Evaluation 2: How does your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

When designing my magazine, I used colours and “tropes” commonly used by metal bands to make themselves look “hardcore” and “brutal”. The band I created for the purpose of my media product, known as “Ouroboros” emulated those conventions through mise-en-scène.

I dressed the bassist of the band in black and placed a gas mask on his head. Gas masks are symbolic of suffering as they were used to combat chemical weapons that were used in the first world war. If a gas mask was not worn, some of the chemical weapons would cause blisters in the lungs and on any exposed skin, leading to a very painful death. This helps show the band off as “brutal”. I placed white tape on the gas mask’s front, as well as on the bass guitar to contrast the black and to help him “pop” out to the audience. The bassist holds the persona of the quiet, creative member of the band, as he also plays the bass - which is representative of his personality- quiet, but essential. This shows off one type of metal fans, people belonging to the “goth” scene who are generally quiet, but also stand out in a crowd. They are loud in their own way.

To further push these conventions I dressed the lead of the band in a choker, a leather jacket, black jeans and a white t-shirt with a reference to the cuban ‘revolución’ that was headed up by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro which helped to free cuba from american leadership. This gives a message that the band is ‘revolutionary’ or ‘unique’ as there is a female lead who is also the lead guitarist, something that is uncommon in the world of metal. She wants change in the world of metal, so her dress style does not fit in with any metal stereotypes but still follows the codes and conventions set. She represents female metal fans, trying to change things up and helping females get a more prevalent role in metal, rather than the “groupies” that they are commonly represented as in films and in popular culture.

The drummer is going for a slightly more sophisticated look that most modern metal bands use, while keeping with the codes and conventions of the metal genre. He is wearing a Death t-shirt from the band of the same name which has a scythe as the ‘t’ in the word death. The scythe represents the grim reaper, or more specifically the Greek god of death “Thanatos”. Thanatos was commonly depicted to be using a scythe to reap the souls of the dead into the underworld, just as a farmer would reap crops. The drummers attire shows that he - while looking casual - still maintains the “brutal” codes and conventions of metal. He represents a conformed side of metal, people who don’t want their appearance to stand out due to professional reasons -they may hold a C1 job position so may not be allowed to have heavy piercings or tattoos like most stereotypical “metal heads”- but still want to show that they are fans of the genre. You could describe them as “closet” metal fans.

All three of the members of this band fit with different eras and subgenres of metal - the bassist fitting in with the 1995/6 thrash metal scene, which was the prevalent form of metal at the time. The singer/guitarist fits in with early 2000’s gothic rock scene, however, as the drummer fits more with the modern metal scene from around 2007/8 this is due to the fact this his attire, which was made popular around the same time is more casual compared to the “brutal” look of the bassist and the more “gothic” look of the lead singer.