Music Video

Lesson Focus

Today’s lesson will focus on music video with particular attention to the technical codes and conventions of the music video.

Music Video

Since cinema was invented it created the ability to bring songs and music to life.

Advances in technology have transformed the music video into what it is today.

The early years

Surprisingly, music videos have been around since the 1920s

Many Jazz musicians of the time, such as Bessie Smith, made short films to accompany popular songs

Bessie Smith

Bob Dylan

1965: Bob Dylan Films Subterranean Homesick Blues as a segment for D. A. Pennebaker's film, Dont Look Back – widely credited as one of the first modern music videos.

Pop Music TV Shows

1970: The record industry discovers TV-Shows as a great opportunity to promote their artists

They focus on producing short "Promos", early music videos which started to replace the live performance of the artist on the TV-stage

Bohemian Rhapsody

1975: Bohemian Rhapsody a groundbreaking video released by Queen marked the beginning of the video era and set the language for the modern music video. The video is considered one of the first to use advanced visual effects

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2734287104054737756&q=bohemian+rhapsody

Technical Codes

Camerawork

As with any moving image text, how the camera is used and how images are sequenced will have a significant impact upon meaning.

Technical Codes

Camerawork

Camera movement, angle and shot distance all need to be analysed.

Camera movement may accompany movement of performers (walking, dancing, etc) but it may also be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage performance, by for instance constantly circling the band as they perform on stage.

Technical Codes

Camerawork The close up does predominate, as in most TV,

partly because of the size of the screen and partly because of the desire to create a sense of intimacy for the viewer. It also emphasises half of the commodity on sale (not just the song, but the artist, and particularly the voice)

Technical Codes

Editing Though the most common form of editing associated

with the music promo is fast cut montage, rendering many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing thus ensuring multiple viewing, there are videos which use slow pace and gentler transitions to establish mood.

This is particularly apparent for the work of many female solo artists with a broad audience appeal, such as Dido.

Technical Codes

Editing Often enhancing the editing are digital effects

which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience. This might take the form of split screens, colourisation and of course blockbuster film style CGI.

Camerawork and Editing

Watch The Following Video, What Do You Notice About It In Terms Of Camerawork and Editing ?

Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories - Stay (I Missed You)

Camerawork and Editing

If you watch it closely you will see that the video has no cuts whatsoever.

The entire video was done with a hand held camera (steadicam) and some very clever choreography in terms of camera position and singers movement around the flat.

It took over 8 hours to get it right.

Development Of Technical Codes

The key innovation in the development of the modern music video was, of course, video recording and editing processes, along with the development of a number of related effects such as chroma-key or Green/Blue Screen

The advent of high-quality colour videotape recorders and portable video cameras enabled many pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the relatively high costs of using film

Development Of Technical CodesIn the 1990s, a number of technical codes became

common: Most common form of editing associated with the music

promo is fast cut montage

Many images impossible to grasp on first viewing thus ensuring multiple viewing

Split screens, colourisation are also commonly used effects

Non-representational techniques, in which the musical artist is never shown, become more common

Lack of edits, Long take/steadicam also a common experimentation

Development Of Technical Codes

However, as the genre developed music video directors increasingly turned to 35mm film as the preferred medium, while others mixed film and video.

By the mid-1980s releasing a music video to accompany a new single had become standard.

Goodwin’s Music Video Analysis

Andrew Goodwin writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992)

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in rock video, dance routine.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals

Goodwin’s Music Video Analysis

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).

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

Intertextuality and Cinema

It is perhaps not surprising that so many music videos draw upon cinema as a starting point, since their directors are often film school graduates looking to move on eventually to the film industry itself.

Directors Who Started With Music Video Include:

David Fincher: Madonna Vogue and Express Yourself.

Spike Jonze: Fatboy Slim Praise You

Michael Gondry: Bjork, Foo Fighters

Intertextuality

It is perhaps not surprising that so many music videos draw upon cinema as a starting point, since their directors are often film school graduates looking to move on eventually to the film industry itself.

Intertextuality

From Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’ (Mary Lambert 1985, drawing on ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’) to 2Pac and Dr Dre’s ‘California Love’ (Hype Williams 1996, drawing on ‘Mad Max’) there are many examples of cinematic references which dominate music video.

Intertextuality

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Madonna Material Girl (1985)

Madonna Material Girl

The intertextual image is not necessarily of Monroe, but of the Hollywood archetype of the sexy blonde who uses her looks to get what she wants.

Intertextuality

Television is often a point of reference too, as in The Beastie Boys’ spoof cop show titles sequence for Sabotage (Spike Jonze 1994) or REMs recent news show parody ‘Bad Day’ (Tim Hope 2003).

Intertextuality

Visual reference in music video coming from a range of sources, though the three most frequent are perhaps cinema, fashion and art photography. Fashion sometimes takes the form of specific catwalk references and sometimes even the use of supermodels, as by George Michael in both ‘Father Figure’(Morahan/Michael 1988) and ‘Freedom’ (Fincher 1990).

Probably the most memorable example of reference to fashion photography is Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted to Love’ (Donovan 1986), parodied many times for its use of mannequin style females in the band fronted by a besuited Palmer. Shania Twain copied it for her ‘Man I feel like a woman’ (Paul Boyd 1999) and Tamra Davis directed a $350 parody of it for Tone Loc’s ‘Wild Thing’ (1988).

Intertextuality

Robert Palmer Addicted To Love (1986)

Shania Twain Man I Feel Like A Woman ( 1999)

Intertextuality

The influence of video games will predominate for the younger audience with the more plasticised look of characters emerging (as seen for example in Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Love be your Energy’ dir. Olly Reed 2001 and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers ‘Californication’ dir.Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris 2000)

Intertextuality

Robbie Williams Let Love Be Your Energy ( 2001)

Linkin Park Breaking The Habit (2003)

Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication 1999

Intertextuality

John Stuarts description of the music video “incorporating, raiding and reconstructing” is essentially the essence of intertextuality.

Using something with which the audience may be familiar to generate both potentially nostalgic associations and new meanings. It is perhaps more explicitly evident in the music video than in any other media form, with the possible exception of advertising.