Music Video Theories Dana Summerfield

Theorists

Andrew Goodwin Roland Bartes Vladimir Propps

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin identified 5 main aspects of a music video, which the audience should look out for, the 5 key aspects are: Thought Beats (seeing the sound) Narrative and Performance The Star Images Technical Aspects of the Music Video Relation of visuals to song

Thought BeatsThere are 3 steps to identify when looking for thought beats. Firstly, look at the structure of the song, gain knowledge

of the music itself, for example the chorus and verses. Secondly, listen to the voice of the song. The artist of the

song has their own unique voice. This can provide an identification that works well with the stars image. Roland Barthes theory of the grain of voice can link to this. Seeing the singing voice as an expressive instrument and therefore able to make associations of its own.

Thirdly, the mode of artist is something that Goodwin has identified. Songs can sometimes tell a story, with the artist as the storyteller. This gives the music video a communication device, as they tell us as the audience a story and we listen to the artist.

Narrative & Performance

Songs can fail to give us the complete narrative, leaving questions to be answered. We watching music videos tend to only understand the song briefly. Goodwin believes that music videos should ignore common narrative. This is important in their role of advertising. Narrative and performance working along side to make the music video more interesting. This keeps the audience attached. The artist acting as both the narrator and participant increases the truthfulness of the music. However, the heart of the video is the lip syncing and other mimed actions.

Star Image

One of the most important part to play in a music video production process is the star image.This is another vital aspect of music videos. This is where Meta Narrative is used. It is a big story that describes the development of the star over time.

Technical AspectsTechnical aspects holds the music video together through the use of camera work, movement, angle, mise - en - scene, editing, sound and special effects.There are forms of use of camera work such as; Speed, camera movement, editing, cutting and post productions. The mood is set by the colour and lighting of the seeing. It highlights key moment in the song. The setting of the music video must look professional as well as realistic. Cuts are important in a music video, they must fit in with the rhythm and beat of the song. This attracts the audience as it makes the music video more entertaining.

Relation of Visuals to

Music videos promote a song in three ways: Illustrate – This is common, it is where

music videos use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and the genre.

Amplify – This is where things are constantly shown. Such as the meaning and effects are manipulated.

Disjuncture – This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored.

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes said that texts may be open or closed. He narrowed down the action of text into five different codes, which are included into any narrative, this includes music narrative videos. The five codes are: The Hermeneutic Code (HER) The Enigma/Proairetic Code (ACT) The Symbolic Code (SYM) The Culture Code (REF) The Semantic Code (SEM)

The Hermeneutic Code

This is the voice of the truth. HER, is the way the story avoids telling the truth or letting slip the facts. This is to drop clued in through out the video to help create a mystery. This makes music videos very interesting.

The Enigma/Proairetic Code

This is the empirical voice. This is to give the audience a cliff hanger. It builds up tension and leave the audience guessing what happens next.

The Semantic Code

This is the voice of the person. This points out to any section in the lyrics that suggests a particular meaning by a connotation which the story suggests. The connation is what is symbolised.

The Symbolic Code

This is the voice of symbols.It is fairly similar to the Semantic Code, however it acts at a wider level, as is organises semantic meaning into a broader and deeper set of meaning. This is often done in the use of contrast, where new meanings arises out of the opposing and conflict ideas.

The Cultural Code

This is the voice of science. It looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideology.This relates to the audience and makes the video more interesting and realistic.

Vladimir Propps

Propps suggested that every narrative has 8 different character types. They are called the ‘spheres of action’ A Villain, which fights the hero in someway The dispatcher, who makes the villain known and sends

the hero away The magical helper, who helps the hero upon his quests The princess, who the hero adores The father of the princess, who gives tasks to the hero,

however propps says that the father and the princess cannot be clearly identified

The hero – reacts to the donor False hero who takes credit for the heros actions, and

tries to have the princess for himself.