Garden Sounds: The Meaning Space of MTV

Author: Zheng Jianli
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-02-01
Features: Decoding media discourse, interpreting fashion trends! MTV produces many different products. It not only sells advertising products but also lifestyle and consumer trends; it not only sells records but also videos; it sells packaged entertainment while also selling audiences. Whether MTV's impact on the moral development of teenagers is positive or negative, whether it is an unconventional audiovisual art or a secular commercial advertisement, whether it is a beautiful snake or a delicate flower in the cultural garden, this book has no intention and ability to make a definitive value judgment on it. However, MTV culture has already occupied an undeniable unique position in the popular culture system of the electronic communication era and has had a broad and profound impact on the lives of teenagers worldwide, as well as on the entire society. This is an undeniable fact. Moreover, with MTV's eastward expansion in the early 1990s, the ancient land of China also welcomed this electronic image entertainment style nurtured by the post-industrial society of the West. A wonderful collision of Eastern and Western cultures occurred in the field of music dissemination. In the Chinese context, MTV, with its unique rhythm, melody, visual composition, aesthetic pursuits, and value inclinations, demonstrates a distinct cultural charm compared to Western MTV. And the systematic cultural analysis of it is one of the new attempts this book makes in this cultural communication phenomenon. Therefore, conducting a systematic analysis of music television from a cultural perspective, from its essence to its periphery, is the argumentative angle that runs through the entire book. Abroad, due to the rapid expansion of music television and the prosperity of cultural studies, the MTV phenomenon has become a relatively more attention-grabbing research subject in Western and European cultural studies circles. This research is much more mature compared to China, but it is mostly scattered in the general and overall analysis of mass culture styles. While in China, the focus on MTV is often on textbook-style compilation at the technical operational level. Therefore, exploring the textual characteristics, cultural spirit, consumer attributes, and icon traits of music television from the perspective of media communication and culture, especially the cultural connotations of Chinese MTV, can be said to be the new argumentative point this book adopts and attempts to elaborate on.