Department: Popular Culture ![[clear]](close-x.png "Remove this limiter")
55 matches in the database.
These are records: 1 - 30.
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1.
Ahern, Sean Xavier.
The Clash and Mass Media Messages from The Only Band That Matters.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2012, Bowling Green State University
► This thesis analyzes the music of the British punk rock band The…
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▼ This thesis analyzes the music of the British punk rock band The Clash through the use of media imagery in popular music in an effort to inform listeners of contemporary news items. I propose to look at the punk rock band The Clash not solely as a first wave English punk rock band but rather as a “news-giving” group as presented during their interview on the Tom Snyder show in 1981. I argue that the band’s use of communication metaphors and imagery in their songs and album art helped to communicate with their audience in a way that their contemporaries were unable to. Broken down into four chapters, I look at each of the major releases by the band in chronological order as they progressed from a London punk band to a globally known popular rock act. Viewing The Clash as a “news giving” punk rock band that inundated their lyrics, music videos and live performances with communication images, The Clash used their position as a popular act to inform their audience, asking them to question their surroundings and “know your rights.”
Advisors/Committee Members: Wallach, Jeremy.
Subjects: Communication; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Music
Keywords: BGSU
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2.
Aslaksen, Matthew J.
MIDDLE CLASS MUSIC IN SUBURBAN NOWHERE LAND: EMO AND THE PERFORMANCE OF MASCULINITY.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2006, Bowling Green State University
► Emo is an emotional form that attracts a great deal of ridicule…
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▼ Emo is an emotional form that attracts a great deal of ridicule from much of the punk and indie music communities. Emo is short for “emotional punk” or “emotional hardcore,” but because of the amount of evolution it has undergone it has become a very difficult genre to define. This genre is well known for its almost whiny sound and its preoccupation with relationship problems and emotional instability. As a result, it is seen by many within the more underground music community as an inauthentic emotionally indulgent form of music. Emo has also very recently become a form that has gained widespread mainstream media appeal with bands such as Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, and My Chemical Romance. It is generally consumed by a younger teenaged to early college audience, and it is largely performed by suburban middle class artists. Overall, I have argued that emo represents challenge to conventional norms of hegemonic middle-class masculinity, a challenge which has come about as a result of feelings of discontent with the emotional repression of this masculinity. In this work I have performed multiple interviews that include both performers and audience members who participate in this type of music. The questions that I ask the subjects of my ethnographic research focus on the meaning of this particular performance to both the audience and performers. In an attempt to further clarify the meaning of this form of expression, I draw upon the works of gender theorists such as Judith Butler R.W. Connell as well as several popular music theorists such as Mimi Schippers. Overall I hope to show the greater significance of emo as a shift in masculine expression by that is very thoroughly based in the middle class.
Advisors/Committee Members: Wallach, Jeremy.
Subjects: Music
Keywords: punk music, emo music, masculinity, popular music
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3.
Barak, Katie Sullivan.
Reading, Writing, and Reality TV: Encouraging Media Literacy and Critical Thinking in American Classrooms Through Popular Culture.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2009, Bowling Green State University
► In this thesis, Katie Barak explored critical thinking, media literacy, and the…
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▼ In this thesis, Katie Barak explored critical thinking, media literacy, and the current education system in America. Critical thinking is a navigating tool that helps probe deeper into messages and question standardized ways of thinking. Considering the onslaught of messages beamed toward individuals on a daily basis, it is important that future generations be able to question, analyze, and evaluate messages. Critical thinking helps students not only probe the messages they receive, but also study their own ways of thinking, personal biases, and judgments.Finding a method to teach critical thinking skills in secondary education is extremely important. Barak developed an intervention that furthers critical thinking and promotes media literacy, but also adheres to the benchmarks established by No Child Left Behind. The first chapter focused on the definitions of media literacy, the legislation of No Child Left Behind, and the critically thoughtful classroom. The second chapter researched teachers already combining critical thinking and media literacy within the No Child Left Behind system through personal interviews. Barak used the definition of media literacy developed in the first chapter and the teacher feedback from the second, to inform the intervention. The third chapter outlined Emerald Lens, the proposed website intervention between media literacy and No Child Left Behind. Through Emerald Lens, Barak aimed to encourage critical thinking through a website that focuses on media literacy, while adhering to current education policy.
Advisors/Committee Members: Motz, Marilyn.
Subjects: Education
Keywords: Media literacy; education; No Child Left Behind; web-based education
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4.
Barker, Cory Andrew.
Genre Welcome?: Formula, Genre and Branding in USA Network's Programming and Promotional Content.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2012, Bowling Green State University
► In the fragmented post-network era of television, networks are looking for any…
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▼ In the fragmented post-network era of television, networks are looking for any advantage in attracting audiences. One way networks try to draw attention is through branding. Branding helps networks stand out among the hundreds of other choices, but can also link all of a network's programming under one carefully-crafted theme. When viewers access a network's content from numerous devices, it is crucial that each experience evokes similar images, styles and themes. It is my assertion that cable giant USA Network has succeeded with its branding campaign like no other contemporary television network. By combining a programming formula of blue skies, cool cases and pretty faces with thematically-connected branding under the “Characters Welcome” label, USA Network and its structurally formulaic programs are activated into a new genre of television. This activation from formula into genre is accomplished narratively, thematically and aesthetically within the programs themselves, but is primarily driven by the commodification of those narratives, themes and aesthetics through an overarching branding campaign (television spots, on-screen chyrons, print ads, web sites, Tweets, various other intertextual directives) that promises diverting, but not mindless, fare. The brand emphasizes escapism and inclusivity through sunshine-drenched imagery and a laid-back, summertime ideology. Using Jason Mittell suggestion television genres exist as “cultural categories” created through discourse, this thesis discusses how USA Network exists as a generic category shaped by branding and how critics and audiences embrace and acknowledge that generic category.
Advisors/Committee Members: Brown, Dr. Jeff.
Subjects: Aesthetics; African Studies; American Studies; Art Criticism; Cinematography; Communication; Film Studies; Marketing; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Multimedia Communications
Keywords: Popular Culture; Television; USA Network; Contemporary Television; Branding; Media Industries; Advertising; Genre; Characters Welcome, USA Network Characters; Television Studies; Promotions; Television Promotions; Burn Notice; Psych
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5.
Batra-Wells, Puja.
One Nation, Under Arugula: The Obama White House Kitchen Garden as Cultural Display and Pedagogy.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2010, Bowling Green State University
► In this thesis, I seek to excavate the social, economic and cultural…
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▼ In this thesis, I seek to excavate the social, economic and cultural implications of the Obama kitchen garden. The analysis presented here views the Obama kitchen garden as a cultural display. It is a display that utilizes exhibitionary strategies in a museal tradition to organize public knowledge about healthful nutrition and ecological living. My central contention is that the White House garden functions like an artifact in a museum setting and that it represents a pedagogic project that seeks to improve the bio-political competencies of the national viewing public. Through a museological lens, I explore the rationality, rhetoric and repercussions proffered by the symbolism of this 1100 square foot vegetable patch. In the first chapter, I examine the logic behind the garden as a function of liberal governmentality. The second chapter looks back into the annals of American history to explore the mythic construction of the idea of the garden so as to render knowable how the symbolism of the Obama garden recalls an agrarian mythos. In the final chapter, I examine the class politics associated with the “grow your own food” movement with a view to expose discourses that destabilize the garden's pedagogic project.
Advisors/Committee Members: Motz, Marilyn.
Subjects: American studies; Museums
Keywords: White House; Kitchen Garden; Obama; Food; Agriculture; Museum; Display; Pedagogy
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6.
Bavlnka, Timothy.
Superheroes and Shamanism: Magic and Participation in the Comics of Grant Morrison.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2011, Bowling Green State University
► Comic creator Grant Morrison is an adamant practitioner of magic, and in…
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▼ Comic creator Grant Morrison is an adamant practitioner of magic, and in particular, the creation of sigils. A sigil is the infusion of abstract symbols with the goal to make manifest the creator’s particular desire. This thesis will discuss how Grant Morrison infuses his writing with his particular beliefs in an attempt to bridge the gap between fictional stories and reality. Morrison openly discusses the shamanic events in his life and writes about superheroes undertaking similar metaphysical journeys. As Morrison’s magic and the medium of comics allow the reader to become more easily “lost” within a fictional world, the relationship of fiction and the reader becomes increasingly malleable. This relationship of fiction and reality may seem abstract, but the comics support the connection by including the concept of textualization – where the reader associates himself or herself with the protagonist, becoming part of the narrative. The post-structural nature of Morrison’s work allows for a unique relationship between the author, diegetic worlds and readers. The stories become participatory events, engaging the reader and the comic community. Readers participate with his texts on extremely personal and intricate levels, and through their group analysis, they discover new interpretations and secrets within the comic panels. The purpose of Morrison’s comics develops as his relationship with magic grows. Readers experience his early experimentations with creating magical narratives and see them change to constructed fictional world for readers to journey into, where they are able to take on the heroic qualities of Superman.
Advisors/Committee Members: Brown, Jeffrey.
Subjects: Literature
Keywords: Comic Books; Literary Theory; Shamanism; Magic; Grant Morrison; Sigils; Textualization; Heath Ledger; Joker; Post-Structuralism; Heteroglossia; Participative Thinking; Superman; 4chan; Thiem; Derrida; Bakhtin; ludic reading; DC; hypercrisis
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7.
Blanding, Cristen Celeste.
Interracial Romance Novels and the Resolution of Racial Difference.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2005, Bowling Green State University
► This thesis is a study of the emerging subgenre of category romance…
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▼ This thesis is a study of the emerging subgenre of category romance novels that depict interracial relationships, specifically relationships between black women and white men. Employing textual analysis of twenty-six novels published from 1995-2005, by romance publishers such as Harlequin, Silhouette, and Genesis Press, and situating them as category romance novels targeted towards a black female audience and written by black female authors, this study argues that these novels constitute a new subgenre, and that the conventions and themes that are common to these novels conceptualize racial difference as the most salient issue in the depiction of interracial romantic relationships, while simultaneously arguing that romantic love is fundamentally apolitical.
Advisors/Committee Members: Motz, Marilyn.
Keywords: Romance novels; Gender; Race; Whiteness; African-Americans; Textual Analysis; Popular Literature; Feminist Analysis
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8.
Blasingim, Kerry G.
HERO MYTHS IN JAPANESE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2006, Bowling Green State University
► The Purpose of this text is to examine the cultural mythologies present…
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▼ The Purpose of this text is to examine the cultural mythologies present in Japanese console role-playing games as they are transliterated for American audiences in an effort to understand how these texts might influence notions of identity in contemporary Western culture. Specifically, this text is concerned with the way these games play out the conflict between traditional cultural values and posthumanity in a postmodern context; the narrative elements of Japanese RPGs seem to be deployed in an effort to problematize any relationship between the posthuman and the heroic, and the gameworlds reflect this demonization and Othering of posthumanity. Specific texts will be examined in the context of the traditional narrative elements which they employ, including various Japanese myths, legends, and narratives, in hopes of exploring not only the loaded comparison these games make between traditional Japanese heroism and posthumanism but also between Japanese and American notions of the heroic. Finally, this text will attempt to combine the theories of ludology, narratology, and folklore for the study of digital games, an approach uncommon in this highly factious discipline.
Advisors/Committee Members: Motz, Marilyn.
Keywords: GAMES; RPGs; Tidus; Cecil; Final Fantasy; player; narrative
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9.
Blitz, Brian.
Blood, Birth, Imagination: Ethnic Nationalism and South Korean Popular Culture.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2009, Bowling Green State University
► This thesis examines ethnic nationalism in South Korea through four case studies…
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▼ This thesis examines ethnic nationalism in South Korea through four case studies in popular culture. My central argument is that the state government of South Korea mobilizes popular sentiment around hegemonic notions of national and ethnic belonging, creating a Korean imagined community that encourages members to accept the state as sole arbiter of their identity. Koreans are encouraged to read both past and present from the perspective of particular ideological positions which favor the socio-political status quo. Chapter One examines actress Lee Young-ae in the context of the “Korean Wave” and national branding. Lee Young-ae is a “state celebrity” in whose body the dual discourses of ethnic purity and national advancement synergistically advance. Chapter Two involves discourse analysis of Hines Ward's 2005 trip to South Korea after winning the Super Bowl MVP title; while American news outlets Orientalize this self-proclaimed “Korean African-American,” in South Korea he is reappropriated, demonstrating how certain mythic and blood based notions of national belonging can be advanced in the process. In my third chapter, I critically examine the Seodaemun Prison History Museum. Here, interactive displays encourage children to make real the bloody history of Japanese colonization while leveraging their antagonism towards a reviled Japanese Other in the present. In Chapter Four, I study a children's art display dealing with a territorial dispute between Korea and Japan. Students at Gyeyang Middle School drew pictures about Dokdo, a pair of islands claimed by both countries, and their work was displayed in a Seoul subway station. These images depict state sanctioned violence committed upon an abject Japanese Other. Historical injustices inform notions of national belonging, defining Korean identity as that which is not Japanese. Finally, in my conclusion I examine how the global economic crisis may affect Korean ethnic nationalism in the years to come.
Advisors/Committee Members: Rudisill, Kristen.
Subjects: Cultural anthropology
Keywords: South Korea; Popular Culture; Ethnic Nationalism; Lee Young-ae; Hines Ward; Seodaemun; Dokdo
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10.
Boggs, April R.
No Chick Flick Moments: 'Supernatural' as a Masculine Narrative.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2009, Bowling Green State University
► This thesis examines the CW Network series Supernatural (hereafter SPN) as a…
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▼ This thesis examines the CW Network series Supernatural (hereafter SPN) as a revitalized masculine text. SPN as a masculine narrative is representative of 21st century conceptions of gender. Part of why it succeeds on the CW (a network aimed at 18 to 34-year-old women) is because it does not adhere to stringent binary thinking on gender. The show has only two main characters, brothers Sam and Dean Winchester, both of whom are meant to be all-American blue collar heroes. Though they are based in this traditional masculine image what sets the brothers apart is the way SPN has updated this very image to apply to contemporary mores. The first chapter examines the brothers’ roots in traditional heroic masculinity, applying a structuralist method of analysis to determine the heroic and narrative forms being used. Axel Olrik’s Epic Laws of Folk Narrative establish the dual-hero narrative tradition from which SPN is derived. Next, I dissect each brother’s individual narrative, utilizing Jan de Vries’ classical hero pattern for Sam and my own traits of the “new American folk hero” for Dean. Continuing in my effort to link the brothers to their traditional roots, I use examples from both folk and popular culture to show the progression of the two hero types in American culture. In the second chapter I explore the genre of SPN and how it affects the presentation of masculinity in the series. The main genre of the series is that of the road narrative and thus my discussion of genre is framed by an exploration of the road narrative. By using the road narrative as the basis of my discussion I am able to discuss the inclusion of conventions from other genres hybridized within the show such as dramatic themes and character positioning while maintaining a consistent structural base of the main genre of the series. The final chapter serves to discuss changes in the American masculine road narrative through a comparison between SPN and Jack Kerouac’s own road narrative On the Road since the novel served as one of the inspirations for the series and can provide historical comparison.
Advisors/Committee Members: Clinton, Esther.
Subjects: Mass media
Keywords: Supernatural; gender; masculinity; on the road; kerouac; heroes; genre; homosocial; narrative; television
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11.
Boroff, Alexander.
A Global Village of Poster Children: The Body as Symbol in Contemporary News Media.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2006, Bowling Green State University
► This thesis examines the role of the news media in turning certain…
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▼ This thesis examines the role of the news media in turning certain persons into sites of larger social, cultural, and/or political meaning. The purpose of any news outlet, be it a print, television, or web-based production, is to produce information regardless of whether or not anything of genuine importance has occurred. Also, as Neil Postman has pointed out, the news must also entertain in order to attract an audience. This being the case, when a person such as Michael Fay or Terri Schiavo enters news discourse, production requirements necessitate that this person be examined from multiple angles, discussed and debated so as to make copy for the news outlet. In turn, this allows that person to take on symbolic meaning. For example, when Michael Fay became the focus of news media in spring of 1994 after being sentenced to receive a caning for vandalizing cars in Singapore, there was very little fresh information to report upon throughout the progression of his case. Hence, reporters focused upon the debates over corporal punishment surrounding Michael Fay, which in turn made Fay himself become a living embodiment of this conflict. Multiple persons like Fay permeate news discourse. Baby Jessica, Lorena Bobbitt, Terri Schiavo—these are just a few of the names that have been subjects of conversation in the mass media over the years. Ultimately, this thesis will conclude that the news media maintains popular appeal by their focus on such individuals—those whose bodies can be made to symbolize contemporary, culturally relevant concerns.
Advisors/Committee Members: Ren, Hai.
Keywords: Michael Fay; NEWS MEDIA; USA TODAY; Terri Schiavo
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12.
Brandt, Jenn.
The Not So Sacred Feminine: Female Representation and Generic Constraints in The Da Vinci Code.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2007, Bowling Green State University
► Since its publication in 2003, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has…
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▼ Since its publication in 2003, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has dominated bestseller lists, becoming one of the most widely read, discussed, and analyzed books in recent history. Although The Da Vinci Code offers a radical view of history that argues for the equality and power of women, at the end of the novel nothing has actually changed. In light of this, my thesis is a feminist analysis of the female protagonist, Sophie Neveu, in both Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Ron Howard’s 2006 film adaptation. In analyzing these texts, I ultimately conclude that the lack of actual female empowerment is the result of the conventions of the classical mystery/detective genre. John Cawelti’s theories of genre and formula and Laura Mulvey’s psychoanalytical theories of gender and the gaze form the theoretical base for my observations. These theories, along with those relating to gender and the detective genre, are instrumental in my close readings of Dan Brown’s novel and Ron Howard’s film adaptation. In examining The Da Vinci Code in terms of its popular culture effects and popularity, I situate the text within the historical locations of postmodernism and a post-9/11 United States. My analysis of The Da Vinci Code reveals our contemporary culture’s unease with both domestic and international politics in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. With our vulnerabilities as a nation exposed, the American public embraced texts that not only safely allowed them to explore their fears, but distracted them from the more pressing issues at hand. Coupled with this preoccupation was the desire to return to a sense of “normalcy.” As a result, more traditional models of living, including notions of gender, have been embraced. Given the text’s popularity, a gendered study of The Da Vinci Code reveals the negative stereotypes of women that still exist in current American society, and shows the roles popular media such as literature and film have in both reflecting and perpetuating these beliefs.
Advisors/Committee Members: Brown, Jeffrey.
Keywords: Sophie; DA VINCI CODE; Langdon; detective
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13.
Butera, Laura E.
Height, Power, and Gender: Politicizing the Measured Body.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2008, Bowling Green State University
► In the last couple of decades, feminist research on the body has…
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▼ In the last couple of decades, feminist research on the body has experienced a tremendous upsurge. Despite the high level of academic interest in bodily issues such as fat and disability, scholars and other feminists have been curiously silent on the subject of height. In this thesis, I politicize height by critically exploring its place within gendered networks of power, informing my arguments with the work of Michel Foucault and feminist work on the body. Positing my argument against the evolutionary biological theory that dominance is the natural consequence of greater height, I contend in my first chapter that the association of power with height is a socially constructed phenomenon: taller bodies are institutionally and discursively imbued with power. Grounded within what I term “the mythology of tallness,” systemic heightism – the unequal system of power based on height – privileges the tall body and oppresses the short, while also intersecting with other systems of oppression. Recognizing that heightism cannot be separated from considerations of gender and patriarchy, I devote a chapter each to the tall woman and the short man, both of which are non-normative bodies. I discuss the tall woman’s inadvertent challenges to patriarchy, including her carnivalesque potential, while pointing out their important limitations. Paralleling the short man to the tall woman, I examine the hegemonic punishment of the short male body for the patriarchal anxiety he creates by occupying little space and therefore embodying femininity. I show how this anxiety is manifested in representation, where the short male is emasculated and vilified. I also look at the controversial practice of “treatment” of the short boy with human growth hormones to make his body taller. Following my case studies, I deconstruct Western discourses of limb-lengthening surgery in China, a nation currently the focus of Western anxiety. Applying Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism, I argue that these discourses construct the West as rational and civilized and the East – specifically China – as the overly consumerist, barbaric, and, most importantly, feminine Other. I conclude by offering several strategies for resisting heightism.
Advisors/Committee Members: Motz, Marilyn.
Subjects: Cultural anthropology; Social research; Social structure
Keywords: gender; power; China; height; body politics; body studies; feminism; foucault; feminist studies; body; tall women; short men; social construction; oppression; heightism; privilege; limb-lengthening surgery; Orientalism; carnivalesque
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14.
Clare, Callie E.
An Enthnographic Look at Rabbit Hash, Kentucky.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2007, Bowling Green State University
► The small town of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky has drawn and continues to…
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▼ The small town of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky has drawn and continues to draw many different types of people, both as visitors and as residents. The town seems to offer nothing in particular, but its popularity has grown nonetheless. Using participant observation, analysis of historical documents, and interviews of Rabbit Hash residents, this project set out to determine what it is about the town that has spoken to so many people over the years. The residents stressed a sense of community and traditional values as being important and expressed a desire to be tied to the history of the area through their chosen lifestyles, which favor simplicity and an antique aesthetic. The town means much the same to visitors; however, rather than sustaining a lifestyle, it serves them as a temporary connection to a past that seems to be slipping further and further away. For both residents and visitors, Rabbit Hash serves as a bridge to an idealized past in America’s history, and the media attention that the town has received for its historic preservation and unique rural character continues to draw people to Rabbit Hash.
Advisors/Committee Members: Motz, Marilyn F.
Keywords: RABBIT HASH; town; OLD TIMERS DAY; General Store
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15.
Claypool, Richard C.
AUTOMOBILE MALFUNCTION IN PERSONAL NARRATIVE AND EVERYDAY LIFE.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2006, Bowling Green State University
► Critical everyday life scholarship tends to theorize the domain of everyday life…
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▼ Critical everyday life scholarship tends to theorize the domain of everyday life as a site of struggle between institutional power and resistance. Oddly, moments of everyday crisis such as technological malfunction are often overlooked. This study has sought to address this gap through analyses of a particular kind of everyday crisis, the automobile malfunction. By analyzing personal narratives of automobile malfunction experiences, I have attempted to highlight the critical potential of these narratives. The automobile malfunction stories express implicit and explicit critique of the automobile’s role in everyday life. As everyday discourse, the stories counter the dominant discourse of automobile advertising and remain true to the tellers’ priorities of maintaining social relationships, restoring routines, and managing risks in everyday life.
Advisors/Committee Members: Ren, Hai.
Keywords: Automobile Malfunction; Everyday Life; Personal Narrative; Technology; Resistance
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16.
Cordone, Michelle L.
The Role of Vernacular Architecture in Small Town Identity and Economy: A Study of Mentone, Indiana.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2007, Bowling Green State University
► This thesis explores the role that a vernacular architectural form plays in…
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▼ This thesis explores the role that a vernacular architectural form plays in the identity and economy of a small town. The vernacular form chosen for this paper is the kitsch-oriented roadside giant statue. The purpose of this study is to discern whether such an architectural form can become an identifier for a small town in the same way that grand structures such as buildings, bridges, and monuments serve as identity markers for large cities. Research for this paper was done in Mentone, Indiana. Mentone, with a population of roughly 900, is home to a 3,000 pound concrete egg statue that serves as a simulacrum of Mentone's egg production heritage. Interviews with Mentone residents addressed the egg's commercial value, as well as the variance among residents and tourists in regard to the statue's function as a semiotic marker. Observations and analysis of the town's annual Egg Festival, museum, and website, as well as locally produced books and articles about the town's history, provided insight into how the town understands and presents its heritage and its current identity. This thesis draws on concepts from the fields of sociology, folklore, marketing and popular culture to address the issues of community, identity, the commodification of small towns in a post-agrarian society, and the devaluation of kitsch. The reactions of Mentone's citizens to their egg statue are contrasted with the reactions of the residents of two other small towns containing roadside giants. This paper examines the functions of Winlock, Washington's giant egg statue and Collinsville, Illinois' giant catsup bottle. Unlike Mentone's egg, these giants function in both identity formation and local economy for their respective towns. This study demonstrates that Mentone's giant egg statue serves as an identity marker for the people outside of Mentone, rather than for the residents, who do not select the egg as an element of the collective community identity. The research also shows that Mentone citizens do not utilize the statue for economic gain. Although one might expect a small town that would otherwise be anonymous to rally around the element that renders it visible, this study determines that such an assumption can be erroneous.
Advisors/Committee Members: Motz, Marilyn.
Keywords: Community; Identity; Vernacular architecture; Roadside giant; Kitsch
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17.
Cullors, Kasey P.
Gradations of Thrills, Kicks and Moonwalks: A Textual and Cultural Analysis of the Effects of Michael Jacskon, the Legend and “Thriller”, the Legendary.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2011, Bowling Green State University
► This research seeks to surface the social, cultural and political effects of…
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▼ This research seeks to surface the social, cultural and political effects of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” As a whole, this body of work investigates the performative elements of “Thriller” as discourse. Using Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotic approach, Mikhail Bakhtin’s heteroglossia and theory of the carnivalesque, Karl Marx’s concept of commodity fetishism, Thorstein Veblen’s notion of conspicuous consumption and Homi Bhabha’s concept of mimicry, this study finds that Jackson is able to be filtered through rituals and traditions in order to produce an image that is not only larger than life, but extremely malleable and able to signify a variety of cultural conditions. Thinkers are challenged to see Michael Jackson, through the work of “Thriller” as a multifarious entity, worth more than mere entertainment value. The examination of “Thriller” establishes that although Jackson is a popular culture icon, his relevance and influence exceed the arena in which he primarily performed. Jackson, as a complex figure, is more than an entertainer; he is a performance. Inasmuch as others depict elements of “Thriller,” its very concept is rooted in the anticipated future reinterpretation and redistribution of other performances. Encompassing lyrical content, music, and moving images, Jackson’s brand is an inimitable and persuasive example of how a commodified aura is multifunctional. Ultimately, this research solidifies “Thriller” as an important cultural artifact that retains its value over twenty years after its inception.
Advisors/Committee Members: Rudisill, Kristen.
Subjects: African Americans; African American Studies; American Studies; Black Studies; Communication; Cultural Anthropology; Dance; Film Studies; Mass Communications; Performing Arts
Keywords: Michael Jackson performance ThrillerJohn Landis Vincent Price cultural dance Quincy Jones
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18.
Dawson, Rebecca.
AND STARRING JESUS AS HIMSELF: CULTURAL CONTEXT AND THE IMAGES OF CHRIST IN NORTH AMERICAN FILM.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2007, Bowling Green State University
► Jesus Christ may appear to be an unlikely candidate for movie stardom,…
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▼ Jesus Christ may appear to be an unlikely candidate for movie stardom, yet few other figures have managed to both captivate and outrage its audience. From early appearances in silent epics to modern kung-fu action-comedies, depictions of Christ have done more than show his life and his message. The directors of these films, by using Christ’s image, have added a new interpretative dimension to the social issues and debate at the heart of each era of filmmaking. Post-Vietnam cynicism, feminism, gay rights, and the Christian Right have all found a champion in the character of Jesus. Jesus becomes malleable in a sense, as his image is changed and reconstituted to express the issues and beliefs closest to the filmmaker. This thesis will examine the evolution of the “Jesus film” in North American cinema, focusing on the varying depictions of Christ within four films; Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001), and The Passion of the Christ (2004). These films may vary in their approach and depictions of Christ, ranging from a feminized neo-hippie to a very masculine and practically indestructible savior, yet they all present an evolution in how Jesus is presented and used in popular culture. Studying these films in terms of genre, subculture, and gender is crucial to understanding how the image of Jesus has been affected by our ever-changing culture. Through these various and distinctly different films, I will show how each film’s depiction of Christ has been influenced through its director, its message, and the culture that produced it. Jesus’ physical appearance, his relationships, and the intent of the filmmaker all help form the cinematic Christ.
Advisors/Committee Members: Nelson, Angela.
Keywords: Jesus; Christ; Religion; Film; Masculinity; Culture; Popular Culture; Sexuality; Relationships; Judas; Mary Magdalene; Jewison; Scorsese; Demarbre; Gibson; Director; Hippies; Gay Christianity; Anti-Semitism; Gender
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19.
Diebler, Matthew David.
THE MODELS OF EMPOWERED FEMININITY WE OFFER YOUNG BOYS: AMERICAN ANIMATED ACTION TEAMS AND THE TOKEN FEMALE.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2007, Bowling Green State University
► The very nature of a hero is to stand as a cultural…
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▼ The very nature of a hero is to stand as a cultural ideal. The heroes we produce for our children are meant to function as their idealized cultural models, teaching them the positive value of specific embodied traits. This extends to gender: the gendered ideological statements made by these heroic characters promote a gendered cultural ideal. Traditionally, academics interested in female gender representation and children’s television have focused on shows targeting young girls. However, it is just as important to examine the representation of the heroic women in television shows aimed at young boys. Young boys grow into adult men and, in our patriarchal society, male expectations of women play largely into their expectations of themselves. Therefore, the heroines of series marketed at young boys represent the ideal cultural models of empowered femininity, influencing the expectations and criteria these boys will have for “strong” women as they grow into politically powerful men. With all this in mind, it then becomes important to examine these models of ideal empowered femininity. By examining the token females in American animated action/adventure team-based television series marketed toward young boys over the past 30 years (starting with Super Friends in the late 70s, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ThunderCats, and G.I. Joe in the 80s, Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, Gargoyles, and X-Men in the 90s, and Justice League and Teen Titans in the 00s), this study examines a string of token females, teasing out the ideologies of ideal empowered femininity each promotes and discussing it within the cultural context of the time period in which it was produced. By utilizing textual analysis, gender studies, and psychoanalysis, this study shows a movement from flat, two-dimensional characters restricted to traditionally feminine encoded powers and overshadowed by hypermasculine heroic leaders to complex, powerful, highly masculinized women often reigned in by a reinforcement of female bodily signifier, finally ending with a nod toward the rising cultural neo-conservatism, reflected by a return toward heroines that enact more traditional gender expectations.
Advisors/Committee Members: Brown, Jeffrey A.
Keywords: Super Friends, He-Man, ThunderCats, G.I. Joe, X-Men, Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego, Gargoyles, Justice League, Teen Titans, gender studies, feminism, token female, animated heroines
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20.
Folkins, Claire Victoria.
Disney’s Girl Next Door: Exploring the Star Image of Annette Funicello.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2006, Bowling Green State University
► This thesis explores the cultural significance of actress and former Mouseketeer Annette…
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▼ This thesis explores the cultural significance of actress and former Mouseketeer Annette Funicello and the public perception that she embodies the social values of morality and chastity. The catalyst of this study is the question of the source of Funicello’s popularity. Compared to other stars, her acting is average and her singing flat, but her looks, personality, and careful marketing positioned her as one of Walt Disney Studio’s biggest stars in the 1950s. This study contends that examining cultural connotations of Funicello’s celebrity is the key to understanding the root of Funicello’s popularity. Using Richard Dyer’s concept of the star image, this study deconstructs Funicello’s celebrity persona to uncover greater meaning in her cultural identity as a “girl next door.” An analysis of teen-oriented magazine coverage of Funicello reveals that of the three components of Dyer’s star image theory—success, ordinariness, and consumption—ordinariness is the most prominent in Funicello’s star image. Funicello’s depiction of the character Annette McCleod from the “Annette” serial stands as textual evidence of the calculated effort of Disney to commodify the girl-next-door persona. In the early 1960s Disney loaned Funicello to American International Pictures for a series of youth-oriented beach films in which Funicello played the only chaste girl on a beach of promiscuous college students. The significance of Funicello’s role in these films is analyzed through a historical lens that focuses on the influence that these more adult roles had on her star image. Finally this thesis discusses how the Disney Channel markets their modern day tween stars as the girl next door, using an extended comparison of actress Hilary Duff and Funicello. This study finds that through the employment of the girl-next-door persona, Disney has capitalized on their viewers’ yearning to imagine that they could be the stars they watch and admire. Through textual analysis of her work on the 1950’s children’s show the Mickey Mouse Club, her singing career, and her work in the beach party films of the 1960s, this study locates Funicello as the personification of a larger Disney fantasy that is marketed and commodified through most, if not all, of Disney products.
Advisors/Committee Members: Cragin, Becca.
Keywords: Annette Funicello; Mouseketeer; Richard Dyer; Star Image; Beach Party Films
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21.
Gothie, Sarah Conrad.
‘Great Minds Start Little’: Unpacking the Baby Einstein Phenomenon.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2006, Bowling Green State University
► Baby Einstein Company, a forerunner in the 0-3 children’s video market, has…
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▼ Baby Einstein Company, a forerunner in the 0-3 children’s video market, has expanded over the past decade from a former teacher’s small, in-home business to a Disney-owned brand with annual sales topping $200 million. The brand has become a watchword in infant development among households with young children thanks to its first and best-known products, enrichment videos bearing titles like Baby Shakespeare, Baby Van Gogh, and Baby Da Vinci. The company, with its implied promise of visual, verbal, and scientific literacy, harnessed metaphor and cultural myth and surmounted parental anxieties about television viewing to become an influential cultural phenomenon. This thesis explores the cultural phenomenon of Baby Einstein Company, including the social context and public relations efforts that facilitated its rise to popularity, how the format and content of the videos accomplish stated goals, issues of representation and consumerist ideology within the texts, how the company’s popularity reflects notions of American middle class childhood and parenting, and finally, the future of the controversial 0-3 digital media market.
Advisors/Committee Members: Cragin, Becca.
Subjects: American Studies
Keywords: Baby Einstein; children's media; children's television; children's culture; Disney
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22.
Jagodzinski, Mallory Diane.
Of Bustles and Breeches: Cross-dressing Romance Novel Heroines and the Performance of Gender Ideology.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2010, Bowling Green State University
► Critiqued by academics and feminists alike, romance novels have been disparaged for…
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▼ Critiqued by academics and feminists alike, romance novels have been disparaged for upholding patriarchal ideals such as heterosexuality, marriage, motherhood, and traditional gender ideologies. However, being such a large and varied genre, romance novels often serve as a locus for discussing all aspects of these issues. Particularly salient to discussing these issues are romance novels in which the heroine cross-dresses. In particular, this thesis examines three recent cross-dressing romance novels: The Spy by Celeste Bradley; Duchess By Night by Eloisa James; and Almost a Gentleman by Pam Rosenthal. Through a close textual analysis, this thesis attempts to sort out the various threads and conversations surrounding issues of sexuality, gender fluidity, and gender performance. It is my assertion that authors employ a cross-dressing heroine not only as a tool for comedic effect, but as a plot device intended to aid the heroine in her discovery of self. In studying the cross-dressed heroine, one must examine the descriptions of both feminine and masculine clothing. In order to analyze the role of clothing in these novels, I draw on the theories of Stella Bruzzi, who writes about costuming in film, to argue that clothing is an active, performative force in these novels, aiding each heroine on her journey to self-discovery. Another important undertaking when examining the cross-dressed heroine is understanding how a love story is constructed when the heroine is disguised as a male for the majority of the novel. In order to analyze the homoerotics and homophobia present in these novels, I turn the recent scholarship of Lisa Fletcher, who writes on heterosexuality and performativity in historical romance fiction.
Advisors/Committee Members: Motz, Dr. Marilyn.
Subjects: American literature; American studies; Literature; Womens studies
Keywords: Romance Novels; Cross-Dressing; Period Fashion; Class; Homoerotics; Homophobia; Homosexuality; Femininity; Masculinity
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23.
Keilen, Brian.
Echoes of Invasion: Cultural Anxieties and Video Games.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2012, Bowling Green State University
► Invasion is ubiquitous in popular culture, and while they may be fictional,…
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▼ Invasion is ubiquitous in popular culture, and while they may be fictional, marauding hordes play on very real human fears. Invaders evoke deep cultural anxieties and challenge our identities on both a personal and national level. This theme has been readily adopted by shooter video games, where players gleefully blast through hordes of foreign invaders, human or otherwise. Most of the scholarly attention given to video games has focused on attempting to find a correlation between video game violence and real world violence, while little attention has been given to the forms this violence takes. This thesis attempts to correct this deficiency by analyzing the theme of invasion in video games. Linking these games to earlier invasion narratives, such as George Tomkyns Chesney’s The Battle of Dorking (1871) and H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898), I argue that the aliens in these narratives are linked to cultural anxieties concerning Otherness. Brought into a contemporary, post 9/11 setting, I argue that video games in series such as Halo and Call of Duty portray Muslim and Arab peoples as invading Others and play into conservative political rhetoric concerning the “War on Terror” that renders Otherness inhuman and an object of fear. The games thus attempt to validate American foreign policy since September 11 by guiding players toward specific subjectivities. I ultimately explore the medium and genre as tools for maintaining imperialist power while also exploring methods of resistance to that power.
Advisors/Committee Members: Wallach, Jeremy.
Subjects: American Studies; Artificial Intelligence; Communication; Cultural Anthropology; Ethnic Studies; Mass Communications; Mass Media
Keywords: Video games; Invasion; Invasion literature; Hegemony; Imperialism; Halo; War of the Worlds; Dracula; Battle of Dorking; Call of Duty Modern Warfare; Reverse colonization; Monsters; Resistance Fall of Man; Invasion narrative; Riddle of the Sands; Homefront
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24.
Lafferty, Sarah.
Holding Out For A Female Hero: The Visual And Narrative Representation Of The Female FBI Agent In Hollywood Psychological Thrillers From 1991-2008.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2009, Bowling Green State University
► This thesis analyzes the visual and narrative representation of female FBI agents…
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▼ This thesis analyzes the visual and narrative representation of female FBI agents and male serial killers in the Hollywood films, Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001), Taking Lives (2004), and Untraceable (2008). It explores how character roles and narrative functions related to the hero character type change over time. The films are analyzed through a textual analysis using Proppian formalism, structural, narratology, genre, and gender theories. Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal offer the groundwork of the female FBI agent in the rookie figure of Clarice Starling. Taking Lives, the first example in a thriller genre post-Clarice Starling, offers an agent, Illeana Scott, who is depicted as the next step, the young career woman with more agency than Starling. Jennifer Marsh, in Untraceable, provides a character encompassing a combination of the more positive qualities, and is an established female hero. Beginning with Silence of the Lambs and ending with Untraceable, narrative functions and positioning moves the female FBI agents into the role of the female hero. The definition of hero, as the author defined it, is based in narrative structure with a focus on the importance of the ultimate self-rescue. It is stripped of the character’s moral standings and decisions, as the author looked at the function of the character type and not the overall personality and psychological makeup of the figure. Due to this definition, while there is a female hero figure, most prominently in Jennifer Marsh, there are also heroes found in places typically not associated with common conceptions of the term “hero.” Labeling the female FBI agent as the hero figure is significant because it is acceptable that women in the current time period and political climate realistically hold these positions and hold them well. Women are active in the FBI, as well as many other federal and state agencies and the military, unlike in decades before. Therefore it is only natural, as genre and film are social mirrors, that these women are represented within fictional narratives as powerful, independent heroes.
Advisors/Committee Members: Brown, Jeffrey A.
Subjects: Motion Pictures
Keywords: Silence of the Lambs; Hannibal; Untraceable; Taking Lives; gaze; film; genre; Propp; female hero; narrative; horror; psychological thriller
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25.
Lecker, Michael.
Treacherous, Deviant, and Submissive: Female Sexuality Represented in the Character Catwoman.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2007, Bowling Green State University
► This thesis is an examination of sexual and gender representation of the…
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▼ This thesis is an examination of sexual and gender representation of the DC Comics character Catwoman throughout her more than sixty-five years. The main goal was to gain insight into America’s view of female sexuality through the examination of numerous popular texts involving the highly sexualized Catwoman. This thesis investigates what made the character stay popular for such a vast amount of time. It also examines why the cat motif was chosen and why so many other female characters in the superhero genre embody this animal. In addition to looking at Catwoman, it was necessary to explore her relationship with Batman and see how this strong female character was depicted when placed within the same narrative as Batman, the strong patriarchal figure. Finally, I wanted to see how Catwoman’s sexuality was a source of empowerment for her and if this was a legitimate source of power. This study was a textual analysis of comic books, television shows, and movies that the character Catwoman is in. There were several methods used to study these texts for their sexual and gender representations. The fashion theories of Roland Barthes and Vikki Karaminas were utilized in the first chapter. To explain the popularity of Catwoman, the psychoanalytical theories of Marc O’Day and Jeffrey A. Brown, in addition to Mary Anne Doane’s theory of women in film, were utilized. The third chapter’s look into the power relations between Catwoman and Batman relied on the psychoanalytical theory of Laura Mulvey and the genre theory of Jane Tompkins. The final chapter utilized Audre Lorde’s feminist theory on the erotic as a source of power. The major findings of this thesis are as follows. The female characters of Catwoman, Blackcat, and Cheetah, and their association with felines, is important in spreading anti-women and feline messages. The connection between the two has been used for centuries to demonize both participants. In the superhero genre, the correlation is used to depict powerful women as evil, treacherous, and sexually deviant. This idea of sexual deviance leads to my second conclusion that Catwoman’s popularity is largely due to her hypersexualization, which is the constant core aspect of this ever-evolving character. Connected to this is the relationship between Batman and Catwoman, which is highly patriarchal. Batman has massive amounts of power over Catwoman in their relationship, which is seen through the utilization of language and the emotions of love/lust, stories surrounding the creation of Catwoman, the depiction of access to knowledge and information, looking or “the gaze,” manipulation, and the many patriarchal roles that Batman fills. Finally, the use of erotic or sexuality as a source of power, as defined by Audre Lorde, has had a growing effect on Catwoman and lends the character’s sexuality to the possibility of a more positive and less patriarchal reading.
Advisors/Committee Members: Brown, Jeffrey.
Keywords: Catwoman; felines; Batman; superhero; Cheetah; superhero genre
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26.
Lewis, Michael J.
Representations and Discourse of Torture in Post 9/11 Television: An Ideological Critique of 24 and Battlestar Galactica.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2008, Bowling Green State University
► Through their representations of torture, 24 and Battlestar Galactica build on a…
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▼ Through their representations of torture, 24 and Battlestar Galactica build on a wider political discourse. Although 24 began production on its first season several months before the terrorist attacks, the show has become a contested space where opinions about the war on terror and related political and military adventures are played out. The producers of Battlestar Galactica similarly use the space of television to raise questions and problematize issues of war. Together, these two television shows reference a long history of discussion of what role torture should play not just in times of war but also in a liberal democracy. This project seeks to understand the multiple ways that ideological discourses have played themselves out through representations of torture in these television programs. This project begins with a critique of the popular discourse of torture as it portrayed in the popular news media. Using an ideological critique and theories of televisual realism, I argue that complex representations of torture work to both challenge and reify dominant and hegemonic ideas about what torture is and what it does. This project also leverages post-structural analysis and critical gender theory as a way of understanding exactly what ideological messages the programs producers are trying to articulate.
Advisors/Committee Members: Brown, Dr. Jeffrey.
Subjects: American studies; Communication; Mass media
Keywords: torture; September 11 terrorist attacks; 24; Battlestar Galactica; gender
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27.
Limbert, Travis James.
The Magic of Community: Gathering of Card Players and Subcultural Expression.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2012, Bowling Green State University
► When Magic: the Gathering was released in 1993, it was the first…
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▼ When Magic: the Gathering was released in 1993, it was the first trading card game. It paved the way for the trading card game subculture and market that exists today. This thesis explores the implications of this subculture and the ways it can be thought of as an urban leisure subculture. This thesis also discusses Magic’s unique community, which has been instrumental in the game’s success over the last two decades. Magic’s community is created symbiotically, through official support by Wizards of the Coast, and the parent company Hasbro, as well as the usage and interaction by the fans and players. It is this interaction that creates a unique community for Magic, which leads to the game’s global popularity, including its tremendous growth since 2010. This thesis looks at trade publications, articles written about Magic, player responses collected through online surveys, and other works to create an extensive work on Magic and its community. This thesis focuses on how the community is important to the consumption of copyrighted cultural texts and how this creates of meaning in players’ lives.
Advisors/Committee Members: Motz, Marilyn.
Subjects: American Studies; Mass Communications; Mass Media
Keywords: Community; Trading Card Games; Magic the Gathering; Games; Subculture
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28.
Liu, Menghan.
Rephrasing Mainstream And Alternatives: An Ideological Analysis Of The Birth Of Chinese Indie Music.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2012, Bowling Green State University
► This thesis project focuses on the birth and dissemination of Chinese indie…
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▼ This thesis project focuses on the birth and dissemination of Chinese indie music. Who produces indie? What is the ideology behind it? How can they realize their idealistic goals? Who participates in the indie community? What are the relationships among mainstream popular music, rock music and indie music? In this thesis, I study the production, circulation, and reception of Chinese indie music, with special attention paid to class, aesthetics, and the influence of the internet and globalization. Borrowing Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding/decoding, I propose that Chinese indie music production encodes ideologies into music. Pierre Bourdieu has noted that an individual’s preference, namely, tastes, corresponds to the individual’s profession, his/her highest educational degree, and his/her father’s profession. Whether indie audiences are able to decode the ideology correctly and how they decode it can be analyzed through Bourdieu’s taste and distinction theory, especially because Chinese indie music fans tend to come from a community of very distinctive, 20-to-30-year-old petite-bourgeois city dwellers. Overall, the thesis aims to illustrate how indie exists in between the incompatible poles of mainstream Chinese popular music and Chinese rock music, rephrasing mainstream and alternatives by mixing them in itself.
Advisors/Committee Members: Wallach, Jeremy.
Subjects: Asian Studies; Cultural Anthropology; Music
Keywords: Popular music; Popular culture; Chinese indie music
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29.
Manco, Daniel Jeremy.
“In Our Different Ways We Are The Same”: Representations of Disability in the Music and Persona of Morrissey.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2009, Bowling Green State University
► Disability studies, an interdisciplinary field of relatively recent provenance but growing prominence,…
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▼ Disability studies, an interdisciplinary field of relatively recent provenance but growing prominence, investigates the social, political, economic, and cultural factors that contribute to definitions of disability as they emerge within specific but ever-shifting historical contexts. Cultural disability studies, a lively subfield, takes particular interest in the role that representations of disability across a variety of media play in shaping both individual and collective (architectural, attitudinal, educational, legal, and occupational) responses to the needs of disabled persons. Despite its centrality to human expression, however, music in general, and popular music specifically, have seldom attracted the attention of cultural disability studies scholars. This thesis seeks to help redress this omission in the cultural disability studies literature by examining representations of disability in the music and persona of Morrissey, singer and lyricist for the seminal 1980s indie rock group The Smiths and, in the two decades since their break-up, a successful solo artist in his own right. Borrowing concepts from music theory and psychoanalysis, I first consider the ways in which the paralinguistic elements of Morrissey’s music, and the discourse that has surrounded it, can be understood as representing disability and articulating a host of attitudes thereto. Then, taking my cue from the negative-image school of disability studies – which aims to identify, catalogue, and challenge pernicious stereotypes of disability that have served historically to devalue real disabled persons – I examine a number of songs penned by Morrissey which take as their subjects characters stigmatized by an array of corporeal differences. Subjecting these songs primarily to lyric analysis (thought not inattentive to the ways in which musical elements and, where relevant, music videos inflect these lyrics’ meanings), I discern an ambivalence toward disability in Morrissey’s work, an equivocation between loathing and loving, although I ultimately choose to emphasize the anti-ableist, progressive potential made available through his artistry. I conclude my analysis by considering the utility to Morrissey’s purpose of continually returning to tropes of disability in his work, and drawing from the insights of a number of disability theorists, I offer some general observations on the politics of Morrissey’s disability representation.
Advisors/Committee Members: Wallach, Jeremy.
Subjects: Mass media; Minority and ethnic groups; Music
Keywords: Morrissey; Smiths; Disability
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30.
Martin, Christopher Alan.
‘We Feed Off Each Other’: Embodiment, Phenomenology and Listener Receptivity of Nirvana’s In Utero.
Degree: MA, Popular Culture, 2006, Bowling Green State University
► Despite the fact that listening to recorded music is a predominant form…
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▼ Despite the fact that listening to recorded music is a predominant form of human interaction with music in general, music scholarship often continues to classify listening as a passive form of reception in comparison to the “activity” of actual music performance. This thesis presents the idea that music listening is actually an embodied and agentive form of reception that varies according to different listeners, their listening strategies, and other surrounding contexts. In order to provide detailed analysis of this assertion, Nirvana’s 1993 album In Utero is the primary recording that this thesis examines, arguing that the album contains specific embodied properties that ultimately allow for embodied forms of listening and responses within the musical experience. Phenomenological reasoning and scholarship from popular music studies, history, cultural studies, and other humanities fields contribute to the central argument.
Advisors/Committee Members: Wallach, Jeremy.
Subjects: American Studies; Music
Keywords: Nirvana (musical group); musical reception; embodiment; phenomenology
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