Camerawork
- How the camera is used and how images are sequenced have significant impact on meaning
- Camera movement, angle and shot distance all need to be analysed
- Camera may follow character movement but may also be used to create a dynamic feel to performance
- Close ups create a sense of intimacy for the viewer
- Close ups also help emphasis not just the song, but the artist and particularly the voice
- Have the aesthetics of a TV commercial, with close ups and lighting enhancing the stars face
Editing
- Fast cut montages are most common
- Ensures multiple viewings as it renders many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing
- Slow paced, gentler transitions establish mood eg. Dido
- Digital effects play with the original images to create different kinds of pleasure
- Use of split screens, colourisation and CGI are common examples
Star Image
"A star is an image constructed from a range of materials" (Richard Dyer- 1979)
- For pop artists, these materials includes:
- Their songs (Lyrical themes and musical structures/ genres)
- The record covers (Singles and albums and the image the star presents)
- Media coverage (From interviews about their career/ private lives to tabloid gossip)
- Live performances (The image through stage show)
And arguably, most significantly
- Music videos, which may draw upon the image presented in other aspects
- Each video may also reinforce the star's existing image and take the image on further, in other directions
- Hollywood films may be seen as vehicles for their stars
- Music videos will act as a showcase for their talents
- They will also significantly help in the construction and maintenance of their image
Voyeurism
- This idea comes from Freud, it's much used in Media, particularly in explaining gender pleasures
- Broadly, it refers to the idea of looking to gain sexual pleasure
- Laura Mulvey: Male gaze is a powerful controlling gaze at the objectified female on display
- In music promos, the female on display has been a staple element throughout all genres
- Goodwin: The female performers will often be objectified in this fashion
- This is often done via camerawork and editing with fragmented body shots
- This emphasises sexual treatment of the star
- This is seen in male performers videos too, by using females as adornments flattering the male stars ego
- Seeing the male body on display complicated this idea
- This raised questions as to how female viewers are invited to respond
- More powerful, independent female artists have further complicated the idea
- From Madonna onwards, they are at once sexually provocative and apparently in control
- This questions the audiences experience of music videos and contradictory meaning they may evoke
- Voyeurism is also evident through a system of screens within screens
- Performers or others are often seen on TV, camera screens, CCTV or otherwise within the narrative
- The proliferation of such motifs have become almost an obsession in music promos
Intertextuality
- Music videos can often be seen as 'postmodern'
- Promos draw upon existing texts to spark recognition in the audience (This is, loosely, intertextuality)
- If audiences don't get the reference, this need not detract from their pleasure
- Greater pleasure will be derived by those who know the reference and are somewhat flattered by it
- Many music videos draw upon cinema
- Directors are often film graduate looking to move onto the film industry eventually
- Here are just two examples of cinematic references that dominate music videos
- Madonna's 'Material Girl' (Mary Lambert 1985, drawing on 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend')- 2Pac and Dr Dre's 'California Love' (Hype Williams 1996, drawing on 'Mad Max')
'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend' 'Material Girl'
- Television is also a popular point of reference, for example
- The Beastie Boys' spoof cop show titles sequences for 'Sabotage' (Spike Jonze 1994) - REMs recent news show parody 'Bad Day' (Tim Hope 2003)
'Sabotage' 'Bad Day'
- John Steward: Video references in music videos come from a range of sources
- The three most frequent are cinema, fashion and art photography
- Fashion sometimes takes the form of specific catwalk references
- Sometimes supermodels are also used
- George Michaels 'Father Figure' (Morahan/ Michael 1988) and 'Freedom' (Fincher 1990)
- Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love' (Donovan 1986) is a memorable example of fashion photography
- It has been parodied many times for it's use of mannequin style females in the band
- Shania Twain's 'Man I Feel Like a Woman' (Paul Boyd 1999)
- Tone Loc's 'Wild Thing' (Tamra Davis 1988) Cost $350
'Addicted to Love' 'Man I Feel Like a Woman'
- He expects that Video Games will predominate for younger audiences
- This will appear as more plasticised looks of characters
- Robbie Williams' 'Let Love be your Energy' (Olly Reed 2001)
- The Red Hot Chilli Peppers 'Californication' (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris 2000)
'Let Love be your Energy' 'Californication'
- By "interoperating, raiding and reconstructing" they are using intertextuality in their music videos
- The use of familiar things generates both potentially nostalgic associations and new meanings
- It is evident more in music videos than other media forms, with the exception of advertising
Narrative and Performance
- Narrative in songs is rarely complete, more often fragmented, as in poetry
- Music promos are similar, more often suggests storylines or offers complex fragments in a non-linear order
- This leads the viewer with a desire to see it again, in order to catch bits they missed in first viewing
As Steve Archer (2004) puts it:
- Music videos often cut between a narrative and a performance by the band
- A dance may be added as part of the artist's performance or an addition aspect to add 'repeatability'
- Sometimes the artist (Usually the singer) will be in the performance, acting as the narrator and participant
- Lip-sync close-ups and mining of playing instruments still remain as the heart of the videos
- This assures that the band really can "kick it"
'Miserable at Best' by Mayday Parade is a good example of performance and narrative
- The video allows audiences access to the performer on a greater level than a stage performance
- The artist can be presented in a number of ways using methods not possible in live concerts
- Eye contact and facial gestures via the close up
- Role playing via the narrative
- Mise-en-scene
- The mise-en-scene may be used to create 'authenticity' (In Simon Frith's terms)
- Narrative-based videos need to establish setting and relationship to existing film or TV genres
- It can also be part of voyeuristic context by suggesting a setting with sexual allure
- Such as a sleazy nightclub or boudoir
- John Stewart suggests it may be used to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle
- Emphasis on latest gadgetry can crate a futuristic look
- Other commentators have divided music videos in terms of style
- There will often be crossovers between these, apart from Performance and Narrative
- These six are common: Gothic, Animated, Dreamscapes, Portraiture, Futuristic and Home Movie