A greater grasp

After a few days, a talk with my tutor and a long hard think; I've realised that things haven't quite been correct with my process and ethos for my dissertation. I didn't have an argument, I was focusing on a subject that should really be a case study and it was becoming too historical.

I am wanted to look at the Be-Bop jazz in the 1950's, the modernism surrounding it and the idea of intermedial design—after a period of thought I've realised that the idea of intermedality could work very well in the overall essay though American Modernism and Be-Bop jazz would make for an excellent key study.

I only recently realised that an argument is an essential for the essay and without realising I had stumbled right into making a more historical essay than desired. In the hope of not making things too historical and influencing an argument; I feel I should make a comparison with modern day just as I look at a period in the past.

As I spoke to the tutor he made me aware that we both felt that (as record collectors) we didn't really think of music coming without it's design. That the design is linked or stitched to the music, thus reinforcing the idea of intermedality. As an idea for an argument I was wondering whether I could debate whether the design can be separate to the music, or whether you can ever truly get one without the other.

So, as a huge change before I was thinking to ask the question Is music held within the intermedality of it's design, or has the intermedial link between the two perished as the sleeve became less prevelant?

I also have a few other ideas that go along the lines of:

• Looking at American Modernism in the 1950's, was the intermedial link more important than it is today, in the modern record industry?
• Is music linked to it's design by intermedality, and could the two exist without one another? How does this stand in the modern music industry compared to the rise of Be-Bop Jazz in the 1950's

None of these ideas are really set and it's just really me trying to get a grasp on what I want to do, but from what I've uncovered in research I'd really like to write my essay including the topics of Intermedality, American Modernism and Jazz records because I am passionate about them.