Post-tasks from class.

A) Having read the article "How Older Viewers Are Rescuing Cinema" I will answer the next questions:

• How does the article characterizes the link between audience, film production, distribution and exhibition?
• Well since the audience that likes going to the movies has aged, the production had to age as well, mature and adapt to what the consumer wants. The film production had to target what the people want to see and dwell on it. raising the quality definitively helped as the mature audience is able to recognize it. 
• Do the films enjoyed by older audiences reinforce or challenge traditional stereotypes about this group?
• Well in my opinion, it reinforces, stereotypes after all are averages of what is notices. Older people have different needs and likes. I'm not into things that 10 years ago were super important to myself. As we grow we evolve and mature and change. It's human nature to adapt and to change. Change is a constant in our development. The cinema industry has to adapt to the changes that people go through. If the paying customers want more spacious seats with better customer service and are willing to pay for it, then they do it. Just like in Mexico we have the VIP rooms where you pay way more, but you get a super comfortable reclinable sofa, a side table, you have waiters and there's a lot of space in between the rows, no more being blocked by the tall guy sitting in front of you. Nowadays, you go to the movies to live and experience, not only to watch a movie. You can watch a 3d movie at home just the same. But the experience is what sells now. Good that they notice and make movies that appeal to that audience.

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B) Videos from Madonna and David Bowie.

• How does gender influence the representation of the artists?
• Well on the Madonna case, very obviously it represents the sexual exploitation. The video is very sexual and it appeals to the phrase that "sex sells". As the singer in this case is female (even though she is very old) she is still represented as the desirable object. In the case of Bowie, heck i still don't know what to make of it. It's very neutral. They don't try to sell the idea of him being desirable, after all he is just a weird plush in front of a parade of random kitsch stuff.
• Is genre playing a part in the representation?
• Most definitely. The "pop" genre is very well know for appealing to the mass audiences and selling sex. It's right there in that alley. It shows exactly what in my mind "pop" is, and reminds me of how/why I don't like it.
• Are we likely to discuss these artists in the same terms?
• I don't know about likely, I would assume not, as the subjective view from me and you might be very different. I don't particularly like the style, nor the execution of this kind of music, therefore I would be unable to give an objective critical view on it. If YOU like it, you are entitled to your own opinion and likes, I can live with that, no problem. Just because you like it (and defend what you like about it) doesn't mean you have to convert me into your way of thinking, same goes for what i like. I don't like sexualized music that just talks about how "cool" you are for being wild and crazy. I like my music to be something more and different.

Now for some extra input from me:

Madonna. Girl? Girl gone wild? isn't she like 70? I can say that the two things i could think while seeing the guys with high heels was 1) omg they are talented on high heels, i should be so lucky, and 2) Satyrs anyone?

On a side note. Holy macaroons Batman! Bowie has gone even further away from the Goblin King. It's like a kitsch cemetery of doom met high level drugs. Oh wow.  

I'm embarrassed at watching these videos. I certainly didn't want to be caught watching them. Who watches these? Why? Is this why humanity sucks so badly?

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C) Perform a textual analysis of an official music video of your own choosing.

Always with scary looking Eddy pictures.

This is the video I will be analyzing: It is Iron Maiden's "The Final Frontier" Song.

I'm stranded in space, I'm lost without trace

I haven't a chance of getting away

Too close to the sun, I surely will burn

Like Icarus before me or so legend goes

I think of my life, reliving the past

There's nothing but wait 'til my time comes

I've had a good life, I'd do it again

Maybe I'll come back some time, my friends

For I have lived my life to the full

I have no regrets

But I wish I could talk to my family

To tell them one last goodbye

The final frontier

The final frontier

The final frontier

The final frontier

If I could survive to live one more time

I wouldn't be changing a thing at all

Done more in my life than some do in ten

I'd go back and do it all over again

For I have lived my life to the full

I have no regrets

But I wish I could talk to my family

And tell them that one last goodbye

The final frontier [x4]

[Guitar solo]

There isn't much time, must say my last rites

Nobody is here to read them to me

Must say my goodbyes, if only a line

A message to tell them in case they might find

For I have lived my life to the full

I have no regrets

But I wish I could talk to my family

To tell them that one last goodbye

The final frontier, the final frontier [x2]

• What is the musical genre and how can you identify it?
• First of all, I'm pretty sure Iron Maiden might be one of the most iconic Heavy Metal bands. Just like Madonna is the queen of Pop. But in case someone doesn't know, the music is characterized by using a lot of distortion in the guitars (check), usually songs have guitar solos (check) and are fast paced (check). The theme of a lot of metal songs go beyond just "girls having fun" or "where the hell am I?" Also the portrait of the albums tend to go along the lines of monsters or other aggressive types.
• What world view is being put forward in the song/video?
• Well, it's showing the ... alien world overview, a hyper-space window, the wastelands of the planet and... Ok in all seriousness, I think it's portraying some very human aspects. 
• The arrogance of mankind that they are above others. He is facing another mercenary and racing him towards the planet. He shoots down the other ship and assumes that Eddy would not survive. This same arrogance is presented when he leaves the station and heads back to his ship after blowing up the tunnel. "For sure Eddy died this time"
• Human exploration. We humans are natural explorers, lonely adventurers that most likely in the future will venture into space and explore it's secrets.
• Ignorance and assumptions. Eddy assumes that by having the key and relic he will he able to control what it does. Ignorance is not bliss, He shouldn't meddle with what he doesn't understand. He blew up the planet and the ship he was on along it. These two traits are very human too, but in this case the director showed how Eddy (presumably of another race) shows similar traits.
• In the end it also leaves a question open, did Eddy survived? Intriguing. 

In this particular case, the song tells a story. By reading just the lyrics you might take it literally (as it was intended i presume) and say the character is in a spaceship and is living his last moments as he approaches the deadly radiation zone of a star. He looks back at his life and is content with how he lived it. He accepts his impending demise and waits gracefully for his end. Not a bad way to go. 

What I love most of this song, and why i chose this one for the analysis, was because of the video. The video shows the story of how the character ended up drifting towards a star. How he travels to another planet and fights Eddy (who might be a mercenary looking for the same artifact) and how in the end he is jettisoned out of his ship into space. The song is the last thoughts in his mind before fading into nothingness.

It is something that i love about metal, the storytelling. Even though the lyrics go one way, the visual story is showing you something else. In this case another part of the same story.

Anyhow, even my toddler approves! He was one year old and instinctively learned how to headbang, and also did this funny sideways dance when he started walking. Makes his mama proud :D