Tutorial targets review

All of the following research can be found on my Critical Investigation page. All of the targets have been completed and are therefore Green.

proposal http://vandnaunit4.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/critical-investigation-proposal.html

1) Research Mulvey- Male gaze- The Male Gaze, developed by feminist Laura Mulvey describes how the audience or viewer is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male. Mulvey believes that women should enjoy the attention of attracting the gaze, and put themselves in positions to be looked at. The concept of ‘the gaze’ is one that deals with how an audience views the people/person presented. Mulvey states that in film women are typically the objects of gaze because the control of the camera comes from factors such as the as the assumption of heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film genres.

2) Re-think hypothesis (prediction of answer)- Miley Cyrus is doing what 'sells' in the music industry and her provocative image and attitude is what attracts audiences and fans. It tells us that society have an influence on Miley as she catches audiences attention and their needs influence her decisions. Miley's reinvention tells us that women in the media have to sell themselves as 'sex sells', otherwise they would not be as successful as they are.

3) Linked production idea- Music video

4) Ideology 'pornification of pop' (Guardian article)-  The pornification of pop looks at how celebrities and in particular women are portraying themselves in order to sexually appeal to audiences. The articles below look at different issues related to pornification of pop.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/dec/01/feminists-pornification-of-women
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/07/miley-cyrus-music-business-women-sinead-oconnor
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/10/videos-miley-cyrus-rihanna-ratings

5) Daily Mail- examples of moral panic, negative influence on young people-  The definition for moral panic is an instance of public anxiety or alarm in response to a problem regarded as threatening the moral standards of society. Moral panic can have negative influences on young audiences. Below are some examples from The Daily Mail and the effects that the internet can have on young audiences. There is also an example from the London Riots.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2586019/Middle-class-parents-stop-panicking-internet-let-children-explore-says-leading-psychologist.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2629866/Heavy-web-use-harms-childs-mental-health-Every-hour-raises-risk-warns-watchdog.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2027459/UK-riots-Moral-panic-making-judges-impose-overly-harsh-sentences.html

Miley shocked the media when her new haircut came with a new personality. After being in the media for 8 years, Miley recently became well known for her 'twerking' which was a dance to portray a message to audiences that she is now grown up. Parents were angry were her new image, however the attention encouraged her to shock the media even more.

6) SHEP- social: how does the video effect society and desensitisation, historical: compare with past, previous controversies by female pop stars and histroy of music video, economic- decline of music industry (piracy)

Social:

• Miley is sociable with her fans/audience. She has a range of social networking sites e.g. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram etc
• The 'Wrecking Ball' video caused a lot of controversy due to Miley's nudity content
• Miley currently has 18,634,987 followers on Twitter and gains an average of 3,647 new followers a day. This shows her vast majority of fans
• The video effected parents as well as young girls as parent wanted to close down her Bangerz tour

Historic:

• Rihanna has also caused controversy in the past,http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/13/mel-c-rihanna-daughter
• Parents have called Nicki Minaj's Anaconda video 'vile' http://www.today.com/allday/10-18-10-19-make-difference-day-pinkpower-more-1D80224843
• Britney Spears appeared on stage wearing a revealing outfit for a performance at the VMA'a in 2000 with a real live snake. The year before she caused controversy when at the age of 18 she skipped around on stage in a nude coloured outfit for a medley of hits. 

Economic:

• Miley's new worth is $150 million
• The first week of release for 'Wrecking Ball' sold 90,000 downloads in the US
• By the fourth week of release, 'Wrecking Ball' made 477,000 digital sales, it also was number 1 on the Hot 100 and Billboard charts
• The music industry has declined by 3% since 2000, research shows http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/06/05/music-industry-declined-3-since-2000-research-shows
• Billboard shows that the overall for the full year 2013, digital track sales fell 5.7% from 1.34 billion units to 1.26 billion units while digital album sales fell 0.1% to 117.6 million units from the previous year’s total of 117.7 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-mobile/5855162/digital-music-sales-decrease-for-first-time-in-2013
• Rockitboy research shows the music industry has been hard hit since 1999 when sales began to plummet. 2009 sales were less than sales in 1973. Ouch. The music industry blames this decline largely on Napster and subsequent sites that allowed for illegal downloading of music over the internet. However, global recorded music revenues in 2012 increased for the first time since 1999, up 0.3% to $16.5 billion. Of that total, $5.6 billion was a direct result of digital downloads purchased on platforms such as iTunes or streaming generated revenue from services like Spotify http://rockitboy.com/blogs/music-industry-sales-piracy-and-illegal-downloads-better-or-same/#sthash.hOIM8ptT.dpuf

Political:

• Though her Christianity and country roots seem to place her squarely in the conservative category, her interest in environmentalism, gay rights, and Occupy Wall Street all point to a sleeping liberalism
• Miley considers herself to be a Feminist
• Miley quotes: "I feel like I'm one of the biggest feminists in the world because I tell women to not be scared of anything.'' ''For me, it's not even that in a feminist. I'm for anybody. I'm for everybody, for everything. I don't care what you wanna do in your life, or who you wanna be with, who you wanna love, who you wanna look like."

7) Post-feminist?- Post-feminism connotes the belief that feminism has succeeded in it's goal to ameliorate sexism and therefore make males and females more equal. Post-feminism occurred after the period of the feminist movement in the 1970's and embodied the belief that 'a post-feminist household in which both partners share all tasks equally.' Moreover, it is stated that post-feminists are passionate about motherhood and their careers, showing they still embody their maternal instincts whilst building success for themselves at the same time. Miley Cyrus could be interpreted as a post-feminist as she is extremely focused on her career while balancing family time as she has also worked in the acting/music industry with her famous father in the past. Miley is 21 years old and does not have any children yet which allows her to be more focused on her career.

8) Academic texts- representation in the music video- Miley Cyrus's music videos have connotations and denotations that have to do with the lyrics and video of the song. For example in 'wrecking ball', she states 'you wrecked me'. The connotation of this would be that she is giving this message out to someone, perhaps a past lover. Which in fact seemed like was to her ex fiance Liam Hensworth, although she denied it during interviews. However, the denotation of the video is her breaking walls and knocking down buildings using a bulldozer. In this particular video there are close ups shown of Miley face crying at the start of the video to emphasise her emotion and feeling empowering the song. She is wearing little clothing (white underwear) which could connote her innocence in the song. She uses props such as a hammer to knock over building and a wrecking ball, which is also the title of the song. The setting is significant as it represents the lyrics to the song. Also, the mise-en-scene in the music video is all relevant to the song, emphasising the lyrics and creating more feeling for the audience. The soundtrack is the main focus of the song and helps Miley get her message across. The iconography in the video help bring across emotion. For example, Miley crying shows the audience that she is sad and the song will be about a topic that has affected her. The fact that the video uses slow motion allows Miley's feelings to be emphasised and the lyrics match the pace. For example when she is singing slowly the pace is very mellow, however speeds up when she starts to express anger/hurt. Also, there are a range of camera angles used including close ups, long shots, medium shots, tracking, panning and low and high angles. These are all used to show a different perspective to the music video.