Music Video Theories

Music Video Theory ResearchMegan Stone

ANDREW GOODWINS THEORY

1) Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics(e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop)--- Move, Little Mix ---

2) There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)--- Go mad for a couple grams The A team, Ed Sheeran---

ANDREW GOODWINS THEORY 3) There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

4) The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)--- 24K Magic, Bruno Mars ---

ANDREW GOODWINS THEORY 5) There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body--- Blurred Lines, Robin Thicke ---

6) There are often intertextual references (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc.)--- Its Raining Men, Geri Halliwell makes reference to the film Fame through dance style ---

Intertextuality= Intertextuality, a term coined by literary critic Julia Kristeva (1967), is defined as the relational orientation of a text to other texts

Intertextuality is a literary device that creates an 'interrelationship between texts' and generates related understanding in separate works It is often used to is to give the audience something familiar to recognise to generate nostalgic associations with the video and song or create new meanings to the song for that person in order to help them remember the song This is more evident in music videos with intertextuality than other forms of media, like television shows, who commonly use it as advertisement

IntertextualityAn example of intertextuality being used within a music video is You Know Me by Robbie Williams, in the video Williams is seen dressed up as a rabbit in an Alice in Wonderland style setting. This created intertextuality between the film and the music video

Another example is Love Story by Taylor Swift where there is a strong reference to the story of Romeo and Juliette through both the lyrics and mise-en-scene

IntertextualityIn the music video Fancy by Iggy Azalea there is intertextuality to the 1995 film Clueless. The entire video is virtually a shot-by-shot recreation. The film itself is iconic and so the references were easily recognisable to the audience. The use of costume and setting to perfectly mirror the shots help the reader have a sense of nostalgia and helped the artist create a viral video with over 700 million views.

LAURA MULVEYS THEORYThe phrase male gaze was coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975One part of her male gaze theory suggests that the camera / audience always represents a heterosexual mans perspective of the scene objectifying womenAnother part of her male gaze theory suggests that women are only portrayed as one of two possibilities. Either a virginal innocent character or a sexy whore (her words, not mine)! This is called the virgin / whore dichotomyGold Digger by Kanye West is a prime example of this male gaze

CATEGORIES OF MUSIC VIDEOSNarrative based video: A video consisting mainly of a story line relating to the lyrics and genre of the song. This is a good technique to use for engaging the audience. This type of video is often used for songs that feature in films, with scenes from the film cut into the video. An example of this is Bruno Mars It Will Rain video. This is the Twilight Breaking Dawn soundtrack. This includes footage from the film being played through a projector in the video

--- Breezeblocks, Alt-J ---The narrative shows a couples physical fight in reverse. The video opens with the aftermath of their destruction they've created - the girl dead in after her partner threw a concrete block on her. This video is on the amplification side of music videos, the lyrical content is slightly related to the visuals but the imagery still tells a story that you can relate to the visuals

CATEGORIES OF MUSIC VIDEOSPerformance based video: Performance based videos feature the band/artist performing either to the camera or an audience. This is a popular technique rock bands use as their concerts are usually high energy and there is more interest for a viewer to watch the band perform as a whole rather than an artist on their own. 30 Seconds To Mars- Closer To The Edge is a good example of this. The video features footage of the band playing different venues on there tour cut together to make the video. Another common genre that uses performance videos a lot is Pop, it allows the artist to 'sell their identity' - self promote themselves to their audiencePerformance videos are generally the cheapest to make out of the three genres of music videos. This is because they don't require an great deal of setting, just somewhere that is suitable for filming Performance videos also offer another promotional scheme, they temp the fans into buying tickets for their shows as they generally look really good at performing in their music videos therefore it increases the chance of more people coming to watch them live

CATEGORIES OF MUSIC VIDEOSConcept based video: Concept based videos are sometimes unusual they are based around one idea. They often concentrate on one specific editing technique