Pre-Essay Notes

These are some notes i made prior to starting my essay. Due to the nature of how badly i have been prepared this year for my essay and unfortunately COP in general i hadn't even solidified my essay title or question. So i used this as an opportunity to brainstorm possible ideas i had for potential questions or titles. Among other things i noted down general key words or topics to discuss. Some of these might not necessarily have been included into my essay due to how i have changed my mind frequently on what areas/topics to discuss but its all important to showing the basis from where i started.

I also may have added other ones after this such as more theorists but i haven't included them here as it is just a starting record more like a rough in a sketchbook in that sense. 

·      Discuss the ways in which music acts as a social commentator

·      Discuss how music work as a social commentator and forms cultures and subcultures

·      Discuss the ways in which the medium of Music works as a social commentator and how it creates status frustration as a result of it. 

·      Discuss the ways in which music, through being a social commentator can create status frustration

·      Discuss subcultures and musical genres in relation to social reform

·      Discuss the way in which music instigated the emergence of subcultures in post second world war Britain and their role in today’s society.

·      Discuss the role of music and the subsequent subcultures in society in Britain.

·      How did the culture of the Modernists ‘Mods’ in the late 1950’s to mid 1960’s Britain influence and impact the idea of subculture British culture today?

Key words

·      Subcultures

·      Social commentary

·      Status frustration

·      Subcultural theory

·      Social reform

·      Affluence

Possible Arguments/topics to discuss

·      Are subcultures still relevant

·      What impact did music have on society?

·      The influence of Androgynous musicians and what impact that they had on society.

·      To look at the impact of music in general

·      Working class resistance

·      Structural changes

·      Music and style centred youth cultures

·      Music as a cultural resource adopted by youth culture

Genres & Subcultures

·      Mods

·      Rockers

·      Teddy boys

·      Skinheads

·      Rock n roll

·      Punk

Theorists

·      Robert K Merton

·      Matthew Arnold

·      Phil Cohen

·      Stanley Cohen

·      Cloward & Ohlin

·      Andy Bennett

·      E. Anne Kaplan

·      Theodore Adorno

·      Thomas Geyrhelter

·      Birmingham CCCS (Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies)

Culture - COP Lecture

This weeks lecture was about culture and looking into the development of sub cultures. I felt it was very important as it was offering us a potential topic for what we could look into for our COP 3 for our dissertation (oh GOD!) so i tried to make notes where i felt it was relevant to. As usual they are pretty basic notes but i feel there is a lot of good resources to utilise should i decide to delve into a topic such as this. 

What does culture represent?

- Growth as a society 
- Part of becoming civilised as a society 
- Growing better which in turn us represented through linear progress which structures our modern world 

Multiple cultures with different paths also have different trajectories. 
Culture is represented through the arts, music, painting, books, film 
like a product, something you can produce 

George Ritzer - Mcdonaldization 
Manfred B Steger - Globalization: a very short introduction 

Cultural imperialism 
- Schiller 
- Chomsky 

British Values? 
- Democracy 
- Rule of law 
- Individual Liberty 
- Mutual respect and tolerance of faiths & belief 

Not like President Trump and how our closest allies do not share the same values at this moment in time. 

Adbusters - American Corporate flag 

Adorno & Horkheimer 
- what we see on tv just teaches us to conform 

Authentic culture vs. Mass culture 
- Real
- European 
- Multi dimensional 
- Active consumption 
- Individual creation 
- Imagination 
- Negation - to refuse what our society is/isnt 
- Autonomous 

'They Live' 1988 Director John Carpenter

Platos Allegory of the cave 

Culture & civilisation tradition 

Chavs - Owen Jones 

Progress tutorial - essay and visual journal

Earlier i had my tutorial with Pete which was mainly a review of how things are going in COP especially in regards to the essay...Which while is not yet in progress its getting gradually closer and closer to the point of starting it and after todays chat i feel i do have the tools required to get going. I will probably eventually 'get going' when the easter break happens as i am finding it very hard to focus on something as important as COP when there is everything else flying about in my head. So i hope to stand by those words when the easter break comes around. 

Ive had a few chats now with Pete and they have each time helped me discuss the areas i want to address in the essay and more importantly which areas to focus in on and narrow down. As my problem at the moment and it has been for a while now is that my obstacle of not writing it basically has been because there are too many topics/areas i could base it on. 

The visual journal i believe will not be a problem as its all music related imagery so therefore i should be ok with creating illustrations in the journal. It will also be easier to do this when i have the essay and its subject nailed down. I am also excited to tie in the new techniques i have been applying in 505 particularly, collage. 

In summary i'm not too worried about the lack of COP thats been going on recently as i believe its just a case of getting on with it. Its not like i have given up or shut it out completely as i have been thinking about my theme over the past few months and making changes or having reflections on it so that that complete neglect wont happen.