critical analysis of feature writing
... Blake is critical of the concept of music journalism today and argues against what he describes as “journalists who are usually male graduates (in English literature as often as not) who have deeply masculine suspicion of anything academic which might try to tread on their patch”. ... Bringing into context a debate between music as a media representation and music as a cultural institution, Blake focus’s his point upon feature writers as individual critics of a form they relate through knowledge of its critique. ... In order to make a clear analysis of feature writing as a media text I plan to emphasise my study around a case study of the New Musical Express, as well as relating back to Blake’s idea of cultural criticism neglecting issues of true objective representation the institution itself. ... NME began to publish feature article orientating around this specific genre and even decided to label it Nu Metal. ... One way to determine how representation becomes stereotyped is when there is emphasis upon an easily grasped feature of the group in question. ... It is however difficult to grasp true representations of theorized analysis, with the pre-dominance being focused upon style and fandom. ... This is a feature has appeared over recent years to represent the bands NME choose as hot tips for the up and coming year and carries a supplementary section focusing upon bands tipped last year who have had success. ... The hot list 2004 feature is clear evidence of NME’s desire to maintain an ideology focused around style and desire. The presentation of the feature carries subheadings such as “There hot, they’re smart, they’re the best new band in Britain” and “The Las Vegas sex’n’synth for piece are gambling everything for success”. Textual analysis indicates a writing style focussed upon categorising the new bands as post-modern subjects within moral codes of what makes for acceptable.