Key Features in Music Videos

Key Features in Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin, in his book "Dancing in the Distraction Factory", has identified the following features of music videos:

• Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics, e.g. Heavy Metal;- long-haired men in leather, loud music, screaming and shouting (singing), etc; Boy/Girl Bands:- dance routines, etc.

• Examples of this include:

Indie Rock/Indie Pop/Pop Ballad/J-pop - Tsuki Amano - "Koe" (Voice)

Japanese emotional lyrics (English lyrics here)
Slow tempo (ballad style)
Flamboyant outfits, hairstyles and make-up

• There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals (illustrative, amplifying and/or contradicting).

• Examples of this include:

Illustrative - Five for Fighting - "Superman (It's Not Easy)"

"Even Heroes have the right to dream" - shows a cabinet full of children's toys - symbolises children's imagination and innocence
"Up, up and away, away from me/Well, it's alright" - setting changes to the singer high up in the sky, above the clouds - conveys a calming feeling

Amplifying - Cryoshell - "Creeping in my Soul"

The word "creep" is constantly repeated in some way or form to create a haunting, yet thrilling atmosphere in the song and video.

Contradicting - Utada Hikaru - "Hikari" (Light)

Almost all of the lyrics do not relate to the visuals. (English lyrics here or here)

• There is a relationship between the music and the visuals (illustrative, amplifying and/or contradicting).

• Examples of this include:

Illustrative - Bonnie Pink - "Kane wo Narashite" (Ring a Bell)

English lyrics here.
There are several special effects/features in the video that emphasise the beat of the song itself, namely the shape-shifting cube.

Amplifying - Tsukiko Amano - "Ningyou" (Doll)

English lyrics here.
There is both fast and slow tempo in the music and both fast and slow-paced scenes to go with them. However, the respective tempos and scenes don't always run together at the same time.

Contradicting - Fall Out Boy - "Immortals" (Theme Song of Big Hero 6)

The entire video is just a vinyl record (in the design of the character Baymax's face) spinning round playing the song. Other than the spinning record, nothing else in the video completely matches the song's beat.

Contradicting - Lisa Miskovsky - "Still Alive" (Theme Song of Mirror's Edge)

The pace of the video does not match the song's drumline beat.

• Requests are made by the record label to try to create motifs/a visual style that will recur in the artist's work, e.g. lots of close-ups of the artist.

• Examples of this include:

abingdon boys school - "Nephilim"

English lyrics here.
The video has many close-ups of the band members, as well as many Long Shots of the whole band. This motif is seen in their other music videos.

• There are often references to the action of looking, e.g. looking through a screen or telescope, someone pointing you in a certain direction, etc; and Laura Mulvey's "Male Gaze".

• Examples of this include:

JAMIL - "The Rock City Boy"

English lyrics here.
Though not an extreme case of Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze, throughout the video, the main character (JAMIL) takes quite a few glances at the girl (J-Pop singer Takahashi Minami), whom he has a crush on, and even thinks about her in a dazy sort of way.

• There are also often intertextual references to other media, e.g. films, TV shows, other music videos, etc.

• Examples of this include:

Cryoshell - "Closer to the Truth" (Theme Song of BIONICLE 2008 - Toa Mistika)

Refers to, features and promotes the popular toyline, BIONICLE, by Lego (specifically the 2008 toyline) through clips from the toy adverts

Cryoshell - "Gravity Hurts" (Theme Song of BIONICLE 2008 - Toa Phantoka)

Refers to, features and promotes the popular toyline, BIONICLE, by Lego (specifically the 2008 toyline) through clips from the toy adverts

Anastasia - "Everything Burns" ft. Ben Moody (Theme Song of Fantastic Four (2005))

Refers to, features and promotes the 2005 movie, Fantastic Four, through clips from the film and the music video being in a comic book format to symbolise how The Fantastic Four started off as a comic book story. Also, there are occasions in the video where the character, Johnny Storm (a.k.a. The Human Torch), flies past the two singers, Anastasia and Ben Moody, and, at the end of the video, the Fantastic Four logo made up in flames can be seen in the sky behind Ben Moody, referring to the film's ending.

Music Video from robertclackmedia

Creating Brand Identity

Creating Brand Identity

Dawn of a New Era
The introduction of music videos on MTV meant that artists now had the opportunity to create an image of themselves to present to the public and gain a following. These videos gave artists the ability a convey a more comprehensive message to their audience to create this image and make a brand of themselves.

These videos are powerful in which they can make or break a single or a new artist's career as a whole.

A Changing Landscape
Though the broadcasting of music videos on TV has declined, the music video is still the most powerful and popular way to promote music.

With improvements in web-video technology, music videos have maintained their dominance through the Internet to promote music. Online platforms like websites and social media, e.g. Twitter, must be linked clearly with image of the artist. For example, a tweet on Twitter can get as many people following as a TV channel can reach in only a matter of minutes.

This makes the Internet a dominant force in promoting music.

Brand Identity
Creating a Brand Identity requires careful consideration. This "image" can be created using a clever formation of colours, image, text or fonts, etc. Products such as music videos, websites, Twitter or other social media accounts, digipaks and magazine adverts, etc, must promote clearly one image of the artist across all elements. For example, The Spice Girls were all advertised individually with the different personalities for each of the girls in their stage names, e.g. Mel B = Scary Spice, Emma Bunton = Baby Spice, etc.

"Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John and Kiki Dee Lip-sync Exercise

History of Pop Videos: From Bing Crosby to The Beatles

History of Pop Videos: From Bing Crosby to The Beatles

1940s - Bing Crosby

• Biggest star in the world.
• Fans saw him in films, e.g. "White Christmas" (1954), and TV specials, e.g. "The Bing Crosby Show" (1959).

1950s - Frank Sinatra

• Replaced Bing Crosby as world's biggest star.
• First to have fangirls scream at him.
• Fans saw him in TV specials, concerts and films, e.g. "High Society", "'Till The Clouds Roll By".

1950s-60s - Elvis Presley

• Fans saw him in TV specials, e.g. "The Ed Sullivan Show", films, e.g. "Loving You" (1957), and concerts (USA only).

1960s - The Beatles

• Fans saw them in TV specials, e.g. "Top of the Pops", concerts/tours, e.g. Shea Stadium (they didn't tour again after this as they thought there was too much screaming), films, e.g. "Help" (1965), "A Hard Day's Night" (1964), and the first ever Pop Video for "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" that would be sent to TV shows like Top of the Pops (they made this as a result of never touring again).

The First Music Videos

The Beatles - "Paperback Writer"

The Beatles - "Rain"

Application of Laura Mulvey's theory to Music Videos

Application of Laura Mulvey's theory to Music Videos

Rihanna - "Shut Up and Drive"


This song is an example of Laura Mulvey's theory about the "Male Gaze" and the portrayal of women as "objects of erotic desire". Rihanna, as well as all the other girls in the video, are dressed and portrayed in the video in an erotic, desirable fashion.





The camera always focuses certain parts of Rihanna or the other girls' bodies, e.g. ankles, to make them look attractive to the viewer.








The lyrics of the song also have a double meaning, with one side being quite suggestive, e.g. "Shut Up and Drive".








Lady Gaga - "Bad Romance"


This song is another example of Laura Mulvey's theory. This video seems to depict a futuristic, "Lady Gaga" version of the slave-trade/trafficking women.

Audience Theory

Audience Theory

Suture

Suture (which means "stitch" or "position") in film happens when a film's narrative, editing, sound and mise-en-scene is cleverly created and put together in a way that makes the audience see the film in only one preferred reading (Reception Theory), mostly unconsciously.

This theory stems from the theories of Roland Barthes, Stephen Heath, Laura Mulvey and Kaja Silverman, but was formulated by Daniel Day in "The Tutor Code of Classical Cinema" (1974).

According to these theorists, Suture "stitches" the audience into the film by relating to the characters or the views of the world expressed in the film. The audience then fills in the temporal and spatial gaps between scenes with their imaginations.

Suture is made much easier when the means, techniques, codes and conventions of a film are made "invisible" by the filmmakers.

Laura Mulvey' Feminist Film Theory

Laura Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (1975) theory argues that:-

1. Cinema reflects society.
2. Therefore, cinema reflects a patriarchal society.
3. How does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema?

The Gaze

Laura Mulvey claims the gaze of the camera in films is the "male gaze". This gaze is generally passive, while the female gaze is otherwise passive. In most films, the male characters' gaze is directed towards the female characters. Therefore, the viewer is forced to identify with the male gaze, as the camera films from the optical (and libidinal) perspective of the male character.

There are three levels of this cinematic gaze that objectify the female character - the viewer > the camera > the male character > the female character. This is known as the Triple Gaze.

Examples of The Gaze include Dr. No, Die Another Day, Nowhere to Run, Transformers, etc.

Erotic Desire
Mulvey argues that women in films have two roles:-

1. As an object of erotic desire for the characters.
2. As an object of erotic desire for the audience.

Agency
In most films (mostly Hollywood films), the male protagonist has agency, which means the ability to move the plot forward. This makes him active and powerful. It is around him that the plot and the action continues to unfold.

On the other hand, the female characters are passive and powerless and act as the object of desire for the male protagonist and the viewer. However, there have been examples of female characters in films that have agency, though they are few and far between, e.g. Ellen Ripley from "Alien", Hanna from "Hanna", Sarah Connor from "Terminator", Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games", Tris Prior from "Divergent", etc.