WCC COMM 101-Chapter #7 Focus (NY77)

1. CHAPTER 7
Radio, Recording, & Popular Music Chapter/Study Focus:
NY77: the coolest year in hell

2. RADIO, RECORDING,AND POPULAR MUSIC
Book offers good information about the history and
technology involved with radio, recording and popular
music and is covered in quiz material
We’ll be spending our class time looking at NY77:THE
COOLESTYEAR IN HELL as it is a good way to combine
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM for class discussion
NEXT CLASS:War of theWorlds = example of Broadcast
Radio Mass Media and its effects

3. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
Pop Culture has long been enmeshed in “History” and music is
no exception; beyond being just a “soundtrack for our lives”,
music can often be so powerful that it enacts cultural changes
that resonate through every level of society.This documentary
takes a close look at 1977 as a pivotal year in the life of NewYork
City, including how music can be part of the very fabric of
society. Please consider how music can be both a reflection of,
and an influence over various factions of society and culture, and
how such reflection and influence can impact us all long after
songs fall off the charts…

4. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
What is a “DOCUMENTARY FILM”?
A documentary film is a nonfictional motion picture intended to
document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of
instruction or maintaining a historical record.
Documentaries often explore effects of mass media while also
simultaneously being a form of mass media themselves. A movie
about censoring movies for example, or aTV show about howTV
shows are important

5. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
TYPES OF DOCUMENTARIES
 Observational documentaries attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life with a
minimum of intervention. Often, this mode of film eschewed voice-over commentary, post-
synchronized dialogue and music, or re-enactments.The films aimed for immediacy, intimacy,
and revelation of individual human character in ordinary life situations.
 Participatory documentaries believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not
influence or alter the events being filmed.What these films do is emulate the approach of the
anthropologist: participant-observation. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, we also get a
sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by their presence.
 Performative documentaries stress subjective experience and emotional response to the world.
They are strongly personal, unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or experimental, and might
include hypothetical enactments of events designed to make us experience what it might be like
for us to possess a certain specific perspective on the world that is not our own. Performative
docs often link up personal accounts or experiences with larger political or historical realities.

6. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
NARRATION STYLES
Voice-over narrator
 The traditional style for narration is to have a dedicated narrator read a script which is dubbed
onto the audio track.The narrator never appears on camera and may not necessarily have
knowledge of the subject matter or involvement in the writing of the script.
Silent narration
 This style of narration uses title screens to visually narrate the documentary.The screens are
held for about 5–10 seconds to allow adequate time for the viewer to read them.They are similar
to the ones shown at the end of movies based on true stories, but they are shown throughout,
typically between scenes.
Hosted narrator
 In this style, there is a host who appears on camera, conducts interviews, and who also does
voice-overs.

7. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
How did the musical genres of hip
hop, punk and disco and their mass
media messages (recorded songs)
reflect and/or influence the political
and societal realities of NewYork City
in 1977?

8. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
What made NY77 an effective or non-
effective example of documentary
film? How would you define this
documentary in terms discussed in
class (and on the back of this sheet)?

9. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
 Performative documentaries stress subjective experience and emotional response to
the world.They are strongly personal, unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or
experimental, and might include hypothetical enactments of events designed to
make us experience what it might be like for us to possess a certain specific
perspective on the world that is not our own. Performative docs often link up personal
accounts or experiences with larger political or historical realities.
 Voice-over narrator
The traditional style for narration is to have a dedicated narrator read a script which is
dubbed onto the audio track.The narrator never appears on camera and may not
necessarily have knowledge of the subject matter or involvement in the writing of the
script.

10. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
What kind of influence does hip-hop,
punk and disco music hold in our
culture today?

11. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
NY77:The CoolestYear in Hell

12. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
Hip-Hop’s lasting influence on society and
culture is undisputed and is the subject of much
academic and cultural research and critique. It
continues to a dominant commercial musical
force and its influence can be felt in advertising,
fashion, Broadway, and beyond…

13. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
Punk’s lasting influence on society and culture is
undisputed and is also the subject of much
academic and cultural research and critique. It’s
style and energy lives on in modern rock and its
influence can be felt in advertising , fashion,
Broadway, and beyond…

14. NY77:THE COOLESTYEAR IN HELL =
RECORDINGS/MUSIC + FILM
Disco’s lasting influence on society and culture is
also undisputed and the subject of much
academic and cultural research and critique. Disco
as a musical genre has evolved into House Music
and EDM and its influence can be felt in current
pop music of all stripes.

15. The media so fully saturate our everyday lives that we
are often unconscious of their presence, not to
mention their influence. Media inform us, entertain us,
delight us, annoy us.They move our emotions,
challenge our intellects, insult our intelligence. Media
often reduce us to mere commodities for sale to the
highest bidder. Media help define us; they shape our
realities…
CENTRALTHEME OF
COMM 101: UNDERSTANDING MASS MEDIA

16. …but Media does none of this alone.They
do it with us as well as to us through mass
communication, and they do it as a central—
many critics and scholars say the central—
cultural force in our society.
CENTRALTHEME OF
COMM 101: UNDERSTANDING MASS MEDIA

17. Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze,
evaluate, and create media. Media-literate
youth and adults are better able to understand
the complex messages we receive from
television, radio, Internet, newspapers,
magazines, books, billboards, video games,
music, and all other forms of media.
CENTRALTHEME OF
COMM 101: UNDERSTANDING MASS MEDIA