Music Videos

A music video is a video of a musician promoting their single

What is the purpose of a music video?

- Advertise the artist

- Promote sales figures

- Convey a sense of what the artist themselves is like along with their music genre

- Convey the meaning of the song itself – story – viewer can identify

- To stand out from other artists

- Visually memorable – worth repeating

- To entertain (uses and gratifications)

- To invoke a reaction (create a talking point – uses and grat)

What are the conventions of a music video?

-          Close-ups/ mid shots

-          Establishing shots

-          Mise-en-scene – rap song – clothes to accompany – lots of representation

-          Music instruments – guitars, drums

-          Post production editing – song laid over after - layering

-          Lighting depends on genre of music

-          Edited in time with the music

-          Editing important – need to reflect the mood + genre of the music

-          Depends on the genre of music video itself

-          Camera shots – long, close-up + mid shots – create emphasis on the artist, locations and emotions

o   Close ups = reflect the words of the song – movement of lips of the artist

-          Camera movements – follows  the artist/ band

-          Costume – important factor – would influence how viewers dress – artists seen as role models

o   Colours set the mood – dark – rock – light  - pop

-          Editing – jump cuts are p[redominantly used – allows sudden change from one scene to another

o   Transitions of

Three genres exist

-          Stadium performances

-          Studio performances

-          Location performances

When analysing

-          A relationship between the lyrics and visuals

o   Between music and videos

-          Particular genres may have their own visual style and iconography

-          A demand for the record company for lots of close-ups of the main artist

-          Artist develops their own star iconography in and out of their videos

-          Reference to voyeurism (screen within screen, binoculars, cameras)

-          Intertextual references – similar scenes etc.

John Stewart

-          A 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

-          Sees visual references in music video as coming from a range of sources – three most frequent = cinema, fashion and art photography

-          Describes music videos 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

Camera work

-          Significant impact on meaning

-          Movement, angle and shot distance can be analysed

-          Close ups dominates because of the size of the screen and desire to create intimacy

-          Lighting to focus on the artists face

-          Camera movement accompanies the artists movement

Editing

-          Mostly montage shots

-          Images difficult to grasp on first viewing

-          Some videos slower pace and gentler shots transitions to establish mood

-          Digital effects like split screen – CGI

Intertextuality

-          Post-modern text

-          Drawing upon existing texts in order to spark recognition in the audience

-          Short hand

-          Not all audiences will spot the reference

-          Pleasure

-          Some draw upon cinema, tv genre, other music videos etc

-          Pastiche –serious imitation of texts features by another text – could be in the same style, have similar techniques of the original. Sometimes they copy a style period in time – MJ Thriller – 1950s and 1890s horror/ zombie films. More pastiche – director John Landis who directed an American werewolf in London directed his video 

-          Parody – comical version of the original

Freud

-          Erotic pleasure gained from looking at a sexual object who are unaware they are being looked at

-          Relevant for female performances but becoming more prolific in male MV’s – nudity/ near nudity

-          Exhibitionism

-          aN intimate location

-          Screen within a screen

-          Mirror shot

-          Door/ window framing

-          Cameras or binoculars

-          Too much – limits audience

-          Too little – uninteresting

            Sexually provocative and in control of it

-          Inviting sexual gaze

-          Is the female flesh on display simply a cynical exploitation of the female body to increase (largely)  male profit margins, or a life – enhancing assertion of female

Mulvey

-          The Male Gaze

-          Argues the main viewpoint is male

-          Women are sexualised in the media

-          A powerful controlling gaze at the female on display

-          Passive