critical essay

Corey DanielsApril 27, 2011COMM 1021

Critical Essay

When I was a child in the year of 1991, I remember anticipating summertime as a

wonderful time filled with all kinds of fun and activities because the possibilities were endless.

The sleepovers outside of mine or my friends back yard. Jumping on the trampoline, having

Super Soaker water gun fights on those unbearably hot afternoons. The unforgettable smells

and tastes from home cooked pulled pork and brisket barbeques, camping by the lake, and who

could forget the trips to amusement parks like Elich Gardens or Waterworld with family and

your close friends? As a college student, things have changed since then and I realize that I am

not able to do some of those memorable pastimes that I have listed. There’s always that

comforting, familiar feeling that comes back when I am listening to DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh

Prince, the feeling of summertime. Every time I listen to the lyrics of these artists not only do I

capture certain memories of every summer I’ve encountered, but I also realize that these

words define the feeling of what summer is. I argue that the song by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh

Prince, Summertime, can be viewed with different meanings from differing targeted audiences

using the communication theory reception analysis.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been in a position where a particular song comes on

and certain events come into mind, such as time and place. This can be as simple as

remembering where you were when you first heard a certain song, what smells were around


you, and in what company you were in when the song made it’s way into your memory. To me,

this song has a lot of significance and ties to the feeling of summer fun, as I stated in my

introduction. Maybe it’s because in the 1990’s the genre of hip-hop music was at an all-time

high partially because the music actually had defined meaning and wasn’t nearly as repetitive

as previous years had been. Reception theory “stresses audience interpretation as the primary

site of meaning-making (Ott, Mack).” Media owners have the power to craft media text with

particular messages but it is up to the audiences who determine what video, music, or any

other media creates an emotional attachment in their lives. When a particular music video

comes on you can’t help but analyze it. Some analyses are different from others but a person’s

personal memories and social background come into play when constructing their breakdown

of the media. When I heard “Summertime” for the first time I remember I was in my second

week out of a grueling school year for summer break and I was on my way to a long awaited

family barbeque. I remember the smell and the taste of the food, my younger cousins running

around the rented pavilions, the adults talking and drinking, and everyone was laughing like

there wasn’t a care in the world. The weather turned out to be the epitome of perfection. I

remember feeling a deep satisfaction with life and imagining that this is the way summer

should be every day.

When talking about reception analysis, an important term that comes into play is

polysemy. “Polysemy refers to the relative openness of media texts to multiple interpretations

(Ott, Mack).” A polysemic text is one that can signify a number of different meanings to many


different members of the audience. The song lyrics and music video of “Summertime” can be

viewed differently from how I related this to the thought of summer, barbeques, and sun.

Different audiences will make different meanings of the song based on their background and

experience of listening to the lyrics. While watching the video, audiences can also get a

different prospective of how it is viewed in the viewpoint of the singer/actor, Will Smith. For

some, “Summertime” can mean taking more hours at work or taking the time to complete the

necessary extra courses at school. In this sense, their summer is taken away by prior time

commitments and the need to further them financially or educationally. In different parts of

the country, many people of different races don’t relate to African Americans and the way they

are portrayed to enjoy family gatherings at barbeques as it is projected in the music video.

John Fiske concedes that all popular texts or media must have a foundation of dominant

social conventions shared by audiences (Ott, Mack). A good statement is that “a text can

appeal to this variety of audiences only if there is a common ideological frame that all recognize

and can be used, even if many are opposed to it (Ott, Mack). Many people across the country

have some common definition of what summer means to them. Nice, warm summer weather

and being able to do outdoor activates like water sports and being with family and friends is

what summer is all about. Some people may argue that this is a perfect time because students

are getting out of school, becoming lazy, and lose what they have learned in class because of all

the extracurricular activities that take place during the summertime. Overall, going to


extravagant beach parties and being able to do break out of a particular norm just proves the

point that audiences have a different ideological way of defining what summertime is.

It is likely that the less shared views a person has with the artist, actor, or anyone

associated with a particular media outlet the less audiences will be able to recognize the artist’s

intended meaning. This can again be related to the idea that and if different readers have

different cultural and personal experiences, their reading and inderstandings of a text will vary

greatly. In general, polysemy is an important contribution to reception analysis because it

recognizes the levels of potential meaning in any given media text. It also allows for scholars to

understand the place in the text where audiences engage their personal experiences and

attitudes (Ott, Mack).

With this being said many people have their own interpretations of where there were

when a particular song came on. There is no doubt that each interpretation is different than

one another but it creates meaning and memories. For me playing a meaningful is a great

escape from reality, and being able to be put into that place is a great feeling knowing that

nothing else around you matters, your just in the moment.


Reference

O t t , B . L . , & M a c k , R . L . ( 2 0 1 0 ) C r i t i c a l m e d i a s t u d i e s ; A n i n t r o d u c t i o n . M a l d e n , M A : W i l e y - B l a c k w e l l

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