Genre And Theory

What Are Music Videos For?
-Promotion
-Entertainment
-Portraying the artist in a positive light
-Directors interpretation of the song

How Do They Reflect Culture?
-Based on reality
Portrayal of an idealistic world
Focus' on the audience's relation

Hedgemonic = Leading ideas

Broad Typologies (Firth 1988)
-Performance
-Narrative
-Conceptual
They describe the form and content and convey direct and indirect messages.
>Act as ads and popular art forms.

-Performance

Firth believe that performance videos are the most common. They convey a sense of concert experience and legitimise the artist.

Gow (1992) suggests the predominance of performance and indicates that music videos define itself chiefly by images of artists singing and playing.


-Narrative
Presents a sequence of events
Love stories are the most common narrative pattern

Schwichtenberg (1992) "Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively reacts or wait for something to happen.

-Conceptual

Firth "Conceptual videos do not tell a story in linear fashion, but rather create a mood, a feeling to be evoked in the experience of viewing.
-The possibility for multiple meanings as the metaphor is interpreted by the viewer.


Goodwin -"Dancing In The Distraction Factory"
-Music video demonstrates genre characteristics
-There are relationships between lyrics and visuals
-Relationships between music and visuals
-Demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists and may develop motifs which recur through their work
-Frequently reference to notion of looking in particular at the treatment of the female body (reference to voyeurism, the idea of pleasure of looking)
-There is often an intertextual reference post modernist perspective (relying on cultural knowledge)


Goodwin (1992) "The essential narrative component of a music video is found in its ability to frame the star. 'Star-in-text'

Post Modernism relates on how we have been exposed to the media of our culture and how we relate, understand and make sense of the world. It is recognisable in part through the use of intertextuality.