Task 1: Analysing an Assemblage

The core idea for this entire semester will be that of 'the assemblage.' This comes from the reading by Georgina Born from Week 2. The main use of the idea for us in analytical. Born argues that music must be understood as part of larger social, technological, and historical forces that shape how it sounds, how it owrk, how it is use,d and how it is experienced. Therefore, a key issue in this subject is the ways in which changes in the television, film and music industries have changed the ways in which music is used in various visual media. The goal of this assessment is to connect the aesthetics of a particular use of music to the larger ‘industrial’ context in which it appears. To this end, your task in this assessment will be to connect one incidence of the use of popular music in a television show or advertisement with the larger social, technological, and historical forces and concerns that might have influenced the use of that music. There are circuits that link a media production to the song, artist, and viewer. These links don't merely shape the meanings and experiences of the music, they produce them.

Task 2: Musical Media Analysis

Your task will be to analyse the use, function and meaning of popular music in a media production of your own choosing. The goal will be to analyse the use of one or two popular songs in particular scenes from a film or television show or documentary or video game and explain the role those songs play in the contexts in which they appear. You will need to apply the relevant analytic concepts presented in class and display some fluency with both the visual and musical methods of analysis used in lectures and tutorials.

Task 3: Listening and Viewing Quizzes

The two listening and viewing quizzes will consist of one question about one film or video clip in which popular music is used. These will be presented in tutorial. Each clip will be very similar to those we have studied either in lecture or tutorial. Your goal will be to briefly and concisely explain what the music is doing in the clip and what interpretation might be ascribed to the music in specific relation to the narrative, visual or informational content of the clip. There will be a total of four quizzes.

Task 4: Final Project

Your final project will be an extensive and detailed analysis of the use of music in film, television, video game or online multimedia production. You will need to develop a thesis, argument or research question and support your question or argument with evidence drawn from a range of sources. The goal will be to explain the aesthetic, social and industrial (or economic) connections between the music in use and the programs or video games or films in which it has been presented.

Class Participation

You are required to attend weekly lectures and tutorials. A ‘satisfactory’ record of attendance’ is an absolute pre-requisite for passing this unit of study. ‘Satisfactory’ requires you to attend a minimum of 20 hours of lectures and 10 tutorials. Unless written evidence of illness or misadventure is supplied, students who attend less than this will lose marks. Students who miss 5 class sessions will fail outright.