GLEE'S INFLUENCES

BIG BROTHER PAYED HOMAGE TO GLEE BY CREATING A REMAKE OF 'DONT STOP BELIEVING.

DONT STOP BELIEVNG- CHANNEL FIVE, a new television musical series

GLEE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

Glee star Jane Lynch on how her acid tongue won her worldwide fame
Jun 20 2010 John Millar, Sunday Mail
JANE LYNCH is having the best year of her life - and she can't hide her Glee.
She has achieved global stardom with the hit American TV series, got married and become a stepmum.
The tall blonde has gone from playing little-known roles to awardwinning success as the acid-tongued cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester of William McKinley High School.
There's a new series of Glee, the show about teen misfits who hit the high notes at a school singing club, on the way and Jane reckons the secret of Sue's popularity is her ability to say the unsayable.
Talking to the Sunday Mail at the Monte Carlo TV Festival, Jane said: "She's attractive because she's so mean.
"There are things we would never say out loud, but Sue has no filter and people love that.
"One of my favourite Sue put-downs was when she says, 'I'm going to get a diaper for your chin because it looks like a baby's ass'.
"She puts together these random sentences of condemnation and everyone wishes they could do that, but at the end of the day she's not dangerous.
"It's not like she's Anthony Hopkins in The Silence Of The Lambs. You're not afraid of her."
Jane is delighted by the sort of reaction she gets from fans of Glee.
"There'll be 14-year-old girls coming up to me three or four times a day, vibrating with enthusiasm and saying, 'This is what I do, I'm in plays at school'.
"One girl told me they had three times more people audition for the school play this year than last year and I hope that's the case elsewhere.
"The show has kind of legitimised the arts as a cool thing to do."
She describes herself as a character actor and lists Jennifer Saunders, 30 Rock star Tina Fey and Eve Arden, who was Principal McGee in Grease, among her favourite funny ladies.
And her top singing star is Big Yellow Taxi creator, Joni Mitchell.
"She's a poet with a unique voice," says Jane.
"She's smoked a billion cigarettes and has this incredible, unique sound. Her songs are different, they're like poems.
"I read an article where the interviewer said, 'The women in your category like Joan Baez and Judy Collins... ' and Joni says, 'They're not in my category'. I love that."
On the big screen next month, Jane joins the wacky world of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz when she's the voice of Gretched in the cartoon Shrek Forever After.
Later, the 49-year-old star will be seen with Sigourney Weaver, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Paul, a sci-fi romp about comic book geeks having an encounter with an alien.
A couple of the actress's most memorable moments on Glee were when she poked gentle fun at two pop icons - Madonna and Grease star Olivia Newton-John.
Jane recreated Madonna's Vogue video and helped Grease star Olivia in an update of the hit song Physical.
And she admits that she got a kick out of those episodes of Glee.
"I adore Olivia Newton-John and I was a huge fan of hers growing up, so that was a dream come true," she says.
"Doing the Vogue video was such a labour of love and probably a huge highlight in my life." But she adds that creating a note-for-note version of Madonna's stylish routine had been utterly exhausting.
"The whole team worked very hard on making it. I think we had more production meetings about that number than anything else on Glee," says Jane.
It was clearly worth all the effort because not only did Jane's performance wow fans of Glee, but it also seems that Madonna was pretty impressed.
"I didn't meet Madonna, but she released a statement saying she was very happy with the episode, as well she should be since it was a homage to her."
Now Jane and the rest of the Glee team are hoping that the show will continue to target superstars of rock.
"I've heard talk of a Bruce Springsteen episode, which would be amazing," she says.
Before Glee, for most folk Jane Lynch would have been Jane who? A late starter in showbiz - she was too nervous to be in high school plays - she was 33 years old when she got a small part in the Harrison Ford hit movie, The Fugitive.
After that, Jane appeared in lots of TV shows and films without ever really making her mark.
But audiences started to take notice when she was in a trio of mock documentary movies, Best In Show, a spoof on dog shows, A Mighty Wind, which sent up folk music, and For Your Consideration, which mocked the Oscar season. Jane came out as being gay years ago and doesn't believe it was a big deal.
"As for being out in Hollywood - I never thought about it," she says. "Nobody seems to care, actually. "I'm really grateful to Melissa Etheridge, KD Lang and Ellen DeGeneres who said, 'This is who I am.' "America kind of gasped at that and then went, 'ok, that's cool'."
At the end of May, Jane and psychologist Dr Lara Embry wed in Massachusetts.
"It was lovely. We were in North Hampton, which is where my wife went to school, so it actually had meaning for us," she says.
"We had four friends each who came along with their spouses, so it was really small."
The marriage also meant Jane became a stepmum to an eight-year-old daughter.
"She's actually more my daughter than my wife's in a way as she's a lot like me."
In just a few weeks, on July 14, Jane will have her 50th birthday but she insists there'll be no big party.
"It's weird to even fathom the idea of being 50," she says.
"I don't think I'll have a big blow-out.
"I'll probably just celebrate with my wife and my daughter.
"It will pass without too much fanfare."

ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE ARTICLE

"Twenty-three-year-old Lea Michele, the Broadway talent who plays Rachel, tells Hedegaard about her tattoos, and Cory Monteith, who portrays jock Finn, owns up to a few childhood arrests for offenses that “didn’t hurt people.” Dianna Argon (slippery cheerleader Quinn) describes what it was like joining the cast late and falling victim to Monteith’s fart pranks, and 19-year-old Chris Colfer, who bravely plays gay teen Kurt, opens up about his own painful youth and his never-changing voice."

The latest cover which carries the title "Glee Gone Wild: Inside TV's Hottest Show" has already sparked debate from avid RS readers. Some are angered by the choice of cover material, claiming that they'd rather see Iggy Pop or a recently deceased musical artist gracing the cover. Obviously fans of the show are happy with the cover choice, while others would rather not see the Glee cast on the cover. Some have even gone as far as to question the fact that the cast members shown on the cover are the "straight white characters" rather than the more diverse characters from Glee.

GLEE Review

Fox Network's one-hour musical dramedy Glee, set in the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio, has been touted by its producers as being in a genre of its own.

It's a good thing. Who would want another musical mess that brings many loony twists, but sadly not much glee, to its viewers? This overhyped production is uninspired, confusing and with a simple plot to boot.

The students who belong to the school's singing group or 'glee club' are weird, unattractive misfits. Supposedly, they're the losers. The winners are the jocks and the cheerleaders, called 'Cheerios': they're taller, blonder, permanently bronzed - due to a tanning booth located somewhere in the school - and constantly smooching in the hallways.

Will the talented but geeky members of the glee club ever attain winner status? Or, rather, can you bear to watch enough episodes to find out?

In the second show of its premiere season, the Glee group embraces a 'go-after-your-dreams' theme. However, the upbeat message is overridden by the show's attempt to be darker than the run-of-the mill high school drama.

Mr. Schuester, the young and attractive but creatively frustrated Spanish teacher who founded the Glee club, is temporarily kicked out when star Rachel doesn't think he can develop a winning choreography routine for an inter-school competition.

He goes on to create an acappella singing group with some of the other teachers, including the shop class instructor who, by-the-by, has sliced both thumbs off while woodworking and is so addicted to cough syrup that he will he's entered rehab before the episode is over.

The Glee club hires a renowned choreographer who viciously insults each member's appearance - pretty Rachel needs a nose job and one young man is "too tall" - only to be given the boot. He missed the point: the Glee members realise they're weird, but they're so hugely talented and they don’t need him.

Music should be the redeeming feature of Glee but it's not, because the viewer never gets a satisfying taste of the cast members' musical talents. Although it runs for a full hour, this week's episode had only one number that really showcased their singing stuff. It was a song by African-American Glee member Mercedes, about smashing in her boyfriend's car windows when he tells her he's in love with someone else. That was the most gleeful moment there was.

GLEE

SUMMER RESEARCH

Media Representations

Glee represents the stereotypes of high school kids, with cliche characters such as the 'Jock', 'Plastic etc, with somewhat of a new stereotype: 'The Gay One'. Characters are being represented this way to allow the audience to identify themselves with them. The use of stereptypes could also allow the audience to acheive a sense of escapism, as they see characters reach their goals. The stereotypes may not be accurate however this is what may contribute to the sense of escapism towards the audience.


Media Languages and Forms

What are the denotative and connotative levels of meaning?
What is the significance of the text’s connotations?
there connotations of hope, redemption. love
What are the non-verbal structures of meaning in the text (e.g. gesture, facial expression, positional communication, clothing, props etc)?
Within the text the characters show emotions of struggle and unhappiness, however a sense of hope is brought to the narrative and some sort of happiness seems to be accomplished, which creates a feel-good text. The clothing preseted in the text represents the stereotypes of high school, the jocks, the nerds,the plastic and the gay guy., which audiences can identify with.
What is the significance of mise-en-scene/sets/settings?
What work is being done by the sound track/commentary/language of the text?
Sound bridges, voice-over.
What are the dominant images and iconography, and what is their relevance to the major themes of the text?
Pop culture, (madonna's bra, reference of 'Bravo')
What sound and visual techniques are used to convey meaning (e.g. camera positioning, editing; the ways that images and sounds are combined to convey meaning)?

Narrative

How is the narrative organised and structured?
With the help of voice-over and text toguide the audience and inform them about the new series.
How is the audience positioned in relation to the narrative?
The audience
How are characters delineated? What is their narrative function? How are heroes and villains created?
Glee's hero's and Villains are presented through the concept of 'Nasty and Nice', for example Sue Sylvester, who comes across as rude and a bully, whilst Mr Shuester seems very understanding and caring.
What techniques of identification and alienation are employed?
What is the role of such features as sound, music, iconography, genre, mise-en-scene, editing etc within the narrative?
What are the major themes of the narrative? What values/ideologies does it embody?
Glee emodies the ideologies of hard work, hope, and that anything is possible,

Genre

To which genre does the text belong?
Comedy, drama, musical
What are the major generic conventions within the text?
What are the major iconographic features of the text?
What are the major generic themes?
To what extent are the characters generically determined?
To what extent are the audience’s generic expectations of the text fulfilled or cheated by the text? Does the text conform to the characteristics of the genre, or does it treat them playfully or ironically?
Does the text feature a star, a director, a writer etc who is strongly associated with the genre? What meanings and associations do they have?
Mathew Morrison who is a famous broadway musical actor

Media Institutions

What is the institutional source of the text?
In what ways has the text been influenced or shaped by the institution which produced it?
Is the source a public service or commercial institution? What difference does this make to the text?
Who owns and controls the institution concerned and does this matter?
How has the text been distributed?

Media Values and Ideology

What are the major values, ideologies and assumptions underpinning the text or naturalised within it?
What criteria have been used for selecting the content presented?

Media Audiences

To whom is the text addressed? What is the target audience?
Teenagers aged 13 to 19 .
Female majorty audience, including gay fan base.
demographically D and E.
Psychographically the audience will essentailly be mainstreamers and aspirers, as this audience group are interested in contemporary and mainsream music, and also
What assumptions about the audience’s characteristics are implicit within the text?
What assumptions about the audience are implicit in the text’s scheduling or positioning?
In what conditions is the audience likely to receive the text? Does this impact upon the formal characteristics of the text?
What do you know or can you assume about the likely size and constituency of the audience?
What are the probable and possible audience readings of the text?
How do you, as an audience member, read and evaluate the text? To what extent is your reading and evaluation influenced by your age, gender, background etc?

Summer Project