Supercurricular

Supercurricular: The BFI: A short history of the British music video

 

In 1966, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones made some of the first promotional short films.

‘Promotional films’ (or what we know as music videos) for individual singles were being made in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s, and it was encouraged by change and development in youth culture and popular music marketing.

In the 1960s, music videos were produced by companies that specialised in making commercials for television (e.g. Eyeline in  Soho).

In the 1960s, companies were launched to meet the demand from UK labels sending videos to European television programmes to be broadcast (e.g. Limelight and MGMM).

In 1981, MTV was launched and most of the videos screened were made by British directors.

Throughout the 80s and 90s music video genres and styles evolved due to decisions and feedback from both internal marketing teams and managers but also from other companies.

In 1998, UK labels spent approx. £37.5m on 850 music videos.

The performances and audience address in British music videos reflect the working-class white rock music and youth culture of the 1960s.

The first generation of music video directors in the 1960s were ambitious young filmmakers creating content for cinema, but many of the second generation if directors in the 1970s and 80s had experience in design, and had worked with band on their album covers, print and poster campaigns or photography.

In the late 2000s, public attention shifted to internet distributed videos, especially after 2005 when YouTube launched.

Genres and aesthetics of music videos changed with the changing genres and aesthetics popular in society.

Music videos can be divided into performance, concept and narrative videos.

 

Performance videos:

-              This genre has its roots in the mid 60s

-              These videos are representations of the band performing live

-              The band sing and play their instruments in sync to audio playback of the track they recorded

-              Directors of this genre often came from a music company, record company, or album design background

 

Concept videos:

-              This genre features a combination of conceptual imagery and performance to visualise the themes and emotions of the song

-              These videos became more common as more film graduates began creating music videos

 

Narrative videos:

-              These videos functioned as a career entry point and training path for those who couldn’t enter the film industry through other routes

-              This style allows creative crew to experiment to develop new styles, techniques, equipment and technologies

Supercurricular: Massolit lecture: History of the UK newspaper industry

1440s - printing press was first invented in Germany

1500s - printing press used on global scale

1605 - first newspaper printed in Germany

1620s - news was circulated in England in periodicals, pamphlets and newsbooks 

Beyond newspapers, there were chatbooks, that showed interest in sensationalist stories, crime stories, and news of heroic deeds, stories that can be found in some newspapers today

1840s - telegraphs were invented

1860 - rotating printer press used

The emerging railway network allowed for newspapers to be distributed around the country

Alfred Harmsworth (1865-1922) -  British newspaper magnate and owner of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror

1896 - Daily Mail set up by Alfred Harmsworth

1900 - Daily Express launched

1903 - Daily Mirror launched

1920s - commercial radio began broadcasting (challenging the newspaper industry)

1960s - most households in Britain had a television (biggest threat to newspapers)

Newspapers adapted to the increase in popularity of television by:

- elite press provide greater detailed and in depth coverage than television (up market)

- popular press provide topics that television would not provide (down market)

Newspapers have developed online presences to move with the increase in online media popularity 

Knowing the history of newspapers is important to understand how newspapers have evolved and changed with technology and society/culture

Supercurricular: Mrs Fisher videos: theorists

I watched all of Mrs Fisher’s videos on the theorists that we study and added the information from these videos into flashcards

From watching these videos I have developed a greater understanding of our theorists and have made a revision resource that is an easily understandable format and very helpful to get information from if I forget anything about the theorists

Supercurricular: Barbie: A Feminist Movie? (MediaMagazine 86, Winter 2023)

“Bell hooks said feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal oppression and the 

ideology of domination In other words you cannot challenge the oppressive system 

and uphold it at the same time. Barbie attempts to do both and in doing so, says 

nothing”

Even though some aspects of the film seemed to be feminist (like Barbie representing 

an aspirational life not dependent on a man), it is still clearly shaped by the male 

gaze theory and beauty

Despite seeming like a feminist film, it still reinforces gender stereotypes

The Barbies had to gain power back by flirting when they were experiencing male 

dominance in their world

It reinforces the idea that one group should be ahead of another group, this is 

reinforcing patriarchy not feminism

Even though films and other media products may present themselves as supporting a 

certain movement or having a certain ideology, the way these things are portrayed 

may be ineffective to portray the intended message or may even contradict it

Supercurricular: The Guardian: How podcasts took over the world in 20 years

From this article, I developed the understanding that most media popular media products are not necessarily the oldest.

Newer media products, such as podcasts, open media products to a wider audience and allow more people to produce and create media products on their own

Supercurricular: Massolit lecture: Why does media ownership matter? The Press, Propaganda, and Power

Media ownership sometimes concerns people due to very wealthy individuals able to exert dominance over the public conversation, agenda and consciousness via their control of media resources that they have due to their power and wealth

It is not just individuals that have this power (such as Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk), but also corporations that have control over mass media and use the platforms for their own best interests

There has always been a concern that newspapers, which are considered to be relatively free of regulation and able to express their own political viewpoints and coverage, could be used as a political weapon by the owners of these newspapers to get across specific ideas to the public that may be propaganda

Some newspaper owners take the stance that they have much less power over the public’s opinions that tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, or Apple.

The power held by media is sometimes more significant than the power held by political elites

In the early 20th century, mass media became established as a tool of propaganda,  people (cultural theorists and critics especially) became very concerned, especially in the wake of Nazi Germany and the way that they used the media to propagate an extremist, racist ideology

People view the media as having the power to brainwash us, especially with the introduction of television and radio, and being able to shape our world

A Marxist idea regarding media is that those who own means of production of media products, can shape the culture and world views to align with their own interests