Conference Proceedings 2010 [pdf] - Art & Design Symposium ...

initiatives are not specific to adolescent African American males who appear to be overlooked in the discussion
on how the visual culture of music videos affect them in regard to their identity development. Apparently, these
adolescents spend a lot of time consuming the visual images that can be seen in popular music videos. Often it
appears that the adolescents are passive consumers instead of critical examiners of what they are seeing.
It is important to understand that many adolescents have no idea that they are being socialized into dressing
and behaving in certain ways that are similar to what is found in the music videos they watch. Therefore, it is
essential to continue to assess what adolescents are retaining from popular music videos and it is important to
assist them in learning ways to critically examine what they see in a world that is saturated with visual culture.
This research is intended to understand what they see in the popular music videos, how they analyze the
images and how they incorporate the visual culture of music videos into their daily lives.
To begin the research process a pre-study survey was administered which focused on population
demographics, the students’ appearances, and the amount of television the students watch. Additionally, the
pre-survey included questions about the type of music videos they watch. Most of the participants stated that
they spent between four and six or between seven and nine hours a day watching music videos and all but one
of the participants noted that they spend seven or more hours were spent daily watching television during the
weekend. In regard to the popular type of music videos hip hop videos were viewed the most. There was one
hip-hop artist who seemed to garner the majority of the votes as the favorite music artist of this group of
participants. Fourteen of the participants selected this artist while the next closest person to get a significant
number of votes was five. One of the remaining artists received three votes and another received two votes.
Consequently, the remaining seven artists received one vote each. One interesting thing that stood out in the
pre-survey was that the majority of the participants assertion that their favorite music artist did not influence
them. In the final survey their responses were very different. Specifically, in the final survey their sentiments
changes as the majority of the participants admitted that their favorite music artist greatly influenced them.
Each student selected their favorite music videos to critique using the Anderson and Milbrandt (2005) critique
model. This critique model provided a way for students to describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate the videos.
Then, each student participated in a focus group discussion about the music videos. During the focus group
discussion it was quite evident that most participants were greatly influenced by what they see in popular
music videos as they repeatedly made references to the things that they wanted to have like the artists in the
music videos which fit right into what media conglomerates want their viewers to think.
Viacom is one of these leading global media conglomerates that use visual imagery to attract viewers.
(http://www.viacom.com/aboutviacom/Pages/default.aspx). This company includes networks such as MTV, and
BET. Music television (MTV) is the world’s largest television network and the leading multimedia brand for
youth. In 2005, MTV had its highest rated year in history, reaching 61 million viewers on-air and online. Its
evolution reflects the way its young male 12-34 audience consumes media.
Black Entertainment (BET) it is the leading provider of entertainment, music, news, and public affairs for the
African-American audience. The primary channel reaches over 83 million households according to Nielsen
media research and can be viewed in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. This technological
phenomenon is not going away, it will only intensify. Vernallis (1998) asserted that music videos have a catch,
pull, and hold mechanism that hooks the viewer.
Little research exists on how adolescents, particularly adolescent African-American males process the visual
culture of music videos. What is documented is how repeated exposure to music videos affects adolescents.
Kinder (1984) purported that the experience of having watched and listened to a particular video clip on
television establishes connections in the brain circuitry. She stated that this is a result of repeating the
experience very frequently within a short period of time, which MTV does. Thus, the spectator strengthens
these associations in the brain. Later when the spectator hears the same song on the radio or in a different
context in which the visual are absent, the presence of the music likely retrieves these images from memory,
accompanied by the desire to see them again. This process resembles the patterns of classical conditioning
that rest on the field of cognitive theory.
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