Youth and Subcultures

Youth Sub-Culture is a mass who are connected through a similar style or belief for example clothes, music, politics, religion ect.  Sub-culture masses are non-mainstream groups who go against the normal mainstream cultures (popular).

The Goth subculture is modern and still very active subculture which known and shown throughout many countries. The subculture started in the 1980s in England’s rock culture. The Goth subculture is a successful subculture which has lasted almost 23 years and has continued to progress. Goth subculture has had an impact on imagery and cultural tastes this indicates the influences it had on late 1990s and present literature also horror films.

The Goth subculture has linked itself in music such as rock, while have a strong effect in fashion which audience know Goths for wearing dark clothes. Gothic music covers a many different styles including Gothic Rock, Darkwave, Deathrock, Ethereal, Neo-Medieval and Neoclassical. Styles of clothes such as dresses within Gothic subculture are a range of deathrock, punk and Victorian style outfits, or combinations of above, most often with dark outfits, make up hair.

Gothic fashion includes dyed black hair, dark eyeliner, black fingernails, black period-styled clothing; Goths may or may not have piercings. This is a gothic subculture signature of style which fits in people into the mass.

Violence and hate are not the elements Goth ideology as the elements are of recognition, identification and the grief over societal and personal evils which go against popular culture.

Goths values the importance of darkness in life by acknowledging the darkest and deepest thoughts such as death as they embrace death.

Grant McCracken believes that the postmodern world is full of diversity, dynamism and creativity which can be seen to be colourful, bright and having energy. By this he believes that not every culture came from the same one.  He believes if we look at the values, subcultures do not come from the culture mainstream.

CCCS’s views on subculture are that subcultures come from the main culture, mainstream.

However Hebdige believes that there is no subculture but a little culture because the richness surrounding them, so they can’t be mainstream.

True many groups are involved in protest and resistance against the mainstream but the form of this diverse and internally coherent.

‘CCCS generalise when it should be particularising’.

Also doesn’t blame for the acts of teenagers who switch to different subcultures frequently while older teens mix styles of subcultures to create a new. Or those adults can appear a normal working person but once they finish work they re-enter their sub-culture, normally on weekends, parties, festivals.

The CCCS’s approach is out of date because the 21^st century streams are crumbling as identity is changing. Mainstream is changing all the time constantly absorbing other cultures at such a fast rate that the mainstream does not exist. Thus being if there is no mainstream there is nothing for younger generations to react against, making them driven by motives which they understand by their own terms and no one else’s.

There are two different views on the relationship between pop music and youth in subculture. First being pop stars are constructed to appeal to specific subculture with specific values for example The Evanescence music group wear black and express darkness and sorrow to appeal to the gothic subculture. And the last view being that audiences are so unpredictable in their likes and dislikes that record companies can never truly know how to target them by values.

Richard Dyer believes that stars represent their cultural values and attitudes and will promote a certain ideology. People will start to agree with their values and become fans as they will wish to get closer to their glamorous lifestyle as they will tend to follow their values.  

I will now analysis the values Beyoncé the R&B artist promotes in these three images and what kind of audience would be attracted to her.

In this image Beyoncé promotes her self as a young sophisticated woman who looks attractive and has style. Her hair is goldern blonde while her clothes show a bit of chest but is not sexually revealing but engorging. The main audience which is attracted to this image is women as she presents her self as classy and common which would appeal to the pop culture as she appeals to everyone and easier to absorb as an ideology.

This second image shows her as a powerful icon as she represents the values of R&B subculture by showing herself as a sex figure. Her dress is shaped tightly around her body showing all her curves, she also looks attractive and glamorous. She also has behind her a great number of  attractive men following her. These aspects appeal to both genders of the audience as her sexual appearance appeals to men as sexual magnetism while the large number of men following appeals to women as they wish to be attractive like her and live her lifestyle.

Lastly in this image it shows Beyoncé in her teens. She promotes herself as pure she shows some sex appeal by showing her chest and shoulders but her appearance is natural representing the values of pop culture. Her audience would seem to be teenagers especially girls as she is idealised for her beauty and youth being easier to relate to.

In this image Beyoncé’s image has changed over time as it has become more erotic creating more sexual magnetism towards men and showing many innuendos for example her revealing outfit as she is half naked. She or her manger has done this to gain a larger male audience to draw them to her subculture easier by her sexual appearance; this creates more sales and connections to her audience.

Popular Culture

Popular culture

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Richard Dyer's theory, own artist

Drake represents my own artist’s style of image by how he presents himself towards the audience by costume, props, locations, ect. As drake shows himself as a relaxed artist who shows the acsepts of R&B and Hip-hop.

Richard Dyer's theory on Snoop Dogg

The promotional materials used to represent Snoop Dogg such as CD covers, posters, DVDs, Magazines and adverts construct him as a image developed by the media rather than showing his ‘real self’. This is because he is semi-mythological, for example in the Adidas advert he wears the name brands although we the public don’t really know what he wears at home making him half made up and the other real. In most of his work he presents his self as an entertainer, mostly in his album covers to generate sales although we do not know him personally only as a artist and entertainer, this creating a connection for the audience to know him more. From judging Snoop Dogg’s board the audience we understand he had many roles in the music industry over the years and in entertainment such as being youthful by keeping up with fashion, being rebellious against the commercial media by creating his own him and products; this helps us understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences.

Snoop Dogg is recognised as star throughout the world because of his music, publicity, high-status, and commercial rights which has all happened through the media industry by companies for example XXLMAG show him as strong powerful individual with such headlines as ‘The Ultimate Hustler Reigns Supreme’. However these essentials do not tell the real story of who is. They don’t tell us what he likes or dislikes as we only know him for his stardom such as appearance and career so we don’t know his family, history, education and problems. This is the true meaning of stars being commodities as they work and allow their fans to consume nothing but their strengths to create more sales.

Artists need media for appeal, as they use them to create their own image through film, advertising, music videos, sales, product commodity, magazines, and newspapers; this turns them into a semi-mythological being.

Richard Dyer's theory

Stars and Stardom:

To be able to fully understand the connection between the music industry and its audiences it is vital to know and recognise the roles of music stars.

The expression ‘star’ means a semi-mythological person, this is normally used for music performers so that it could help generate more sales and gain a larger audience as the audience feel as if they can connect to the performer by the way they present themselves by seeming ordinary but at the same time being extraordinary.

According to Dyer a star is a person who presents themselves as an entertainer so we can buy their products but we don’t know them personally.

Some common values of music stardom-

•  Youthfulness
• Rebellion
• Sexual Magnetism
• An anti-authoritarian attitude
•  Originality
•  Creativity/talent
•  Aggression/anger
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour
•  Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material
• Success against the odds

Dyer believes all stars have similar values in common:

A star is a created image formed by the media through advertising, magazines, videos ect, thus not being a real person.

Stars are commodities produced and consumed (absorbed, sold) on their strength of their meanings.

Media:

Stars rely on a range a range of media such as magazines, TV, radio, internet ect to build an image for themselves which can be marketed and sold to their target audiences.

Star image is made up of many meanings which appeal to their target audience for example Beyoncé’s sex appeal targets male audiences through sexual magnetism.

Artists need media for appeal; they use them to create their image.

Fundamentally the star image is incoherent (imperfect), giving meaning that the star is still incomplete and can still take on other aspects and subcultures. Richard Dyer says this is because it based on two important paradoxes.

Paradox 1-

The star at the same time must be ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer for example Emienm comes from a low class and low status background though now is a well-known artist who is of high-class this making seems ordinary because of his background but extraordinary at the same time because of his rich lifestyle.

Paradox 2-

The star at the same time must be present and absent for the consumer for example the audience will always have the chance to see the artist in media but hardly or never in real life.

Paradox 1 – Jennifer Lopez

Ordinary: Mum

Extraordinary: Wealthy 

Paradox 2 – Jennifer Lopez

Present: Youtube

Absent: You rarely or never see them in person

Star image:

The incoherence (incompletion) of the star’s image makes certain that audiences frequently attempt to ‘complete’ or to ‘make sense of’ of the stars image by visualising their image through media to gain an understanding of who they are and what their values are.  This is normally gained by the consumption of the stars products. 

In the music industry, performances seem to promise the completion of a star’s image, though it almost ultimately proves unsatisfying through the concept of how the artist performs for example artists tend to forget lyrics, acts, make mistakes and speak on stage, which damages their image not developing it.

This will ultimately lead the fans to go away further more consuming the star in order to carry on attempting or rediscovering their image. This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.

Lastly, the star image can be used by the record label to position the consumer in relation to dominant genres (hegemony). Depending upon the artist, this may mean the audience may see to go against the mainstream (though only to a limited point as they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere between. For example Punk music would seem to go against Hegemony as it is dark and stand for their own values while Michael Jackson has followed the genre characters of pop for 30 years appealing to all. 

Punk classed as against Hegemony

Michael Jackson – Pop considered to be with Hegemony

“In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society.  There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions.  On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong.  This individualising stress involves a separation of the person's "self" from his/her social "roles", and hence poses the individual against society.  On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (eg the struggles over representation of blacks, women and gays in recent years).  Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.”

Richard Dyer (Stars, BFI, 1981)

Goodwin's theory, album covers

This album cover shows a close up of a young black man surrounded by a pitch black background while also wearing a dark top. The large text in the top left hand corner says ‘Tha Doggfather’ while below a parental warning. These show the genre characteristics of a hip-hop artist due to the pitch black background and slang used within the album title ‘tha’ also a parental warning which comes into place as rappers are known for using a lot of strong language in their music. The album cover also indicates how old it by showing the artist, as he has a perm which is an early 90s rapper look.

The demands of the record label make the artist on their first and some times second album cover to use a close-up so that we the audience recognise him/her as an artist, this creates public attention and generates sales.

The notion of looking portrays this album cover as a ‘dark album’ due to the pitch black background causing intimidation throughout the audience, making the artist seems dark and mysterious. We can have a good idea what the music will be like by having violent references and strong language. 

The intertextual reference used within the album cover is its title ‘Tha Doggfather’ as its text and style is similar to the notorious gangster film ‘The Godfather’, this indicates that this album is all about ‘gangster rap’.

This next album from the following artists shows another close-up of the artist so we can recognise who he is also showing a parental warning. He is shown to be in black and white while his background is blue. The genre characteristics of this album cover is mainly his appearance as we can see he is a African American with cornrow this relates back to hip hop and R&B as not many of artists in other genres use this appearance. He also has a dollar diamond ear ring while also wearing a long diamond chain this relating back to hip-hop, as many rappers wear jewellery to look more rich and powerful.

The demands of the record label still rely on Snoop Dogg still using close ups so audiences can see who is and recognise who he is. This is used as a promotional device as you can see by his expensive jewellery since his last album he has turned into a successful artist who produces large sales so the record label demands him to still use close ups to give him representation and publicity they require.

The notion of looking revolves around the colour blue as this is the main theme on the album cover and is related in the album title “Tha Blue Carpet Treatment”.

The phrase "Blue Carpet" in the album's title references the red carpet used at formal events. The blue colour refers to Snoop Dogg's connection with the Los Angeles, Crips street gang who often wear blue and shun the red of their rival gang, Los Angeles, Bloods.

This album cover shows the genre characteristics of a young R&B group due to its typical use of three black women which is common factor in female R&B groups, also the use of bright colours we can tell the album contains a style of pop by their young trendy look also appearance, as their clothes are youthful and appealing.

The record label demands that the R&B group focus on showing all artists in a medium shot as one but not individually as this will appeal to the audience as they will know not one sings but all together. This creates public attention as an ideal R&B group causing album sales.

The album’s notion of looking is a hip young style of writing and colours which stand out also by their sense of teenage clothes.

The intertextual references are the teenage clothes and young influences for example the young female in the middle holds a giant baby bottle this indicating that she is a ‘big baby’.

The genre characteristics show again three black women which relates back to R&B as this is a normal factor of black female groups.

The demands of the record label focuses on the female group to be shown all in the album cover. The album cover also shows close ups of the whole group this allowing the audience to recognise the artists and creating a relationship between the group and audience this allowing the audience to listen to their music then buy their albums.

The notion of looking in this album cover is the theme of all red which blinds into the group, this creating a vibe of love as red creates the feeling of lust making it feel sexy. The audience can gain a good idea that the album is R&B and soul.

The intertextual reference used in this album is album title “Crazy Sexy Cool”, this is used to describe each member of the group as the title is used underneath their images to create a connection between themselves and the audience as they know the one on left hand side is ‘crazy’, middle ‘sexy’ and right hand side one ‘cool’.

Audience Reactions and Categories

Audience Engagement

I intend for my target audience to be able to relate to my music video by feeling connected through the use of mainly mise-en-scene in props such as costumes for example Nike wear and money which all relate to the hip-hop culture and music. The use of micro-elements connects with the lyrics of the song and use a narrative which applies to the song which will gain the attention of my target audience and other masses. I believe that my target audience will think that my artist is boastful, rich, and urban because of the way he portrays himself in the video by having the money to order people around while wearing jewellery and designer wear. The audiences then gain a respective that the artist is of hip-hop subculture as many hip-hop artists tend to show of their wealth and dress urban by wearing hoodies and baggy jeans which is a common value in hip-hop music and subculture.

I wish for the video to gain a positive reaction from all masses as I wish for the to feel as if they can relate to the artist for example the backgrounds shown in the video of estates some may be able to relate to this because they grew up or live their, this causing a paradox. This attracts the audience towards the video a they can understand he doesn’t live an impossible lifestyle which they can’t. Theodore Adorno’s states that masses are passive and uncritical, I want my target audience to be passive as I wish for my target audience and other masses to consume my artist’s music becoming a fan and generating sales by buying his album making him a successful music industry artist. Although according to Dick Hebdige’s theory some masses will be critical of the album thus creating fewer sales as some may not agree with the music being displayed.

Audience expectations

My target audience’s expectations based on the genre being Hip-Hop is that they will expect my artist’s music video to contain content of hip-hop for example dance, graffiti, rap, urban fashion, and female magnetism.  These are the main values in the hip-hop subculture and music, by using all of these values in y music I will exceed all my target audiences expectations thus the recognising my artist as a representative of Hip-Hop.

I believe that I am following all the generic convention suited to my genre and that my video follows Goodwin’s theory. The main conventions to Hip-Hop I rapping ands mise-en-scene as Hip-Hop artists must at all times must be shown rapping or heard rapping to the beat of the song. When seen on screen the artist must wear urban wear which is part of the Hip-Hop subculture mainly if they want to be recognised as a Hip-Hop artist for example Nike tracksuits, Gucci, baseball caps, ect.  My music video will follow all of Goodwin’s theory although will not use strong uses of voyeurism as my music video will show two attractive young woman who create sexual magnetism towards male audiences towards masses by appearance and not by costume as they will be fully dressed and will not dance in any voyeuristic way. My intertexual reference will be my use of the word ‘Youth’ in the graffiti wall which is shown in the music video and on the album cover.

Audience Foreknowledge

The knowledge my audience will have about my artist before watching his video is that his name is MC Real thus audiences automatically knowing he is of the Hip-Hop genre a MC means someone who rhymes fast altering their voice to suit rhyme of the music in the background this is known as rapping.

Audience identification

My audience will able to relate to my artist’s music video by many ways through different micro-elements. Locations are a main one as my artist is seen rapping behind a graffiti wall as graffiti is an art of the hip-hop subculture. Secondly the narrative is about my artist employing a hitman to kill someone, as the hitman does the task he is tricked and ends up only being paid £5 for killing someone and the my artist keeps all the money for himself. Lastly the costumes are of great importance as my target audience will be able to relate to the music video because of the costumes worn as they are similar to the outfits worn of those of the Hip-Hop subculture.

My target audience will feel that my artist is accessible towards Richard Dyer paradoxes. My artists will be more ordinary than extraordinary for consumers as it will become easier for my audience to relate to my artist. I will do this by using the same locations and costumes my target audience live and wear to apply to my artist so they will feel he is more ordinary and comes from a similar background as them thus creating a connection. They will also feel that he is extraordinary due to the narrative and the brand colouring and jewellery he appears in the music video.

The second paradox is that the artist must be simultaneously in video present and absent for the consumer. My artist will be present in the video as websites such as Youtube will allow my consumers to view my artist whenever they feel free. Although at the same time he will be absent as the audience will hardly see him in real life only at events.

Audience Placement

The way I am going specifically target my audience in my music video is by making my artist wearing clothing which is from of urban style and relating for consumers as this in my opinion is the main fashion right now and is more relatable than the rest.