JackLudford1A2MediaStudies: February 2012

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Jonathan Kramer - PoMo music theory

A very interesting aspect of postmodern music theory. This will help you with your next essay.

Media Theorist Jonathan Kramer says "the idea that postmodernism is less a surface style or historical period than an attitude. Kramer goes on to say 16 "characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern compositional practices."
According to Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16–17), postmodern music":

1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
2. is, on some level and in some way, ironic
3. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present
4. challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
5. shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
6. questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
7. avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
8. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
9. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
11. embraces contradictions
12. distrusts binary oppositions
13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities
14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
15. presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers

Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City), was a U.S. composer and music theorist.

Active as a music theorist, Kramer published primarily on theories of musical time and postmodernism. At the time of his death he had just completed a book on postmodern music and a cello composition for the American Holocaust Museum.

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Conventions from Media texts

Front page: Titles, headings, font, masthead, teasers, colour, main image, free offers.

Contents page: Images, layout, categories

Double Page Spread: Interviews, layout, fonts, colour, advert, pull quotes. humour.

General: Colour palette, font palette,

How have you combined the 'same but different' and 'familiar and the unexpected'?

I have combined the idea of using the concept of 'Same but different' with my AS media product of a magazine that i produced. I have used the same idea of creating a magazine which is based on the similar idea of existing products but i have made it differnet by using the genre of my choice and changing colour palettes and font types to suit the music being portrayed. I took the idea of a music magazine which can be found in any shop, i then took a specific magazine to look at which was 'NME'. This is beacause the magazine was similar to what i wanted mine to be in it's music genre, style and layout. So i took features of the 'NME' and put them in my design such as the colour palette and the style of the magazine. I made my magazine different by changine the font styles and colour and changing the content of what is in the magazine. I did this so people would immidiatly recognise what genre is being portayed from first seeing the cover of the magazine from the colours, fonts and style.
I have combined 'the familiar and the unexpected' in my magazine by keeping a similar colour palette that is used in existing magazines of the same genre such as 'NME' and 'Q' and i have done this so my magazine would be easily recognisable of the genre at first sight.

Thursday, 23 February 2012

Bricolage, Found footage

Bricolage: Putting somethin into a different context that we would not usually assosiate something with.
Found footage: Moving something around, creating something new.

How does the Ella and Stella video make you feel?
: I didn't understand a purpose or meaning of the vide, so it came across as weird and strange.

Is it postmodern?
: I wouldn't of said so.

Why?
: It is not intentially set out to be a postmodern work or to be different.

Summer Camp- Round the moon: The video looks like it has been filmed for the song. The producers have used found footage to create the video by taking footage from a 1970s film. If the audience is unaware of the film that the footage is from they will think it has been filmed for the song.

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of Postmodern Media

People are not always convinced by the idea of Postmodernism because they do not understand the concepts of what makes something Postmodern and what is not. There are many different ideas to Postmodernism and reasons why people re create something. There are both Homage and Pastiche reasons for re creating something in film. When someone plays Homage to a film they are paying respcet to that film by copying or transfering something from that film into a new one. An example of this is the film 'The Artist' which is based on the silent films from the 1950s. A Pastiche is when something is taken or copied from a previous film and put into a new film by taking the mick out of an already existing scene to create humour for another film. An example of a film using this would be the Austin Powers film as these are a mock of the famous Bond films.
A quote that is often misunderstood by people is that 'nothing has an answer'. If you do not consider things as postmodern, this quote will not mean anything to you. This is the idea nothing is an original idea and anything from film to music cannot be traced back to an original route, suggesting everything has already been done and copied before. There is a also the idea that there 'is no centre'. This is when the centre of where an idea came from is always moving as we find something else we can link something we consider to be new from.

Thursday, 9 February 2012

First 15 songs from Ipod shuffle

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

‘Digital technology turns Media consumers into Media producers’. In your own experience how has your creativity developed using digital technology to complete your coursework products?

A media convention that technology played a big part in its production was my digipak for my created band. Using technology I was able to research existing digipaks and album covers that were of bands that’s music was a similar genre. I was able find images of album covers using Google search engine and with seconds I had inspiration from existing albim covers I could re-create. The main technology that was pivotal in the production of my Digipak was Photoshop. Using Photoshop I was able create the exact product I had planned and I could edit photos and fonts to get the exact theme I wanted. The idea of Photoshop is that creating and editing has become a lot simpler and can be done by almost anyone who owns it. This is a great example of how technology has ‘Turned Media consumers into Media producers.

Another Media product that production was heavily influenced by technology was when we created our music video. After we had got all the footage we needed shooting our video, we could upload all the shots onto the Imac which had software called ‘Imovie’. This was again a programme that was designed for allowing people to make home video footage accessible to anyone and simplified what was once a specialised subject. This links to the quote as ‘Imovie’ has made the production of videos simple and a skill that is now available to anyone.

The use of technology was vital throughout my whole coursework as all my research was found on internet sites. I got information and images off the internet and then uploaded them onto Blogger which was the site we used to track our planning and research for the coursework.