David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett’s theory of identity suggests that we are now living in a world where the meaning of gender is increasingly open. 

To what extent do you agree with this hypothesis in relation to print advertisements in the UK?

Advertising in the modern day, while having views of gender roles move in a better direction, have not strayed far from the stereotypical gender roles perceived by society. Although men are no longer expected to be tough, masculine money earners, and women to be weak, pretty house-wives, these gender roles can be subtly connoted within modern advertisements.

Advertisements in the past would be plastered with ideas about promoting being skinny, pretty, and looking perfect. These old advertisements consisted of women playing the role of the ‘house-wife’ and being undeniably gorgeous, with men fawning over them. The older advertisements also heavily promoted the concept of being skinny through the use of the two advertisements shown below. The first one, showing three images of a woman putting on jeans connotates the idea that her body is the only acceptable type, and anything else is deemed to be unflattering. The words that are used, ‘You can do it. We can help.’, also connotate ideas that if you look like anything other than the woman shown, you are not accepted by society. The second advertisement shown here also implies the idea that Pepsi wants to decrease the population of people who don’t fit into their ideal body type, by using the words ‘Help reduce the population.’ Furthermore, Pepsi’s use of ‘There’s only one calorie in a can.’ at the bottom of each advert suggests that this is what they should be drinking to lose weight and look like the skinny girls they are promoting, as the fact that there is ‘only one calorie in a can’ makes it seem healthier. These adverts help Pepsi to establish an idea that drinking Diet Pepsi will help you to lose weight and look more desirable to the male eye. 

Modern day advertisements, although more open to blurring the stereotypical gender roles, still connote ideas about the perfect looking woman. These advertisements tend to use images of scantily-clad women as both sex appeal and role models for other women. One advertisement in particular, promoting ‘the new skinny can’ presents a young, tanned, pretty woman, drinking this Diet Pepsi. The skinny can is centred directly in front of her, indicating the idea that the skinny can represents her body, which further connotes an ideal of society’s most acceptable body type and her being skinny. Similarly, this Coca-Cola advert has also not strayed away from the familiar womanizing stereotype, by showing another young woman as the focus rather than the product. Both of these advertisements present young, pretty women as the main focus of the advert, accentuating their best features to make them look gorgeous and skinny, and appealing both as role models and the male gaze.

Although these modern advertisements are much subtler than the older ones, the same intention is presented within each different one. I believe that although the world has become a place where gender has become more open, it still hasn’t gotten to a place where women are no longer sexualised or put down for not being society’s acceptable weight.

Roland Barthes: Semiotics

Roland Barthes was one of the earliest theorists of culture. His work was the first ideas of structure and signification that supports the cultural studies and critical theory today. Semiotics is the study of signs; these signs often refer to something which conveys a meaning. 

Barthes mainly followed Saussure’s approach, which was the study of signs and sign using behaviour. Barthes’ most important theme was avoiding the confusion of culture with nature, as well as being careful with how he used words and other signs. A common trait of Bathes' style, is the systematisation of his work, in which he draws up schemes to categorise the different signs and codes. With this approach, the distinction between the signifier and the signified is crucial. The signifier is the signs physical form, while the signified is the meaning that the sign expresses. However, Barthes does not mechanically apply Saussure’s theory, and largely replaces Saussure’s term ‘arbitrary’ with the term ‘motivated’. Most signs have strong enough connotations to be partly ‘motivated’, and when they are used, they refer back to previous conventional uses. 

The Hermeneutic code refers to an element of a text that is not fully explained, and becomes a mystery to the reader, while the Proairetic code builds up tension through referring to an action or event that indicates something else is going to happen, working as a pair to develop the story’s tension and to keep the reader interested. The Semantic code refers to connotations within the story that give an additional meaning over the basic detonative meaning of the word. The Symbolic code acts as a wider level of the Sematic code, by organising semantic meanings into a broader and deeper set of meanings. The Cultural code refers to an external body of knowledge, such as scientific, historical, and cultural knowledge.

Ya Mama by Fatboy Slim

Ya Mama - Fatboy Slim

Fatboy Slim, also known as Norman Cook, is an English DJ, musician, multi-instrumentalist and record producer / mixer. He grew up in Surry, and later moved to Brighton to study for a degree, which is where he began to DJ.

Fatboy Slim doesn't take music videos very seriously, and tends to leave ideas up to the producer. He first began making them when he was told he had to, in order to make money as he needed physical sales of his songs to be made due to steaming not being a thing then. The music video for 'Ya Mama' was produced by a group of filmmakers called Traktor, who came up with the idea and even shot the video is the Carriacou Island, West Indies without Fatboy Slim actually being there. In the music video, the main character plays a cassette tape of the song 'Ya Mama' and starts unwillingly dancing, as if he was possessed by the music. He then takes two other characters to a market with the idea of charging people to listen to the song and experience the same uncontrollable movements they had. Even though Fatboy Slim had no input in the video idea, the concept of charging people to listen to the song and dance uncontrollably as if they had been possessed by the music, could link to how he is a DJ as they are known for charging people to go clubs and dance to their music.

The song itself contains various samples. The guitar riffs are from 'The Kettle' by Colosseum, the "Push the tempo" vocals are taken from 'Let the Rhythm Pump' by Doug Lazy, the "Shake what ya mama gave ya" vocals are sampled from 'Shake Whatcha Mama Gave Ya' by Stik E & The Hoodz, and finally the majority of the track was taken from 'Block rocking' Bets' by The Chemical Brothers.

Key Words

In the video 'Unfinished Sympathy' by Massive Attack, why would you describe the mise-en-scene as naturalistic? Why would you then describe the mise-en-scene in Fatboy Slim's 'Ya Mama' as less naturalistic? 

Naturalistic mise-en-scene is a realistic style of mise-en-scene that appears natural and recognisable to viewers as opposed to a theatrical style. 

In 'Unfinished Sympathy' by Massive Attack, naturalistic mise-en-scene is shown through the use of the continuous tracking shot and natural lighting. The video was filmed in the streets of LA, showing a diverse range of people in the background, representing the realistic street life. This helps the music video to portray the seriousness of the band, and the diversity of people living in LA in the 90's. This further shows how realistic the video seems by making it seem like they haven't even made a video. In 'Ya Mama' by Fatboy Slim, a less naturalistic mise-en-scene is portrayed through the cassette player and Tom and Jerry playing at the beginning. This gives the video an 80's feel, however these elements could have been used to show how dumbed down the society they're living in is, which in turn gives it a less naturalistic feel as "Unfinished Sympathy' does. This music video also sees to look very staged and story-like which again, causing it to seem less naturalistic.

In the video 'Ya Mama' by Fatboy Slim why would you describe the narrative as linear? Why would you not describe the narrative in 'Unfinished Sympathy' by Massive Attack as linear? 

Linear narrative is where stories are presented in a logical manner by showing you what happens from one point in time to the next without the use of flashbacks or other types of disruptions.  

The video for 'Ya Mama' by Fatboy Slim uses a linear narrative as it shows the story of the main character progressing from listening to his cassette and causing chaos in his home, to bringing it to the market and causing even more chaos, and then to the police station and again causing more chaos. Whereas in "Unfinished Sympathy' by Massive Attack, the video is based on a woman walking through the streets of LA, and although she is progressing in terms of walking further down the street, there is no storyline that takes place throughout the course of the video.

At what point in 'Ya Mama' is there a narrative disruption? Explain the event and how this disrupts the equilibrium of the scene.

Narrative disruption begins in 'Ya Mama' when the song starts playing and the once calm scene changes into chaos. This disrupts the equilibrium of the scene as it goes from the main character painting ornaments and listening to Tom and Jerry to the music beginning and the main character acting like he was possessed by the music. 

In Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy', what do you see in the video that implies a wold of different stories?

Throughout the entire 'Unfinished Sympathy' music video, as the woman walks down the street, there is a range of characters that are seen behind her. Each of these people all have different stories that are shown throughout the course of the video. These people include a Native American, gangs with young children who have toy guns, and a paraplegic man riding down the street on a skateboard. 

Dry Your Eyes film

Dry Your Eyes

Media Terminology

Media Terminology

Social Realism

The realistic depiction of contemporary life, as means of a social or political comment.

Postmodernism

The mixing of different styles to create parody's, which mock existing material. This is usually an element of pop culture. 

Intertextuality

A literary discourse strategy used by writers in novels, poetry, theatre, and non-written texts.

Narrative

The way the different elements in a story are organised to make a meaningful story.

Diegesis 

The telling of a story by a narrator who summarizes events in the plot and comments on the conversations, thoughts, etc. of the characters.

Ideology

A system of ideas and ideals, usually ones which form the basis of economic or political theories and policies.

Oppositional reading

Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack

Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack

Massive attack is an English Trip Hop group which formed in 1988, in Bristol. The group is made up of 3 members, who are Robert Del Naja (3D), Grant Marshall (Daddy G) and Andy Vowles (Mushroom). they have released five studio albums, that have sold over 11 million copies worldwide. This particular song is from their first album ‘Blue Lines’, which was released in 1991. They first met when they were a part of 'The Wild Bunch', where Daddy G and mushroom were DJs, and 3D was an artist / rapper. Once they had changed their name to ‘Massive Attack’, the group decided to temporarily shorten their name to 'Massive' whilst the first Gulf war was going on due to the use the work 'Attack' being deemed unacceptable and would have been seen as disrespectful.

Shara Nelson, who sang Massive Attack's 'Safe From Harm', also sang 'Unfinished Sympathy'. This song is original and different for the Trip Hop genre, featuring various orchestral elements, a string section, and numerous layers of vocals. The song title 'Unfinished Sympathy' could be a play on the term 'unfinished symphony' which would explain the string and orchestral elements included throughout the song. The use of the word 'unfinished' could provoke a sense of feeling incomplete. The lines 'how can you have a day without a night' and 'you're the book that I have opened' makes you think that the relationship could have been very one-sided and that although the relationship consisted of two people, she was the one who was more devoted to it. I think that the lyrics also hint at rejection through the line 'the curiousness of your potential kiss', which seems to highlight how she has feeling for another person but they don't feel the same way back. Although the true emotion of the song isn’t strongly portrayed throughout the video, the final line of the song, 'I'm missing every part', the lyrics seem to be helping the whole song come together and make it known that heartbreak is the overall message within the song.

The music video is filmed in one continuous tracking shot, showing the singer of the song, Shara Nelson, walking down the street, with the use of the tracking shot making it feel like you are walking down the street with her. As Nelson is shown walking, her pace matches with the beat of the song itself, which helps to tie everything together nicely. By using a continuous shot rather than having multiple shots, the audience is able to have a wide view of the many different types of people that are shown on the street. The video is set on the street, using natural light, making the street life represented in the video more realistic. There is little to no editing used in this video, which again helps to maintain the realistic view of street life. Nelson is wearing all black in the video with minimal makeup on, which not only helps you to focus on the background rather than the foreground, but the black dress could also emphasise the lyrics which focus on her heart break. She also walks down the street like she is oblivious to everything going on around her, which could be an emphasis on her heart break and that that's all she can think about. Alternatively, it could also mean that she is so used to seeing these things on a daily basis that she is no longer fazed by anything she sees. At the beginning of the video, we are shown gang standing around which then cuts to a child shooting a toy gun towards the camera. This could symbolise that the child still has his innocence with having the toy, but it is shown that he is being corrupted by the use of his clothing, the fact that his toy is a gun, and that it cuts to him after a gang was shown. 

During the video, it is mainly non-diegetic sound that is heard through the song playing. However, at the beginning before the song starts, there is diegetic sound showed in the form of a dog barking and the Chinese stress balls, and then cars at the end when Nelson walks around the corner. This could have been done so that even though the song would be the main focus of the video, they have kept street life included by editing in these diegetic sounds to again make the video seem more realistic.