Theories...

Blumler & Katz’s (1974) ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory says that an audience consumes media to meet certain need which include Diversion, Personal Relationships, Personal Identity and Surveillance.

My work backs up this theory because the audience might listen to Monster by Paramore and watch their music videos for diversion to relax or as a form of escape from the things which are going on in their own life. The high energy of their music and the energetic movements of the artists and actors and rapid cuts could suit their mood if they were either in a happy full of energy mood, or needed a pick me up if they were feeling down.

They may also build personal relationships with the artists even though they have never met them, because the audience can usually relate the lyrics (and the indirect lyrics in Paramore’s songs means that you could interpret them in lots of different ways and relate them to different situations) which makes the audience feel a connection.

Personal Identity can also be found through media products, from the audience finding comfort or inspiration on how to deal with a situation through the lyrics and energy to a song. Also by buying their merchandise and wearing a band’s T-shirts or basing their own style and fashion sense on what the artists wear shows their appreciation and effects how other people with view someone as it begins to effect the way they look and act. A fan would see it as expressing how they feel through a band.

The lyrics form a type of surveillance when the artist writes them about certain issues which are in the news or affecting society. With Paramore the lyrics tend to be about light hearted issues such as teen love, revenge, dealing with friendships and breakups, getting over things and moving on. Fans will also often keep updated on news or photos of a band via magazines, their website, etc. To find out about tours and new releases as well as big events in the music industry, general interest and admiration in how they live their life and keep updated on their fan base.

Stuart Hall’s (1980) ‘Encoding/Decoding’ model looks at how well an audience receives a media product. When watching a music video or listening to a song, you interpret what the actions and lyrics mean, which makes you think or feel a certain way.

If an audience was to have a ‘Dominant Hegemonic’ view on a product it would suggest that they have accepted and agreed with everything which was included in the product. For a typical pop punk rock genre video which the audience would expect from Paramore, this would mean the video and soundtrack would be full of energy, showing the band performing as well as communicating the narrative, and dressed in the stereotypical brightly coloured modern punk fashion.

If the audience was to have an ‘Oppositional’ response to the product them they wouldn’t have agreed on anything which was shown and wouldn’t have liked anything which the director represented. If this was the reaction I was looking for in my Paramore video then I would do a hip hop dance video which shows no meaning behind the lyrics and contains no instruments, concentrating purely on making the artists look stereotypically ‘perfect’. This could have a big impact on the artist’s fan base, losing a lot of the original audience but possibly gaining a new audience who look for different things in their media consumption.

A ‘Negotiated’ response from the audience is in-between dominant and oppositional so the audience agrees with certain aspects of the product but disagrees with others. For example this could be if I was to show a purely performance video of them rehearsing in the studio and no link to the narrative, or the opposite if the band hired an actor to show a story to portray the narrative and there was no reference to or clips of the band. This is because out of all the pop punk genre videos that I’ve researched, they have all been performance + narrative.

Richard Dyer’s (1997) four notions of representation theory stated that a media product is a ‘constructed version of reality’ and that everything which is shown falls into a stereotype. Like it is purely the view of the director and not personal to anyone else, yet can be very influential on the people who consume it.

The digipaks for Paramore are photo shopped to make it look more creative and interesting as the target audience tends to be very artistic and likes to experiment designs and the way that things look, oppose to retouching  a picture to make it look perfect like in other genres. Their videos and soundtracks are full of energy with rapid cuts and creative editing effects and filters to make them stand out against other bands and make them appear more unique.

The target audience is very similar to the band themselves, generally being both male and female around the ages of 13-23 although other ages may also listen to it. There aren’t aiming it at any particular race or religion, and although it tends to be the teenage punk culture of today or stereotypically ‘emos’ who listen to Paramore’s music, part of their appeal is that they promote individuality and not trying to fit in somewhere that you don’t.

Paramore are signed with ‘Fueled By Ramen’ who is a subsidiary of the major record label Warner Music Group which is a subsidiary of the Media Conglomerate Time Warner. This means that although the lyrics are written by the band and not written for them or copied from other artists, we have no way of telling how much of it was edited by their labels, and what was told to be taken out of put in. The people in the industry who are going to have the most power is going to be rich middle aged men who have a very different outlook on the world than a student or someone how has come from a modest background.

To me I enjoy watching Paramore’s videos because I like the energy in them, and one of their songs always seems to be able to fit my mood and be there for me to be able to relate to. Also it brings back memories of my friends from a few years back as we used to talk about the band, listen and dance around to their music and try to copy what they did on their videos. For others Paramore videos could mean the same, but also it might give them a subculture image and a feeling of identity for people who follow that genre, and be a topic of conversation if their friendship group are also into that type of music and feel to fit in.