lady Gaga album once it was made available to boost sales to the consumer via convergence. Lady Gaga is also well known for using Twitter to communicate with her social networking teenage fans on a regular basis, in this way she continually cultivates and reinforces a personal relationship with her fans to preserve her popularity and mainstream pop status.
Her popularity gradually increased through successive single releases such as 'Just Dance', 'Papparazzi' and 'Pokerface'. The high production values together with the glamorous and provocative appearance of Lady Gaga herself also made her videos compulsive viewing for her fans on youtube, where she now has her own channel. She gains millions of hits per video and encourages countless of fans to create viral copycat productions that have increased her online profile immensely.
A band, however, who did not follow this modern mainstream method of marketing was Radiohead who are an indie/alternative rock band from Oxford UK. Instead of using this same method as artists in the mainstream such as Lady Gaga, Radiohead themselves marketed their new album release 'In Rainbows' by self-promotion through youtube with a number of tracks played live. They also made their album available via download only through their own website and allowed the fans/consumers to pay whatever price they wanted to including nothing and download the recording quickly and immediately and in high quality without even leaving their homes. Releasing the album in this way also allowed the release to occur globally at the same time, increasing overall sales (1.2 million copies) and limiting the possibility of the illegal recordings being distributed. Although this unique style of marketing did not initially produce a profit for the band, they gained a great deal of negative, as well as positive, press coverage as a result for bypassing the usual record industry models. Live performance appearances also helped promote the release on the SkyArts satellite channel to a more adult highbrow audience in direct contrast to the way that Lady Gaga was marketed.
After its initial download only release, 'In Rainbows' was released with a more mainstream physical CD release available in music stores and other online sites such as itunes. The release, even though initially only available as a download, still gained chart success and also became the bands most successful release to date. Clearly allowing the fans/audience to pay whatever they wanted to did not damage physical or chart sales and signalled a warning to the record industry who are presently struggling to recapture a sales market that is falling due to digital file sharing and bootlegging.
A band that did not have access to digital marketing during their heyday was 'grunge'/metal three-piece Nirvana. For their releases in the early 1990's, such as 'Nevermind', they were totally reliant upon marketing via their major label record company Geffen. The underground music scene and music press coverage also helped promote the bands profile but 'word of mouth' was essential in spreading the message about the authenticity of the band and their blistering live performances in the days before online technology became commonplace.
Digital technology was not available during these times but their popularity is now widely promoted via itunes and other online sites such as Facebook as a form of nostalgia for both those that enjoyed their music at the time and new fans. Clearly the suicide of the lead singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain has continued to assist the mythology of Nirvana and generate sales of all of their releases on the internet and perpetuate the appeal for 'grunge' music in general. After his death albums such as 'Nirvana's Greatest Hits' were released on online stores and with the 20th Anniversary of his death looming the internet is likely to spread promotion further.
Digital technology is highly used in order to market and promote artists in the music industry today as it is cheap, immediate and of a high quality reducing the costs of production and distribution for music labels. It allows for new artists to become widely known through social networking sites as Arctic Monkeys did with Myspace.
No comments:
Post a Comment