Post-modern(ism) is where texts are created by copying and usins or reusing ideas/images that have been used in a previous texts; often playful, shocking or unconventional.
Exhibitionism: The more powerful, independent female artists of recent years have added to the complexity of the politics of looking and gender/cultural debates, by being at once sexually provocative and apparently in control of, and inviting, a sexual gaze.
Andrew Goodwin
Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music promos. These are;
- Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
- The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist my develop motifs which recur across their work
- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- Genre-related style and iconography present.
- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.
Steve Archers' Theory
Steve Archer's theory is that there needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos. They will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song that the band has made or been made for them. Sometimes a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the 'repeatability' factor which makes it a successful promo.
Jon Stewart's Theory
Jon Stewart's theory is that music video's have the aesthetics of a TV commercial. He feels that with lots of close-ups and lighting being used to focus on the star's face that it sells the band. having visual references that comes from a range of sources, such as, cinema, fashion and art photography.
By 'incorporating, raiding and reconstructing' is essential with with essence of intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar, to generate both nostalgic associations and new meaning - by this he means that using texts that are already available the audience will recognise this as it is something that they have seen before but in a different context.
Also, the video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can. Mise-en-scene, in particular, can be used to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle.
Laura Mulvey's Theory
Laura Mulvey's theory on music promos is that of a feminist view...
...Because filmmakers are predominantly male, the presence of women in films is often solely for the purposes of display (rather than for narrative purposes. the purpose of this display is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators, which presumes a 'male gaze' one that is a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display, who is effectively objectified and passive.
Narrative Theories
Roland Barthes
Enigma Code
An enigma code referes to any element that is not explained and, thereforr, exists as an enigma, raising questions that demand explanations. Most texts hold back details in order to increase the effect of the final revelation of all truths.
Action Code
An action code refers to the other major structuring principle that builds interest or suspense on the part of an audience. The action code applies to any action that implies a further narrative action.
Tzvetan Todorov
He believes narratives begin with equilibrium (harmony), then moves onto disequilibrium (disharmony) until a new equilibrium is restored by the end.
Vladimir Propp
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Within the experimental stage of genre attempts to establish trends...
...and the cannon stage works within those trends to fix them into our cultural understanding...
...then post-modernism looks at those trends, and adds something new to them...
...thereby creating a new experimental stage where the cycle continues.
Music promos could also be argued to have post-modern stage of the evolution of cinema...
There are three different types of intertextuality
Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal music promo is a homage to Vincente Minelli's The Band Wagon (1953) which has also been referenced in Beyonce's Naughty Girl promo. A Homage is an imitaion of a cult movie which is then put into a music promo.
Will Young - Switch It On music promo was made to look just like the iconic pilot film TopGun. This is a pastiche of a music video to be just live a cinematic film. A Pastiche is using imagery of one text to make a comment about another
And a parody is where a music promo take the mickey out of a cult film adding a humorous view into it.
General Theories
Lyrics: establish a general feel/ mood/ sense of subject rather than a meaning
Music: tempo often drives the editing
Genre: reflected in types of mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camera and editing styles
Camera work: has an impact on meaning. Movement, angle and shot distance all play a part in the representation of the artist/band (close-up dominate)
Editing: the most common form is fast-cut montage, images impossible to grasp on first viewing, ensures with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasures for the audience.
Intertextuality: not all audiences will spot a reference, which would not significantly detract from their pleasure in the text itself, but greater pleasure might be derived by those who recognise the reference and feel flattered by this. It also increases the audience's engagement with and attentiveness to the product. Many music videos draw upon cinema and other areas of popular culture.Exhibitionism: The more powerful, independent female artists of recent years have added to the complexity of the politics of looking and gender/cultural debates, by being at once sexually provocative and apparently in control of, and inviting, a sexual gaze.
Andrew GoodwinAndrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features in music promos. These are;
- Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
- The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist my develop motifs which recur across their work
- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- Genre-related style and iconography present.
- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.
Steve Archers' Theory
Steve Archer's theory is that there needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos. They will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song that the band has made or been made for them. Sometimes a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the 'repeatability' factor which makes it a successful promo.
Jon Stewart's Theory
Jon Stewart's theory is that music video's have the aesthetics of a TV commercial. He feels that with lots of close-ups and lighting being used to focus on the star's face that it sells the band. having visual references that comes from a range of sources, such as, cinema, fashion and art photography.
By 'incorporating, raiding and reconstructing' is essential with with essence of intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar, to generate both nostalgic associations and new meaning - by this he means that using texts that are already available the audience will recognise this as it is something that they have seen before but in a different context.
Also, the video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can. Mise-en-scene, in particular, can be used to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle.
Laura Mulvey's Theory
Laura Mulvey's theory on music promos is that of a feminist view...
...Because filmmakers are predominantly male, the presence of women in films is often solely for the purposes of display (rather than for narrative purposes. the purpose of this display is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators, which presumes a 'male gaze' one that is a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display, who is effectively objectified and passive.
Narrative Theories
Roland Barthes
Enigma Code
An enigma code referes to any element that is not explained and, thereforr, exists as an enigma, raising questions that demand explanations. Most texts hold back details in order to increase the effect of the final revelation of all truths.
Action Code
An action code refers to the other major structuring principle that builds interest or suspense on the part of an audience. The action code applies to any action that implies a further narrative action.
Tzvetan Todorov
He believes narratives begin with equilibrium (harmony), then moves onto disequilibrium (disharmony) until a new equilibrium is restored by the end.
Vladimir Propp
He developed Todorov's narrative theory
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This has a few more aspects to Todorov's theory in that between the equilibrium and disequilibrium there begins the disruption/complication. Between the disequilibrium and overall equilibrium is a resolution.
Claude Levi-Strauss
He believed in a constant creation of conflict/oppostion propels a narrative. Narrative can only end on a resolution of conflict. Opposition can be visual through light/darkness, movement/stillness or conceptual love/hate, control/panic and to do with soundtrack.
Examples of this theory is Katy Perry's Firework because before the song gets into the chorus the lighting is dark and then when the chorus kicks in its a lot brighter with fireworks going off creating a magical feel.
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