Study Task 6: Proposal (Brief)

What is your question/ theme?

• Identity & Consumption - How does a music genre's aesthetic influence a consumer's personal identity?

Why is it important or interesting

• It's important as it can establish the different way in which music can literally and subtly affect a person's identity. And, since music is such a big part of our lives, I want to know have we become 'numb' to the music stereotypes or have we evolved with it.

What are the important points/ arguments/ theories/ concepts/ context? (include key theorists) How do they relate to the question/ theme? 

• FAST CYCLE OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION -      "I think it's a lot easier to be promiscuous, subculturally speaking. When I was a teenager, you had to make more commitment to music and fashion, because it took more of a financial investment. I had a pair of gothy stiletto boots, which lasted me for years: I had to make a sort of commitment to looking like that, because I wasn't going to get another pair of alternative shoes any time soon, so I had to think about which ones I wanted. Now, it's all a bit more blurry, the semiotic signs are not quite as hard-edged as they used to be."
• THE INTERNET -  . "It's a lot easier to adopt personas online that cost you absolutely nothing apart from demonstrating certain types of arcane knowledge, what Sarah Thornton called subcultural capital. You don't have to invest in a teddy boy's drape suit or a T-shirt from Seditionaries."



•  “What has resulted is a flattening of history and a rapid succession of mini-trends and micro-genres created by enthusiastic online amateurs and bedroom producer that yoke together , often violently, widely divergent source material from across a broad temporal axis.” (Bricks from the kiln #1 Mark Owens p. 48). 

How do you intend on exploring the question/theme? (methodology)

• Identity for music company etc.?

Why are you using this process/ activity - how does it relate to the question/ theme/ theories? (justification)

• I'm creating an identify for a music company in order to visually show the various ways in which design elements can be used manipulated and challenged in order to portray certain elements of characteristics of a genre, and through this process I can see how an audience will respond to it and whether or not they can identify with it or see it as something similar to their identity.