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Thinking Out Loud MD 5314 Content Analysis

MD5314 Thinking Out Loud

Content analysis

I am planning to analyse the regression of listening.

The study discusses the issues of distracted listeners and how music is now being ‘deliberately created to encourage distracted audience activity’. The study also goes on to explain that listeners revert back to consumption of music in a ‘child-like’ manner, identified by Adorno as ‘quotation listening’. ‘By this he meant that, instead of listening to music and attempting to grasp an entire piece of work as a whole, the regressive listener dwelt upon the most obvious fragments of melody’.

To support this I decided to look into how the music industry is now arranged and have discovered that Adorno’s study is very accurate. The music industry appears to push and support this style of listening by providing the listener with an ability to purchase songs within an album separately. This is also shown on the website ‘Youtube’, as the site allows listeners to access playlists of albums making it very easy for the listener to skip songs that they are ‘un-familiar’ with.

Popular music theory - An introduction by Keith Negus pages 8-10 (Adorno’s children: the regression of listening).

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Thinking Out Loud MD 5314 -Task 2

Thinking Out Loud MD5314 - Task 2

Huang’s (2015) object of study is the cultural impact of music on society. Her primary research is the way that popular music reflects the culture of the present day. She proves this with the example of the song #SELFIE by the Chainsmokers. She explains that during the song there is a ‘spot-on commentary about the youth and media culture of our day.’ She then goes on to explain that this was not always the case.

Huang’s secondary research begins with a quote from Selwyn Duke in Influential Beats: The Cultural Impact of Music. The quote is - “There were times and places — in the Europe of the Middle Ages, as an example — where music might remain largely the same for hundreds of years,” This then challenges her ideas that music reflects the culture of today. Huang also begins to look into music used at a Roman Catholic church and explains that there are medieval influences in their music but continues to be used in the present day.

Huang completes her section in the article with explaining that music and culture flow together and although some music does reflect only on the culture of today, we must ensure that we are intentional in the cultures that we create and cultivate with our music.

Belinda Huang Aug 24, 2015 - What Kind of Impact Does Our Music Really Make on Society?- Cultural Impact Section.

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Thinking Out Loud MD 5314 - Task 1

Thinking Out Loud MD5314 - Task 1

The text that I have chosen to analyse is Lover of the Light by Mumford and Sons.The video is about a blind man that makes the decision to leave his house by himself for the very first time.

I believe that the target audience is for people that enjoy cinematic music videos and those that are emotionally intelligent. The message of the video can only be discovered through what one observes through watching intently. Key parts of the story unfold at the beginning and can be missed easily. This means that the track ‘Lover of the Light’ stretches beyond only folk music fans and to a larger audience.

The song ‘Lover of the Light’ is based on traditional folk music, but by using modern day production techniques they increase the target audience and marketability. The track features a strong vocal line that appears to have been recorded closely to purposefully push the vocal forward and, in the beginning, be the main focus of the song. The track also uses elements of synthesiser in the beginning and mid-section to build tension. It appears that by evaluating the track, majority of the instrumentation is live bar the synthesisers. Overall the tack holds a very clean and polished sound and hits the modern day production criteria whilst still abiding to a traditional folk feel.

In an interview with the directors of the music video, Idris Elba and Dan Cadan, they explain that their aim was to not immediately show that the lead character is blind but to show that he is ‘very perceptive and in touch with something’. This adds to the beauty and mystery of the video, captivating and hooking the audience to want to learn more about the character. This is successful in interesting the audience and bringing them into the story. The song itself brings out a separate message in the video, portraying that the lead character is learning by trial and error and that he has put himself in a situation that will benefit him in the end, but he may fall at certain hurdles.