Music Videos
Music Videos
- A music video is an advert for a song
Music videos are special, unique and do things different to any other form of media
There are two case studies that we have to know for the final exam:
- Riptide - Vance Joy
- Formation - Beyoncé
Music video | Cinema |
| - Short Duration - Music playing for the majority of the time - much more of an emphasis for music - Minimal Dialogue - focused on music - Professional performers - Made for a song - Music video synced with music | - Longer duration - More dialogue - focused on dialogue - No expectation for a film to have any music - Professional actors - Music synced with video |
Classical Hollywood narrative - We should always know what's going on in the film
Diegetic - In the world of the narrative the character can hear music/sound
Examples: Explosions, dialogue, radio noises etc.
A music video is neither non-diegetic or diegetic. - It is extradiegetic
Music videos combine music and visuals
We call this process convergence.
Convergence - The coming together to two separate media industries
Why? Because its new, interesting and exciting for the audience.
Synergy - Where the interconnectedness of media products leads to a result of more of the sum of its parts.
- Digital convergence is the use of digital technology + convergence
Digital Convergence- The coming together of previously separate industries due to technologies
MTV - Music Television
Music videos exist for financial reasons
The only reason why any media product exists is to make money
Celebrity - “the attribution of glamourous or notorious status to an individual in the public sphere”
Judas - Lady Gaga Analysis
In what ways does this video construct Lady Gaga as a celebrity? Make explicit reference to visual and technical codes.
- Music video focused around her
- Wearing luxurious expensive costumes
- In the centre whilst dancing
- Many close up shots of her face
- Encoded through a range of close up shots which symbolically connotate importance
- Consistently in the centre frame - Match on action
- Colour isolation at the start. Everyone else in black and white other than her. Symbolises her importance
- Clothing is significantly more elaborate than back up dancers. Blue clothing symbolises Mary (Wife of Jesus)
Jean Baudrillard - Theories surrounding postmodernism
In world more and more information, there is less and less meaning
There is no such thing as reality - Jean Baudrillard
Representation are more real than the thing they are representing - Hyper reality
We live in a simulation
Postmodernism - Deliberately confusing in order to challenge the audience.
Post modern media products deliberately break rules
Post modernism deliberately tries to look as bad as possible
Rejection of high culture – postmodern texts will often use a deliberately ‘trashy’ aesthetic
Criticism of metanarratives – postmodern texts usually try to distance themselves from traditional ways of making meaning, and will break the rules of existing metanarratives such as religion or science
Transgressive - Deliberately breaking societal rules
Riptide
- Video doesn't mean anything
- Riptide music video is highly contrapuntal compared to the bright happy song
Contrapuntal - Sound that doesn't fit visuals
Rules the video breaks
- Performer is not in his own video
- No narrative
- Distractive narrative that features a range of non connective stories
- Use of unpleasant, creepy and violent imagery
- Subtitles do not match up with the lyrics being sung
- Lip syncing was incorrect
- Transgression
- Video is highly polysemic and has no real conclusion
- No exact one setting
- No dancing
How does this video make meaning?
- Codes and conventions – performance/narrative/experimental features
- Camera work (framing – shot types, angle, position, movement)
- Editing – beat-matched?
- Elements of continuity/montage
- How does the video interpret the music and/or lyrics?
- Structure/narrative
- Intertextuality
- Sound
- Mise-en-scene – colour, lighting, location, costume/dress, hair/make-up
- Violent imagery shown (blood, knife, women tied up indicates violence and death) gets more progressive as the video continues
- Close up shots of women face lip syncing showing detailed emotion (Close up master shot)
- Darkness connotates mystery
- High angle shot (Birds eye) of riptide - Potentially triggering and upsetting images
- Lack of structure and narrative/ meaning confuses audience
- Other nightmarish imagery (close up dentist/torture shot)
- Editing is confusing and discontinuous
-Surreal imagery that follows the logic of dreams
- Montage consistently matches the themes of the lyrics, e.g. 'cowboy running' is matched with long shot, canted angle, symbolic of dual personalities, afraid of what he has become
- Horror reference of the movie Ouija
Theories of Riptide
- Slow pan opening shot of women - positioned in a perverted and creepy mode of address further anchored in the next shot of a first person shot of a box of techniques of photographing girls. Voyeurism - taking pleasure of watching someone when they do not know they're being watched. The audience are placed in a voyeuristic mode of address, deeply disturbing
- Consistent theories of crime - Video is focused on crime and committing crimes (kidnapping, abuse) anchored by hands being dragged, women running away the audience is positioned as the murderer chasing her.
- Video itself is a form of torture to the audience. Many themes of Satanism in the video, including the Mise-en-scene of the Ouija board, continued refence to the left-hand and tarot cards. Video additionally makes reference to common fears such as the ocean, dentist, darkness, cutting, torture, stalking, graveyards
- Video is about dreams and nightmares, the reason why it doesn't make any sense is that it follows dream logic, it is closer to surrealist cinema than something logical and this allows audiences to relate to these difficult and weird theories
- Video challenges nature of reality, designed to point out reality is a construct
- Riptide is a shitpost - deliberately bad jokes told that mean absolutely nothing. Done to confuse and creep the audience
- Escaping a cult - References to hypnosis (swinging chandelier), women escaping (from being tied to a tree)
Riptide is subjective - Audiences can have different meaning and come up with their own opinion of what this means
Roland Barthes - Death of the author theory (Doesn't matter what the author intends the meaning to be the audiences can interoperate their own)
Objectification is the process of comparing or making something into an object
WOMEN IN RIPTIDE
Male gaze - the assumption that everybody who looks at media products is a heterosexual male. Van Zoonen theory.
Sexualisation - Process of making something sexual
Misogyny - Hatred of women. Unpleasant or hatred view towards women Pain is inflected to women throughout the video and exclusively onto them. Relates to incel culture
Intertextuality - Where one media product makes reference to another media product
Riptide makes many intertextual references to horror films. Shots of women being dragged under beds etc. Theme of stereotypically hegemonically attractive women being attacked.
Riptide is highly intertextual
Representation is how something is represented by the producer to demonstrate their ideology.
REPRESENTATION CONSTRUCTS REALITY
Representations constructs the way that society interacts and perceives other groups
CULITVATION THEORY - George Gerbner argued that the ideologies of audiences are no instantly affected through one viewing but are gradually cultivated and reinforced over time. For example, if an audience member views a sexist music video or series of videos repeatedly, this would reinforce sexist ideologies.
STEREOTYPES - A widely held belief about a certain group of people.
Stuart Hall argues that there are many functions of stereotypes. Stereotypes might be amusing, and can be a short cut to work out what kind of people, people are.
Manuel Alvarado - racial stereotypes and their functions
Often people of colour are represented as being religious and devoted, being funny and humorous. as mobs and gangs (The Hood, Top Boy) and the sassy best friend (Clueless) Alvarado made reference to the representations of people of colour were: Pitied, Dangerous, Exotic and Humours.
Mobb Deep - Shook ones pt. 11
Theme of song is about how pop culture is idealist
Reinforces the stereotype that young black males are involved in drug dealing and violence.
Setting of the video is extremely run down, reinforces the ideology that young black men are living dangerous authentic lifestyle connotes poverty and crime
Lyrics
Baggy over sized trousers and clothing
No censor
Fast paste editing constructs a confusing and startling, confusing and threatening atmosphere for the target audience
Fast paste and distorting lyrics, low quality microphone, distorted production and heavy use of slang. Imitating
Use of repetitive and ugly bass, threatening functions as a proairectic code that something violent and bad is going to happen.
Tracksuits connate crime and aggression
Beyoncé Formation:
Use and pleasure.
There are many ways that we can use and take pleasure from music videos.
How can we use media products:
- Information - Learning ideologies
- Escapism - Watching media products are exciting
- Identity - Somebody to identity with
- Occupy yourself/chill out with
- Fall asleep to
- Distraction
-Sexual pleasure, sexual gratification
- Social interaction
David Gauntlet - Audiences can pick and mix ideologies. Audiences can shape their own identity through identity. Any audience member who do whatever they want with a media product.
Gauntlet argues that ideologies or beliefs are built from media products. George Gertner
13 year old - Informed view of modern day society and the issues that they face. Entertaining, Sexual pleasure, gratification ( Dancing etc.)
21 Mixed race women - to identity with: Mixed race, empowering women. Taking power through assertive and aggressive dance moves. Working class people identify with representation. Some audiences may take offensive point of view of how non-white people are represented. Misleading representation of non white people. Some audience members might take pleasure in critizing these aspects
25 Year old man - Sexualising women . Audience members might take sexual pleasure from view of women. Middle class audiences may take pleasure from artistic views of video. Identity
Cinema verite representation- mixing video with film and documentary. provokes intellectual response
How is gender encoded through media language
Encoded - Producer puts an ideology in a media product. Formation focuses on women.
Lisbet Van Zoonen - Men and women are constructed in different ways in media products
- Powerful, empowering shot of Beyoncé on police car in water
- Direct address to the audience
- Mysterious, half of her face covered
- Representation of women in power anchored with two men standing behind her
Paul Gilroy - Argues that we live in a post colonial world, we still live in a society that has prejudice ideologies
Bounce music - super fast upbeat. energetic hip hop. Genre associated with queer culture. Gay subculture of rap music. By using footage from the documentary it gives the video edginess or authenticity.
Beyoncé taking edgy, authentic energy of the documentary and put it in her music video.
- Misrepresentation of black people.
Paul Gilroy - Black and minority ethnic people are represented as an other and are often represented as criminals, outsiders and as a binary opposition to civilised white characters. The united kingdom and the united states are struggling to shake off their colonial past, leading to nostalgic and reductive ideological perspectives.
Beyoncé is dressed as a powerful white women who controls slaves
Antebellum dress - worn by slave owners
By wearing an Antebellum dress Beyoncé is representing and appropriating.
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