Audience Theories – Hebdige's Subculture Theory and Hall's Reception Theory:

Hebdige's Subculture Theory:

Hebdige is a theorist who created a theory about cultures in 1979. He researched into the evolution of cultures, subcultures and counter cultures. His theory identified sub and counter cultures mainly like the Punks and Rockers and the reasons behind their creation. These included their class, regional identity, ethnicity and background. Hebdige said that these counter cultures can be viewed as a symbolic type of resistance against mainstream culture and can be looked down on.

An example of this were the developments of raves in the 1990's. They were created as a result of young people gathering in places such as field where they played music and took drugs. The mainstream media judged this and laws were made to reduce these "problems."

This theory can be related to the audience of our song/music video as they may appeal to fans of pop and dance music. Although this music is considered to have a mainstream audience, older viewers may see them as being a counter-culture as it may be made up of younger generations. Because of this a negative stigma may be attached to younger people.

Hall's Reception Theory:

Hall's reception theory is how the audience view the music video and it's messages. These two theories can therefore be related to one another as it helps to broaden our knowledge about who and how people will react to music videos and my group's in particular. There are three readings that the audience may have to a music video:

- Dominant = the viewer accepts the points made in the video.

- Negotiated = the viewer partly accepts the points but may question elements of the video.

- Oppositional = the viewer totally rejects the points made in the video.