MUSC 285 Topics in the Critical Study of Music

Since its emergence in the late 1970s the music video has become the dominant means of advertising popular music and musicians as well as one of the most influential multimedia genres in history.  Music videos have affected aesthetic style in a wide range of film and television genres introducing experimental and avant-garde techniques to a mass audience.  Because most music videos last only a few minutes it is difficult to make sense of their often-conflicting images sounds and messages.  This course challenges participants to read music videos as texts by engaging with their visual and auditory materials.  We will explore how the gender race and class of video participants shapes meaning as well as how pacing and editing contribute to (or detract from) a narrative flow. We will also consider the music video in relation to notions of stardom and celebrity and will speculate on the future of the music video amid drastic changes in the production and marketing of media. The second portion of the course applies these analytical skills to a wide variety of media including video games live concert films film and television music placements television title sequences and end credits user generated content YouTube remixes and more.