Andrew Goodwin's music video theory

In Goodwin's music video analysis, there are six different keys aspects.

(Andrew Goodwin writing in ‘dancing in the distraction factory’) 
 

·         Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.   (E.g. stage performance in rock video, dance routine in pop).

 

·         Relationships between lyrics and visuals (illustrates, amplifies, contradicts).

 

·         Relationship between music and visuals (illustrates, amplifies, contradicts)

 

·         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 (visual style)

 

·         There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screen, telescopes) and particular voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

 

·         There is often intertexual reference (to films, television programmes, other music videos).

Media Notes

Thursday 27th June 2013

 
In this media lesson, we had begun to look at our media A2 coursework idea of doing a music video. For this part of the coursework, we get granted a specific brief design idea; in which we will receive in September. In this brief it will explain that we have to complete a music video and analysis on how we got to the final piece.

In this lesson I took notes on how music had changed since the 1960’s to nowadays.  Bob Dylan is a songwriter who was famous after releasing his song ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. The song was used in what became one of the first modern promotional film clips, the indication of what later became known as the music video. The clip was originally an opening segment for the film ‘Don’t look back’. In the film the idea was to hold up cue cards for the audience, with selected words and phrases from the lyrics for them to sing along.

In the 1970’s the record industry discovered that television shows were a great opportunity to promote their artists into becoming successful. The music industry focused on producing ‘promos’ which early music videos started to almost replace performances. In 1975, the famous song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, written by Queen, was released. The group marked the beginning of the video era and set the language for modern music video. In the 1970’s advanced visual effects were bare minimal and then when ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was released, it was considered as one of the first to use advanced visual effects.

Technical codes:

Cinematography- the camera movement may accompany movement of performers, e.g. dancing, walking, but it may also be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage performance (by constantly circling the hand as they perform on stage).

 Editing- through the most common form of editing associated with music, promo is fast cut montage (moving at fast pace).

Chroma-keyor- green/blue screen

Remember: colourisation, split screens, course blockbuster film style CGI.

Lisa Loeb was a singer who did a music video in one take on a steadicam with no editing shots. This performance had taken music director eight hours to complete to perfection. Ok Go was another group of singers who produced a one take music video. When the mid 1980’s arrived, producing a one take music video became a standard music video. John Stuart description of the one take music video was ‘incorporating raiding and reconstructing is essentially the essence of intertexuality.

 Intertexual references:

Current popular music is often also used within adverts to increase scope for audience to ‘remember’ a product. An example of this is ‘The Simpsons’ or ‘Family guy’ who does parodies of films and/or novels. They do this for a remembrance for the show. Stylistically imitating the style of a film or television genre, video game or cartoon became popular in which helped the music industry undergo a new feel to the music industry. The Beastie Boys done a music video called ‘sabotage’ imitating the style of film.

The Culture Industry

What is the 'Culture Industry'? 

Adorno and Horkheimer are two theorists that argued and adopted that the culture industry exhibits an 'assembly-line character'. They argued the way in which culture items were produced were analogous to how industries manufactured to what they think could be commodity. Both Adorno and Horkheimer linked the 'culture idustry' to the 'mass culture'; they said that that the production had become a routine, standardized repetitive operation in which the music industry often would portray as pessimistic lament of cultural elitists. The capitalist corporation seems to enjoy an almost, what they would call, omnipotent form of domination. Adorno and Horkheimer theorized the structure of economic ownership and control of the means  via cultural products. Audiences would be under the influence of the media's industry. The cultural industry associates standardization with how to produce the something similar, for example pop songs sounding similar so that the audience tend to b brainwashed into liking the songs, so from then the songs become hits.

Pseudo Individuality is the way that culture industry assembled products that made claims to 'originality' but which when examined more critically exhibited. Adorno and Horkmeimer evoked the image of lock and key; lock being the music industry and the artist being the key trying to fit perfectly to the music industries expectation. An item that is mass produced in million, whose uniqueness lies only very minor modification.