Music video use and educational achievement: a Swedish study

Abstract

Almost since their inception film and television have employed music as background accompaniment. Despite this obvious fact, the significance of such musical accompaniment has been underestimated by most researchers (see Tagg 1979). The contemporary conjunction of video technology, communication satellites and cable-TV has created a media environment in which television featuring music videos has thrived, and in which media researchers are no longer able to ignore the synchronisation of aural and visual content. While the idea of synchronising musical and visual presentation is itself not new (see Aufderheide 1986), its realisation in the modern music video presents those seeking to describe and explain media behaviour with a new set of problems and tasks.

The Perception of the Song and Its Video Clip

“…Videos seem to be used as the background for other actions --just as radio music is. These results confirm Roe's (1988) who found that the audio modality prevails over the visual in the way the video is perceived: if the video movie is not liked, then it is the song that comes to the foreground. This is not consistent with Behne's (1987) evaluation, never actually verified, which supports the prominence of the visual over the audio.…”

II Education and the Media: Schooling the Adolescent Audience

“…Typical examples are an early appropriation of adult rights-such as drinking, smoking, sexual activity and access to restricted media contents-and attachment to rebellious or otherwise expressive youth subcultures. Rock, especially in its 'heavier' forms, has always provided a deep reservoir of possibilities in these respects (Brake, 1977;Brown & O'Leary, 1971;Clarke, 1973;Hargreaves, 1967;Martens, 1982;Murdock & Phelps, 1973;Power, 1986;Roe, 1983Roe, , 1987aRoe, , 1989Roe, , 1990Roe & LOfgren, 1988;Schostak, 1986;Stinchcombe, 1964;Sugarman, 1967;von Feilitzen & Roe, 1990;Willis, 1978;.…”