Music Video Theories

Sven E Carlsson

There are many approaches when music videos are being dissected. The most common method is to break it up into black and white boxes so that they are viewed as opposites – trash or art, male or female, commerce or creativity etc.

Through this method, music videos fall into two categories; performance is when the clip is showing the performer singing and dancing whereas conceptual shows a story instead, it gives the audience something to watch other than the singer

Modern Mythic Embodiment

There are three general types is which the video artist and their performance can be represented.

1) Commercial exhibitionist – the performer is not a performer but rather a monger selling everything to be in the spotlight. They want success and evokes the charisma of stardom and sexuality in order to be a celebrity.

2) Televised bard – they sing banal lyrics and use television as a medium. They use on screen images instead of personal ones and sometimes acts in the story. They create audio-visual poetry if successful. They transform the lyrics into a story of life and death.

3) Electronic shaman – the performer is often invisible and only the voice anchors the visuals. They are our guide on a spiritual journey through images and attributes and promises there is a hidden meaning in everything. Their voice forms the life-line that connects images and sounds, creating new experiences for those involved in the journey.

Perceiving Music Videos

Music video pictures can be interpreted as the merging of three moving images – singing performance, visual- story telling and the non-narration of modern art.

Singing Performance – take a popular singing performer and place them in a setting in the song’s setting or one that mirrors it

Visual story-telling – make it as easy to follow as a TV soap

Non-narration of modern art – collages, paraphrases, animated abstract art and unexpected combinations of pictures may appear and can be interpreted as the provocative modern art tradition or teenage rebellion.

Video Styles

Standard clip – it contains three visual traditions. A singer is blended with images and is influenced by the experimental film tradition.

It has many variations and the vocalist can participate in the story whilst standing outside the video, offering a commentary.

Performance clip – it contains mostly filmed performance and shows the vocalist in one or more settings. It can be a song, dance or instrumental performance.

Narrative clip – it is understood as a short movie to a musical background and contains a visual story that is easy to follow

Art clip – it contains perceptible visual narrative or lip synchronized singing

Andrew Goodwin

He found four key elements of a music video:1.Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics –

it can help establish the target audience as we are able to discover key features

2.The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motif which recur across their work

3.There are frequent references to the notion of looking and particularly erotic treatment of the female body

4.There is a relationship of lyrics and visuals and music and visuals

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics – it can help establish the target audience as we are able to discover key features

E.g Beyoncé's ‘Single Ladies’ is a stereotypical dance video which displays three women in small, tight, dacning attire

The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motif which recur across their work

E.g Lady Gaga is most commonly known for her costumes and makeup used throughout all her music videos.

There are frequent references to the notion of looking and particularly erotic treatment of the female body

There are copious amounts of examples of music videos which display this reference.

E.g. Perhaps the most controversial in this decade is Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ which has two version to the video – one displayed women in revealing clothing and the other video had them wear no clothing at all. The lyrics used corresponded with the image portrayed in the video.

There is a relationship of lyrics and visuals and music and visuals

This is when the lyrics and video correspond with each other

E.g. A prime example of this is ‘Harlem Shake’ which took the viral public by storm, causing the entire world to publish videos of themselves depicting the Harlem Shake

5 aspects of music videos

1)Thought beatsI. We have to look at the music itself and take

into account the structure of the song.II.The voice of the song is also important. It is

unique and can form identification that works with the image of the artist.

III.Songs can be seen as stories based on the artist’s mode of address. The artist can be a storyteller, allowing the music video to become a two communication devise.

Narrative and Performance

I. As an audience, we create our own interpretation of the messages being presented in a song.

II. Goodwin argues music videos should ignore common narrative as an important role in advertising.

III. Music videos should display repeatability in the sense of quality of the video. Narrative and performance should work together well in order to keep the audience entertained and remain interested throughout.

IV. When the artist plays the part of the singer and actor in the video, it increases the authenticity and keeps the video original

V. .Goodwin believes miming is the most popular choice in videos, however have to be completed to the upmost quality to make it look believable for the audience as well as their interests.

Star Image

I. The image is another vital aspect of the video.

II. Artists want to look unique in order of remain appealing and current for the audiences to remember them.

III. The artist’s image develops overtime and plays a huge role in the production process of the video – meta narrative is the term used to describe to development of the artist overtime.

Relation Of Visuals to the Song

There are three ways to promote a songI. Illustrate – music videos can use a set of images to

illustrate the meaning of the lyrics and genreII.Amplify – meanings and effects are manipulated

and constantly shown throughout the video and drilled into our vision so that we associate the meanings to the song instantly

III.Disjuncture – the meaning of the song is completely ignored and the artist takes a completely different direction as to what their song truly means.

Technical Aspects

I. They hold the video together through the use of camera work, camera movement, angle, mise-en-scene, editing, sound and special effects.

II. Lighting and colour help set the mood and add emphasis on key moments for extra effect.

III. Mise-en-scene is vital for creating the setting of the video. It needs to look realistic in order to remain professional and aesthetically pleasing, therefore appealing to a wider audience.

IV. The cuts and beats go with the rhythm of the music in order to make the video more entertaining

Michael Shore

He concluded that music videos are recycled styles that contain an information overload and views of adolescence male fantasies.

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

It depicts the ‘ideal life’ most young males crave. This links to current issues within the music industry where it is argued that videos contain too provocative images that is inappropriate for all audiences.

Michael Shore continued...

Women are highly sexualised and objectified in hip-hop and rap videos and are often referred to as “video hunnies”.

A good example of Shore’s theory put into place is T.I’s ‘Whatever You Like’. The video shows the artist showering his ‘hunnie’ with gifts and both lead the ideal life.