Key Text
Rocking Around The Clock : Music Television, Post Modernism and Consumer Culture (1987)
Key Points
This text focussed on MTV and was published 5 years after MTV had launched.
We were still 5 years away from the internet being 'born' and the world was a different place because of this.
Remember that, at this time, if you wanted to watch a music video then you had to wait for it to be shown on a channel such as MTV (which not everyone had access to of course as it was a satellite channel) or one of the popular free to air music shows such as 'Top Of The Pops'.
As a consumer of music videos, you had no control over what you were shown which meant that channels like MTV could build up to 'event style' showings such as that for Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'.
Kaplan identified music videos as a post-modern form of the media. This means that they subverted of disregarded the expected conventions of film-making.
For example, editing in music videos is meant to be noticed whereas continuity editing in the majority of other visual media such as film was not.
Kaplan also recognised that music videos were a hybrid form as they were part advertisement and part entertainment.
Andrew Goodwin
Key Text
Dancing In The Distraction Factory (1992)
Key Points
Goodwin wrote this book at the point when music television was beginning to falter slightly and the internet had just been created.
Remember though that the internet in 1992 was very different to the internet as we know it now. CLICK HERE to watch a short video which shows what the internet was like in 1992.
Goodwin is best known for his 6 Features Of Music Videos.
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals - this is shown through either illustration of the lyrics, amplification of the meaning of the lyrics or disjuncture from the lyrics.
3. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visuals can either illustrate, amplify of show disjuncture from the tone and atmosphere of the music.
4. The demands of the record label lead to a focus on the artist's image. (This was, remember, at time when artists relied on a record label to promote them whereas it is possible today for artists to self promote due to advances in modern technology.)
5. There is frequent reference to the notion of looking. This could be in relation to screens within the screen or, more prevalently, in relation to the way in which the camera 'looks' at the female body according to Laura Mulvey's theory relating to The Male Gaze. This mainly focusses on the sexual objectification of women. (Look the theory up via Google to develop your knowledge.
6. There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).
Sven E. Carlsson
Key Text
What Is Music Video? Audiovisual Poetry or Commercial Salad Of Images? (1999)
Key Points
You can read this article by CLICKING HERE.
Carlsson identifies that the 'artist' or 'performer' is represented in one of three ways in music videos a as "modern mythic embodiment":
- the commercial exhibitionist
- the televised bard
- the electronic shaman
The following lengthy quotation is taken from Carlsson's article and explains each of these:
"In one type of performance, the performer is not a performer anymore, he or she is a materialization of the commercial exhibitionist. He or she is a monger of their own body image, selling everything to be in the spotlight – selling voice, face, lifestyle, records, and so on. This commercial exhibitionist wants success and tries to evoke the charisma of stardom and sexuality, he or she wishes to embody dreams of celebrity, to be an icon, the center of procreative wishes.
Another type of performance in the music video universe is that of the televised bard. He or she is a modern bard singing banal lyrics using television as a medium. The televised bard is a singing storyteller who uses actual on-screen images instead of inner, personal images. Sometimes the televised bard acts in the story – sometimes he or she is far away and inserted images help him or her tell the story. The greatest televised bards create audio-visual poetry. They transform the banal story of the lyrics employing on-screen images to create a story about life and death. Too often, however, the televised bards only contemplates her or his own greatness and unfulfilled wishes.
The third type of performer is the electronic shaman. Sometimes the shaman is invisible and it is only her or his voice and rhythm that anchor the visuals. He or she often shifts between multiple shapes. At one moment the electronic shaman animates dead objects or have a two-dimensional alter egos (as in cartoon comics), seconds later he or she is shifting through time and so on. The electronic shaman is our guide on a spiritual journey through blipping images and magical attributes. And the electronic shaman promises that there is a hidden meaning in everything; he or she promises that we live in a magical, mythical reality. The electronic shaman’s voice and rhythm form the life-line that connects images and sound simultaneously creating new experiences and associations for those involved in the conscious-streaming journey outside time and space."
Carol Vernallis
Key Texts
Experiencing Music Video : Aesthetics and Cultural Context (2004)
The Kindest Cut : Function and Meanings of Music Video (2001)
Key Points
Versailles believes that verbal, visual and musical codes combine to create representations of race. class, gender, sexuality and performance.
She discusses the ways in which editing in music video does not follow the rules of continuity editing and focusses on the impact that this has on an audience.
Read some of 'The Kindest Cut' from the link above to learn more about this.
Keazor and Wubenna
Key Text
Rewind, Play, Fast Forward : The Past, Present and Future of Music Video (2010)
Key points
K and W stated that music video follows specific conventions.
These include:
- high frequency of cuts
- visual effects
- graphic elements
- synchronization of editing to the beat
However, K and W also identify that the internet has changed music video as a form.
This has included:
- Music videos are now made with smaller budgets (largely possible due to developments in modern technology at the stages of production and post-production)
- Music television channels have lost their monopoly to the internet - this links back to the points I made in relation to Kaplan. In the contemporary world consumers of music videos are able to choose what they watch via online media such as YouTube, Vevo, etc.
- The internet has become a 'visual jukebox' where consumers choose content.
Diane Railton
Key Text
Music Video And The Politics Of Representation (2011)
Key Points
Railton identified 4 categories of music video.
1. Pseudo-documentary (behind the scenes, special access to the artist)
2. Art (creative and innovative)
3. Narrative (telling a story)
4. Staged (promoting a particular image of the artist for the audience)
Railton argued that music video shapes cultural identity with representations of race and gender particularly affecting cultural perceptions.
For example, she sees black women represented as sinful whereas white women are more likely to be represented as being innocent.
Railton recognises that men are also sexualised at times in music videos but that this representation more often than not is one where they still retain power.
She also argues that conventions in music videos are not limited by genre.
Railton's perspective is that music videos sometimes deliberately provoke shock to utilise the power of the internet and spark discussion due to controversy. This is an important point to remember when we consider that music videos are a promotional tool and there is an old adage which states that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
A good example to use for this is Miley Cyrus 'Wrecking Ball'.
The star came back with a bold new image in 2013, leaving her Disney days behind her with short blonde hair and a string of attention-grabbing videos and songs.
It’s a good song, but I doubt that’s the reason so many people watched the video, which features the singer straddling a wrecking ball in the nude. Well, almost nude. She’s wearing shoes, as one does in a dangerous construction zone.
This obviously worked as a promotional tool as 'Wrecking Ball' was Vevo’s most-viewed music video of 2013. The video drew 19.3 million views on the music video website just in its first day in September. Since then, it has racked up over 371 million views worldwide.
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