In the media saturated world
we live in today we are constantly bombarded with various texts left, right and
centre - whether it be film, television, newspapers, advertisements or music
videos.
One constant, ongoing argument is if various media texts
such as music videos can be considered art, are they simply soft porn or
whether they are simply forcing us into making decisions we, as humans, believe
we need to make. For example, 'I really need that new car the lead singer is
driving'). We, as individuals, believe that we need to buy the brand new car in
order to live the extravagant, expensive, luxurious lifestyle that is displayed
to us across our 42" brand new plasma; whereas actually we don't need the
car in order to achieve the happiness the band are feeling.
Another side of the argument is that music videos simply
objectify women and become what the western world know as 'soft porn'. These
two previous arguments seem to 'dumb down' music videos, not allowing them to
even be considered as an art form, giving them no artistic merit whatsoever.
However, there are some music videos that can be considered
as artistic due to the visual techniques used or the video as a whole being
aesthetically pleasing. It is these techniques that award music videos with
artistic merit, dragging them out of the almost bottomless pit that enthrals
and labels all music videos as porn or commercial.
The main evidence that explains how
music videos can be seen as commercial lies in the subtle conventions music
videos and advertisements share.
The first convention they both seem to
share is the use of CU shots throughout. Andrew Goodwin, Dancing in the
Distraction Factory (1992) describes these CU shots of the main singer in the
band as 'meat shots' as this is when the audience see the artist up close and
they promote sales of the video and of the record. In the same way,
advertisements have CU shots of the product they are selling (just as music
videos have close shots of the product - the artist) in order for the product
to remain as a strong memory in the mind of the audience so that they then go
away and purchase the product, in turn promoting overall sales.
Bands often have a 'meta-narrative' -
that is a certain look, motif or vibe that is constructed through their music
video and track (the primary text), the press in terms of newspapers and
magazine articles (the secondary text) and finally reinforced through
subsidiary texts with promotional material such as the album cover and digipak
or posters. Similarly, commercials also adopt a meta-narrative by taking a
certain feel and carrying it through all their advertisements for the product.
An example of this would be 'Sony Bravia' and their colour adverts - with every
single commercial featuring vibrant, strong and powerful colour. This shows how
music videos could actually be viewed as commercial.
Another convention shared between
advertising and music videos is the concept of narrative fuzz - a term coined
by Goodwin, Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992). When a music video
contains narrative fuzz it often means that the repeatability level is high
(meaning it can be replayed over and over with the viewer still interested in
the visuals). When a music video is repeatable it increases the view count on
the video on Web 2.0 sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, in turn increasing the
sales for the track. In this sense the video actually promotes the song, as an
advert promotes the product. Adverts too have repeatability due to the nature
of them being broadcast many times a day often on many TV channels for weeks.
Barclays created an advert featuring a water slide and it was extremely
repeatable because many people found it an easy commercial to watch over and
over due to the comedic nature of it. This is yet another shared convention
between music videos and advertisements.
In the 21st Century, music isn't just
played on iPods and iPads, but also on TVs, exhibited through music channels.
In order for the music channels to make as much money as possible, adverts are
shown between a certain number of music videos. So often these adverts are
seamlessly integrated with the music videos and it is sometimes hard to
differentiate a music video from a commercial as they often have a popular
music track as a soundtrack.
Whilst the view that music videos are a
form of advertisement for the artist, it is important to consider if music
videos objectify women, and are therefore a form of pornography.
In the R'n'B genre, many music videos
feature semi-naked women dancing around the artist, and the camera work on
music videos of this genre employs voyeuristic and fetishistic conventions in
order to linger on parts of the female body. The difference between voyeurism
and fetishism is that the former is simple lingering of the camera on the body,
whereas the latter is sexualised and will therefore feature pans or CU shots of
parts of the female body.
We can use the theorists Goffman et al
to discover how women can be portrayed in the media. Goffman et al discuss the
representation of women in the media and talk of the artificial look,
dismemberment of the body, commodification, feminine touch, relative size,
function ranking and ritualisation of subordination.
In Rihanna's music video for We Found
Love, men and women are represented in very contrasting ways. The artificial
look that that Goffman et all discuss is reinforced because the lead singer is
slim, tall, long legged and has narrow hips and a lot of skin showing. This
objectifies Rihanna and causes men to look at her in a sexual way. This is
called the male gaze (a concept formed by the theorist Laura Mulvey).
Furthermore, dismemberment is evident
in the video where only parts of Rihanna's body are displayed, again
objectifying her which forces her to become an object for consumption for the
heterosexual male audience. In particular the shots where she stands against a
wall only displaying her legs and hips reinforce the concepts of dismemberment
and also commodification (where women are presented as an object for male
pleasure).
Rihanna often touches herself
throughout the video and her hands are depicted to be caressing, gentle and
caring whereas the mans are presented as forceful and strong and are often seen
as grasping or clenching. This follows what Goffman et al say about the
feminine touch and how it differs to how males are depicted and portrayed in
the media. The man in the video is shown to be more dominant and aggressive and
the clenched nature of his hands is symbolic of the power he has over Rihanna
and follows traditional gender stereotypes. Furthermore, in relation to
relative size, the man in the video is taller than the woman which is again
another symbol of his power over her and he seems to have a higher social rank.
Finally, in terms of ritualisation of
subordination, the woman (Rihanna) is often positioned sitting on the floor or
positioned on the bed in sexual positions underneath the man. This is a
convention that is shared with pornography which can therefore be used as
evidence of how music videos can be like porn. When they kiss Rihanna leans
back, accepting the man's authority and she often turns her face away from the
camera too - a concept called licensed withdrawal.
It is through using this framework to analyse
music videos that we can see how it can be argued that music videos are simply
pornography and exploit women in the process.
Despite these views that music videos
are commercial or soft-porn, some argue that they can be viewed as an art form.
This is because of the various visual styles that auteurs and music video
directors choose to adopt. Certain auteurs actually have a directorial style
and visual 'signature' to their work such as Ian Pons Jewell. His work heavily
features narrative at the beginning such as in Green Grass and Disappoint You,
and often has a certain filter that makes the video feel original, indie and
authentic. Green Grass and Disappoint You both have a low contrast feel with
different saturation levels to most other videos.
Often narrative based videos or concept based videos can be
considered as the most artistic as they feature disjunctive artistic footage.
Techniques such as time reversal (in The Scientist by Coldplay), stop motion
camera work (in Follow by Crystal Fighters), black and white noir style (in
Galvanize by Chemical Brothers) and strong vibrant colour use (in Cutter by
Aspirins) make the music video feel more artistic and relate to the style or
meta-narrative of the band. This style is reinforced through the primary text
(the music video) and various subsidiary texts (artwork, digipaks and
magazine/news articles), and boosts the meta-narrative of the artist.
A particularly strong example of an arty music video is
Kanye West's 30 minute short film called Runaway. This was directed by Kanye
West himself and tells a story of a woman who falls from space that he falls in
love with and cares for. However the soundtrack to the short film is the
track-list from his album My Dark Twisted Fantasy that was released at the same
time, alongside Runaway. The video features many visual and artistic techniques
such as high colour correction, and strong accent colour throughout such as
multi-coloured skies. There are certain scenes that use smoke and flares and
fireworks which make the video loko aesthetically pleasing and artistic.
For the reasons mentioned, it can also be argued that music
videos are actually an art form and can be a work of art in themselves, and as
the music industry faces the issue of piracy and tries to combat it with
various techniques, it is increasingly important for the artist to release a
visually pleasing or interesting music video so that people want to purchase
the album to get the music video with it as a bundle, either through buying the
CD from shops like HMV, or through ordering the album off iTunes which often
bundles a digital copy of the music video into the album for free.
In conclusion, it is hard to isolate music videos to be one
of the three forms discussed in this essay, as each argument has strengths and
weaknesses. Music videos tend to adopt characteristics and conventions from
each of the forms of commercial, porn and art, and produce a video which
contains elements of all three. However in my personal opinion, I believe that
music videos are mainly artistic and should strive to create a work of art in
itself.
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