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"It's all about flirting." There is no need to question further. Madonna tells us herself at the end of the video cassette, "Madonna on Tour." It is all so simple, so innocent, so deliciously wicked, so ambiguous. Just like flirting.
Is she teasing? Or is she serious? Is she "Like a Virgin?" Or like a...a a a a what? Is she trying to convey a "religious" message with her overt use of religious symbolism — from her name — Madonna — to the dangling crosses on her ears, rosary-bead necklaces and sequined symbols on her costumes?
Or is she ridiculing the very meaning of those symbols? Is... Read More
One of the greatest shocks for the western traveler comes from visiting a remote village in a distant land and finding a Michael Jackson poster on the wall and the strains of his latest hit album blasting from a portable tape player.
Clearly the rock music culture is not just a U.S. phenomenon. But while it is obvious that music merchants have made the whole world their marketplace, it may not be so apparent how other countries, and their musicians, are caught into - and sometimes co-opted by - a music industry that is truly multinational.
A taste for rock music began spreading in the 1960s... Read More
For many youth today, rock music is a battlefield.
This is not the decades-old war of the decibels but one that is fought over lyrics. Active Christian youth especially, plus the adults in their lives, have been influenced by persuasive troops of several organizations making big bucks by proclaiming all of rock music as the work of the devil.
(Note - "all" is a flexible term in this discussion. Some of the groups produce their own alternative rock records, and "all" conveniently eliminates those selections.)
Personally, I find it very sad when a young person proudly proclaims she or he... Read More
We've heard a lot recently about the need for parents to have access to the lyrics of rock music. Few parents will succeed if this is a "policing" technique as in "You can't listen to any rock music by 'Name of group.'"
The secret of a useful dialogue between parents and youth Is the willingness of parents to ask questions which invite young people to talk about their feelings and what they like or don't like about a song.
An example of this came when I was watching TV one evening with my daughter and one of the rock groups moved into the spotlight. They sounded hostile; their actions as... Read More
Lost Listeners Anoint Musical Messiahs
Why is our culture is so bereft of meaningful symbols that the young turn to music for transcendence? By Deborah Finn
A priestly monarch, chosen by God to unite polity and religion, was one of the earliest images of divinely chosen leadership in Judaism. Later, both Judaism and Christianity developed more complex concepts of the messiah.
Although few people realize it, the public persona and response to rock stars today shows a hunger for this form of charismatic religious authority. David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen and Prince are only a few of the stars who have used messianic images to describe their public roles.
When Prince sings,
I'm your messiah and you're the reason why I would die for... Read More
Often called the mind-body split, the conflict arises when the mind (ego) exerts control over the body's impulsive, nonverbal and often inappropriate spontaneous expressions. Because these essential parts of each individual's personality are poorly integrated, awareness can be fragmented and a crucial sense of wholeness missing.
Today's turned-on listeners may not realize it, but their response to rock's frenetic beat may be akin to ancient rituals designed to recreate this wholeness.
Especially in the shared group experience of large concerts, the rock audience becomes the closely related... Read More
If Mark Klose, the morning DJ of WMRY radio in Belleville, Illinois plays a song, say by John Cougar Mellencamp, he probably won't play it again for a week.
Unlike the programming on many other rock radio shows, listeners who tune in to his show won't hear the same hits played over and over again. They also won't hear expensive contest promotions, repetitive jingles or traffic reports.
What they will hear is listener requests — up to 60% — ranging from the latest hit single to favorites from local St. Louis groups and selections from Klose's own extensive record collection.
One thing... Read More
Question: Do you know where your children are?
Answer: At home, watching videos.
Saturday night is still movie night, and teenagers still go out in couples and in groups. But increasingly, their first stop is the video store and the final viewing point, the home screen The count isn't in, but with VCRs in nearly half the nation's homes, it's very clear that this new magic box has strikingly altered leisure time priorities for all ages.
According to a recent study, over 55 percent of those questioned preferred using the VCR to the movies and television it helps them watch. And certainly... Read More
Video is Here to Stay
Television's new sidekick is spreading rapidly worldwide. But its advent raises many questions. By Everett Rogers
Although advertisers and sales people always like to have us believe that any new product is indispensable for our lives, it's clear that the videocassette recorder is not just a passing technological fad.
Indeed the rapid acceptance, purchase and use of VCR technology, not only in the United States, but worldwide, in less than 10 years is nothing short of a phenomenal and highly unusual success story.
How did it come about?
Sociologists who study these questions utilize a school of thought called diffusion research. We study the rate of adoption of a new product or idea and try to understand... Read More
For years I shopped at a neighborhood grocery. Run by a Vietnamese family, it had a fresh fish market, wonderful vegetables and even a bakery in back.
Not long ago a sign announced they had lost their lease. My heart sank not only for the loss of familiar friends, but for what I suspected would take their place: a video store and a half dozen fast-food outlets.
Indeed a few months later the aisles were crammed, not with apples and oranges, but videotapes of every hue and color. Suddenly I realized that the values question for video is not what's available, but what we choose to buy or rent... Read More
How can we teach our children to make peace rather than war? Teach them to resolve conflicts rather than hide behind walls of fear? One Ohio family's unusual project exercises imagination and willingness while putting the whole family to work in a joint effort.
It all started when Leslie Hudak of Ohio attended a lecture on the nuclear arms race. She went home from listening to Dr. Helen Caldicott of Physicians for Social Responsibility, looked at her two sleeping daughters and said to herself, "I've got to do something."
She thought of picketing or writing letters but then she called some... Read More
The mass media operates today as much on an international level as a national one.
What axe we to do, then, with images of the "enemy" created by Western media and disseminated throughout the world?
As noted throughout this issue, the villains of popular media are often hulking James Bond caricatures. More significantly, however, they represent a larger force of evil that threatens to overwhelm all of Western culture. In addition, the pace of the narrative and selection of images forces us to see the 'enemy" as strange, threatening, uncivilized and power-hungry.
For NATO countries, the... Read More
War films contain powerful images not only about war, but about our society and ourselves. Whether you see a film in the theater or at home on a VCR, these questions can help you, your family or discussion group evaluate your experience.
What does the film say about what it means to be a male person? A female person?
How are women presented? Are they foils for the male characters, victims or real people?
Does the film present violence and aggression as the only way to solve problems?
Is war presented as an exciting alternative to everyday life?
What are the main characters... Read More
A good phrase deserves, if not demands, a turn or two. So it was at a recent civic gathering that the official "prayer" of the day, a priest, took the theme of the Army's current advertising campaign, and filled its potential with the rich meaning of cooperation, peace, personal development and spiritual growth. He invited us to "be all we can be." It was a simple thing to do, requiring no more than basic human sensitivity and enough creativity to move some words around and make others into plurals, but its impact was such that the audience had the opportunity to engage a societal catch-... Read More
Since the demise of the draft, minorities have become an increasing part of the nation's armed forces. Recruitment campaigns feature minority role models, with ads inviting them to "be all that you can be." However, high minority casualty figures in Vietnam (compared to white Americans) warn that responding to that jingly come-on could well lead to less than happy results.
Particularly during wartime, the entertainment media have contributed to encouraging young men and women to join the military. To foster all-American fighting togetherness, Hollywood has taken great pains to make movies... Read More
Today's U.S. youth have no inkling what it might mean for them if the rumblings in Congress result in restoring the draft. They were in early childhood when it was last in existence.
What they know of the military they must gather from various representations of it in the media. And of course, that is quite a varied picture. Rambo offers the glorified fantasy of a macho destruction in the name of success for the triumphant good guy. Platoon, on the other hand, overwhelms the viewer with gore, frustration and hysteria, but asks probing questions about war. The TV miniseries "Amerika" envisions... Read More
Many young children in day-care centers around the country are regularly acting out fantasies from today's most popular cartoons and television dramas. It is not an uncommon experience to suddenly hear a young four-year-old from the opposite end of the playground yell, "I'm going to get you, sucker," run full speed across the yard, leap onto an unsuspecting child, grab him or her by the neck and throw the child to the ground. When questioned about such aggressive behavior, the offender looks up with that all-too-familiar innocent face and says, But teacher, I'm Mr. T," or "I'm He-Man, Master... Read More
War is Hell... Pass the Popcorn
Historian Nancy Hollander traces the impact of war movies over three decades.
Q: You mentioned that there have been more war films made than any other genre through the decades. How do you account for the popularity of films with war themes?
A: Today, particularly, I think there's a desire to go back to an era when men were men and women were women, Of course, war films also say that violence and killing are O.K. They also frequently reflect the frustration and sense of helplessness that affects everybody in modem life. A Rambo or James Bond character, for example, is appealing because of his ability to control his entire world.
Q: In thinking of some of the ideas... Read More
"They are unhappy with their lives and the system that controls them. They would leave readily if they could. They are drab and gray. The majority are uncultured peasants with no interests or talents, They lack incentive to work and do nothing well. Finally, they are fat and ugly, thugs and liars."
Whom does this describe? According to researcher Eric Chivian, a psychiatrist and project director at Harvard's Center for Psychological Studies in the Nuclear Age, these are the common images used by U.S. media to describe citizens of the Soviet Union. These images come from newspaper headlines,... Read More
Ordinarily I don't choose to spend my entertainment budget on films like the Rambo series. But there I was, captive on an airplane last year, when First Blood, Part II appeared on the screen in front of me. The headsets were free, so I decided to find out what Rambo was all about.
An hour later I couldn't take it anymore. It wasn't just the brutality that offended me — although it was bad enough and the images still haunt me even now. What was worse was the underlying militarism of it all, the surly attitude that "might makes right" and the unquestioned assumption that people who get in your... Read More
The most difficult part of preparing this issue was deciding what we meant by the word: minority. Given our basic media connection, would we cover racial minorities or ethnic minorities? Should we include other minority populations — the elderly? The differently-abled? What about the clichéd category: "women and minorities?"
Although all of these groups deserve analysis in terms of media portrayal and participation, space was limited. And so we decided to focus primarily on the four principal U.S. racial minorities: black, Latino, Asian and Native American with awareness that some ethnic... Read More
Minorities are still invisible on British television — in fact, you could watch for days at a time without seeing a black or brown face. A little research into the attitudes of programmers and advertisers helps to explain why.
Salman Rushdie, author of Midnight's Children, tells the story of a British advertiser rejecting an ad jingle because the singer sounded as if he had a "black voice." In another incident, the head of a leading confectionary firm refused to cast a black child as one of a group in an ad for his firm's product.
But advertising people aren't the only racists around.... Read More
The video revolution is a two-edged sword when it comes to film portrayals of minorities.
On one hand, many classic films, such as Birth of a Nation, are now available for inexpensive rental or even purchase. But unfortunately, their splendor is marred by concepts and characterizations that we see today as blatant racism. Now that films like the Charlie Chan series, Amos and Andy and others have emerged from industry archives to appear in your living room, questions arise on how to deal with their biased portrayals.
First of all, if you rent such films, be aware that you're taking home... Read More
Modem media provide children with much of their primary information about the world. Their potential impact on youngsters' ethnic images is far-reaching. Models of integration, portraits of ethnic characters and information about history and current issues all have the opportunity to provide children with their first ideas and opinions on our racially mixed society.
Children need adult guidance and supervision in forming balanced portraits, however. Because of their limited experience, they are inclined to latch onto stereotypes as they begin to think about the world. Overgeneralizations... Read More
"What do you think Bryan feels like? What would Bryan like to do?" Marshall's mother asks those questions often. She wants Marshall to imagine himself in his friend Bryan's place. And Marshall must use his imagination as well as what he knows, because he is white and Bryan is black.
Marshall's mother has turned to children's books to help her and Marshall. There are a number of children's books by minority authors available in their public library. They read a lot and they talk about whether Bryan is like or different from the child in the story. "I'm still concerned that we think of persons... Read More