Music Videos

Theories

Andrew Godwin’s Music Video Theory.From the book “Dancing in the Distraction Factory”.

1) Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.Certain features are expected out of a video depending on the genre of the music.

•Rock bands tend to opt for stage performances, showing the singer shouting down a microphone, the guitarists thrashing the chords and the drummer putting all their body into hitting the drums, expressing how ‘tough’ and ‘hard’ rock is.

2)There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.Lyrics match up with the Music Video’s visuals. When you hear a song, you feel the emotion and the message wanting to be put across by the artist which is usually what is then seen in the music video.

•Themes, mise-en-scene and events of the video match with lyrics of the song, to help to portray the message of the song.

3)There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.The tone of the music must match the visuals

featured in the music video.

•The cuts and edits of the video are in sync with the rhythm and beat of the song matching cuts or effects to specific drum beats or notes.

•However, sometimes it is deliberate to contradict the sounds or lyrics with the visuals to emphasise the emotion.

4)The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which reoccur across their work. Record labels will want the most promotion possible for their artist. This is why a lot of the time Music Video’s have the solo artist or frontman as the protagonist in narrative videos.

•The camerawork is all positioned around the artist, featuring mainly close ups to set the artist in the audience’s mind.

•The artist may form a visual motif (style) making them more memorable when a new video is released.

•This allows the record label to promote a set image for the band, which will help target audiences empathies with the band.

5)There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.There is a reference to ‘looking’. It’s a visual technique which involves stages and mirrors: all focusing on the artist.

•Most music videos include ‘voyeurism’ i.e. women undressing, performing sexual acts but this is implied more than seen. This is mainly used as a common interest for the audience and to promote and sell the artist using sexuality, a common marketing strategy in the media.

•The male gaze is a focus on presenting things that appeal to men. This often means a voyeuristic view of, and an objectification, of women. The emphasis on looking also includes the artist looking directly into the camera helping the audience connect with the artist.

6)There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos) etc. This step in the theory isn’t always applied but is mainly used when the artist is linked to other medias.

•Movie soundtracks or parodies of other media’s is used in few music videos as they are shown globally and may not be universally understood. It can also be used as a promotion technique. People who like the intertextual reference in the video, will like the video. Those who like the artist will then go on to like the intertextual reference.

5 Key Aspects of a Music Video.

Andrew Goodwin identifies 5 key aspects of music videos that we, the audience, should look out for.

•Understanding the beats of the song.

•Step 1: To look at the music itself. We must take into account the structure of the song e.g.. Chorus/verse

•Step 2: Listen to the voice of the song. The artists voice is extremely unique and can form identification or trade makers that work well with the star image. Roland Barthes theory of the Grain of voice can be related to this. He sees the singing voice as an expressive instrument and therefore able to make associations of its own.

•Step 3: Goodwin points out the artists mode of address. Songs can be seen as stories and the artist the storyteller, making the music video a two communication device – them telling us a story and we listening.

1) Thought beats – Where you ‘see’ in the sound

2) Narrative & Performance

•Songs do not give us the complete narrative.

•We only tend to get a gist of the meaning of the song and then tend to make up our own idea of what is being told – An negotiated view of a text.

•Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. It is important in their role of advertising. Music videos should coherent repeatability.

•Narrative and performance work hand in hand its make it easier for the audience to watch over and over without loosing interest.

•The artist acting as both narrator & participant helps to increase the authenticity however the lip sync and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. The audience need to believe this is real.

3) Star Image.

•The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Star image is developed over time though symbols, styling and themes. It has an important part to play in the music video production process.

4) Relation of Visuals to the song

There are three ways in which music videos work to promote a song;

•ILLUSTRATE: Music Videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre.

•AMPLIFY: Similar to repeatability. Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video that is and thus registered in our vision.

•DISJUNCTURE: This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored.

5) Technical Aspects•Technical aspects hold the music video together through use of camera work, movement, angle, mise-en-scene, editing, sound and special effects.

•Speed, camera movement, editing, cutting and post production are all forms of use of camera.

•Lighting and colour help set moods and emphasize key movements of the song for dramatic effect.

•Mise-en-scene, the setting of music videos is vital, it needs to look authentic to attain professionalism.

•Beats, music videos use cuts to go with the beat or rhythm making the video more entertaining.

Sven E Carlsson

• ‘One of the most common methods of analysis is to break up the music video into black and white boxes. Almost everything is then perceived as opposites – trash or art, commerce or creativity, male or female, naturalism or antirealism, etc.’

• What is being said is the common approach to music videos in the sense that binary opposites drive the narration of the video forward.

Binary Opposites

• Performance Carlsson argues that the performer fit in to one of three roles.  1. Commercial exhibitionist2. Televised bard3. Electronic shaman. 

• Conceptual

Sven E Carlsson believes that there are two categories that music videos are able to fall into:

•Commercial Exhibitionist: Sven E Carlsson created the theory that: most performance movies make the performer not a performer himself any more.

•Performers are restricted in the way that they can perform as they are being used to sell their voice, face, lifestyle etc. Sven E Carlsson says that this is down to the artist being a seller of their body image.

Music video artist as a "modern mythic embodiment"

• Televised bard: when the artist tells us a story and we see it happen though there singing with different locations and images. Sometimes the televised bard acts in the story – sometimes he or she is far away and inserted images help him or her tell the story. The greatest televised bards create audio-visual poetry.

• Electronic shaman: when the artist had magic power and can be invisible to their soundings.

Michael Shore• Michael Shore concludes that music video

are recycled styles that contains an information overload and therefore contains views of adolescent male fantasies.

• Most videos contain elements of speed, power, girls and wealth. All this conveys into soft-core pornography with clichéd imagery.

•There needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos.

•Music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the performer.

•A carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualization and the ‘repeatability’ factor.

Steve Archer

•The music video has the aesthetics of a TV commercial, with lots of close-ups and lighting being used to focus on the star’s face.

•He sees visual reference in music video as coming from a range of sources, although the three most frequent are perhaps cinema, fashion and art photography.

•Stewart’s description of the music video as ‘incorporating, raiding and reconstructing’ is essentially the essence of Intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar, to generate both nostalgic associations and new meanings.

•The video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can. The mise-en-scene, in particular, can be used to emphasize an aspirational lifestyle.

John Stewart

"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly”

In a patriarchal society women are passively looked at for the pleasure of men. The representation of women are fantasized by men. Females are seen as objects. 

Mulvey argues that the image shown in a music video is planned to the 'narrative'. Mulvey's idea that women are 'dismembered' means that women are not focused on as a whole however the camera tends to focus more on their body parts. She argues that this is due to the fact that women are obsessed with their own body parts. Mulvey also argues that men are the ones seen as a whole.

Laura Mulvey

The End.