Hidden Implications Behind Music in Television

Ben Aslinger's Rocking Prime Time: Gender, the WB, and Teen Culture

Music has helped the television industry convey messages that aren't easily expressed through character dialogue and action. Music has also been able to emphasize a situation, such as Xander, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, being emotionally rejected by Buffy and walks away to "Falling to Pieces" by Patsy Cline. Listening to something more heartfelt is considered to be feminine, thus the stereotype in conjunction to being played to emphasize a man's feelings can belittle the moment and the character by emasculating him (although I argue femininity isn't negative and shouldn't give such a discriminatory effect). If Xander walked away with a male singer and the song had more of an aggressive "f*ck you," then the audience would have a different understanding of his character. Driving away from Buffy the Vampire Slayer as another example can be if Celine Dion's song, "My Heart Will Go On," played during the ending of The Godfather where the Heads of all the mafia's were 'taken care of.' Although the audience experiences the same story, with same dialogue, and the events, music has the power to subconsciously send the audience signals and assumptions to how they should perceive a moment, thus changing the entire viewing experience of the movie scene.

The reason why I was so interested in this essay and felt disappointed was that I studied the same thing Aslinger seems to have only brushed the surface. For two film projects, I had to create my own soundtrack for my videos and I had to create a score which successfully emphasized the feeling and understanding of the short film. So I understand the importance of music and how one awkward section in a song can completely change the overall 'feeling' of a scene, whether you, the director, wants that sudden change of perception or not. Instead, I felt Alsinger focused too much on the history of music being incorporated into the television industry than its effects on gender and teen culture (he mostly focuses on how teen television was effected behind the scenes).

As said before, what Aslinger argues in his essay good to read, but felt as though he could have gone more in-depth between music, gender, and what makes it for teens. True, the Xander example was good, I was hoping to have more (and better) examples of how different forms of music can effect the same scene and the amount of influence a single song has over it. I'm not able to fully understand what Aslinger talking about in his examples of Dawson's Creek because I have never watched a full episode of the series. In short, I felt that Aslinger could have also gone more in depth with the way music manipulates the viewer's perception.



Caralyn Bolte's "Normal Is the Watchword": Exiling Cultural Anxieties and Redefining Desire from the Margins

What grabbed my attention to Bolte's essay was how she originally compares novels to television and how both mediums utilize genre to critique and deconstruct the real world, particularly with the power of an 'exiled' protagonist. Although I have never seen Veronica Mars, I was able to understand Bolte's argument through her examples with Veronica, exposing the social hierachy of class, and with Buffy in terms of how the power of an exiled female protagonist assists the audience in understanding the messages and critiques their series tries to express about the real world. By isolating the character from the social "norm," they become their own being and are the comparative force which emphasizes and highlights the problematic issues these female protagonists continuously challenge, particularly by being an island upon themselves.

With particular attention to gender and identity in Buffy, I appreciated Joss Whedon's approach in reversing gender expectations by having the stereotypical white blonde woman repeatedly killed by a monster in a horror movie, and changing her into becoming the one to kill the monster. Furthermore, Buffy contradicts the traditional expectations of women; an obvious example is Buffy's small size that isn't weak and frail as the traditional perception of women perceives it to be. Instead, Buffy is strong and resilient, staking those misogynistic and demeaning descriptions of women in the heart.

Nevertheless, by breaking gender-stereotypes, both Veronica and Buffy make themselves "alone in their responsibilities" (99), making themselves even more isolated from the traditional conventions of women, particularly in them being depending on a man (with Twilight as a prime example).