Hello Out There!

How is everyone going?

Panicked? Stressed? Still alive? I haven't heard and I was wondering if I'm really behind, on target etc. compared to you guys. I feel overwhelmed.

Marginalised Identities and Keeping it Real in Aussie Hip Hop

ABSTRACT

This thesis examines Australian hip hop 'identity' and how a marginalised stance equates to a certain level of credibility. By exploring the the idea of authenticity; the importance of community; and the utilisation of hip hop by marginalised individuals, I will argue that a non-mainstream identity is necessary to maintain authenticity in Australian hip hop.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Connor, Ben “Good Buddah and TZU: Middle Class Wiggers from the Underside”, Youth Studies Australia, Volume 22:2, June 2003, pg 48-54

Hayward, Phillip (1998) Sound Alliances: Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Politics and Popular Music in the Pacific, London: Cassell

Iveson, Kurt “Partying, Politics and Getting Paid- Hip Hop and National Identity in Australia”, Overland, Volume 147, Winter 1997, pg 39-44

Maxwell, Ian (2003) Phat Beats Dope Rhymes: Hip Hop Down Under Comin’ Up, Middleton: Wesleyan University Press

Mitchell, Tony (2001)Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the USA, Middleton: Wesleyan University Press

(1996) Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop and Rap in Europe and Oceania, London: Leicester
University Press

‘Indigenising Hip Hop: An Australian Migrant Youth Subculture” in Butcher, Melissa & Thomas, Mandy (2003)
Ingenious: Emerging Youth Cultures in Urban Australia, North Melbourne: Pluto Press

“Australian Hip Hop As A Subculture”, Youth Studies Australia, Vol 22:2, June 2003, pg 40

“The DIY Habitus of Australian Hip Hop”, Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy,
No.123, May 2007

Neate, Patrick (2003) Where You’re At: Notes From the Frontline of a Hip Hop Planet, London: Bloomsbury

Potter, Russel (1995) Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip Hop and The Politics of Postmodernism, New York: State University of New York Press

Rose, Tricia (1994) Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, Middleton: Wesleyan University Press

Ross, Andrew & Rose, Tricia (1994) Microphone Fiends: Youth Music & Youth Culture, New York: Routledge

Stavrias, George, “Droppin’ Conscious Beats and Flows: Aboriginal Hip Hop and Youth Identity”, Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2005/2, pg 44

DISCOGRAPHY
Brotha Black (2007) More Than A Feeling (Obese Records)

Curseovdialect (2006) Wooden Tongues ( Mush Records)

Muph and Plutonic (2006) Silence the Sirens, (Obese Records)

The Herd (2005) The Sun Never Sets (Elefant Traks)
‘I was only 19” (2006) on Like A Version 2 (ABC Music)

TZU (2005) Smiling at Strangers (Liberation Music)

Various (2004) Culture of Kings, Volume 2 (Obese Records)

Whatever Happened to the New Hollywood?

ABSTRACT:
During the late 1960s and 1970s American cinema was dominated by a period known as the New Hollywood. After the collapse of the once dominant studio system of film production in the 1950s, the executives in Hollywood turned to a new generation of young, film school-educated directors (who came to be known as the 'movie brats') in an effort to get in touch with the youth market and rekindle the American film industry. Inspired by the auteurs of the European cinemas, these young directors were given an unprecedented level of creative control over their films and as a result lead a renaissance in the American cinema which has left us with what are widely regarded as some of the greatest films of all time. However in April 1977 the release of George Lucas's Star Wars heralded a new era of American film. The next decade and beyond of American cinema would be dominated by the 'high-concept' blockbuster film. In this thesis I intend to look at what happened to the New Hollywood cinema beyond the 'Star Wars moment'. While the critical consensus is that the New Hollywood finished somewhere between 1977 and 1980, the continued work of the key figures in the New Hollywood movement up until the present day, as well as the obvious influence that the films of the 1970s have had on the American film product that came after them, begs the question what was the place of the New Hollywood in post 1980 cinema. While it was clearly no longer the dominant movement in American cinema, is it fair to simply say it ended or has it evolved to become something else?

FEATURE FILMS:
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) – Arthur Penn
Graduate (1967) – Mike Nichols
Easy Rider (1969) – Dennis Hopper
M*A*S*H (1970) – Robert Altman
Duel (1971) – Steven Spielberg
French Connection (1971) – William Friedkin
THX 1138 (1971) – George Lucas
Godfather (1972) – Francis Ford Coppola
American Graffiti (1973) – George Lucas
Badlands (1973) – Terrence Malick
Exorcist (1973) – William Friedkin
Mean Streets (1973) – Martin Scorsese
Serpico (1973) – Sidney Lumet
Chinatown (1974) – Roman Polanski
Conversation (1974) – Francis Ford Coppola
Godfather Part 2 (1974) – Francis Ford Coppola
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) – Sidney Lumet
JAWS (1975) – Steven Spielberg
Nashville (1975) – Robert Altman
Taxi Driver (1976) – Martin Scorsese
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) – Steven Spielberg
New York, New York (1977) – Martin Scorsese
Star Wars (1977) – George Lucas
Deer Hunter (1978) – Michael Cimino
Apocalypse Now (1979) – Francis Ford Coppola
Heaven’s Gate (1980) – Michael Cimino
Raging Bull (1980) – Martin Scorsese
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – Steven Spielberg
ET: The Extra Terrestrial (1982) – Steven Spielberg
One From the Heart (1982) – Francis Ford Coppola
The King of Comedy (1983) – Martin Scorsese
The Outsiders (1983) – Francis Ford Coppola
Rumble Fish (1983) – Francis Ford Coppola
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) – Martin Scorsese
Goodfellas (1990) – Martin Scorsese
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) – Francis Ford Coppola
Jurassic Park (1993) – Steven Spielberg
Schindler’s List (1993) – Steven Spielberg
Saving Private Ryan (1998) – Steven Spielberg
Gosford Park (2001) – Robert Altman
Gangs of New York (2002) – Martin Scorsese
The Pianist (2002) – Roman Polanski
The Departed (2006) – Martin Scorsese

DOCUMENTARIES:
A Decade Under the Influence (2003) – Ted Demme & Richard LaGravenese
American Cinema (1995) – Alain Klarer
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003) – Kenneth Bowser
The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002) – Nanette Burstein & Brett Morgen
Roger Corman: Hollywoods Wild Angel (1978) – Christian Blackwood

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
ANDREWS, Nigel. Bloomsbury Movie Guide: Jaws, Bloomsbury, 1999
BISKIND, Peter. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, Simon & Schuster, 1998
COOK, David. Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, University of California, 2002
CRONIN, Paul. Roman Polanski: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi, 2005
EATON, Michael. BFI Film Classics: Chinatown, British Film Institute, 1997
FRENCH, Karl. Bloomsbury Movie Guide: Apocalypse Now, Bloomsbury, 1999
GIBLEY, Ryan. It Don’t Worry Me: Nashville, Jaws, Star Wars and Beyond, Faber & Faber, 2003
GOODWIN, Michael & WISE, Naomi. On the Edge: The Life and Times of Francis Coppola, William Morrow & Co,1989
HEHR, Renate. New Hollywood: The American Film after 1968, Edition Axel Menges, 2003
HILL, Lee. BFI Modern Classics: Easy Rider, British Film Institute, 1996
HILL, Rodney. COPPOLA, Francis Ford & PHILLIPS, Gene D. Francis Ford Coppola: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi, 2004
KING, Geoff. New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction, Columbia University Press, 2002
KOLKER, Robert. A Cinema of Loneliness: Penn, Stone, Kubrick, Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman (3rd Edition), Oxford University Press, 2000
KRAMER, Peter. New Hollywood: From ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ to ‘Star Wars’, Wallflower Press, 2005
LEWIS, Jon (Ed.) The New American Cinema, Duke University Press, 1998
LEWIS, Jon. Whom God Wishes to Destroy: Francis Coppola and the New Hollywood, Duke University Press, 1997
LUCAS, George & KLINE, Sally. George Lucas: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi, 1999
NEALE, Steve & SMITH, Murray (Eds.) Contemporary Hollywood Cinema, Routledge, 1998
POLLOCK, Dale. Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, Da Capo Press, 1999
PRINCE, Stephen. A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood Under the Electronic Rainbow, 1980-1989, University of California, 2000
QUIRKE, Antonia. BFI Modern Classics: Jaws, British Film Institute, 2002
SCORSESE, Martin & BRUNETTE, Peter. Martin Scorsese: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi, 1999
SHONE, Tom. Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Enjoy the Summer, Free Press, 2004
SPIELBERG, Steven. FRIEDMAN, Lester D. & NOTBOHM, Brent. Steven Spielberg: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi, 2000
STERRITT, David (Ed.) Robert Altman: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi, 2000
TAUBIN, Amy. BFI Film Classics: Taxi Driver, British Film Institute, 2000
THOMPSON, David. & ALTMAN, Robert. Altman on Altman, Faber & Faber, 2006
THOMPSON, David. & CHRISTIE, Ian (Eds.) Scorsese on Scorsese (Revised Edition), Faber & Faber, 2004
WYATT, Justin High Concept:Movies and Marketing in Hollywood, University of Texas, 1994
YULE, Andrew Steven Spielberg, Father of the Man: His Incredible Life, Tumultuous Times and Record-Breaking Movies, Little Brown U.K, 1996

* Red indicates that I have already read/watched it. I understand that I probably won't have time to get through everything in my bibliography. I'm prioritising in working my way through it.

A stab at an abstract (updated)

Hi all,

I realised that by doing a production component, that I really didn't have much room to explore body image to the degree that I had been casting my net. So, I have refined my topic down to something that I think will fit into about 7,000 or so words. That being the case, my direction is a little different. Caitlin, you are SO focused. I still have to work out some kind of outline and of course, now I have to think of a new title, etc. I am about to tackle a Literary Review and have been procrastinating because I still have a stack of reading to do and so I am unsure of how to proceed with it. However, I promised it to Willa yesterday, so that is how I will be spending the rest of my day. Anyway, that is where I am at the moment - paralysed with fear. :-)

This is my abstract (or as much as it can be without having written the thesis) that reflects what I am now aiming to do:

The Role Discourse Plays in Women’s Magazines Towards Finding Beauty

Consumers of media products are bombarded by a multiplicity of discourses that inform the performance of their social role. In the case of women’s magazines these discourses often focus on beauty as a component of success and to the objectification of women (see for example Aubrey, 2006). Research identifies that magazine content contributes to issues of body dissatisfaction, sexual attitudes and gender-role attitudes (see for example Tiggemann and McGill, 2004). This study will comprise of an in-depth analysis of a corresponding month for Cleo and The Australian Women’s Weekly magazines, taking into account the cover material, how their features are sectioned and the advertising targeted at their readers in order determine how these discourses change when addressing two different demographic targets of women.

Aubrey, J.S. (2006). ‘Effects of sexually objectifying media on self-objectification and body surveillance in undergradulates: results of a 2-year panel study’. Journal of Communication, 56(2): 366-386.
Tiggemann, M. and McGill, B., (2004). ‘The role of social comparison in the effect of magazine advertisements on women’s mood and body dissatisfaction.’ Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23(1): 23-44.

Books I've read so far...

Amusing Ourselves to Death - Neil Postman (classic)

Gotcha - Catharine Lumby

Triumph of the Airheads - Shelley Gare (not the world's most academic book, but a good read on the topic nonetheless)

Television Culture - John Fiske

Journalism After September 11 - Barbie Zelizer and Stuart Allan

Tabloid Television - John Langer

Framing Celebrity - Su Holmes and Sean Redmond (Jennifer might find this interesting if she hasn't already read it)

Media Scandals - James Lull and Stephen Hinerman

The Image - Daniel Boorstin

any further recommendations would be appreciated

my other blog

this is the blog i did for my final assessment in graham's class

trilogicalconversations.blogspot.com

i'd be interested in feedback if you want to take a look

thanks

Thesis plan

I'm not sure how much traffic this blog is getting, but I thought I'd give an update of how my thesis is (not) coming along. I really don't feel like I have done nearly enough research, but have attempted to work out a bit of a plan outlining what I want to cover in my thesis. At this stage it will include three chapters plus a literary review.

LITERARY REVIEW
-will explore major theories regarding Australian hip hop
-what has been said, what needs to be said
-how these arguments affect my thesis

CHAPTER 1
-will explore the dissemination of hip hop to places outside the USA
-what are the factors that have made hip hop so easily dispersed and embraced by Australian communities?
-globalisation; homogenous characteristics of hip hop (e.g uniform notions of authenticity) makes it easily adaptable to other contexts

CHAPTER 2
-connections to grassroots communities
-Mitchell’s argument that African American culture of hip hop difficult for Anglo-Saxon Australian to feel comfortable relating to… therefore adopted by other communities such as, indigenous, Pacific Islander and other migrant groups
-“credible alternative to the normative ‘whiteness’ of Australian society" (Tony Mitchell:2003)

CHAPTER 3
-this will be the ‘how’ chapter.
-how the hip hop sentiment has been utilised to gain sense of empowerment
-eg. hip hop work shops
-knowledge important- gives sense of origin; place that comes with hip hop; can lead to feeling of validation for participants.

I guess my main concern is am I trying to cover too much? Perhaps my thesis will be best served by having a narrower focus, though I'm not really sure. I guess it won't be until I've done more reading and can refine my actual topic even further that I decide.

politics of the posthuman

I love the luxury of part time honours! I'm sure I'm going to learn a lot from watching everyone's thesis evolve over the next year.

My still nebulous thesis is beginning to coalesce around ideas about the intersection of technology and the body. For the last decade theorists have been talking about the end of the human era, suggesting it is giving away to a new (post)evolutionary step; the 'posthuman' - a hybrid of organism and cybernetic mechanism.

I'm going to argue that this human/posthuman distinction is artificial. technology is a central part of human oncology; we have always augmented and extended ourselves through tools and technologies. Technologies aren't artificial or unnatural; they form a central part of who we are. Cyborgs don't break with historical continuity, they do not represent a new species or way of being; they are the logical next step for us homo faber.

My thesis will probably look at cyborgs in theory and in fiction focusing on our uneasy relationship with technology, especially technologies that permeate the membranes of our bodies.

I'm sure this is all going to change drastically over the next 12 months, but i guess this gives people a basic idea of what I'm interested in.

Thanks to everyone

for posting your provisional thesis title and a little bit about your topic. This will now enable me to pass on this info to Di Mitchell; the librarian who will be taking our seminar on Library database skills in week 9. Your topics look fascinating. You'll find that they start to take on a life of their own! I look forward to reading more about your progress.

‘The rise and change of documentary’

(will probably change alot!!)

Documentaries today are getting bigger releases and bigger audiences than in the past. Now why would that be? It could be argued that today's documentaries are ‘better’, more dramatic films than those of the past. Filmmakers are bringing narrative techniques to truth-telling.

My research hopes to answer the following questions.
1.Are the boundaries that mark out the factual genre becoming increasingly blurred as film and program makers come under ever-greater commercial pressure?
2.What do the new developments in the documentary genre mean for the future of documentary?
3. With the narrative shift in the documentary form can such films truly be called documentaries? Or are they just "docu-ganda”?
4. How, in today's media environment, can documentary preserve some of its fundamental ambitions to give us insights into contemporary and historical realities?

Thesis topic

While it does still need some refinement, at this stage my thesis topic will be Austalian hip hop as a vehicle of political dissent. I hope to look at the use of hip hop culture as a form of subversiveness while also giving a brief history of political activism in popular music. I want to look further than Australian hip hop music however, I'll also explore other elements such as graffiti and also the embrace of hip hop by different communities. Examples of this are hip hop workshops provided for young people in certain areas and hip hop in Aboriginal communities.

As for a title, I'm still not sure though any suggestions are most welcome!

History of Celebrity

I probably still need to refine my topic a bit more, but basically it's going to look at the history of celebrity culture. I thought for example I could try to trace and explain how we got to the bizarre world of paparazzi snapped celebrities of today. As celebrities are obviously not natural, but rather cultural constructions, I thought that by looking at different celebrities in different time periods I could perhaps reveal something about the society which created and consumed them. For example I would really like to use the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton affair as a case study for the 1960s, as it occurred around the same time that many social values and morals were changing. I suppose my thesis will mostly focus on the 20th century, but I was also hoping to briefly discuss the concept of celebrity in other ages. For example gladiators in ancient Rome often achieved a celebrity like status.

Duncan's Thesis Title

Hey all,

I'd never have imagined 6 months ago that I would be involved in not one but two blogs but here I am. As far as my thesis is going I'm thinking:

The Decline and Fall of Coppola's Empire
The downfall of New Hollywood cinema

From the reading that I've done I've found that the part of New Hollywood which I'm most interested in is the way it fell apart as a result of both the unprecedented level of power attained by the director and the arrival of the blockbuster film. I use Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) in the title as he was probably the central figure of the rise of New Hollywood, the director who the others looked to for guidance, but was also one of the key figures in the downfall when he himself was guilty of losing control of his own power.

A Beginning

Hiya everyone,

I guess I better start off;

I came up with a lame kind of title for my thesis this afternoon (not snappy enough in my opinion)

A Trivial Pursuit?
Discussing the synergy or segregation of daily and tabloid news

It's a working progress, but basically i'm looking at the distinction between tabloid/celebrity news and everyday news and whether its worthwhile clarifying that distinction and being aware of the present consequences (the neil postman argument) or whether we should abolish the distinction altogether (the catharine lumby hooray for everything argument).

Working Title

I don't know if this is a reasonable working title for my thesis or not, but I guess that's the advantage of a working title - it can be changed later:

Straightjacket Beauty: The Insane Culture of the Impossible Body

I will be looking at how culture dictates the idealized female form through media production (specifically two different monthly women's magazines). It is bigger than the body although obviously that is the headlined feature - the performance of being female is inscribed, not discovered. I'm thinking already I should change the "Body" at the end to "Image"

Welcome to our Thesis Prep Blog

I hope this will be a useful space for us to communicate ideas, research and any info you might come across on eachother's thesis topics. I would like your first blog to include the topic of your thesis; title and any other info that you might like to share with others. This doesn't have to be especially detailed but just try to give us a feel for your subject area.