David Buckingham

His research focuses on children's and young people's interaction with electronic media, and on media education.

Buckingham relates the development on Genre to the complex issue of ever changing identities.

Discovering the depth of Identity - Buckingham explores the development of how individuals understand the concept of identity. As a child identity is seen as a simple concept where by a child will simply differentiate between male and female genders.

According to Buckingham, as we grow older our understanding of identity becomes very complex no longer a simple method of just establishing gender.

He argues..."Genre is not simply given by the culture, rather it is in a constant process of negotiation and change"



We can apply Buckingham's theory when looking at the two music video's; Karyn Whites- Superwoman and Neyo- Miss Independant.

 



 

 

The first music video portrays the stereotypical view of females. The video shows the protagonist to be extremely domesticated, looking after her child, taking care of home responsibilities and craving her husband’s attention. The lyrics also suggest she is only there to cater to her husband and child.

In contrast the second music video portrays females in a very different light, the title and chorus of the song “Miss Independent” tells it all. It’s show how the modern women is a business woman who is concerned with her career. Also in this video the male employee is craving the attention of his female boss, which is the complete opposite of the first video.

 

Applying David Buckingham’s theory to legendary band the Bee Gees and currently active boy band JLS

To some extent the Bee Gees were an early prototype to the more recognisable boy bands of today. The band consisted of 3 initial members; Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb who were all brothers formed the group in the late 50s and early 60s. The Bee Gees defined the disco and pop era of the 60s and 70s and created the initial stereotypes for that genre from clothing to their hairstyles.
In contrast, recently established boy band JLS were formed as a result of their second placed triumph on the X-Factor reality show. The boy band consists of 4 members

Appearance wise, the Bee Gees are wearing quite flamboyant and less recognisable clothing to today’s fashion. As the Bee Gees career developed so did their attire, as they soon established their own trademark clothing of polyester flares, bell bottoms and platform shoes. However, surprisingly there isn't a stark contrast between JLS' outfits. Although they wear completely different outfit and have different hairstyles they both essentially wore tight clothing.