scholarly journals Starting young: Multimodal gender presentation in children’s pop music

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Maxwell
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
School Age ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Music Competition ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Eurovision Song Contest ◽  
Gender Presentation ◽  
Background Context ◽  
Selection Of

A recent quantitative study (Smith, Choueiti, and Pieper 2018) demonstrates the hegemonic discrimination in today’s popular music scene, particularly but not exclusively in gender and race. This paper builds on that study, taking it not only into a multimodal dimension (where musical and visual performances are taken into account), but also extending it to children’s popular music, here defined as popular music performed by children for an audience and market primarily made up of children and their guardians.  The annual Norwegian popular music competition for children aged 8-15 Melodi Grand Prix Junior (MGP Jr) is the children’s equivalent of the adult competition to be Norway’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). It has been running since 2004, with 10 entries in each final, and those from 2007 onwards are available for public viewing on the national television channel’s website (tv.NRK.no). The resulting 130 songs thus provide a meaningful corpus from which to study current and recent multimodal gendered presentations of child performers.  Preliminary multimodal gender analyses (cf Maxwell and Mittner 2018) show that the performances are based around traditional gender binaries (i.e. boys and girls). While both presented genders sing, except for rare exceptions it is only boys who play instruments. This both complements and contrasts the study of the ESC (Isaksen forthcoming) which also shows a clear dominance of singing, particularly among female and female-presenting artists (including drag queens).  When these results from children’s pop music and from the ESC are set in relation to Smith, Choueiti, and Peiper 2018 in an interdisciplinary mixed methods approach, it is clear to see that the discrimination in the industry not only begins at a young age, it is also presented as normal, indeed attractive, to child viewers. This is borne out by the decreasing uptake of music tuition at Norwegian kulturskoler (the provider of state-sponsored lessons in the arts), particularly among school-age girls (Utdanningsdirektøret 2017).  In this paper I will present multimodal analyses of a selection of songs from MGP Jr in order to provide both examples of and exceptions to the norms shown by the statistics. In addition, an analysis of the (gendered) presentations of standard Norwegian instrument textbooks (cf Blix 2018) provides background context, with an emphasis on the gendered meanings that surround children in their everyday musical lives.  With thanks to Matilda Maxwell (age 11), aspiring instrumentalist, fan of MGP Jr, and research assistant. 

scholarly journals A Virtual Telescope for the Open University Science Foundation Course

1998 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 100-105
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Norton ◽  
Mark H. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Open University ◽  
Distance Teaching ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
University Science ◽  
First Time ◽  
Degree Level ◽  
Selection Of

The Open University is the UK's foremost distance teaching university. For over twenty five years we have been presenting courses to students spanning a wide range of degree level and vocational subjects. Since we have no pre-requisites for entry, a major component of our course profile is a selection of foundation courses comprising one each in the Arts, Social Science, Mathematics, Technology and Science faculties. The Science Faculty's foundation course is currently undergoing a substantial revision. The new course, entitled “S103: Discovering Science”, will be presented to students for the first time in 1998.

Arts Nonprofits—Associations and Agencies: A Literature Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-63
Author(s):  
Robert A. Stebbins
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Art World ◽  
Artistic Development ◽  
Public Benefits ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Dance Clubs ◽  
Financial Base ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractAn association is “a relatively formally structured nonprofit group that depends mainly on volunteer members for participation and activity and that primarily seeks member benefits, even if it may also seek some public benefits” (Smith, Stebbins, & Dover, 2006, p. 23). The arts that give birth to these organizations can be classified as either fine art or entertainment art. Every art association is embedded each in its own art world and its own social world. Members of these association are mostly amateurs or hobbyists in their art.Publications on arts-related amateur, hobbyist, professional, and mixed-member associations are reviewed. Their prime mission is to foster, present, and sometimes chronicle the art that its members prize. Many of these works report on the structure of the associations as well as on the recruitment, artistic development, deployment of artists, dissemination of their art, and retention of their members. Also reviewed is a selection of publications bearing on what could be called “arts consumption clubs,” or groups such as book clubs, dance clubs, and jazz clubs established to generate interest in a given art. Some of the publications reviewed center on associational management, use of volunteers, and financial base of the group.

The Culture of the Sound Image in Prewar Japan

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Japanese Cinema ◽  
Electronic Sound ◽  
Recorded Sound ◽  
Sound Image ◽  
Visual Style ◽  
Sound Technology ◽  
Sound Culture

This collection of essays explores the development of electronic sound recording in Japanese cinema, radio, and popular music to illuminate the interrelationship of aesthetics, technology, and cultural modernity in prewar Japan. Putting the cinema at the center of a ‘culture of the sound image’, it restores complexity to a media transition that is often described simply as slow and reluctant. In that vibrant sound culture, the talkie was introduced on the radio before it could be heard in the cinema, and pop music adaptations substituted for musicals even as cinema musicians and live narrators resisted the introduction of recorded sound. Taken together, the essays show that the development of sound technology shaped the economic structure of the film industry and its labour practices, the intermedial relation between cinema, radio, and popular music, as well as the architecture of cinemas and the visual style of individual Japanese films and filmmakers.

The Role of Music in a Balanced Arts Curriculum

1990 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-238
Author(s):  
Keith Stubbs
Keyword(s):  
Arts Education ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Curriculum Planning ◽  
Management Structure ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Arts Curriculum ◽  
Music And The Arts ◽  
Selection Of

Music has a role to play in Arts Education. This role remains largely underdeveloped. The selection of music and art as foundation subjects in the National Curriculum is divisive and fails to comprehend the fundamental concepts of arts education.This paper recognises the characteristics that are both common and distinctive between music and the arts, and reminds us of the historical factors which often prevent collaborative curriculum planning. It examines both the models and the language of collaboration, and recommends a management structure placed firmly within a single cohesive policy for the arts.

scholarly journals Fra Sami Yusuf til Harris J Om islamske verdier og tematisering av muslimsk identitet gjennom halal-pop

Prismet ◽  
1970 ◽  
pp. 115-131
Author(s):  
Mona Helen Farstad
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Identity Management ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Religious Music ◽  
The Public ◽  
Muslim Youth ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Islamic Values ◽  
Selection Of

Fear and suspicion towards Islam and Muslims have become increasingly prominent in the public debate. This represents a challenge for Muslim youth in their efforts to develop a positive religious identity. The point of departure in this article is how the new, Islamic pop industry, here represented by a selection of music and artists from Awakening Records, has responded to this situation by producing religious music specifically aimed at European/Western youth. The article analyses how musical genre, texts, images and videos work together and thematizes Muslim identity and Islamic values in different ways.  It is suggested that this material may serve as resources for the identity management of young European Muslims by offering alternative, positive narratives about Islam.Key words: Islamic pop-music, Muslim youth culture, Muslim identity, Awakening RecordsFrykt og mistenksomhet overfor islam og muslimer har blitt stadig mer fremtredende i den offentlige debatt. Dette representerer en utfordring for muslimsk ungdom i deres arbeid med å utvikle en positiv religiøs identitet. Denne artikkelen tar utgangspunkt i hvordan den nye, islamske pop-industrien, her representert ved et utvalg musikk og artister fra Awakening Records, har respondert på denne situasjonen ved å produsere religiøs musikk spesielt rettet mot europeisk/vestlig ungdom. Artikkelen analyserer hvordan musikalsk uttrykk, tekster, bilder og videoer virker sammen og tematiserer muslimsk identitet og islamske verdier på ulike måter.  Det pekes på at dette materialet kan tjene som ressurser for unge, europeiske muslimers identitetsarbeid ved å tilby alternative, positive narrativ om islam.Nøkkelord: islamsk pop-musikk, muslimsk ungdomskultur, muslimsk identitet, Awakening Records

scholarly journals Workshop Pangan Jajanan Anak Sekolah (PJAS) dan Inovasi Sarapan Sehat untuk Anak Usia Sekolah

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-19
Author(s):  
Siti Rahmatul Aini ◽  
Iman Surya Pratama ◽  
Agus Dwi Ananto ◽  
Luh Putu Gina Sri Budiani
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Schools ◽  
School Children ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Nutritional Intake ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
School Age ◽  
Expert Review ◽  
Nutrition Programs ◽  
Children's Nutrition ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract: Nutritious and safe intake is a prerequisite for the growth and development of school-age children. Poor breakfast habits and snacks for school children that do not meet the requirements contribute significantly to the nutritional problems of school-age children. This is one of the priority health problems. Low achievement in the implementation of school children's nutrition programs has led to healthy breakfast and snack innovations workshops at one of the elementary schools in Sekarbela sub-district, Mataram city. The workshop participants included 50 people consisting of school-age children, parents, teachers, and canteen vendors. The workshop was guided by a nutritionist, and he explained the selection of nutritional intake, both through breakfast and snack. Also, participants were trained to practice a variety of healthy breakfast innovation menus. After the workshop, participants were able to practice and be actively involved in making a healthy breakfast innovation menu. The response of participants to the menu is quite good. After mentoring by a nutritionist, parents and teachers can solve the problems encountered. Cafeteria vendors get input regarding snacks supply after expert review. This workshop has been going well and has produced the results as targeted.Keywords: PJAS, healthy breakfast, workshop, school-age children.

scholarly journals “Like Static Noise in a Beautiful Landscape”: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Rationales and Features of Disliked Voices in Popular Music

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Merrill ◽  
Taren-Ida Ackermann
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Group Testing ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Voice Perception ◽  
Mixed Methods Approach ◽  
Vocal Activity ◽  
Everyday Communication

The use of the voice in everyday communication is vital for our understanding of human interaction. The singing of popular music often amplifies vocal features from speech, which can provide insights into vocal activity in the context of the intense emotional impact of music. Three studies with a mixed-methods approach aimed at evaluating rationales and features of disliked voices in the context of popular music. In an interview study (N = 20), rationales and features for disliked voices were identified using self-selected voices. In a group testing session (N = 48) and an online survey (N = 216), these disliked voices were presented to new participants, and the vocal features and evoked emotions by the singers were investigated, assuming that the participants did not have strong opinions about the voices. The results showed that participants justified their dislikes based on object-related/sound and emotional reasons, similar to findings from studies on musical taste. Specific features of disliked voices were confirmed in the following studies, including a specific feature of popular singing styles, the twang, perceived as a squeaky and nasal sound. Further disliked features include a pressed sound, imprecise and ordinary articulation and a uniform expression. Notably, a rough voice was no predictor of aesthetic judgments. Evoked feelings relate to vocal features with similar tension levels. The measures created in the current study will also be informative for studying voice perception and evaluation more generally, which is a tool to evaluate vocal expression and items to evaluate reasons for disliked voices.

scholarly journals Soft Threshold Ternary Networks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weixiang Xu ◽  
Xiangyu He ◽  
Tianli Zhao ◽  
Qinghao Hu ◽  
Peisong Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Mobile Devices ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Performance Gap ◽  
Training Time ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Soft Threshold ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Selection Of

Large neural networks are difficult to deploy on mobile devices because of intensive computation and storage. To alleviate it, we study ternarization, a balance between efficiency and accuracy that quantizes both weights and activations into ternary values. In previous ternarized neural networks, a hard threshold Δ is introduced to determine quantization intervals. Although the selection of Δ greatly affects the training results, previous works estimate Δ via an approximation or treat it as a hyper-parameter, which is suboptimal. In this paper, we present the Soft Threshold Ternary Networks (STTN), which enables the model to automatically determine quantization intervals instead of depending on a hard threshold. Concretely, we replace the original ternary kernel with the addition of two binary kernels at training time, where ternary values are determined by the combination of two corresponding binary values. At inference time, we add up the two binary kernels to obtain a single ternary kernel. Our method dramatically outperforms current state-of-the-arts, lowering the performance gap between full-precision networks and extreme low bit networks. Experiments on ImageNet with AlexNet (Top-1 55.6%), ResNet-18 (Top-1 66.2%) achieves new state-of-the-art.

scholarly journals “Gimme a Beat!”

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-117
Author(s):  
Christine Capetola
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
Music Technology ◽  
Music Videos ◽  
Digital Music ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
The Senses

In 1986, Janet Jackson forever changed the direction of pop music and its music videos with the release of her third and breakthrough album, Control. Working with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, choreographer Paula Abdul, and director Mary Lambert, Jackson created songs and videos that conveyed a new kind of feminist affect that intertwined individual stories of endurance, the forcefulness of relatively new digital music technology, and Black and female collectivity. In this article, I chart how Jackson transmitted this feminist affect through what I call hyperaurality, or sounds and vibrations that work in excess of the limitations of visual representation. Through tracing the affective excesses of Jackson’s visuals, sounds, and movements, I unpack how hyperaurality both intensifies and reintegrates the senses of sight, hearing, and feeling. In the process, I posit that vibration, or sound’s materially felt oscillations, works as a point of connection across these three aspects of hyperaurality. By demonstrating its connective power, I assert that vibration is a source of affective politics within popular music, one with the power of repurposing capitalism's excesses.

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