Media MatasL Course

Background and historical contexts Read  this excellent analysis from The Conversation website of the impact Ghost Town had both musically and visually . Answer the following questions 1)  Why does the writer link the song to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition? Starting with a Hammond organ’s six ascending notes before a mournful flute solo, it paints a bleak aural and lyrical landscape. Written in E♭, more attuned to “mood music”, with nods to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition, it reflects and engenders anxiety. 2) What subcultures did 2 Tone emerge from in the late 1970s? 2 Tone had emerged stylistically from the Mod and Punk subcultures and its musical roots and the people in it, audiences and bands, were both black and white. Ska and the related Jamaican Rocksteady were its musical foundations, sharpened further by punk attitude and anger. It was this anger that Dammers articulated in “Ghost Town”, galvanised both what he had seen on tour around th...

  Wider reading on race and Old Town Road Read  this W Magazine deep dive on the Yeehaw agenda  and answer the following questions:  1) What are the visual cues the article lists as linked to the western genre?  cowboy hats, cow prints, rhinestones, and fringed suede jackets, to name a few—are certainly not limited to the likes of  Kacey Musgraves  or John Wayne.  2) How did the Yeehaw agenda come about?  In September 2018, the trend of black pop-culture figures wearing cowboy garb was dubbed the “Yeehaw Agenda” by  Bri Malandro , a Texas-based pop-culture archivist. Her Instagram account, also called @theyeehawagenda, functions as both an archive and celebration of black cowboy aesthetics in popular culture. It’s a treasure trove: You can find anyone from  Beyoncé  in her Destiny’s Child days wearing a cowboy hat to Bernie Mac in a bolo tie. 3) Why has it been suggested that the black cowboy has been 'erased from American cult...

Background and cultural contexts Read  this Vox feature and podcast transcript on Lil Nas X and Old Town Road . Make sure you read the whole thing - including the podcast transcript - then answer the following questions:  1) What is the big debate regarding Old Town Road and genre? Whether or not Old town road should be considered a country song/a part of the genre 2) What do you learn about the background of Lil Nas X and Old Town Road from the podcast transcript? He is a 20-year-old rapper from Atlanta. Technically his birth name is Montero Hill, but he has been calling himself “Lil Nas X” for several years now. And last year he joined Sound Cloud, as many people do. And by the end of the year in December he released a song called “Old Town Road.” He bought a beat that had this sort of country-sounding instrumental to it. And he said he was living at home feeling very lonely, feeling like a lonely cowboy, and he decided to pair that feeling with this sort of twangy beat that...

 1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential). WWW: This is a superb assessment showing excellent knowledge of terminology and CSP's. Keep up the outstanding work.  EBI: Handwriting - I had to re-read quite a few sentences and we cant be sure that the examiner will take the time in the real thing. In Q2, a little more focus on genre needed for a top level and perhaps more theory too. Postmodernism could have touched on or more hegemony. 2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment (even if you got full marks for the question). 1. N/A 2. genres are dynamic and change to represent the concerns of the society which produces them 3) The first question demanded a response using postmodern terminology. Write a definition here of the three main terms: Bricolage:  The juxtaposing of old and new text...