A2 Media

A2 Media Research

How are women represented in the rock industry?

Females in Rock: No Doubt, Paramore, We Are The In Crowd, Hey Monday, The Pretty Reckless, The Smashing Pumpkins, Joan Jett, Evanescence, The Pixies, Bangles, Garbage, The White Stripes, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Elana Seigman, The Gossip (Beth Ditto), Elana Seigman, Patti Smith, Cranberries, Courtney Love (Hole), Shirely Manson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/may/31/lez-zeppelin-female-tribute-bands
Male bands:Compare against males in rock bands, such as AC/DC, Metallica, Greenday, Foo Fighters, Led Zeppelin, Linkin Park, System Of A Down, Slayer, Guns 'n' Roses, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Hawkwind, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Rammstein, Slipknot, Iron Maiden, Killswitch Engage

Theory: Richard Dyer, Representation Theory
The decision over what is chosen to be represented and what is rejected.
The choices made when organising the representation.
1. What sense of the world is it making?
2. What does it imply? Is it typical of the world or is it deviant?
3. Who is it speaking to? For whom? To whom?
4. What does it represent to us and why? How do we respond to the representation?

http://www.slideshare.net/Katrinabrookes/representation-theories-12575484

Men represented in rock music: http://www.slideshare.net/ojwoods/hegemonic-masculinity-in-rock-music 

"National mass media, such as tabloids, develop youth movements as much as they distort them. Contrary to youth subcultural ideologies, "subcultures" do not germinate from a seed and grow by force of their own energy into mysterious ‘movements’ only to be belatedly digested by the media. Rather, media and other culture industries are there and effective right from the start. They are central to the process of subcultural formation.^{" - Sarah Thornton,}  Club Cultures : Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital.

Malcolm McLaren opened a shop called 'Sex' which was part of the punk movement and initiated the idea of punk culture. Vivienne Westwood helped him establish this movement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_McLaren

Paul Willis states based on postmodern return to feminism that "pop stars are symbolic vehicles with which young women understand themselves more full... shaping their personalities to fit the stars alleged preferences." Paul Willis, 1990 - Common Culture. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Joan Jett - I Love Rock N Roll, one of the most famous songs by a female rock artist
Evanescene - Bring Me To Life, yet another famous song by a female vocalist in rock music
Elena Siegman - 115 is in the Xbox game Call of Duty: Black Ops, which shows the recognition of women in the rock industry has become more noticed.
Hole - Celebrity Skin

Objectified view of women in Rap and Hip-Hop industry where they are dressed in provocative clothing such as Flo Rida - Whistle or Robin Thicke ft. Pharell Williams - Blurred Lines

There are also females in the rap industry who choose to dress provocative such as Lil Kim or Izzy Azalea in her music video for Work. When we think of women in the media today and in music videos, our automatic assumption is that they are being exploited and that they are dressing in skimpy clothing and are predominantly objectified.

Stereotypical belief that women in the music industry produce music mostly about romance, love, heart-break, boys. Contrast to this, 'Bitch' by Meredith Brooks talks about what she's like as a person. The Pretty Reckless have some songs which fit this stereotypical belief that girls portray more emotion through music than boys, but overall she gives off this reckless and rebellious persona. Mediated through social media, online magazines, how is the artist mediated through these, depends on image, relying on images, how you look, album covers available on iTunes, TPR, intertextuality, refer to Alice Cooper, image rich social media, conveys themes of music through appearance.

51 issues of Kerrang! in 2012, 5 of which featured a female somewhere on the front cover, which was Hayley Williams from Paramore, 1 of her and the band Paramore and 1 exculsively of her.

Essay plan:

Introduction - Talk about what I am researching, women in rock music, give examples such as Courtney Love, TPR etc.

Paragraph 1 - Compare women in rock music to women in mainstream music, in rock music they tend to be more aggressive, more masculine, whereas women in mainstream music are more objectified, and tend to talk more about relationships, love and break-ups. Use examples such as Courtney Love compared against Iggy Azalea (PRIMARY RESEARCH).

Paragraph 2 – Analyse the front cover of magazines with Taylor Swift in comparison to the Kerrang! cover of Hayley Williams, talking about clothing, colours, position etc.

Paragraph 3 - Look at the way women are represented in rock music compared to males in rock music, how men are more aggressive and are taken seriously whereas women aren't taken as serious, don't get as much media coverage. Can also talk about the objectification of women in rock music videos such as Rammstein - Mein Land which reinforces this idea that women are more eyecandy and should be in the videos rather than singing and producing the music.

Paragraph 4 – Analyse CD covers of male artists compared to female bands such as ‘Hole’, as well as statistics as to how many females have been on the cover of Kerrang! magazine in comparison to the number of magazines produced.

Paragraph 5 - Apply the theories above about the fact the media today shapes our generation into the people they become (Sarah Thornton), including Paul Willis's beliefs on young women.

Paragraph 6 – Use female rock artists as case studies, specifically Taylor Momsen and Gwen Stefani, talk about how when she was in No Doubt she was quite a masculine character, then when she went as a solo artist she altered her appearance and changed to tailor the mainstream audience. Similarly with Taylor Momsen, she alters her appearance from when she is on stage to when she is going out, and when she is on stage she wears skimpy clothing, has dark make up on, and gives off a gothic vibe. This can be compared to Alice Cooper.

Conclusion – Brief overview of everything that has been written about in the essay, commenting on females in the mainstream music industry and how they are exploited whereas in the rock industry they are masculine, and how there is still little media coverage over girl bands in comparison to male bands, and that male bands are still dominating the rock industry.

References:



Taylor Momsen, before going on stage and at a natural shoot.

 

Hayley Williams on the front of Kerrang! magazine, Taylor Swift on the front of Bliss.



Nicki Minaj album cover, Hole album cover, Slipknot album cover.



Examples of the thriller genre



Sweeney Todd

Typically of this horror-thriller, casted and directed by Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are the main characters, who also star in a variety of other Tim Burton films. Johnny Depp portrays a dark and mysterious Benjamin Barker, who returns to London 15 years after being transported for charges. Upon his return as Sweeney Todd, he discovers his wife was poisoned and raped by the judge who transported him, so he vows revenge and teams up with the pie maker Mrs Lovett and opens a barber shop at which he murders customers and bakes them into pies. It is a very dark and cynical film but by the end of it, you end up feeling sorry for Sweeney Todd as you've gotten to know him, you understand the hurt he's gone through and you see how he's turned into the man he is. As for representation of gender, he is represented as dominant yet mysterious due to the camera angle, he seems to be looking down ever so slightly. It also has blood on it, so you can tell it's going to be a horror or sorts. There is also a shadow across his face, giving us a hint of mystery and that he is holding back on some things, that he isn't completely open about his life and experiences. The film itself is set in 19th century London, England which sets the scene for the film as during that time period London was dark due to the soot from the chimneys and the buildings were very daunting. 

Black swan

Black swan is a dark and psychological thriller as you follow a girl who is determined to be the perfect swan for the renowned Swan Lake, but once a new girl is in town and provides competition for the leading role, Nina (Natalie Portman’s character) loses grip of reality and spirals into a nightmare. She starts having hallucinations which become more severe throughout the film to the point where she believes she’s walked into her dressing room to see Lily (played by Mila Kunis) as she announces she is to play the White/Black swan, at which point Lily morphs into Nina. Furious, Nina stabs who she believes is Lily with a piece of the glass mirror, and it’s only discovered at the end of the film that she has in fact stabbed herself. Even though the main role is a female, she still symbolises a victim of her own thoughts, and she lets the pressure of being perfect get to her and take over. It is set in New York, which is where Broadway is station, and is notorious for the theatre and productions. This will add to the pressure felt by Nina as this is it, this is the big break she’s been waiting for, it’s the opportunity she has to prove to everyone that she is ready for Broadway. The DVD cover is a close up of the lead character with a crack across her face. This may symbolise cracks in her as a person, and how she is imperfect or broken.

Titanic 

Titanic is a classic love film/thriller about the sinking of an apparent "unsinkable" ship. We follow the story of two very different people, Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose Dewitt Bukater (portrayed by Kate Winslet). Rose is from a wealthy background, and lives the high life of everything, whereas Jack won his ticket to the Titanic at a lucky hand of poker. The cross paths when Rose runs to the back of the ship, ready to jump off the back as the life she leads isn't the one she wants to, and because she feels trapped in a life where she has to pretend to be someone she's not. Jack runs to the back of the ship and ends up pulling her back over onto the ship, and eventually they form a friendship which turns into something more. The have a secret romance where they meet up and dance together, but it soon becomes apparent to Roses fiance that there is something between them, and so he tries to put a stop to it. While this is going on, the ship crashes into an ice-burg, which eventually sinks and you see the dramatic ending of the romance between Rose and Jack as he freezes to death. The DVD cover shows the film is about a ship, but it also gives the impression that there is a romance between two people. While Jack isn't ashamed of their love and is almost protective of Rose in the cover, she is looking to the side as if to say that she knows that it is wrong to love him because she is engaged to someone else, and the fact that she is looking down gives the impression that she is ashamed to have put herself in that situation.

The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code is about a professor religious iconography and symbology from Harvard University who has been suspected of the brutal murder of the Louvre curator Jacques Saunière. The two embark on an adventure to find the Holy Grail, which is supposedly encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci's wall painting, the Last Supper. However, they aren't the only ones in search of the Holy Grail. A member of the Holy See is trying to find it in order to keep it a secret, as the revelation of this secret would certainly destroy Christianity. The DVD cover gives us a bit of information about the film, with the image of the Last Supper as a background behind the main characters. On all of the characters there is shadowing, some more than others leaving us to suspect there are secrets they're hiding that other characters don't know about. Also, the position of the characters is interesting as they all looking at the main character Robert Langdon, most of them with a look of suspicion. The look on Tom Hanks' face is one of determination, and gives us the impression that he will not give up until he has found the Holy Grail, and will go to extreme lengths to find it.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a story of journalist Mikael Blomkvist's (played by Daniel Craig) who is invited to investigate what happened to a woman from a wealthy family who disappeared forty years ago. He works with the help of computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (portrayed by Rooney Mara) to filter through photographic evidence as well as the history of the island to discover what happened to the girl. While looking through evidence, they stumble upon a number of gruesome killings which all symbol a biblical meaning. The girl is violently raped and abused by her social worker, but ends up getting her own back on the worker and leaves him fearing for his life. The cover of the DVD helps us understand the characters, as the main male lead (Daniel Craigs character) is a front view, his face is lit up to a certain degree with some shadow hinting that he may leave some things in the dark and that he might be reserved, whereas with the female lead, one half of her face is completely lit up and the other isn't even shown. This gives us the impression that there are two sides to her, and that she may come across as vulnerable and open, there is a darker side to her, leaving her to be reserved with other people and her true opinions.

How can the thriller genre be defined?

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Thriller films tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twistsand cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.

Steve Bennett. "Thriller Fiction Genre definition". Findmeanauthor.com. http://www.findmeanauthor.com/thriller_fiction_genre.htm

http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms3.html

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