Evaluation question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product has taken the music genre of punk/rock/ska and made it slightly comic. This challenges the norm for videos of this genre that normally connote more serious or powerful messages.

Using postmodernism within our project makes it more modern and creates links to other forms of media, for example the Internet and social networking sites. This can be seen as challenging forms, because it makes the song less universal, and therefore narrowing the band's target audience to a specific kind of audience. Such as teenagers and young adults i.e. people that would understand the references made within the song we have chosen.

Much of the music from the punk/rock genre involves controversial, sometimes shockingly opinionated lyrics. The song we have chosen can be viewed as quite shocking, but in a less frightening way, for example, one of the lyrics talks about being maced. This is often linked to a form of punishment or self defence which is a strange, but dramatic concept, however it is put in a more humorous light, as when put into context, it is about talking to a girl and being rejected.

The characters involved in the narrative of our music video are very stereotypical. For example, the 'unpopular nerd' who cannot impress the girl he likes, the audience feels for this character and at some point or another, will be able to relate to him and understand how he feels. He is portrayed as a loner, he just isn't the most popular guy around and so he feels the need to hide behind the Internet to show himself as completely different to how he really is. This can probably be understood by nearly all teenagers of this time, as they have most likely felt the same way as the guy in video at some point in their lives. This therefore is using forms and conventions of media products because it is such a well known stereotype.
This kind of narrative conforms with the conventions used in for example romantic comedies, however the video does not have the stereotypical 'happily ever after' ending. It can be seen to portray reality as it is, not always with a happy ending, instead showing the protagonist's life for what it is, and making it comic, therefore something viewers can laugh at, because it has some form of truth within it. There is no equilibrium, disequilibrium, equilibrium as in most films and sometimes music videos, instead it just shows a clipping from the life of a teenager in a more realistic way than other media products may portray. So this is challenging the forms from other media products, changing it from the stereotypical layout of a 'happy ending' to something more believable.

Overall, our media product contains some challenges to the conventions of other media products, such as the postmodern factors, yet it also has some stereotypical elements to it that make it much more universal.