Audio Visual Presentation: Sample Coursework

Here is a sample Audio Visual Presentation for AS Coursework that gained an A grade. Use it as a a guide for what is expected of in terms of language, content and theory for your 'Audio Visual Presentation'. 

Guardian Readers recommend: songs about teenagers – results

Youth is wasted on the young, as jealous old George Bernard Shaw once said. But that didn't seem true of the subjects of many songs you suggested last week. Anyway, with grownups hurling so many brickbats at them, who can blame teenagers for throwing the odd strop?

"It's only teenage wasteland." So sang the Who on Baba O'Riley. Though as RR commenter treefrogdemon says, "Why is it a teenage wasteland? Dunno." But incoherence is part of the teenager's lot, and anyone who's been 15 will feel the uncontained rage in the song, happily rescued from Pete Townshend's abandoned concept album Lifehouse (abandoned because only Townshend understood the concept).

Rock'n'roll began life as music for teenagers, and progenitor Eddie Cochran knew his audience. Teenage Heaven consists of a list of demands that will strike a chord with all disaffected teens: "I want to stay up all night … Just give me some time on my hands/ I want to make my own private plans."

Punk, like rock'n'roll, was to a large extent teenagers making music for teenagers. Hence Teenage Treats by the Wasps, east London youths whose musical career was on the skids before they were old enough to vote.

You've got to hand it to Atari Teenage Riot, whose eponymous debut single gleefully imbued the thrills of rave with the snottiest punk attitude. Rave plays a role too in the Killers' When You Were Young: it's half stadium rock anthem, with a Bruce Springsteen-esque nostalgia for mythical youth, and half house euphoria. And Dire Straits' Romeo and Juliet may be self-consciously "classic", but recasts the age-old tale of star-crossed teen lovers to the rock era in a way even Springsteen must have envied.

The Beach Boys' hymn to teenage solitude, In My Room, was an early attempt by Brian Wilson to create music he described as "teenage symphonies to God". The Beach Boys also recorded So Young, a cover of a 1958 hit by doowoppers the Students. The Ronettes' version is right up there, Ronnie Spector's voice full of not-quite-innocent heartbreak, Phil Spector's production all heavenly strings and choirs of angels.

The Teenagers' F*ck Nicole ("so teenage, so French" as RR regular Japanther says) is full of surprises: backwards verses, superfluous swearing and a Gallic Lou Reed detailing an adolescent career off the rails. But hang on. Japanese popstrels Scandal were nominated by Hoshino Sakura, who says Beauteen's about "being a teenager, pretty and love … the perfect antidote to all the teenage angst from the Smiths!"

No Smiths in this week's playist, but the Flamin' Groovies are in garage rock mode on Teenage Head, focusing on sexual frustration and aggression. First line: "I'm a monster!" And there's more cartoon parent-worrying from the Ramones in Teenage Lobotomy: "Now I guess I'll have to tell 'em/ that I got no cerebellum." A contender, surely, for the best lyric ever. And I loved RR commenter llamalpaca's description of adolescence as portrayed in the Regents' skinny-tie classic 7-Teen: "Knocking on the door of adulthood but not getting in."

Here's the playlist:

Baba O'Riley – The Who

Teenage Heaven – Eddie Cochran

Teenage Treats – The Wasps

ATR – Atari Teenage Riot

When You Were Young (Lindbergh Palace remix) – The Killers

Romeo and Juliet – Dire Straits

In My Room – The Beach Boys

So Young – The Ronettes

F*ck Nicole – The Teenagers

Beauteen – Scandal

Teenage Head – Flamin' Groovies

Teenage Lobotomy – Ramones

7-Teen – The Regents

* Listen to these songs on a YouTube playlist

* Read all the readers' recommendations on last week's blog, from which the songs above are selected

* Here's a Spotify playlist containing readers' recommendations on this theme

• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 April 2012

The Sociology of Culture: Everyday Life and the Construction of Meaning

Here are 2 chapters from 'The Sociology of Culture' which you will find useful for applying theory to your coursework and exam assignments. They are concerned with 'Everyday Life and the Construction of Meaning': specifically 'Music and Social Experience' and 'Consumer Culture'. Taking and using a few selective quotes from these sections will add a theoretical perspective to your individual studies and strengthen your critical analysis of cultural practices and products.

What role did brands play in last summer's riots?

'After the Riots' is the name of a report produced by the Riots, Communities and Victims Panel which was set up after last summer's riots. This is a very interesting article featured on the Guardian website that discusses the report's findings, the way big brands market themselves and the effects they have on young people.

The Mean World Syndrome

Mean World Syndrome is a phenomenon where the violence-related content of mass media convinces viewers that the world is more dangerous than it actually is, and prompts a desire for more protection than is warranted by any actual threat. Mean World Syndrome is one of the main conclusions of cultivation theory. The term "Mean World Syndrome" was coined by George Gerbner, a pioneer researcher on the effects of television on society, when he noted that people who watched a lot of TV tended to think of the world as an unforgiving and scary place.

Coursework Guidance: Essay Assignments

There are now 2 examples of student work available on the 'Student Work' page with key terms highlighted for guidance in your essay assignments. Use these, and the terms/guidelines below, as a minimum requirement for a satisfactory grade.

Key words

Section A:

Site A: Investigation

Key words
Section A:
Site B: Exploration

For each assignment:

The Codes of Gender

Written and directed by MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally, The Codes of Gender applies the late sociologist Erving Goffman's groundbreaking analysis of advertising to the contemporary commercial landscape, showing how one of American popular culture's most influential forms communicates normative ideas about masculinity and femininity.

Google Art Project Expands, Bringing 30,000 Works of Art from 151 Museums to the Web

Last February, Google launched Art Project, which lets users take a virtual tour of 1,000 works of art from 17 great museums — from the MoMA and Met in New York City, to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, to the Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Now comes news that Art Project has greatly expanded its coverage, giving users access to 30,000 high-resolution artworks appearing in 151 museums across 40 countries. The virtual tour includes paintings but also sculpture, street art and photographs. And you can now explore collections (see all) from the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, the Museu De Arte Moderna De São Paulo in Brazil, and the Tokyo National Museum.

This is all part of Google’s effort to bring cultural artifacts to the broadest possible audience. Just last week, Googleplex helped launch the Nelson Mandela Digital Archive and, before that, a high resolution version of The Dead Sea Scrolls.

via Google Blog

Peter Blake's Cultural Icons

Sir Peter Blake, best known as the 'godfather' of British Pop Art and creator of the cover for the Beatles' Sgt Pepper Album, is celebrating his 80th birthday this year. He has been asked to recreate his most famous work, but this time fill it with British cultural figures that he most admires. People included are J.K. Rowling, Noel Gallagher, Grayson Perry, Amy Winehouse, Danny Boyle and David Attenborough. Paul McCartney and his daughter Stella are also there.
The new version has been created for a special birthday celebration of Blake's life at the Vintage Festival hosted by Wayne Hemmingway at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, in July. Go to their website to read more and see the full list of people included. The original artwork is pictured below.