John McLaughlin's blog

Apply Goodwin’s theory to Riptide using screenshots to support your analysis. The first step of this process is to analyse the music structure understanding the chorus and verses.  Then the second step (main voice of the song), the voice of the artist would be very unique compared to others and will give the person a form of identification that can be related to the star image or singer.  The third step would be the story of an artist which he is trying to tell in his song. It can establish him as a storyteller. And the music video can aid this by showing us the video through the vocals of t he song.  The majority of this music video is made up with links between the lyrics and the visuals. This is an example of the link as the lyrics are ‘come unstuck’ while the visuals are a  mid shot  of a girl coming ‘unstuck’ from being tied to a tree. Another example is from the lyrics of ‘running down to the riptide’ while the visuals show a  mid shot  of someone running and then a shot of a a

What are the key elements of surrealism? The exploration of the dream and unconsciousness as a valid form of reality, inspired by Sigmund Freud's writings. ·           A willingness to depict images of perverse sexuality, scatology, decay and violence. ·           The desire to push against the boundaries of socially acceptable behaviors and traditions in order to discover pure thought and the artist's true nature. ·           The incorporation of chance and spontaneity. ·           The influence of revolutionary 19th century poets, such as Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud and Isidore Ducasse. ·           Emphasis on the mysterious, marvelous, mythological and irrational in an effort to make art ambiguous and strange. ·           Fundamentally, Surrealism gave artists permission to express their most basic drives: hunger, sexuality, anger, fear, dread, ecstasy, and so forth. ·           Exposing these uncensored feelings as if in a dream still exists in many

Is this music video postmodern? Postmodern media rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. All judgements of value are merely taste.  Anything can be art, anything can deserve to reach an audience, and culture ‘eats itself’ as there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute.  The distinction between media and reality has collapsed, and we now live in a ‘reality’ defined by images and representations – a state of simulacrum. Images refer to each other and represent each other as reality rather than some ‘pure’ reality that exists before the image represents it – this is the state of hyper-reality.  All ideas of ‘the truth’ are just competing claims – or discourses and what we believe to be the truth at any point is merely the ‘winning’ discourse.  Postmodernism is also said to reflect modern society's feelings of alienation , insecurity and uncertainties concerning identity, history, progress and truth, and the break-up o