Stilwell's review of literature divides film music scholarship into nine areas of research. These areas can further be reduced to three broad emphases in film music scholarship: historical, musicological, and cultural.
1. Historical film music research often focuses on silent films and early film scoring. Here, Stilwell (2001) discusses the prevalence of classical music for this period of film sound.
2. Musicological analysis of film music is common in the study of contemporary film music uses. Stilwell (2001) argues that musicological approaches may be hampered by the form's complexity. Film's pairing of aural with visual creates difficulty for scholars trained to analyze only one of these areas. Film music has therefore often been analyzed as a merely aural medium, with much of the film music literature ignoring the visual imagery with with film music is paired. This has resulted in a body of literature that is very technical, but often apolitical.
3. Cultural perspectives of study often focus on the use of popular music in films to drive both music and cinema commodities. Though Stilwell (2001) notes the importance of including social context in film music scholarship, she believes that cultural studies' emphasis on context alone reinforces the idea that popular music is only important for its cultural significance, and not for its musical value.
Showing posts with label Introductory Pieces. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Introductory Pieces. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Fiske (2003), "Understanding Popular Culture"
Fiske (2003) explores what he calls a "theory of incorporation" through the case study of ripped jeans. As he explains, ripped and faded jeans can be understood as a form of resistance against commodity culture. Wearing jeans that are ripped signals the wearer's resistance to replacing what would normally be understood as worn out.
This small sign of resistance is incorporated by jeans manufacturers like Calvin Klein when factory made rips and tears are marketed as fashion. Fiske (2003) argues that this incorporation robs such signs of resistance of their oppositional value. He describes this as containment, since it allows the act of resistance to continue, but only in a controlled way.
Finally, Fiske (2003) uses this case study to discuss the political meaning of popular culture. Fiske (2003) argues that popular culture is always a site of negotiation between the top and bottom. For Fiske (2003) change can only come from the bottom, since those at the top of the power relations will be resistant to losing their power.
This small sign of resistance is incorporated by jeans manufacturers like Calvin Klein when factory made rips and tears are marketed as fashion. Fiske (2003) argues that this incorporation robs such signs of resistance of their oppositional value. He describes this as containment, since it allows the act of resistance to continue, but only in a controlled way.
Finally, Fiske (2003) uses this case study to discuss the political meaning of popular culture. Fiske (2003) argues that popular culture is always a site of negotiation between the top and bottom. For Fiske (2003) change can only come from the bottom, since those at the top of the power relations will be resistant to losing their power.
Benjamin (1969), "Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"
1. Photography and film are different from paintings in that they lack an "aura."
Benjamin (1969) argued that art forms rooted in mechanical reproduction technologies were inherently different from what he identifies as traditional art forms. A major difference is what Benjamin (1969) calls the "aura." The aura is a source of authority located in the painting that comes from a sense of authenticity. While a painting contains this aura, film and photography cannot, primarily because they represent an image of an image rather than a work of originality.
2. The loss of the aura moves the object away from ritual. The object is then based in politics.
The loss of the aura in a culture of mechanical reproduction is not necessarily negative. Benjamin (1969) seems unsure of the final impact of the loss of the aura. He is clear, though, that reproduction of art has the potential to create more egalitarian distribution of knowledge and the pleasure of consuming art.
Benjamin (1969) argued that art forms rooted in mechanical reproduction technologies were inherently different from what he identifies as traditional art forms. A major difference is what Benjamin (1969) calls the "aura." The aura is a source of authority located in the painting that comes from a sense of authenticity. While a painting contains this aura, film and photography cannot, primarily because they represent an image of an image rather than a work of originality.
2. The loss of the aura moves the object away from ritual. The object is then based in politics.
The loss of the aura in a culture of mechanical reproduction is not necessarily negative. Benjamin (1969) seems unsure of the final impact of the loss of the aura. He is clear, though, that reproduction of art has the potential to create more egalitarian distribution of knowledge and the pleasure of consuming art.
Johnson (1986), "What is Cultural Studies Anyway?"
Johnson (1986) describes three tenets cultural studies brings from Marxism. These three assertions for the basis of why cultural studies is important and necessary.
1. Cultural practices are aligned with social relations.
2. Power is embedded in culture, and it can work to inhibit people defining and realizing their needs.
3. Culture is not autonomous or predetermined, but a site of struggle.
In order to study cultural power and movement, Johnson (1986) proposes a model including four moments in the circulation of a cultural object: production, texts, readings, and lived cultures. These moments each interact with social relations. Moments like production and readings take place privately, while texts and lived cultures represent the public manifestations of these moments. Furthermore, as texts move through the cycle, they grow to represent more abstract and universal forms. Conversely, lived cultures are material and concrete, as they represent the real situation of social relations.
1. Production -- The moment of production happens in the private sphere, and involves the planning and development of objects prior to their release into the public. The production moment draws from lived cultures. While it is numbered as the first moment of cultural circulation, then, it is actually a continuation of a previous cultural object in the cycle.
2. Texts -- When the object is released from the private sphere of production, it begins to circulate as a text.
3. Readings -- The text gains real meaning when it is encountered by audiences. Meaning is made by readers in private engagement with the text. Readings, like production, are therefore a more difficult moment to capture in scholarship.
4. Lived cultures -- Once readers have engaged and made sense of the text, the text's meanings are sometimes integrated into the readers' lived culture. At this point, an element of the text can be taken from its context and reimagined as some element within the overall publicly experienced culture.
Based on his understanding of cultural cycles, Johnson (1986) encouraged cultural studies scholars to draw from a variety of methods including the study of production mechanisms, textual analysis, and ethnography and interviews of readers.
1. Cultural practices are aligned with social relations.
2. Power is embedded in culture, and it can work to inhibit people defining and realizing their needs.
3. Culture is not autonomous or predetermined, but a site of struggle.
In order to study cultural power and movement, Johnson (1986) proposes a model including four moments in the circulation of a cultural object: production, texts, readings, and lived cultures. These moments each interact with social relations. Moments like production and readings take place privately, while texts and lived cultures represent the public manifestations of these moments. Furthermore, as texts move through the cycle, they grow to represent more abstract and universal forms. Conversely, lived cultures are material and concrete, as they represent the real situation of social relations.
1. Production -- The moment of production happens in the private sphere, and involves the planning and development of objects prior to their release into the public. The production moment draws from lived cultures. While it is numbered as the first moment of cultural circulation, then, it is actually a continuation of a previous cultural object in the cycle.
2. Texts -- When the object is released from the private sphere of production, it begins to circulate as a text.
3. Readings -- The text gains real meaning when it is encountered by audiences. Meaning is made by readers in private engagement with the text. Readings, like production, are therefore a more difficult moment to capture in scholarship.
4. Lived cultures -- Once readers have engaged and made sense of the text, the text's meanings are sometimes integrated into the readers' lived culture. At this point, an element of the text can be taken from its context and reimagined as some element within the overall publicly experienced culture.
Based on his understanding of cultural cycles, Johnson (1986) encouraged cultural studies scholars to draw from a variety of methods including the study of production mechanisms, textual analysis, and ethnography and interviews of readers.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Hall (1980), "Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse"
Hall (1980) argued that media discourse should be understood as a series of moments including production, distribution, and reproduction. Each of these moments happens independently of the others, so that no single moment can control the others.
1. Production, Distribution, and Reproduction
The production moment represents circulation in Hall's (1980) model. At this point, television is coded discourse rooted in material instruments and ideological social relations.
The moment of distribution or consumption involves the audience translating the discourse into social understanding.
In Hall's (1980) reproduction moment, the social understanding produced through the reading of the discourse is acted out, naturalized, and internalized.
This cycle repeats, so that audiences are involved in a feedback loop with producers.
2. Encoding
In the encoding process, Hall (1980) argues, television producers create a narrative that fits within the ideological social relations present in the society. Narrative rules and established form must be accounted for so that the message can be communicated to others.
Hall (1980) argued that encoding was always at work, but he argues that understanding the process of encoding is valuable to understanding the process of media.
3. Decoding
The audiences uses personal knowledge of cultural codes to understand the message constructed in the production moment. Hall (1980) argues that there may be asymmetry in the encoding and decoding processes, due to things like power asymmetry between the encoder and the decoder and disagreement between the code and the referent.
4. "Selective Perception" Theory -- or "viewer positions"
Since all visual codes contain various connotations, there is always room for multiple readings. Hall's (1980) essay is perhaps most famous for his introduction of three "viewer positions."
From the dominant-hegemonic position, viewers accept the message within the intended ideological frame.
The negotiated position involves acceptance of some dominant messages and rejection of others. Viewers in this position often find ways of justifying some angles while arguing with others.
Finally, the oppositional position involves the viewer decoding from outside of hegemony. In this position, the viewer contests the ideological frame necessary for decoding the message from the dominant perspective.
1. Production, Distribution, and Reproduction
The production moment represents circulation in Hall's (1980) model. At this point, television is coded discourse rooted in material instruments and ideological social relations.
The moment of distribution or consumption involves the audience translating the discourse into social understanding.
In Hall's (1980) reproduction moment, the social understanding produced through the reading of the discourse is acted out, naturalized, and internalized.
This cycle repeats, so that audiences are involved in a feedback loop with producers.
2. Encoding
In the encoding process, Hall (1980) argues, television producers create a narrative that fits within the ideological social relations present in the society. Narrative rules and established form must be accounted for so that the message can be communicated to others.
Hall (1980) argued that encoding was always at work, but he argues that understanding the process of encoding is valuable to understanding the process of media.
3. Decoding
The audiences uses personal knowledge of cultural codes to understand the message constructed in the production moment. Hall (1980) argues that there may be asymmetry in the encoding and decoding processes, due to things like power asymmetry between the encoder and the decoder and disagreement between the code and the referent.
4. "Selective Perception" Theory -- or "viewer positions"
Since all visual codes contain various connotations, there is always room for multiple readings. Hall's (1980) essay is perhaps most famous for his introduction of three "viewer positions."
From the dominant-hegemonic position, viewers accept the message within the intended ideological frame.
The negotiated position involves acceptance of some dominant messages and rejection of others. Viewers in this position often find ways of justifying some angles while arguing with others.
Finally, the oppositional position involves the viewer decoding from outside of hegemony. In this position, the viewer contests the ideological frame necessary for decoding the message from the dominant perspective.
Horkheimer and Adorno (1944), "The Culture Industry"
Horkheimer and Adorno (1944) argue that mass dissemination of art led to top-down control of consumers by producers. Coining the phrase "the culture industry" to describe the standardization of cultural forms through mass media, they argue that industrial society creates in workers a desire for escapism.
Workers are drawn to what they call "light art" as a way of escaping.
Producers appropriate mass social needs in order to provide something for everyone. In so doing, the industry's mass escapism appeases consumers, rendering us passive and unwilling to rebel against even the harshest economic circumstances.
This happens on two levels: not only did the mass culture industry destroy truths that didn't fit into its vision of culture, it also represented those truths as deception.
Workers are drawn to what they call "light art" as a way of escaping.
Producers appropriate mass social needs in order to provide something for everyone. In so doing, the industry's mass escapism appeases consumers, rendering us passive and unwilling to rebel against even the harshest economic circumstances.
This happens on two levels: not only did the mass culture industry destroy truths that didn't fit into its vision of culture, it also represented those truths as deception.
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