Meat Factory Ear Worms 200 word responce

Meat Factory Ear Worms (Beirne, 2011) tells the narrator's story of when he worked in a meat factory in Ireland, using narration, music and diegetic sounds. Repetition of sounds is used to express the repetitive, monotonous nature of the narrator’s lifestyle in the factory. The music helps express this, as well as express a sense of nostalgia. Repeating the music causes the music to potentially become an earworm for the listener too, which helps the audience relate to the narrator.

The piece uses a mix of contrasting sounds, such as music and horrifying sounds of the factory to shock the audience. The narration is also oxymoronic in places (‘sweet smell of a backbone being sawed in half’) which is shocking in it’s desensitised description of a visceral event. The documentary focuses on the narrator’s desensitisation and mental state heavily, making the audience question his sanity through the jumbled editing of sounds. The documentary allows us to hear the mind of the narrator, using sounds from his memory as he remembers them.

The documentary aims to express the difficulty and monotony of the narrator’s life, as well as shock and unnerve the audience, and is successful; the repetition of music causes the documentary to remain in the minds of the listener for a long time after.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2011/0312/646650-the-curious-ear-doconone-meat-factory-ear-worms/