The Cultural Iconography
Of Music, Technology and Memory
Of all the cultural triggers that bring back memories and mark milestones in our lives; technology and music are likely to be high on the list. Transcending nostalgia, the two combine the two to create a powerful time machine that can take you back, (and forward if you care to extrapolate), into something much more concrete, where the technological iconography can be used to shine a light on the culture and behaviours of that time. So if any future historians require a snapshot of the late 20th/early 21st century any one the following three films offer a distinct narrative.
We start c. 39 years ago with the Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star. This was the original video, a historic document, first broadcast on Top of The Pops in 1979, also claimed a another first, in being the music video chosen to kick off MTV, on August 1st, 1981. It introduces recurring symbols of youth, femininity against a backdrop of generic sci-fi imagery, (silver body suits and transportation tubes) alongside emerging music technology. A key theme is nostalgia, looking back to time a time when entertainment was simpler, before technology inevitably shaped youth culture. Digital life as we know it, was still a few years away.
A combination of a memorable catchy tune and a tranche of easily re-mixable lyrics, made it inevitable that Video killed….. would propagate other works — as, does most great art. Although each of its subsequent videos might initially be thought of as parodies, their references and observations clearly develop the original intent. The second, Internet Killed the Video Star moves us forward a couple of decades. Here Mark Cohn and the BroadBand create a paean dedicated to computers and the coming of age of the Internet at the turn of the millennium. Using bold colour and graphics in its comic iconography ..Video Star captures the consumer and technological zeitgeist, referencing the imminent bursting of the dotcom bubble and the demise of Napster, (later to re-emerged as a hamstrung online music store). If you were around at the time, it will no doubt look and seem very familiar.
Finally we are now transported to the 21st Century where Amy Burvall brings the theme right up to date in Digital Life, with her superb remix created for the E-Learning and Digital Cultures MOOC . Shot using an iPhone, it takes us through the personal affordances of our personal tech whilst giving Amy the opportunity to fulfil her “ambitions to become a YouTube star”.
When I first came across Amy’s digital artefact on the course, it was soon apparent, this was more than course-work in a generally accepted sense. It had taken on a life of its own beyond the course, as an entity in its own right. This got me thinking — shouldn’t more of the work done, and artefacts created by students in our schools and colleges be visible and make a useful contribution, to knowledge and culture, no matter how small? They have all this easily accessible and usable technology for making, they are now being taught coding skills, they are ideally placed to create and share openly, if their institutions will let them.
Any of the above videos would make an interesting course text raising lots of questions and avenues for exploration, across many digital and cultural strands. This is exactly why I included Marc Cohn’s video as a text when I developed and taught the Digital Media Foundation course at the University of Hull in 2007. Were I to re-create the course today, I would now include all three.
Each of the films document how changes in technology, affect us, they question and offer insights into how we use and interact with media and information. The more one watches and listens, the more subtleties and nuances one can discover in each one. Whilst alienation may be just around the corner, they observe, commentate; but without the technology based moral panics so often promoted by mainstream media.
Who will now build on Digital Life, what will their artefacts tell us?
