Journal 3

For project 1 I decided to look at audience. I chose three artifacts from the musical craze of Hamilton: the cover of the book, Hamilton, by Ron Chernow, to represent the book, the musical’s poster as a representation of the play, and the CD case of the Hamilton Mixtape as a representation of the covers of the songs from the musical. My aim is to look at what audiences these three medias appeal to, and how they appeal to them. I believe my artifacts teach us about the different modes a story can take, and how one medium can be more appealing than the others to certain groups of people. I think that there is a definite trend among these artifacts, culturally as well as in the vein of simplification of stories to achieve success of product.

Looking at Edbauer’s rhetorical ecology, I can see that the mixtape evolved from the musical, which in turn evolved from the book. Each of these products have been absorbed into society, and the popularity of the musical created a definite shift in the way that society looks at musicals and music (how they can be “cool”). Circulation of a product can spark greater interest in an audience and can allow something to gain popularity because it is being transformed and grown. What I mean to say is: no one really cared about a book written about Alexander Hamilton, until there was a catchy musical, and then everyone went crazy about it. That would not have happened if the story of Hamilton hadn’t been repackaged and put back into circulation.