What Is A Music Video?...
A music video argued by Simon Frith is a promotional product designed to bring more the artist to the audiences attention rather than the music itself for an economic purpose, while others believe it is to promote the music . It allows the artists to create an individual style, which can then after time become an iconic look which will be recognised by the mass and increase the artists audience, whether positively or negatively (Lady Gaga is an example of a negative iconic look because of the press publicity she has been given- attention seeking and no limits). Music videos became widely used in the 1980's and the genres of music videos is still increasing in the present day, but there are certain conventions in music videos that run through the production of a large percentage. Andrew Goodwin who wrote the book 'Dancing In The Distraction Factory' has studied music videos and found there are certain conventions that
are present in all/ the percentage of music videos:
- There is a direct link
between the music, lyrics and the visuals
- Particular music genres have
a certain video style and iconography (visual style)
- There are frequent close ups
of the main star due to demand from the record label to increase the publicity
- The star will create their
own iconography (as I stated above)
- Inter-textual
references to other media texts eg. films, books, other music videos etc.
The way these conventions are used will depending highly on the genre of the music and the star's planned look, but they will most probably appear whether it is a heavy rock video or a light country/ folk video.
The genre of a music video is a complex matter, because a genre is always open to argument; whether it is rock or pop-rock etc. In Diane Railton and Paul Watson's 'Music Video and the Politics of Representation' genre is assessed quite closely. Andrew Goodwin talks about there being three forms of music videos while this book find sub-genres within performance, narrative and conceptual music videos. Joe Gow's analysis of performance music videos which is included in Railton and Watson's book says that they can be broken down into six central (sub) genres; anti-performance piece- the videos do not contain a performance of the song, pseudo-reflective performance- videos that contain the production of the music video, performance documentary- videos that contain documentary footage of the band on/off stage, special effects extravaganza- the music video uses excessive technological enhancement, the song and dance- the artist shows off the potential in physical movement performance eg. Single Ladies by Beyonce is famously known for this and won awards for the music video and finally the enhanced performance- it uses plenty of visual enhancements and abstract imagery.
The above illustrates the depths of analyses that can be done within a music video, but Railton and Watson don't go to such depths and have worked on the four genres of a music video that takes into account the six created by Gow and the ideas of others. These four genres are- pseudo-documentary, art-music video, narrative video and stage performance.
Now, more recently post-modernists such as Lyotard '84 and other theorists see music videos like most pieces of work; as a piece of art that is no longer 'new' it is reflecting what has already been done (pastiche) and to be created has to take ideas, visual and use intertexual references to be constructed because the boundaries are blurring between genres, art, reality etc. No music video is 'original' completely and every music video is of the same value because it is up to each individual to decide it's worth to them personally. This is only a small over view of the current sociological interpretations in the 21st century of music videos and it is barely an analysis and purely a summary.
The genre of a music video is a complex matter, because a genre is always open to argument; whether it is rock or pop-rock etc. In Diane Railton and Paul Watson's 'Music Video and the Politics of Representation' genre is assessed quite closely. Andrew Goodwin talks about there being three forms of music videos while this book find sub-genres within performance, narrative and conceptual music videos. Joe Gow's analysis of performance music videos which is included in Railton and Watson's book says that they can be broken down into six central (sub) genres; anti-performance piece- the videos do not contain a performance of the song, pseudo-reflective performance- videos that contain the production of the music video, performance documentary- videos that contain documentary footage of the band on/off stage, special effects extravaganza- the music video uses excessive technological enhancement, the song and dance- the artist shows off the potential in physical movement performance eg. Single Ladies by Beyonce is famously known for this and won awards for the music video and finally the enhanced performance- it uses plenty of visual enhancements and abstract imagery.
The above illustrates the depths of analyses that can be done within a music video, but Railton and Watson don't go to such depths and have worked on the four genres of a music video that takes into account the six created by Gow and the ideas of others. These four genres are- pseudo-documentary, art-music video, narrative video and stage performance.
Below I have presented four videos each for one of Railton and Watson's genres.
Now, more recently post-modernists such as Lyotard '84 and other theorists see music videos like most pieces of work; as a piece of art that is no longer 'new' it is reflecting what has already been done (pastiche) and to be created has to take ideas, visual and use intertexual references to be constructed because the boundaries are blurring between genres, art, reality etc. No music video is 'original' completely and every music video is of the same value because it is up to each individual to decide it's worth to them personally. This is only a small over view of the current sociological interpretations in the 21st century of music videos and it is barely an analysis and purely a summary.
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