What is Exploring Literary Terms
Introducing or reviewing literary terms may not initially excite the typical high school student or teacher, yet incorporating music videos can add interest for students and teachers alike. As Figure 1 indicates, music videos can be used to address a fair range of literary terms. For example, a number of music videos make allusions to literary texts. Pop star Gwen Stefani and rockers Aerosmith and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers all allude to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Likewise, the lesser-known group Coparck alludes to Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in their video “A Good Year for the Robots.” In other cases, as with the video for “Californication” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, allusions to popular culture can be demonstrated through music videos. Throughout this video, lead singer Anthony Kiedis and his bandmates make reference to various musical eras and prominent artists such as The Beatles, David Bowie, Glenn Danzig, and Kurt Cobain. Supplementing a study of allusion with these videos opens the floor for a more engaging discussion for students about why an artist might make such allusions and what can be inferred about the videos based on the implicit references.
A wide range of music videos can also be employed to examine tone. Virtually any genre of music could be used to demonstrate the varied tones an artist might try to convey. Undoubtedly, the tone conveyed through the dark, eerie imagery in videos by rock band Tool can be read just as easily as the upbeat, vibrant imagery often seen in videos by country artist Kenny Chesney.Regardless of the genres used, muting the sound can help turn students’ attention away from the music and place the emphasis on the artists’ use of imagery in the videos to convey a particular tone for the piece. Naturally, the act of identifying imagery and characteristics that lend themselves to conveying a particular tone in a music video can carry over into conversations about print texts such as poems or short stories. Rado Replica
Introducing students to the concept of narrative or narrative structure, such as Freytag’s pyramid, for example, is made easier with the inclusion of music videos. Many music videos, such as “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” covered by Les Clay-pool’s alternative rock band Primus and “Cool” by pop star Gwen Stefani, take a narrative approach. With run times often falling between three and five minutes, teachers can share a variety of music videos as media that take the form of narrative texts in a relatively short amount of class time. Replica Jaeger LeCoultre Watches
Study of parody and its techniques in music videos can scaffold students’ examinations of lengthier texts such as Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. Music videos have been known to offer sound examples of parody. The Foo Fighters parody old Mentos commercials in their video “Big Me.” The modern hip-hop artist Jay-Z parodies the well-known 1995 film The Usual Suspects in his “The City Is Mine.” Since The Usual Suspects is a film largely about narrative as well, the interpretive value of the video increases.
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