10 - Visual Music Identity + Technology in 1980s Flashcards
Where did Michael Jackson start? What style? What did they bring with the music to adults and to teens?
the jackson five!!!
Motown style
adults: maturity
teens: visceral excitement!
How did the beginning of MJs solo career go? Who helped MJ to gain success and what did they do together to create this success?
- first releases very successful like jackson 5
- took off properly in 1970s! (height of disco era)
who: Quincy Jones
helped demonstrate Jackson as mature artist able to appeal to dancers and top 40 radio programmers alike
(made MJ almost the connector between disco and new pop music post-disco in 1978)
What things made the Thriller album significant? What did this allow jackson to do?
- international phenomenon breaking all sales records (45 million to date)
- it synthesized existing genres/styles: some songs soulful (the girl is mine), others slick funk-disco (billie jean), others funky heavy metal (beat it)
=> used his dynamism as artist to propel the album out with all this variety
allowed him to TRANSCEND boundaries between audiences (esp those that experts believed were unassailable)
= rapprochement between white rock and dance music
What was another key to Michael Jackson’s success that he should have been more recongized for? Why?
His “mini-films” aka music videos!
why: because he created them as if his songs were soundrtacks to small narratives, demonstrating his abilites as a performer rather than just a musician (moonwalk also significant visual aspect)
= recontextualized the concept of movies and of music
How did Michael Jackson’s albums following THriller go?
had trouble matching the success, seemed like MJ was repeating himself or groping for new ideas unsiccessfully
How does identity play into MJ?
- jacksons physicla transformation gave new inflection to the concept of crossover
- must consider the black identity and whether he sold out by leaving motown and leaving jackson five in order to appeal to everyone aka white people?
= is rejecting ones culture an act of selling out, is it necessary to do it to get power and appeal to those in power?
Who was another artist who exploited the potential of music video? Why was this person even more distinct from MJ?
Madonna!
She wasnt even that amazing of a singer, but relied instead on creative visual self-presentation, choreographuy, and dancing
Where did Madonna’s early songs find success? What phenomenon did this draw on?
Dance clubs! even more than on radio, before her videos
phenomenon: disco!
What did Madonna;s early videos project? What did she do with her identity?
Irony! she played on cliches from movies
ex: marilyn monroe type character in Material Girl
identity: she embraced it! especially the sequality aspect and used it to define herself = take ownership
How did Madonna maintain media interest in her career? Example that created interesting social commentary? What debate did this create?
manipulating her image
ex: flaunt sexuality while presenting herself as being in control (conscious choice to flaunt her sexuality)
–> resulted in debate on whether she was new form of feminism or a rejection of feminism
Where did Madonna take her general style from? What quesion does this highlight? What was her main skill? Where did she learn this?
style: mix of urban blacks, hispanics, and her own middle class italian american family
–> is she borrowing to vauilt her own career? or recognizing/honouring/elevating those cultures/groups
skill: in dance (that sensual language of the body)
–> learned fom gay man in michigan
When were Bruce Springsteens first albums and what did people call him at the time? When did his popularity come? What did his early success rely on?
first albums = 1973 and 1975
people called him latest in a series of new dylans (like Bob Dylan)
later: popularity came in 1980s with video era
early success: on epic length peformances AND early recordings with large breadth of style
What were the subjects of Bruce SPringsteen’s songs? Who is this similar to?
= about working class people stuck in dead end lives BUT also about celebratory rocking n rolling
similar to Woody Guthrie = create music relatable for audience
Why were many people so hpapt about springsteens music?
a yearing for a return to rock’s roots! kinda retro, nostalgic
(–> potentially also a result of criticisms of punk beginning)
How did Springsteen connect with politics in later albums?
Nebraska album was recorded at home and VERY different than first album (born in the USA)
political = used US flag lots, gave ambiguous “populism” (for everyone) messge that could be appropriated by many people, evne those whose message he didnt agree with
