Research: Popular Theory

Introduction:

There are multiple theories that can be applied to music videos, the most popular ones can be applied to general audiences and allow them to understand the music industry and why certain decisions are made when making music videos. Music video theorists are generally sociologists or psychologists and are very knowledgeable in their field making the theory effective. I researched, the 'Popular Culture' theory, Antonio Gramsci's theory of Hegemony, the Frankfurt school, Theodor Adorno's theory, the Birmingham school and Dick Hebdige's theory of subcultures.

Popular culture;

Popular culture relates to understanding the ideas of mainstream society to influence the society has on audiences. Popular culture was mainstream in the 80s and is mainly followed by working class citizens - known as "the masses". This is done through media such as music, arts, films and fashion which are all vital platforms for popular culture in today's society. In comparison to this, the middle class is said to follow "true art" who are seen to look down on the masses. This can be linked to the music industry and the promotion of artists and songs in particular ways, the masses simply take this on board and agree with it. Michael Jackson is an example of an artist that was highly regarded in the music industry and was labelled the "King of Pop" in the mainstream media and the masses therefore followed this and regarded him as the King of Pop, despite his death. This shows popular culture exists in society and in the music industry.

Theodor Adorno:

Theodor Adorno was a German sociologist and was known for his critical theory of society. Adorno suggests that popular music is usually divided into genres of music such as rock, pop, rap, heavy metal and reggae etc. Although, all popular music is standardised which are interchangeable from one song to another, and they all sing about the same types of lifestyles. The effects of standardisation are often hidden by "frills" that are put within a song to disguise that it sounds the same. Adorno also distinguishes between popular music and serious music, as serious music such as classical and avant-garde, plays to the pleasures of imagination which offers engagement. He also argues that popular music makes everyone think the same and that it is false, unnatural and immature. Whereas serious music is seen as deep, meaningful and natural, as those who follow popular music do not know what true art is, usually due to not having access to that type of content.

Frankfurt School:

The Frankfurt School were a group of German-American philosophers and sociologists who analysed the changes in Western capitalist societies that occurred since the classical theory of Marx. They proposed the Effects model which saw society to be composed of isolated individuals who were gullible to media messages, and visualised the media as a hypodermic syringe, suggesting that the contents of the media were injected into the thoughts of the audience, who accepted these attitudes, opinions and beliefs without questioning it, also highlighting the audience as purely passive. This was arguably also due to technology not being as developed as today, the media in general was heavily controlled by social elites back then and people had no platform or no choice at all to argue with the system in place. Prominent Frankfurt school theorists included, Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse. Horkheimer and Adorno focused on Hollywood as an example of conflict theory being used to enlighten and emancipate people. Hollywood was seen to produce profits by pumping out an endless stream of films, all with the aim to appeal to very similar audience, ensuring the viewer does not have to exert any mental energy to understand the film. The very small differences that came up in those films were simply put down to pseudo-individualism, this serves to mask the fact the style and form of films were identical to each others, small variations in plot or character were superficial imitations of individuality which masked the uniformity of all the products. Studios spend very large amounts of money promoting bigger and better films with a new brand, a new star with an underlying structural uniformity which the audience are not aware of.

Antonio Gramsci:

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian neo-marxist theorist and politician. He used the term 'hegemony' to denote the predominance of one social class over others. Dominant ideologies are considered hegemonic, power in society is maintained by constructing ideologies which tend to be promoted by the mass media. For example, the media is likely to control what is broadcasted to audiences, as well as what is censored and what is banned. As a result of this, musicians self publish their music and video on sites that are widely accessible, avoiding the mainstream media. It is argued that broadcasting companies do not hold hegemony anymore, although they attempt to regain it by using new technology, therefore the people hold hegemony. The mainstream media want us to believe in certain ideologies and this is done through media such as music and music videos.

Birmingham School:

Stuart Hall was a cultural theorist and sociologist who attended the Birmingham school and created a theory which revolved around issues regarding hegemony, he took a post-gramscian stance. He elaborated on encoding and decoding.

Encoding- the process by which a text is constructed by its producers
Decoding- the way in which an audience reads, understands and interprets a text, spectators will decode the text a different way.

Based on how music is interpreted for active audiences, producers are believed to be the bourgeoisie who encode messages within music and videos, this is evident through repetition in music and lyrics, although the way the working class receive and interpret the messages differ.

Dick Hebdige:

Dick Hebdige's main focus was on subcultures which are significant in the media industry. His argument was that consumption is an active process with differences in audiences' social and ideological construction which leads up to different readings of the same cultural products. The audience have a choice whether to resist the power of conglomerates and other large companies by finding alternative products to consume. This leads to the audience recognising themselves as different from mainstream culture, becoming subcultures. Hebdige also believes that companies attempt to stop resistance by creating products for subcultures also, this allows the audience to decide whether they should accept these products or resist them. Certain artists may also display subcultural values, usually through niche genre music which appeals to a subcultural audience. For example, Fall Out Boy are a rock band but most of their music is, pop rock, punk and emo pop. Therefore they appeal to the rock culture as well as the subcultures surrounding it.

Conclusion:

Each theory is significant individually due to the different viewpoints they have. Most of the theories are developed from the basis of Marxism and they all clarify societal divisions as well as in the music industry. Within these theories, the working class are primarily portrayed as not educated enough as they continue to absorb all the information being fed by the media and follow the popular culture. Whereas more middle class people or the bourgeoisie are seen as more intelligent and they follow true art which is influenced by their upbringing and differing hobbies from those who are working class.