The Media Swirl: Politics, Audiovisuality, and Aesthetics
by Carol Vernallis
Duke University Press, 2023 eISBN: 978-1-4780-2369-2 | Cloth: 978-1-4780-1642-7 | Paper: 978-1-4780-1906-0 Library of Congress Classification P94.6.V466 2023
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ABOUT THIS BOOK From fan-generated content on TikTok to music videos, the contemporary media landscape is becoming ever more vast, spectacular, and intense. In The Media Swirl Carol Vernallis examines short-form audiovisual media—Beyoncé’s Lemonade, brief sequences from Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, TikTok challenges, YouTube mashups, commercials, and many other examples—to offer ways of understanding digital media. She analyzes music videos by Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Janelle Monáe, Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, and others to outline how sound and image enhance each other and shape a viewer’s mood. Responding to today’s political-media landscape through discussions of Fox News and Presidential inaugurations, Vernallis shows how a media literacy that exceeds newscasts and campaign advertising is central to engaging with the democratic commons. Forays into industry studies, neuroscience, and ethics also inform her readings. By creating our own content and knowing what corporations, the wealthy, and the government do through media, Vernallis contends, we can create a more just world.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Carol Vernallis is an Affiliated Researcher at Stanford University, author of Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema and Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context, and coeditor of, most recently, Cybermedia: Explorations in Science, Sound, and Vision.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi A Note on the Cover xiii Introduction 1 I. Post-Classical Cinema at the Limit 1. Partying in The Great Gatsby: Baz Luhrmann’s Audovisual Sublime 27 2. Shattered Pleasures: Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction 48 II. Music Video and the Art-Video Border 3. Beyoncé’s Overwhelming Opus; or, the Past and Future of Music Video 71 4. Avant-Gardists and the Lure of Pop Music 97 5. Beyoncé’s Lemonade: She Dreams in Both Worlds (Carol Vernallis, Lisa Perrot, and Holly Rogers) 122 6. Tracing the Carters through the Galleries: “APES**T/APESHIT” and the Louvre 138 7. Storytelling on the Ledge: Lady Gaga and Jonas Åkerlund’s “Paparazzi” 154 III. Music Video’s Late Late Style 8. How to Analyze Music Videos: Beyoncé and Melina Matsoukas’s “Pretty Hurts” 175 9. Dave Meyer’s Moments of Audiovisual Bliss 196 10. Janelle Monáe’s “You Make Me Feel” and Anderson.Paak with Kendrick Lamar’s “Tints”: Getting Up in My [Rearview] Mirror 211 IV. Audiovisual Aesthetics Online 11. Who Needs Music Documentaries When There’s TikTok and Carpool Karaoke? 231 12. TikTok and Costume-Drama Mashups on YouTube 247 V. New Modes of Analysis: Industry 13. The Art of Color Grading (Carol Vernallis, Jonathan Leal, Eric Weldt, and Aubrey Woodiwiss) 265 14. Music Video Directors, Production Houses, and the Media Swirl 290 VI. New Modes of Analysis: Neuroscience 15. Music Video’s Multisensory 307 16. Tracing the Asset: Humanistic and Quantitative Approaches to Cybercrime Film Trailers (Snowden and Bourne) 319 VII. New Modes of Analysis: Politics and Vernacular Culture 17. New Technologies, Social Justice, and the Future in Beyoncé’s Audiovisual Albums 335 18. Fox News, COVID-19, Brief Media Aesthetics, and Historical Resonances 356 Afterword 369 Notes 373 Bibliography 403 Index 429
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The Media Swirl: Politics, Audiovisuality, and Aesthetics
by Carol Vernallis
Duke University Press, 2023 eISBN: 978-1-4780-2369-2 Cloth: 978-1-4780-1642-7 Paper: 978-1-4780-1906-0
From fan-generated content on TikTok to music videos, the contemporary media landscape is becoming ever more vast, spectacular, and intense. In The Media Swirl Carol Vernallis examines short-form audiovisual media—Beyoncé’s Lemonade, brief sequences from Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, TikTok challenges, YouTube mashups, commercials, and many other examples—to offer ways of understanding digital media. She analyzes music videos by Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Janelle Monáe, Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, and others to outline how sound and image enhance each other and shape a viewer’s mood. Responding to today’s political-media landscape through discussions of Fox News and Presidential inaugurations, Vernallis shows how a media literacy that exceeds newscasts and campaign advertising is central to engaging with the democratic commons. Forays into industry studies, neuroscience, and ethics also inform her readings. By creating our own content and knowing what corporations, the wealthy, and the government do through media, Vernallis contends, we can create a more just world.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Carol Vernallis is an Affiliated Researcher at Stanford University, author of Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema and Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context, and coeditor of, most recently, Cybermedia: Explorations in Science, Sound, and Vision.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi A Note on the Cover xiii Introduction 1 I. Post-Classical Cinema at the Limit 1. Partying in The Great Gatsby: Baz Luhrmann’s Audovisual Sublime 27 2. Shattered Pleasures: Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction 48 II. Music Video and the Art-Video Border 3. Beyoncé’s Overwhelming Opus; or, the Past and Future of Music Video 71 4. Avant-Gardists and the Lure of Pop Music 97 5. Beyoncé’s Lemonade: She Dreams in Both Worlds (Carol Vernallis, Lisa Perrot, and Holly Rogers) 122 6. Tracing the Carters through the Galleries: “APES**T/APESHIT” and the Louvre 138 7. Storytelling on the Ledge: Lady Gaga and Jonas Åkerlund’s “Paparazzi” 154 III. Music Video’s Late Late Style 8. How to Analyze Music Videos: Beyoncé and Melina Matsoukas’s “Pretty Hurts” 175 9. Dave Meyer’s Moments of Audiovisual Bliss 196 10. Janelle Monáe’s “You Make Me Feel” and Anderson.Paak with Kendrick Lamar’s “Tints”: Getting Up in My [Rearview] Mirror 211 IV. Audiovisual Aesthetics Online 11. Who Needs Music Documentaries When There’s TikTok and Carpool Karaoke? 231 12. TikTok and Costume-Drama Mashups on YouTube 247 V. New Modes of Analysis: Industry 13. The Art of Color Grading (Carol Vernallis, Jonathan Leal, Eric Weldt, and Aubrey Woodiwiss) 265 14. Music Video Directors, Production Houses, and the Media Swirl 290 VI. New Modes of Analysis: Neuroscience 15. Music Video’s Multisensory 307 16. Tracing the Asset: Humanistic and Quantitative Approaches to Cybercrime Film Trailers (Snowden and Bourne) 319 VII. New Modes of Analysis: Politics and Vernacular Culture 17. New Technologies, Social Justice, and the Future in Beyoncé’s Audiovisual Albums 335 18. Fox News, COVID-19, Brief Media Aesthetics, and Historical Resonances 356 Afterword 369 Notes 373 Bibliography 403 Index 429
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE