Intentions Statement

My linked production will be a 4 paged production piece focused on print. I intend to create 2 flyers and an album cover (front and back). My album cover will be split in half with two different pictures of the same person allowing the viewers to see and understand the split personality of a teenager that listens to UK grime. Then the 2 flyers will demonstrate and explain how UK grime has both negative and positive influence upon teenagers because of the things they do.

My linked production piece for my album cover will conform to the codes and conventions of any normal album cover, however it will mainly focus on the design, layout and meaning from artist T.I’s album cover “T.I vs. T.I.P”. Therefore the left side of the album will be of a teenager who listens to grime wearing a suit inside a library connoting how UK grime doesn’t affect teens, and they still can behave in a positive way. Moreover the right side of the album will be the opposite and will be of a teenager who also listens to grime however wearing typical teenage clothes (Jeans, Hoodie, Hat and Jewellery) with a fence and rubbish bins in the background connoting how UK grime does affect teens in a negative way. Therefore the narrative of the album cover will be subvert and support my critical investigation since in my research I looked into both.

For my 2 flyers I will need two main characters (1 for each) because one flyer is going to subvert my critical investigation and support the right side of my album cover by showing how UK grime music affects teenagers in a negative way. Therefore I am going to create my flyer based upon a UK rave that is being organized by underground artist. This means the main image should be of a typical underground artist which I will create myself, and also all the writing in my flyer should be very unprofessional showing the underground side of UK grime.

Furthermore the second leaflet is going to support my critical investigation by maintaining the left side of my album by showing reasons how UK grime has a positive influence on teens. The content of this leaflet will be promoting a mainstream music event to show the sort of things mainstream artist do that wouldn’t influence teens into doing anything bad. A music event/concert is something every famous artist do

 

Critical Investigation essay (1st draft)

An investigation into how UK grime music influences and has an impact on teenagers

Over the years the definition of UK grime music has changed, or in other words different classes now make their own definition based on stereotypical images they see for this music scene. Therefore emerged on what people think about grime music will give different ideas of the impact that this genre will have on teens. UK grime music appeared in the early 2000s with artist such as Wiley, Kano and Skepta and is primarily a development of UK garage and hip hop. This genre is portrayed as being male dominated and people argue this is the main reason why it may affect male teenagers in the wrong way. During all my research I came across the difference between ‘Underground’ and ‘Mainstream’ music. The difference between the two is that ‘Underground’ music is when artist make street videos by themselves with no pay but just to get views whereas ‘Mainstream’ music is more professional since the artist that turn ‘Mainstream’ are signed to a record label and therefore have their support.

UK grime has been seen to have a positive influence upon teenagers. Through my research I have found that even in their own music they try to do something other than just talking about themselves. For example a very recent released song called ‘Teardrop’ by my three main focused artists (Chipmunk, Tinchy and Wretch32), collaborated with other famous artist across different genres to promote ‘Children in need’. “100%, straight A’s, education, university, job prospects and lost objects”. This is one of the artist lyrics from the song showing the expansion of their own music and how they are more involved in other things such as ‘Children in need’ primarily because they have become ‘Mainstream’. ‘Children in need’ is an annual British charity appeal organized by the BBC and is one the three high profile British telephons. This music video was uploaded by ‘The Collective’ on YouTube and connotes that ex ‘Underground’ grime artist are now making music to benefit others and giving back rather than just making music about themselves. ‘Children in need’ and the BBC are targeted at a wide variety of audiences because it appeals to nearly everyone who wants to develop poverty. Therefore these artists getting involved by dealing with poverty makes teenagers want to do so as well because they will be able to relate to them and have some sort of comfort seeing that famous grime artist are doing the same thing as them. Moreover this links with the point of these artists portraying UK grime music in a positive way because it shows their involvement in “Giving back to your community”. According to the uses and gratifications theory teenagers may consume UK grime music for social interaction and of course entertainment. “After years on the underground Tinie Tempah has signed a major label deal and is heading straight to the top of the charts”. The fact that they mentioned underground music on the MTV music section of the website makes teenagers feel that they can talk and act upon this since even Tinie Tempah has made it big and he was once an underground artist.

Furthermore, during my research I also found that many grime artists do several things apart from just their music, which may have a huge influence on teens in a encouraging way. For example famous artist Chipmunk posted his GSCE results on his twitter connoting that he himself got really good GCSE’s while doing his music at the same time, and this may affect some teenage fans because they will begin to think that if Chipmunk has an education even though he already has a career, they should most defiantly do the same since education is the way forward. It may also connote that having an education is a cool thing to do which teens will love. Also since twitter is a social networking site where you can ‘tweet’ literally anyone including celebrities, it enables teenage fans to ask questions about his results and anything else they want to know. Linking in another example from my research where Chipmunk was found on BBC radio 1 where he done an interview giving his very own exam tips to the viewers and his teenage fans currently taking exams. Radio 1 is targeted at 16 – 24 year olds and therefore many teenagers would watch this video or here it on the radio because radio 1 is the only radio show which attracts teens because of their humor during interviews they do. “Until you have a career set out, do not stop your education”. This is a quote from Chipmunks interview and it will get teenagers to realize that education is the key to success, and hearing this from someone who they may see as a role model will affect them in a positive way even more as they may be now more slightly motivated after hearing it from a famous person. Marxist’s theory links in with my critical investigation on this point because his theory states that society was divided into hierarchy of classes with more power at the top (Middle class) and less power at the bottom (Working class), and that we all want the dominant ideologies that we see in the media. For example all these UK grime artists that I am focusing on have certain things in their videos that we would all probably want (Sports cars, expensive jewellery etc). Hence looking at these artists in a positive based on Marxist’s theory you could say how they are representing the dominant ideology of being successful. Meaning we all want to be successful and these artists are representing success through their videos stating that achievements don’t only come from music. In addition there are several interviews that all these artist do where they talk about their music life and things they’ve been getting up to and what they also intend to do based on their music. “Two weeks after you had that tattoo you were stabbed”. This quote from interview just shows how in these interviews they basically talk about memorable and emotional moments of their lives, and the fact that they actually tell us these stories on national TV connotes that grime are trying to be open and not hide anything which shows class and positivity. Lastly there is a radio show ‘Westwood TV’ which is produced by the BBC and targeted at teenagers because on the show they get several grime artist from across the UK to come and do a ‘freestyle’ which is something that grime music is known for. This connotes how underground artist are trying to do something other than just make street/hood videos by coming on a radio show to advertise their talent. However my point is that recently Tim Westwood (The DJ) also now does interviews similar to SBTV, but the one thing this radio show does different which portrays UK grime music in a positive way is that they also get famous American rapper such as Drake, Tyga and Lil Wayne to do freestyle or an interview. Thus this connotes that because ‘Westwood TV’ is known for grime freestyles, now that American artist are keen in getting involved shows how UK grime is mixing in with American rap which bring me back to the point of changing from underground and trying to do the same things as American artist which therefore wouldn’t be seen as UK grime being a unconstructive genre.

However arguing the Marxism theory about dominant ideology, you could say that UK grime music represent success in the wrong ways and this goes to mainly the ‘Mainstream’ side of the genre (saying that even ‘Mainstream’ music may affect teenagers in the wrong way). They represent success in the wrong ways because you may see a successful business man that doesn’t wear any rich jewellery, and that doesn’t directly mean he isn’t successful. Nonetheless these artist show that to be successful you have to wear and have such things but in reality to wear big chains and have sports cars is only conventional for grime artist and not any other successful people like a business person. Moving onto research that I found on how UK grime music has a negative effect and influence on teenagers is mainly based on the theme of ‘Underground’ UK grime music. ‘Underground’ music is known as a music genre which creates a culture “Where killing is almost a fashion accessory”. This was said by former British Labour party politician Kim Howells. This belief/idea is basically about the stereotypical view upon teenagers and therefore it is natural for a politician to state something along these lines. Also if an MP is declaring things like that it could easily get into the media which many people believe facts come from and would also begin to think UK grime music is a terrible music genre which is influencing and effecting teenagers in the wrong way.

Subsequently, UK grime music is also seen as affecting teenagers in an unhelpful way due to the shutdown of Grime daily. Grime daily was built from the heart of the UK grime music scene and is targeted at young people (teenagers). The recent debates and issues that has occurred is that grime daily got shutdown for “Violating community guidelines” when underground artist Scorcher had a knife involved in one of his music videos which was seen to others that grime daily is promoting knife crime for young people. Although someone may argue that this wasn’t the first UK grime underground video to have a knife in it, therefore if it didn’t persuade teenagers in the past it shouldn’t do so now. However it was said on a grime daily blog about the shutdown which I found in my research that “With the percentage of teenage crime increasing over the years it was seen as if underground music was making matters worse and promoting knife crime to teenagers even if it wasn’t intentional”. Thus it was suggested that the facts about grime daily is “The title suggest one thing and their actions another”, meaning that the masthead ‘Grime daily’ denotes strictly UK grime music but in reality they do much more than that by adding things such as “Crep checks, car checks and also come grime with me which is their own version of come dine with me”. All these things alongside with the video including a knife shows how underground music isn’t really doing something constructive therefore they are having to do other things which ended up getting the whole business shutdown. “The amount of commercial rappers that YouTube still proudly hosts and profits from targeted advertising. People celebrating violence, pimping, gun crime and drug dealing is certainly nothing new to YouTube, and it only seems to become a problem if you’re not able to give them money at the same time”. This quote is from a website called ‘Socialist revolution’ which mainly focuses on breaking news that will attract teens. Dan Edwards (Writer of the article) counter argues the shutdown of grime daily and states his reasons why underground grime music doesn’t effect and influence teenagers in a negative way and more importantly if it does, UK underground grime music isn’t the only genre that has knives etc in the videos.

In conclusion UK grime music has its pros and cons from both sides of the genre ‘Underground’ and ‘Mainstream’. This is essential due to the amount of stereotypical views and criticism that teenagers and grime music gets. I would say that UK grime music is a genre only for the UK which is why I think it is successful towards teens. The fact that ‘grime’ is only based in the UK and isn’t a worldwide genre, it gives it more disapproval because people would stereotype towards it however in reality only the UK teenagers and fans on UK grime music would understand the actual definition on it.  

Bibliography

Websites

·         http://www.grimescene.co.uk/grime/ 

·         http://spifftv.com/ 

·         http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/chipmunk/118662-chipmunk-to-sign-with-major 

·         http://wearesme.co.uk/2011/08/21/news-video-sbtv-founder-jamal-edwards-stars-in-new-google-chrome-advert/

·         http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-13608668

·         http://www.iamchipmunk.com/

·         http://www.starinthehood.net/lookbook.html (Star in the hood website - Tinchy Stryders clothing line)

·         http://sbtv.co.uk/

Magazines:

·         Flavour magazine (page 21)

·         Heat magazine (front page about x factor judges)

Moving images:

·         SBTV/Westwood/BBC breakfast/soccer AM/This morning video interviews.

·         Topboy/Shank

·         Teardrop music video

·         BBC 1 radio videos on YouTube

·         MOBO awards

·         UK grime artist music videos. E.g. ‘Tinchy Stryder ft Dappy Spaceship’

1st draft essay for my CI

An investigation on how UK grime music influences and has an impact on teenagers

Over the years the definition of UK grime music has changed, or in other words different classes now make their own definition based on stereotypical images they see for this music scene. Therefore emerged on what people think about grime music will give different ideas of the impact that this genre will have on teens. UK grime music appeared in the early 2000s with artist such as Wiley, Kano and Skepta and is primarily a development of UK garage and hip hop. This genre is portrayed as being male dominated and people argue this is the main reason why it may affect male teenagers in the wrong way. During all my research I came across the difference between ‘Underground’ and ‘Mainstream’ music. The difference between the two is that ‘Underground’ music is when artist make street videos by themselves with no pay but just to get views whereas ‘Mainstream’ music is more professional since the artist that turn ‘Mainstream’ are signed to a record label and therefore have their support.

UK grime has been seen to have a positive influence upon teenagers. Through my research I have found that even in their own music they try to do something other than just talking about themselves. For example a very recent released song called ‘Teardrop’ by my three main focused artists (Chipmunk, Tinchy and Wretch32), collaborated with other famous artist across different genres to promote ‘Children in need’. “100%, straight A’s, education, university, job prospects and lost objects”. This is one of the artist lyrics from the song showing the expansion of how they are more involved in other things such as ‘Children in need’ because they have become ‘Mainstream’. ‘Children in need’ is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC and is one the three high profile British telephons. This music video was uploaded by ‘The Collective’ on YouTube and connotes that ex ‘Underground’ grime artist are now making music to benefit others and giving back rather than just making music about themselves. ‘Children in need and the BBC are targeted at a wide variety of audiences because it appeals to nearly everyone who wants to develop poverty. Therefore these artists getting involved with dealing with poverty make teenagers want to do so as well because they will be able to relate to them. Moreover this links with the point of these artists portraying UK grime music in a positive way because it shows their involvement in “Giving back to your community”

Furthermore, during my research I found that many grime artists do several things apart from just their music, which may have a huge influence on teens. For example famous artist Chipmunk posted his GSCE results on twitter connoting that he himself got really good GCSE’s while doing his music at the same time, and this may affect some teenage fans because they will begin to think that if Chipmunk has an education even though he already has a career, they should most defiantly do the same since education is the way forward. Also since twitter is a social networking site where you can ‘tweet’ literally anyone including celebrities, it enable teenage fans to ask questions etc about his results. Linking in another example from my research where Chipmunk was found on BBC radio 1 where he done an interview giving his very own exam tips. Radio 1 is targeted at 16 – 24 year olds and therefore many teenagers would watch this video or here it on the radio because radio 1 is the only radio show which attracts teens because of their humour during every interview. “Until you have a career set out, don’t stop your education”. This is a quote from Chipmunks interview and it will get teenagers to realise that education is the key to success, and hearing this from someone who they may see as a role model will affect them in a positive way even more. Marxist’s theory links in with my critical investigation on this point because his theory states that society was divided into hierarchy of classes with more power at the top (Middle class) and less power at the bottom (Working class), and that we all want the dominant ideologies that we see in the media. For example all these UK grime artists that I am focussing on have certain things in their video that we would all probably want (Sports cars, expensive jewellery etc), however looking at these artist in a positive way you could say how they are representing the dominant ideology of being successful. Meaning we all want to be successful and these artists are representing success through their videos stating that achievements doesn’t only come from music.

However arguing the Marxism theory about dominant ideology, you could say that UK grime music represent success in the wrong way and this goes to mainly the ‘Mainstream’ industry of this genre. They represent success in the wrong ways because you may see a successful business men that doesn’t wear any rich jewellery, and that doesn’t mean he isn’t successful. Nonetheless these artist show that to be successful you have to wear and have such things but in reality to wear big chains and have sports cars in only conventional for grime artist and not any other successful people like a business person. Moving onto research that I found on how UK grime music has a negative affect and influence on teenagers is mainly based on the theme of ‘Underground’ music  ‘Underground’ music is known to be something 

Essay Plan

"An investigation on how UK grime music influence and has an impact on teenagers"


ALWAYS LINK BACK TO QUESTION OF MY CRITICAL INVESTIGATION


Introduction

• Define what UK grime music actually is and how it mainly attracts teenagers. Then go onto giving a brief definition about the difference between 'Underground' grime music and 'Mainstream' grime music. (Showing a wide range of research which i will then investigate in detail in the main body of the essay with examples from my bibliography). 
• Show an open discussion by Showing that i am going to focussed from both sides of the argument. To what extent the media portrays these artist?

Paragraph 1 

• The positivity of grime music which i found from my research using my main three artist as examples (Chipmunk, Tinchy Stryder and Wretch32). Interviews they've done on radio 1, twitter post and charity music videos can be used as examples of positivity which is all in my folder from my research. 
• Then talk about these three artist above and how they have become 'Mainstream' from 'Underground' and just talk about the benefits of 'Mainstream' music meaning the type of music their doing now.
• (Shows understanding of the critical debates, research skills and media terminology about my CI)

Paragraph 2 

• The things that these artist have done outside the music industry and how as grime artist they are doing other things which influences teens in a positive way. 
• Chipmunk doing his A levels and posting his GCSE results on twitter. Also revision tips on radio 1 (Live lounge)
• Add theory by talking about how these 'Mainstream' grime artist are the dominant ideology to teenagers because of how they represent success in their videos. Also argue how they may be showing success in the wrong ways.
• The fact that females are getting involved in the grime genre shows their doing something positive! (Shows understanding of the chosen investigation with research skills)

Paragraph 3 

• Counter argue the other two paragraphs by talking about the negative ways that grime music influences teenagers. Grime Daily shutdown (Knife crime).
• Talk in detail about the 'Underground' grime music and the things that they do which may affect teens in a negative way. Rapping about knives, guns and a struggled life teens think you have to do this to be a grime artist. 
• However then argue how even 'Mainstream' artist went through the 'Underground' stage (Wide range of arguments from different ways one thing can have so much meanings to it - 'Mainstream' and 'Underground')

Star in the hood website analysis

The 'Star in the hood' website is a clothing site which famous grime artist Tinchy Stryder is sponsored by. The website is strictly advertising the clothes and nothing else, however it still contributes with my topic because it is cloths that Tinchy Stryder wears and is available for anyone to by. And since my CI is how teens are influenced by these grime artist, it makes them more interested in the 'Star in the hood' clothing because a UK grime artist is wearing it. If Tinchy Stryder wearn't spomsored by this clothing line there wouldn't be much teens wearing it.
This website also uses formal English with no slang because it is trying to spread their clothing line across the UK and different genres. For example the website mainly attracts to the grime genre and they possibly want other genres to be involvd with their clothes, showing  how the UK grime scene isn't underground anymore.

This image on the left connotes how average teenagers are wearing the same clothes as a celebrity since their all together in one picture. Therefore this links in with my topic because it influences teenagers to succeed like these artist since they can relate to them.

Spliff TV website analysis

Spliff TV is a website that links with my critical investigation because on a daily basis they upload new videos and songs that any known UK grime artist made. However this website links in with my topic by showing how grime music may have a negarive impact on teenagers because alongside all the new grime music videos, they also post videos of people fighting (Things that are not suitable for some teenagers) and this may give the idea that UK grime always has to involve something to do with in the negative lines.
The videos areeasily accessable and you dont need an account to be able to access certain videos which comes back to the point of giving the idea that you need to have some of these negative videos to produce a piece of UK grime music.

SBTV website analysis

The image above is a screenshot from the sbtv website and this site links in with my topic because it shows a whole range of different things going on with artist in the UK grime scene. For example as you can see on the middle left of the screenshot they are advertising a Christmas party in Camden and selling tickets at the same time. This shows that they are trying to spread the word of sbtv (UK grime music) in a positive way by throwing a productive party rather then a usual party that the grime genre will have such as a street party. Therefore they are showing the positivity of UK grime through their party which is why the sbtv website links with my topic. Subsequently they have all their interviews that they done with several famous artist from around the globe on their website. These interviews contributes with my topic because in the the interviews all the artist just talk about their success and what they get up to in life. Fro example the link below is the sbtv interview of Chipmunk and he basically talks about his new singles and then also what he has done to get to where he is now. And some of the things that he talks about are things that average teenagers get up to in their lives therefore the teenage audience hearing this puts them in a confort zone since they can relate to someone they look up to.

Furthermore the image above is also a screenshot from the sbtv website however it is from the news section. And in this section they show news from outside the UK. For example they show their respect by posting up the news of famous boxer Joe Fraizier pasting away which connotes respect and makes the sbtv website seemed certified. Also they represent other american artist and how their getting on with their music which shows that the UK grime scene is possibly sharing the same interest and features as US rap music. And this brings us back to the point of the sbtv interviews. Interacting more with US music and linking it in with UK grime which shows that UK grime now days is turning more mainstream and commercial rather then just staying underground which is a positive thing.

Internet Links

http://www.starinthehood.net/lookbook.html (Star in the hood website - Tinchy Stryders clothing line)

http://www.tinchystryder.com/ (Tinchy Stryders official website)

http://www.iamchipmunk.com/ (Chipmunks website)

http://www.wretch32.com/ (Wretch 32s website)

http://ndubz.com/ (NDubz website)

http://sbtv.co.uk/ (SBTV website)

http://www.grimescene.co.uk/grime/ (UK grime scene website. with all the different music in uk grime)

http://spifftv.com/ (Spliff tv - Negative influence on teenagers)

http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/chipmunk/118662-chipmunk-to-sign-with-major (MTV website on Chipmunk being signed to sony)

http://wearesme.co.uk/2011/08/21/news-video-sbtv-founder-jamal-edwards-stars-in-new-google-chrome-advert/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-13608668 (BBC news)

UK Grime artist websites

The image above and below is a screenshot of Tinchy Stryder, Chipmunk, Wretch32 and N Dubz's homepage of their official websites. These sites contribute to my topic because i am doing an investigation on how UK grime artist influence or have an affect on teenagers, and all their different sites gives us the idea of mainstream UK artist (UK grime artist that have moved on from underground) and how they are representing being successful.

• There's always a main image or a video of the artist which is aways dominant on the home page as you can see from the screenshots on this post. This relates with my CI because it shows the artist in a positive way by showing their success either with a picture or video. For example the first image above of Tinchy Stryders website has a pictured of his new album.
• Also there is always a link to buying their albums and mixtapes which gives the teenage audience easy access to the artist music and may imfluence them into buying the albums rather than illegal download.
• Moreover the fact that you can 'Join the fan club' and share the website on facebook twitter etc, it makes the teenage audience feel more attached with the artist which links with my topic since i am looking at how these UK grime artist influence and have an affect on teenagers.
• They use formal english with no slang since UK grime may connote of using slang to some people. Also on each artist website they show the institution who they are singed by on the site by giving a brief description of the artist record label showing UK grimes professionalism.

Issues & debates concerning my CI

'Grime Daily' as you can see by the name is all about grime music which is targetted at young people (teenagers). It is based on a youtube channel similar to sbtv and they specifically focuss on the UK music scene where they upload the latest grime music blogs and videos. 'Grime Daily' was built from the heart of the UK grime music scene and has definantly helped certain underground artist to get signed by major record labels because they produced a video on 'Grime Daily'.

A recent debate and issue that has nas occured about 'Grime Daily' is the fact that it had been shut down for 'violating community guidlines'. An artist called Scorcher's music video apparently sparked the censorship because somebody was holding a knife in it. Therefore it was said that 'Grime Daily' is promoting knife crime for young teenagers. Although this wearn't the first video on 'Grime Daily' that has involved a knife, however with the crime rate increasing by a high percentage it was seen as if it was making matters worse and promoting knife crime to teenagers even though that wasn't the intension (Says Dan Edwatds on a 'Grime Daily' blog) Therefore this issue relates with my CI very much since my CI is about how grime music has an affect and influences teenagers, & this issue about 'Grime Daily' shutting down says totally the oppisite and is able to give me more to add for my CI because i can now focuss on both sides of the argument.

Furthermore there are several arguments/debates about 'Grime Daily shutting down from random people and fans. For example there is a blog somebody made called 'MidofGrime' and they basically talked about how 'Grime Daily' may be doing things such as helping grime artist and showing there is a way out of struggle by doing music however "The facts are their title suggest one thing and their actions another" Meaning that the title 'Grime Daily' says they only do grime music, but on the other hand they still make videos which includes knifes etc which kind of does promote knife crime.
(Link to this blog is below)

http://mindofgrime.com/2011/06/17/grime-daily-gone/

Also continuing on this debate about grime ('Grime Daily') having a negative affect on teenagers, there are some people who think otherwise and say that they exaggerated the knife crime influence on 'Grime Daily'.  "The subject matter of the videos becomes irrelevant when you consider the amount of commercial rappers that Youtube still proudly hosts and profits from through targeted advertising. People celebrating violence, pimping, gun crime and drug dealing is certainly nothing new to Youtube, it only seems to have become a problem if you’re not able to give them money at the same time. Perhaps even worse, Youtube plays host to a range of videos from IDF bombs being dropped over Gaza, to fascists’ attacks on immigrants, and non-coherent theories which celebrate violence and murder of minority and oppressed groups. None of these videos seem to be a problem for the watchful eyes of the Youtube admin" This paragraph is from a website that focusses on breaking news that will attract teens, and the quote above is a really good counter argument to the reason why 'Grime Daily' got shut down because they are saying how people are acting as if 'Grime Daily' was the first company to put something to do with a knife, then they go on to comparing this with bobmings in gaza. So as you can see this is a really hot debate which links in very well with my critical investigation because it involves looking into the positive and negative things about UK grime.
(Link to website below of the quote above)

http://www.socialistrevolution.org/2898/grimedaily-shut-down/

Theory research for my CI - Marxism (Dominant Ideology)

The Marxism theory was the fact that society was in a state of conflict in which class divisions were evident. This means that society was divided into hierarchy of classes with more power at the top (middle class) and less power at the bottom (working class) He stated that the rulling ideas of any period are ideas of the rulling class. Ideology forms the 'Superstructure' of ideologies that we think and believe in politics, science and religion. But this is dedicated by the rulling classes (Mass media). So breaking this down Marxist dominent ideology theory is basically about things that we all want that we will see in the media.
Therefore this theory links in with my critical investigation because what all these grime artist have, we the audience want. The things that we would want is basically the life that their living because of certain things they have in their videos. E.g. Sports cars and expensive jewlary. This means that the grime artist are representing the dominant ideology and the success they have, stating that for the audience to want the things they have, you just have to successful & it doesn't mean you have to be an artist. Therefore these UK grime artist represent the dominant ideology of success.
(Tinchy Stryder ft Dappy - Spaceship is a good example of marxisms dominant ideology because the things in this video is something that people at a lower class would want to have)

Theory research for my CI - Feminism

The feminist theory is to understand that men and woman are both affected by gender inequality. For example, men are expected to fulfil certain stereotypes such as not having a close relationship with their children. For woman it is not normal for them to enter certain professions. Men and woman are discriminated against and this is casued by their socialisation into gender roles. However more of a radical view on the feminist theory is that men are the cause of womans exploitation etc. & also the cause of female oppression is captilism.
Also there is the male gaze theory which states that male audience get a sense of power and plessure from watching woman in the media who are often represented as objects for male plessure. For feminist it can be thought in three ways. How men look at woman, how woman look at themsleves and how woman look at other woman.

This will link in with my critical investigation because the UK grime artist that i am focussing on all 'use' females in their videos because it is apart of the genre. They 'use' females mainly to attract male audiences because without females in their videos not many males would watch it and only the male fans will. Therefore by adding females into the genre even people who aren't fans will view their video because of the females init due to the male gaze theory that woman are only there as a sexual subject to attract males. Furthermore, the male to female ratio varies within the grime genre because 'grime' itself is targetted at maily males because at first when grime was about with Dizzee Rascal and Wiley. they were among the first to bring the gene to attension and their music didn't really have many females involved which means that the male gaze theory wasnt' around at the time. However, now days people such as Chipmunk, Wretch32, Tinchy Stryder and Tinie Tempah have bought something new into the genre and targetting UK grime at females aswel as males. For example the fact that they have made it big and have become well known celebrities, it is a convention that all girls go crazy for them. & also males will listen to them because 'grime' is one of their favourite genres, therefore you can see that the ratio between male and female in UK grime is slightly balanced.
(Below an image of Tinchy tryder featuring famous singer Amelle Berrabah - Male gaze because of what she's wearing)

Woman respond to these artist by showing their love that they have for them by tweeting making blogs and leaving comments on videos etc. Like i said above, its conventional for a woman to fall in love with a huge male celebrity. Moreover the feminisim theory will argue and say that the genre of UK grime along with the lyrics/music controls the female auidience because most of the artist are males and they are rulling the genre and they will say that females should fight out their oppresion and not be controlled by the males in UK grime.

Theory research for my CI - Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes, in his 1957 book Mythologies argues that no language use can be seperated from structures of ideology and power. Barthes analyses a chapter called 'Toys' from his book about the denotation and connotation of everything, and he was the first to recognise this. He says that "All the toys one commonly sees are essentially a mcrocosm of the adult world, and that for instance, a girls doll is meant to condition to her future role as a mother" Therefore if we apply this to UK grime music, we can immedietely see the semiotics that applied to its ideology and we can see how music plays in our globalised society.

Furthermore his theory leads onto ionic and indexical signs meaning anything within the media wether it is to do with music games etc, it will nbe something that we will all recognise however it will have different meanings to different people. Everything has codes and conventions which the audience have to figure out themselves.
This links in with my CI because Barthe mentions 'Enigma codes' (Detective story where audience must solve codes which then leads onto teasing the audience) If we apply this to my CI, music videos all have some sort of a story throughout the whole video which the audience will figure out themselves through the lyrics of the song.
Subsequently there is also 'Action codes' (A resolution produced through actions) Again linking this in with a music video, where the video is mainly some story being told and throughout the video we see actions with a resolution in the end. for example on Chipmunks 'Diamond rings' music video ends with him leaving a club with stolen diamonds, and this all happens in a music video.

Theory reaserch for my CI - Postmodernism

Postmodern theory is based on how every media text that is shown to us is shown in a way that we will think it is part pf our reality and we'll begin to think that these things actually exist when they only really appear and can be imagined. however when it is constructed to us, its purpose is to entertain and amuse us in some way. Postmodern text deliberately plays with meanings. It makes people to understand their own particular and personal reality.
Since this theory is about people making their own realities through media text, it relates with my critical investigation because i am focussing on how UK grime artist and their music affects and has an influence on young teenagers. Therefore teenagers will look at some of these artists music videos for example and make their own reality out of the lyrics because the lyrics of the songs are always true stories in UK grime and teenagers may build their own realities by going along with the lyrics and believe that it is also true to them. & then the actual video it self is there for entertaining them since videos maybe in very exciting places. (Chipmunks 'Flying high' video)

Chipmunk revision tips on radio 1!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxeaRHSAmzg

Chipmunk giving his advice on revising since he himself at that time was in the process of taking his A levels. Teenagers look up to him therefore they may take on aboard the advice that he gave on radio 1, and this shows he is having a positive affect on teens since they will revise now because of this.

Chipmunk Lyrics

http://www.justsomelyrics.com/1993935/Chipmunk-Chipmunk-Who-are-you-Lyrics

http://www.metrolyrics.com/champion-lyrics-chipmunk.html

omparison of song lyrics from when he first started music up until now.

E Media

Famous grime artist making a video together called 'Teardrop' for 'Children in needs charity. This show that these grime artist are doing something positive with their music by making a song for a charity which is telling other people to get ivolved.

Print text: Articles

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/interviews/a181268/chipmunk.html

http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/tinie-tempah/198276-tinie-tempah-interview

My Critical Investigation Idea

3 possible investigation options:

1) Does sports have a positive or negative impact on society. This interested me because sports such as football is something that i have loved from a young age. Therefore i will be able to talk about this from my own knowledge as well as my research that i do.

2) The impact that grime music has on me as a teenager. This interested me because music plays a big part in my life, whatever i'm doing i'll be listening to music since it motivates etc. For example if i am doing homework i'll be listening to grime music at the same time.

3) Whether shows like X Factor and Britain's Got Talent actually gives people the chance to chase their dream or does is does in reality just break their dreams. This interested me because shows like these is something that nearly everybody watches from each class for entertainment purposes. Therefore because nearly everyone from each class watches these show i'll be able to discuss the issue from a wide range of beliefs.

Initial idea's for my critical investigation & Linked production:


An investigation into the impact and affect that grime music has on teenagers and how the media portrays these artist of being

1) The topic that is going to be investigated in my coursework is about UK grime music and the affects it has on teenagers now days and how these artist influence and have an impact on teenagers. However i am only goin to be looking atcertain artist that have made it big in the music industry and how they are now then how they were before when they were underground. i can use textual examples such as sbtv etc.

2) A rough idea for now for my linked production piece could be me designing a poster or posters of some sort explaining how teenagers have been infulenced by these UK grime artist and the sort of things they are doing to be successful like some of the artist. And also possibly another poster showing how certain artist have grown over the years to come to where they are now. Furthermore i could add videos, pictures, questionaires etc on the side of my linked production piece.

3) Media text: Get articles from magazines/Newspapers that these UK grime artist to see how they're portrayed. Also What type of stuff these artist post on facebook and twitter (Blogs). Lastly how UK grime artist are shown on television or Youtube (Their music videos) and also on interviews such as the MOBO awards which happened recently.

4) (MIGRIAN done in book, i will copy it when iv finished it)

5)

Reflection to the mock

The mock i had recently about 'The most pivotal year of my generation' (Summer Riots) went really well. Firstly because the topic i was given was something that i was already intrested in and also something that happened recently for me to see with my own two eyes. The thing that went well with this was that during my research i was able to discuss my own experience of this and what i thought about it since it was an event that mainly involed teenagers, so therefore the research and writing a formal presentation was enjoyable for me since i already had a keen interest in the summer riots.
3 things that helped me with this mock:
1) Twitter - The fact that we use twitter for Media Studies, it actually helped me with my research on the summer riots since i started searching for more information through this and helped me have something different through e media rather than just looking at a website.
2) The sheet of paper that was given to us at the begining of the mock, because this had guidlines of what we should, and should not do.
3) General discussions about the summer riots with friends helped me a lot as it gave me a over view of what different people thought about the riots.
Even better if: The mock could have gone better if i took my research from a more wider prospective. for example rather than looking for news articles on the internet, i should have tried to gather a photomontage from newspapers of the riots, or atleast something the connotes the riots.

Mock CI

Summer Riots – “The Most Pivotal Year of my generation”

Hundreds of mourners gathered for the funeral of Mark Duggan who was shot dead by the police in North London (Tottenham). This all happened on 4^th August when two shots were fired by a firearm officer and killed Mark Duggan who was known as a drug dealer in Tottenham.  Independent police complaints commission said that “A non police handgun was recovered” meaning that the firearm police had no option but to shoot at Duggan since their lives was in danger as well. Following on from this a riot began in Tottenham and spread across England where several London Boroughs, cities and towns suffered a wide spread of rioting and looting between 6^th and 10^th August.

There are several reasons why I believe that the summer riot is ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’. Firstly comparing this to other summer events that happened such as the Arab spring and the phone hacking scandal, the media didn’t portray these events as being as important to my generation (Teenagers) as the summer riots. The media had a huge part to play for making the summer riot ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’ since the summer riots was all over the news and was presented in all three media platforms (Broadcast, Print and E-Media).  For example they discussed the riots on Question Times and then also had a separate show called ‘Young voters Question time’ which was the only programme on British television to actually give young people their chance to speak publically, which proves that the summer riots was actually the most pivotal year for the teenage generation because they gave teenagers the chance to speak since they were the centre of attention of these riots.

Furthermore, Government advisor Sheldon Thomas said that about 2 years ago we’ve had over 20 teenage murderers but yet we didn’t have the same fire and impact on that than we did on the summer riots. Therefore, after hearing a couple of these facts from Sheldon, it brings me back to my point that the summer riot was ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’ because of the way everyone was keen in knowing more about what is going on since this had an effect on literally everyone. For example a furniture store called house of reads got burnt down in Croydon, which therefore had an effect on someone else other than a teenager, that Is why o believe the summer riots was ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’ because it had some sort of an impact on everyone. And the fact that teenagers that are my age were the main group involved and what they done affect everyone which is why it is pivotal for my generation. In addition, I think the riots is ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’ because the only time we hear of teenagers is when they do something negative, and the riots is one of the most negative things teenagers have done, therefore they are the main class that everyone looks out for now because of these riot. Like Labour MP Stella Creasy said in Young voters Question time “We never dwell on the positive side of teenagers and we never embrace there intelligence/talents”. Which is another point why the summer riots is ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’  

Subsequently the summer riots links in with Vladimir Propps theory about the seven sphere’s of action. He stated in his theory that everything we watch or anything that happens to us seems like a fairy tale, and there are seven characters in the fairy tale. The first character is the hero, in which the case of the riots, the hero is the police because they are there to save the day. The second character is the villain which is the rioters because they are meant to struggle against the hero. Then comes the donor which is the government because they are the ones to prepare the hero. Next is the dispatcher who is the public because they trigger the hero to go do their task. Moreover it is the helper and father which in this case the government plays both roles because they government are the ones that give consent for every action. So as you can see this the summer riots links perfectly with Propps theory because that is how much of a big event it was that everyone had a role tp play which is why I believe it is ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’.

On the other hand some people may argue and say that the summer riot was not ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’ for several reasons. The main argument against for this is that they will say it is not the biggest event that has happened during our generations because as time goes past we will eventually forget about these riots that happened. Whereas an event like 9/11 is probably ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’ because even ten years from now we still talk about it and we have realised how much it has changed our lives. For example the war of terror is still going on since 9/11 has happened. Therefore that clearly shows how much 9/11 has affected us, and the summer riots won’t be the same.

In conclusion, the summer riots to me, is defined to be ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’ mainly because teenagers my age were the main ones involved in all of this. Even though there are some good arguments to say likewise, I still believe that the summer riots is ‘the most pivotal year of my generation’ because ever since the riots, people have an even worse stereotypical view upon teenagers and our life’s have changed dramatically.

Media Studies A2 baby! =D

I am currently doing preparation work for my coursework that i will have to produce this year. The whole class have been given the statement "The most pivotal year of my generation" & then have been given a separate issue to focus on.
The topic that i have been given is the summer riots which happened on the beginning of August just a over a month ago. I have been collecting as much research as possible on how key debates & issues about the riots have been portrayed in a different ways. For example i have been looking at a wide range of different media platforms (Broadcast, print & e-media etc) to see how each of them present the summer riots. I have found several video & articles about the summer riots & i will continue my research so then i could create a formal presentation along with a formal essay. =)

http://www.thcu.ca/infoandresources/teensaudienceprofile.htm

http://www.mmc.co.uk/Knowledge-Centre/Presentation-Ready/Teen-market-in-a-nutshell/

Health/lifestyle research...

Different health and lifestyle issues that teenagers suffer from:
Drugs, obesity/eating disorders, bullying, exam stress etc. These are just a few issues that teenagers suffer from, and the most common one in the media (Programs, articles and reports)