popular culture/assignments

Television Panel \\ Idoru Research Essay and Panel \\ Advertising Panel
Film Panel \\ Music Panel \\ Fads Panel

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PANEL DISCUSSION 1: TELEVISION

Due date: Thursday, 7/18

Requirements: In a group of four you will give a 25-30 minute presentation including 5 minutes for a question and answer session; the formal presentation will be a synthesis of your ability to work in a small group, to research a topic, to make a strong oral presentation, and to lead a class discussion. Explore your group-selected focus by interviewing experts, preparing surveys, and analyzing trends. Observe the controversy implicit in the topic you have keyed in on. Provide a 2-3 page handout for each audience member (40) and prepare a discussion question on your section presented to facilitate further discussion. Each group member in addition should hand in a separate three -four page argumentative essay solidly documented using MLA style with sources corresponding to the part of the argument contributed by that group member. The summary of this paper can be your forum presentation. In your oral presentation you will want to accompany this with effective visuals such as tables, graphs or charts, drawings or diagrams, maps; cartoons, photographs, overheads, graphics from the Web, videos, the use of Powerpoint, or a webpage.

Some possible directions: Whether or not you work with any of the topics noted below, your group could base your presentation on any of the critical perspectives reviewed in your packet.

1) You could as a group develop questionnaires to hand out to other students or report on the television-viewing preferences of college-age peers. In the age of television's "reality warp," is there an increasing interest in reality- based shows such as MTV's Real World, Survivor, and Big Brother?

2) Focus on the specific TV artifacts or shows by genre such as the game shows, soap operas, or situation comedies in your text or other forms such as talk shows, dating- game shows, tabloid news shows, detective shows, cartoons, and live police dramas. Analyze specific beliefs, actions, and relationships these shows encourage or study the psychological appeal or effect. For instance, does daytime talk television seriously distort, or even demean, the character of ordinary Americans? You can also research the increasing popularity of Japanese anime or the more unusual formats of "Bill Maher: Be More Cynical", "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2000", or "Chris Rock: Bigger and Blacker".

3) You could extend the reader-response approach by creating a possible world. In other words, what kind of world could you expect to encounter if one's knowledge were based on exposure to this show? What are the worlds, for example, of Will and Grace, Queer as Folk, Sex and the City, NYPD Blue, Ed, The Sopranos, Friends, Allie McBeal, Frasier, ER, or West Wing.

4) Does television influence our society's view of what families should be like? Josh Ozersky suggests that "TV has absorbed the American family's increasing sense of defeat and estrangement and presented it as an ironic in-joke". What about the Brady Bunch craze or the popularity of re-runs from 50s family shows? How, then, might That 70s show compare? You could also analyze Titus, Everybody Loves Raymond, Malcolm in the Middle, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, or South Park in light of this statement.

5) Robert Scholes in "On Reading a Video Text" implies that TV fulfills the role once reserved for the epic poem in ancient cultures, the romance in feudalism, or the novel in the bourgeois society; that is, these video texts confirm viewers in their ideological positions and reassure them as to their membership in a collective cultural body. Does a series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Star Trek, Hercules, Xena, or Dragon-BallZ accomplish this?

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IDORU RESEARCH ESSAY SUGGESTIONS AND PANEL DISCUSSION 1: IDORU

Due date: Idoru Research Essay due for every student on Tuesday, 7/30. This handout is also linked to the optional choice of cybernetics and Idoru for panel presentation 1 due Tuesday, 7/18.

Essay Requirements: 5-6 pages, 4-5 sources minimum. MLA format. You may create your own topic and focus related to Idoru but a few suggestions are noted below. In addition, feel free to email me or conference with me on a slant you find to be of interest but would like to simply check in on. Provide a reasonable and carefully documented argument using both internal evidence from the novel and academically sound external evidence of your choice. One huge question that the novel poses in a sense is how to maintain integrity as a work of human creation in the context of endless media manipulation. And, yes, what or who becomes a work of human creation? Another sound method in determining where to begin is to bounce off from another review or critique of Idoru. Do you disagree with, agree with, want to modify or amplify this stance? William Gibson's novels now are a hotbed of interest on many levels for academics. How is popular cultural theory renewed in this particular novel (as it is similarly renewed in a film like The Matrix, for example)? Ballard used to say that the future is a better guide to the present than the past. How does this science fiction novel register current anxieties about the Beast of Pop?

Requirements for the Panel: In a group of four-five you will give a 25-30 minute presentation including 5 minutes for a question and answer session; the formal presentation will be a synthesis of your ability to work in a small group, to research a topic, to make a strong oral presentation, and to lead a class discussion. Explore your group-selected focus by interviewing experts, preparing surveys, and analyzing trends. Observe the controversy implicit in the topic you have keyed in on. Provide a 2-3 page handout for each audience member (40) and prepare a discussion question on your section presented to facilitate further discussion. Each group member in addition should hand in a separate three -four page argumentative essay solidly documented using MLA style with sources corresponding to the part of the argument contributed by that group member. The summary of this paper can be your forum presentation. In your oral presentation you will want to accompany this with effective visuals such as tables, graphs or charts, drawings or diagrams, maps; cartoons, photographs, overheads, graphics from the Web, video, the use of Powerpoint, or a webpage from the World Wide Web.

Some possible directions: Whether or not you work with any of the topics noted below, your group could base your presentation on any of the critical perspectives on cyberculture reviewed in class.

1. Explore the emergence of the distinctive subculture of cyberpunks in the mid-1980s to early 1990s. How is this group portrayed in Idoru? (Or, do you feel that an entirely different type of computer user is explored in this novel? If so, what type of community is being formed on the Net?) Does the text now qualify as post-cyberpunk?

2. Are virtual communities the possible antidote to the decline in real communities in contemporary America as Internet enthusiasts suggest? Analyze the use of virtual communities in Idoru.

3. Expand your analysis of Gibson's work to include additional novels and stories-e.g., Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Burning Chrome or the sequel to Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties. What patterns of style and content has Gibson used to elevate himself to the status of "father of cyberpunk"? For example, look at Deleuze and Guattari's work on desiring machines. "Machines-R-Us," Gibson says, noting that we are quasi-machines.

4. Compare and contrast film adaptations of cyberpunk texts or culture in movies such as Johnnny Mnemonic, Hackers, The Matrix and The Fifth Element. Does transforming an apparently rebellious subculture into a profitable Hollywood product undermine the intent of cyberculture?

5. Analyze aspects of popular culture (taishu bunka)-- in Japan and discuss how these are reflected in Idoru. You might consider including Gibson's other work in this analysis, including the treatment of the Yakuza. Or you might look at the American implementation of the electronic geisha or karoke., the staging of androgyny, or the discourse of fan pathology (otaku). How does the use of Japanese language, motifs and material contribute to the portrayal of popular culture?

6. Explore the cult of celebrity in Idoru. How might this novel implicate the latest trends in fandom?

7. How does the rock star life of Rez suggest potentially the loss of identity and ritual in response to the needs of the political economy? Can the hyperreality of the idoru truly satisfy his own needs? Is her reality the realm of ongoing serial creation?

8. One of the aspects of popular culture theory recently has been a closer look at the ethics of historical truth. What does this novel suggest about the prevailing thinking and impact of media culture on our sense of history? In what ways does the media participate in history or replace it?

9. Explore copyright issues and the increasing enfranchisement of the net. Are there any real moneyless havens like Walled City left on our net today? You could cross reference Walter Benjamin's article and his ideas about mass-media proliferation.

10. Look at the increasingly profitable industry of the idoru-singers, "singers that don't exist" as Chia says (idoru 57), or at other forms of virtual celebrities. Hint: check out DK96 (Digital Kids 96) and Kyoko Date, a computer-rendered "idol" created by Horipro of Japan.

11. Analyze the almost pathological hyper-awareness paid to commodification throughout Idoru, looking particularly at the advertising techniques, for example.

12. According to Gibson, Hilfiger is a simulacrum of a simulacrum. You could look at the socially descriptive use of the language of fashion and in what ways fashion becomes virtual.

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PANEL DISCUSSION 2: ADVERTISING

Due date: Tuesday 7/30

Requirements: In a group of four-five you will give a 25-30 minute presentation including 5 minutes for a question and answer session; the formal presentation will be a synthesis of your ability to work in a small group, to research a topic, to make a strong oral presentation, and to lead a class discussion. Explore your group-selected focus by interviewing experts, preparing surveys, and analyzing trends. Observe the controversy implicit in the topic you have keyed in on. Provide a 2-3 page handout for each audience member (40) and prepare a discussion question on your section presented to facilitate further discussion. Each group member in addition should hand in a separate three -four page argumentative essay solidly documented using MLA style with sources corresponding to the part of the argument contributed by that group member. The summary of this paper can be your forum presentation. In your oral presentation you will want to accompany this with effective visuals such as tables, graphs or charts, drawings or diagrams, maps; cartoons, photographs, overheads, graphics from the Web, video, the use of Powerpoint, or a webpage.

Some possible directions: Whether or not you work with any of the topics noted below, your group could base your presentation on any of the critical perspectives reviewed in your packet.

1) You could collect international magazines as a group and explore the viability of Chapkis' contention that the Western model of beauty has become the standardized or "global" ideal. What other standards may be in fashion? You could underly this argument with a closer investigation into the loosening of the hegemonic hold of the U. S. on advertising or popular culture globally.

2) Wanda Coleman in "Say It Ain't Cool, Joe" states her opinion as an African-American critic that Joe Camel's image has had a detrimental impact on inner-street black youth. More recently, the Navajo tribe is sueing because of the documented effect on Native American youth who are at greater risk than any other group at the moment. You could pursue the current controversies with cigarette companies about the shading of metonymy under similar circumstances. What has Joe Camel been replaced by to foster growth in the industry?

3) Explore the semiotics of the populist appeal in advertising as Jack Solomon begins to do. (See me for article.) What might work for the Portland region? How clever are the Columbia Gear ads or the recent changes in the GAP ads, for instance? How does current fiction, such as Douglas Coupland's Microserfs, parody the Gap?

4) Look at magazines aimed at younger audiences--Rolling Stone, Seventeen, or Spy. How many of these ads are designed to appeal to "rebel" consumers? T. C. Frank refers to this as "the commodity of dissent." Do you feel that these ads ironically promote a "Borg collective" community?

5) Explore an ad campaign with a series in different decades. One critic states, "What we identify with in an ad five years ago may be completely out of sync with who we are now." Do you agree or disagree? The Nike or Nissan ads might be a good place to start.

6) Check out Advertising Age and the spoofs on Superbowl ads. You could analyze both postmodern ads that parody but still want to draw customers and the real Adbusters who want to undermine commercials' power to influence their readers through culture-jamming.

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PANEL DISCUSSION 2 0R 3: FILM

Due date: Tuesday 7/30 or Thursday 8/8.

Requirements for the Panel: In a group of four you will give a 25-30 minute presentation including 5 minutes for a question and answer session; the formal presentation will be a synthesis of your ability to work in a small group, to research a topic, to make a strong oral presentation, and to lead a class discussion. Explore your group-selected focus by interviewing experts, preparing surveys, and analyzing trends. Observe the controversy implicit in the topic you have keyed in on. Provide a 2-3 page handout for each audience member (40) and prepare a discussion question on your section presented to facilitate further discussion. Each group member in addition should hand in a separate three -four page argumentative essay solidly documented using MLA style with sources corresponding to the part of the argument contributed by that group member. The summary of this paper can be your forum presentation. In your oral presentation you will want to accompany this with effective visuals such as tables, graphs or charts, drawings or diagrams, maps; cartoons, photographs, overheads, video, graphics from the Web, the use of Powerpoint, or a webpage.

Some possible directions: Whether or not you work with any of the topics noted below, your group could base your presentation on any of the critical perspectives on film reviewed in your packet.

1. Explore hit movies that seem to spawn or reflect popular fads or interests--e.g., Hannibal the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs or other serial killer series such as The Cell and its virtual reality and the subconscious, Fight Club and its employment of cyborg schizophrenia; Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and the emphasis on new forms of literacy; X-Files: The Movie or any other movie that taps into our collective (un) consciousness regarding the extraterrrestrials; Blade and roleplaying games such as Vampire: The Masquerade; The Truman Show and the media infiltration of our daily lives.

2. Explore American pop myths in films such as American Beauty or the Star Wars series; consider Joseph Campbell's discussion of myth.

3. To Spike Lee, cultural representations are neither completely positive nor completely realistic but instead often fall somewhere in between. Analyze this element in his films such as Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, and Malcolm X.

4. Do you agree with Denby that foreign films rarely match the spectacular scope and special effects of Hollywood's products? He additionally argues that Americans nonetheless should be more open minded about such films and should learn to appreciate the smaller, more intimate style of European pictures like Bergman's Fanny and Alexander. You may wish to expand this discussion to include films from non-European cultures including Japan and India, for instance.

5. Experiment with film contextual criticism (whether by the same director, of the same genre, or from the same studio). For instance, you could analyze the films of Quentin Tarantino, Jim Jarmusch, John Woo, or of the Cohen brothers. You could also analyze Oregon's own off-beat cinema as reflected in the work of Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting or the more recent Finding Forrester), Will Vinton, Bill Plymton, or Joan Graz.

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PANEL DISCUSSION 3: MUSIC

Due date: Thursday 8/8

Requirements: In a group of four you will give a 25-30 minute presentation including 5 minutes for a question and answer session; the formal presentation will be a synthesis of your ability to work in a small group, to research a topic, to make a strong oral presentation, and to lead a class discussion. Explore your group-selected focus by interviewing experts, preparing surveys, and analyzing trends. Observe the controversy implicit in the topic you have keyed in on. Provide a 2-3 page handout for each audience member (40) and prepare a discussion question on your section presented to facilitate further discussion. Each group member in addition should hand in a separate three -four page argumentative essay solidly documented in the MLA style with sources corresponding to the part of the argument contributed by that group member. The summary of this paper can be your forum presentation. In your oral presentation you will want to accompany this with effective visuals such as tables, graphs or charts, drawings or diagrams, maps; cartoons, photographs, overheads, video, graphics from the Web, the use of Powerpoint, or a Web page.

Start referencing in the better scholarly directions such as The Journal of Popular Culture, Popular Music and Society, America's Musical Pulse: Popular Music in Twentieth Century Society edited by Kenneth J. Bindas, World Music, Politics, and Social Change: Papers from the International Association for the Study of Popular Music edited by Simon Firth, and Performing Rites: on the Value of Popular Music by Simon Firth. Feel free to experiment with the Web or the Newsstand for musical reviews as well. Be sure to give yourself ample time to listen and jot down impressions of song lyrics that can become part of your prewriting.

Some possible directions: Whether or not you work with any of the topics noted below, your group could use any of the critical perspectives in your packet.

1) Are musical lyrics viable poetry? Do you as a group tend to agree with Allan Bloom that the state of more cultivated music becomes poetry "as reason emerges"? How about Bloom's contention that the highest and most developed forms are religious, warlike, or erotic? You could work with various definitions of metaphor.

2) You could employ percentile norms and numerical values as your data or research strategy in determining gender distinctions, etc. (See me for sample articles of this nature.) Has popular music contributed to reducing or perpetuating sexism, racism, or a predisposition toward violence? You might choose to look at the recent controversy with Eminem's choice of language.

3) Evaluate the way a popular musical movement is constructed by televised media, especially MTV. Gregory Ulmer's Heuretics: The Logic of Invention is a good starting point. He suggests a bursting through the barriers of linear thinking with sound and image and a new electronic literacy that requires more study. A fictional treatise on this is Bruce Sterling's "We See Things Differently."

4) You could experiment with treating song lyrics as postcolonial pieces. This can vary from the poetics of exile to "ghettocentrism" to grim lyrics of political and economic refugees. A parodic repetition of imperialism that sets itself specifically in opposition to the interpellative power of colonialism is the key to metropolitan postcolonial theory. George Lipsitz says of Mexican rock originating in Los Angeles that there is a stylistic multiplicity in its blending of Mexican street song, Latin-American rhythms and instrumentals together with blues and rock and roll melody. The ambiguity, juxtaposition, and irony make them more appropriate spokesmen "then mainstream groups unable to fathom or address causes of their alienation." Multiple marginality only expands the rock and roll territory in this sense.

5) Jean Baudrillard suggests that "the map no longer precedes the territory" so that there now is room in the postmodern era for a blending of both genres and eras in music and fashion. Beck in The Rolling Stone Jan.10, 1997 edition describes his artistic interest in this frame of mind. Do you feel that there are other current artists that express this postmodern tenet of bricolage?

6) Simon Frith discusses the "antiromanticism" of rock, or the refusal in punk music "to allow sexuality to be constructed as a commodity" as well as the reflection of gay consciousness in disco music. You could also analyze the camp of songs like those of Frankie Goes to Hollywood from earlier decades or explore disco's periodic revival and the ironic appropriation of disco for nostalgic or "retro" ends.

7) Commercialization is always a concern as Neil Young has pointed out. You could explore the canonization of 1960s rock music with its rebellious insurgence and the incorporation of the culture industry in the 1970s. Or you could deconstruct a band like Rage Against the Machine as does Crowley (See me for this article.) by arguing that it may not be entirely sincere in its self-construction and that its politics may ultimately be nothing more than canny packaging.

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PANEL DISCUSSION 4: SPORTS, LEISURE, FADS AND FASHION, & APPROPRIATION OF CULTURE

Due Date: Thursday 8/15

Requirements: In a group of four-five you will give a 25-30 minute presentation including 5 minutes for a question and answer session; the formal presentation will be a synthesis of your ability to work in a small group, to research a topic, to make a strong oral presentation, and to lead a class discussion. Explore your group-selected focus by interviewing experts, preparing surveys, and analyzing trends. Observe the controversy implicit in the topic you have keyed in on. Provide a 2-3 page handout for each audience member (40) and prepare a discussion question on your section presented to facilitate further discussion. Each group member in addition should hand in a separate three -four page argumentative essay solidly documented using MLA style with sources corresponding to the part of the argument contributed by that group member. The summary of this paper can be your forum presentation. In your oral presentation you will want to accompany this with effective visuals such as tables, graphs or charts, drawings or diagrams, maps; cartoons, photographs, overheads, graphics from the Web, the use of Powerpoint, video, or a webpage.

Some possible directions:

1) Sports. Are sports "ritualistic enactments of the American dream" as Schrank argues? You could attend a local sporting event and use a video camera to capture the context and behavior of the fans. Or you might want to compose a brief biography of an athlete, focusing on the kind of role model he or she is. Roland Barthes' article on professional wrestling or Bahktin's sense of the carnivalesque could be easily integrated with some of the more humorous moments spliced together in video of wrestling matches, for example. On a more serious note, why not check out Kate Rounds' contention that too many gender inequities still exist in the world of professional sports? Berger provocatively suggests, "People seem to have a need for myth, ritual, mystery, and heroism, and football, perhaps more than religion in contemporary societies, is helping people satisfy these needs."

2) Leisure. The homo ludens quality of our society has often been commented on, but some critics suggest that we may have lost much of our leisure time. You could tackle this on the general level and decide whether critics gravitate toward or key in on a much more specific area such as the rash of computer games now available on the market. Embarking on statistical studies of video games and computer games is an exciting and open field. If you are interested in this direction, see me for a copy of Barbara Kantrowitz's article on "Men, Women, Computers". Her feminist study suggests that cyberspace too may have just as many gender conflicts as does the Real World. James Gorman feels that playing video games may contribute to the "Ramboization of America" or the glorification of violence. Do amusement parks offer the excitement, play, fantasy, stimulation, and danger that Schafer is concerned about? Why not concretize this with a study of the selected parks' collectibles as well? Tables and charts lend themselves nicely to an analysis of time spent in actual leisure. It might be interesting to compare college students' leisure activities with those of non-students of a similar age. Or you could explore two distinct geographical areas such as Portland and Los Angeles to see what distinctions might exist. Are there differences in terms of gender, age, class, ethnicity, or geographical location? Or, finally, you could evaluate Schor's worry that with the imbalance of work, leisure, and consumerism, time may be valued only in terms of money.

3) Fads and Fashion: Frederic Jameson has redefined current history and cultural postmodernism as a "flat present without depth or extension, in which styles and histories circulate interchangeably." The fashion industry has become connected to the rock industry and provides one of the best examples of the elastic "saleability" of the cultural past with its regular recyclings of its own history in the form of revivals and remakes, come backs and cover versions. You could analyze fashions in light of a musical trend following this pattern or observe how accurate you feel this statement is. Check into Roland Barthes' "The Fashion System", which was the first sustained attempt to understand the workings of fashion as a language with its own rules and structures. Wollen suggests a significant link between Russian ballet and punk. Faurschow comments, "Fashion is the logic of planned obsolescence--not just the necessity for market survival, but the cycle of desire itself. Frozen in the mirror of the media-scape, we gaze forever at our suspended moment of flight." You could work with street-style and the origins or popularity of gang fashion, grunge, or goth.

4) Appropriation of Culture: In one sense as you explore this avenue of thought with its post-colonial ramifications, your group may opt to select concrete popular cultural artifacts of any type as long as you feel it clearly demonstrates this concept. In effect, you are studying the capacity of a mainstream form of popular culture to articulate alternative plural cultural identities of groups belonging to the margins of national or dominant cultures. Often you may find accompanied with the mainstream appropriation the celebration of the principles of parody, pastiche, stylistic multiplicity, and generic mobility. For instance, Dick Hebdige critically weighs Caribbean music and notes that the importance of the styles of sca, dub, rap, and hip-hop are the opportunities they give for affirmation of the cultural identity of subordinated social group in the West Indies and Britain. Angela MacRobbie argues for the cultural potency of camp, or the art of pastiche, in the work of pop musicians like Frankie Goes to Hollywood. This analysis clearly is dated! Think of current examples of pop musicians whom you can approach on these grounds. Can there be a dominance of multiple marginality, as Connor argues, in contemporary rock music? That is, does contemporary capitalist culture promote or multiply difference in the interest of maintaining its profit structure? See Bruce Sterling's short story "We See Things Differently" for an example of this direction. You could also explore this subject through an analysis of advertisements that attempt to multiply a difference. When does the alleged outsider become the representative "spokesperson" for society? When, for example, did cyberpunks and cyberhackers become mainstream prototypes of cyber enthusiasts? See Phillip Elmer-DeWitt's approval of "cyperpunk culture" and postmodern heroes such as R. U. Sirius.

Be creative and have fun!