mvi

1. Music video week one
Component one – media products,
industries and audiences

2. Introduction to the music
video unit
• Not to be confused with component three, where you
actually make a music video, the music video unit
analyses the media language and representations in
music videos.
• Unlike with many other units, we don’t need to consider
audience and industry. This means we can purely focus
on what they mean, and how they represent themes
and groups of people.

3. What is a music video?
Ten
seconds!

4. Case study set texts
Vance Joy - Riptide Beyoncé – Formation

5. What will we cover?
Media language
• Key terms – Modes,
language, polysemy,
meaning, conventions,
intertextuality, audience
response, ideologies
• Theory - Barthes and
Levi-Strauss
Representation
• Key terms - Construction,
processes, stereotypes,
social and cultural
contexts, audience
response, ideologies
• Theory - Hall, Gauntlett,
Van Zoonen, hooks,
Gilroy

6. France Gall – Baby Pop
(1965)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vczO-PqhDis

7. France Gall – Laisse
tomber les filles (1964)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWRCJhsz5t4

8. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idhq-CLU21g
REBECCA – Vanity Angel
(1989)

9. Pulp – Babies (1994)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38by00DGid0

10. Pulp – This is hardcore
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXbLyi5wgeg

11. Health – Die Slow (2009)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWZxThGh5wQ

12. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu –
PONPONPON (2011)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzC4hFK5P3g

13. Benny Benassi –
Satisfaction (2001)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZcSCT34H84

14. Daft Punk - Da Funk (1995)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmi60Bd4jSs

15. Aphex Twin –
Windowlicker (1999)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZT3gTu4Sjw

16. Discussing music production
CLEAN AND
DIRTY
WARM AND COLD
ANALOGUE VS
DIGITAL
THE MIX
LIVE SOUND VS
STUDIO SOUND
TEMPO/BPM
DYNAMICS
MODERN VS
CLASSICHEAVILY
PROCESSED
LO-FI DENSE VS SPARSE

17. Artist Track title Description
Ah-Ha
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=a3ir9HC9vYg
The Sun Always
Shines On TV
Heavily processed, lots of reverb, analogue,
classic, a little fuzzy, moderate tempo
Orange Caramel
http://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=Med2XipHJJM
Catalena Dense, LOTS of instruments, clean, perfect,
synthetic, digital, equal voices and music in
the mix
Darkthrone
http://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=SBwu83RR6ZU
Transylvanian Hunger Analogue, lo-fi, instruments high in the
mix, distorted and dirty, dense production,
‘warm’ production
Nirvana
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=GyxoQIQaogE
Scentless Apprentice
AFX
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=S3yHbf7XEXU
I’m Self Employed Digital, retro, clean, dense instrumentation,
heavily processed, videogamey,
Sigur Rós -
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=Bz8iEJeh26E
Glósóli Dense production, lots of lush sounds, warm
production, soft, slow, heavily processed,
reverb, delay, clean
Passenger Let her go Lo-fi, clean, very clean! Sparse
instrumentation, modern, digital but trying
to sound like analogue

18. • Though we take them for granted, music videos are
actually a revolutionary concept, combining music and
video. These two media forms used to be two wholly
separate industries. However, now they are regularly
combined.
• We can call this process convergence
Introduction to the music
video

19. • The ‘coming together’ of two previously separate media
industries
Key term - convergence

20. • Where the interconnectedness of media products leads to
a result of more of the sum of its parts.
• Examples include merchandising tie-ins, TV shows,
etc…
Key term - synergy

21. • The benefits of this synergistic convergence between
music and film is that two completely distinct and
separate audiences can simultaneously be targeted.
• For example, the group in the 1980’s who were most
likely to buy records were men in their late 20’s and
older. However, this group was the least likely to watch
television.
The benefits of synergy

22. • Music videos exist as a distinct entity from cinema, but
how can we delineate music videos and film?
Music video vs cinema
Music video Cinema

23. • We use this term a lot – some of us on a daily basis. But what
does it actually mean?
Celebrity

24. • “the attribution of glamourous or notorious status to an
individual in the public sphere”
• In what ways can the representation of celebrity be encoded?
Celebrity

25. • What could explain the importance of celebrities in our
culture?
• What purpose do they serve?
• In what ways can they help people in everyday life?
Applications of celebrity

26. • Also known as a grand narrative, this refers to an
overarching narrative or system of beliefs that helps us to
make sense of the world.
Metanarrative

27. How can these metanarratives help us make sense
of the world? According to these beliefs, what
causes problems for us?

28. • Science teaches us to make sense of the world through logic and
what we can objectively prove. Our problems are likely caused by
illogical people and bad methodology.
• Religion teaches us to live a better life so we can access an afterlife,
and that faith is more important than evidence to the contrary. Our
problems are likely to be tests from a higher being to make sure
we’re ready for the afterlife.
• Marriage traditionally teaches us to abstain from sexual intercourse
until we meet and wed ‘the one’, who we remain with forever. More
recently, it has become entirely acceptable to have a number of
romantic partners before ‘settling down’ in a monogamous, long
term relationship.
• Marxism teaches us to make sense of the world through the conflict
between the working class and the ruling class. The working class
are often seen as heroic in this metanarrative, while the ruling class
create many issues and problems.
How can metanarratives help
us make sense of the world?

29. • Lady Gaga – Applause (2013)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pco91kroVgQ
• In what ways does this video construct Lady Gaga as a
celebrity? Make explicit reference to visual and technical
codes.

30. How can the metanarrative of celebrity
help us to make sense of the world?
In what ways does this video
construct Lady Gaga as a
celebrity? Make explicit
reference to visual and technical
codes.

35. • By combining two previously separate industries, using
an often excessive variety of textual elements just for the
hell of it, and by deemphasising the importance of
traditional narrative (music videos often deliberately
make little sense on a narrative level), music videos can
be said to be a postmodern medium.
Music videos as a
postmodern medium
We’ll be looking
at postmodernism
in more depth for
the TV unit. Look
forward to it,
yeah?

36. • Actually coming up with a definition of postmodernism is
pretty tricky, as it is an attempt to describe something that
resists traditional forms of interpretation.
• Therefore it cannot be summed up in a snappy sentence.
The following slide offers some characteristics of what
constitutes a postmodern text
Defining postmodernism

37. • Distrust of form, convention and established conventions
• ‘Style over substance’
• Lack of distinction between ‘low’ and ‘high’ culture
• De-emphasis of temporal continuity; many different time
periods referenced
• Distrust of all encompassing metanarratives
• Emphasises surface readings over deeper analysis
• Celebration of consumerism, hedonism and style
• The ubiquity of ‘the screen’
• The erosion of sense of self and identity
Aspects of
postmodernism

38. • Postmodernism has the potential
to be the trickiest theory we
explore in Media, so it helps if we
break it down.
• There are several aspects that
make a text postmodern, but
ultimately, a postmodern text can
be characterised by wilfully
breaking the rules and
conventions of media texts
• We’ll go through a few
examples, but have a think of
your own examples as we head
through the list
postmodernism

39. • Criticism of metanarratives –
postmodern texts usually try
to distance themselves from
traditional ways of making
meaning, and will break the
rules of existing
metanarratives such as
religion or science
Postmodernism

40. • Rejection of high culture –
postmodern texts will often
use a deliberately ‘trashy’
aesthetic
Postmodernism

41. • Breaking rules – postmodern
texts often break
fundamental rules of
making media, for example
by ‘breaking the fourth wall’
Postmodernism

42. • Intertextuality – postmodern
texts often routinely make
reference to other texts,
cultures and times
Postmodernism

43. • Style over substance –
surface meanings are seen
as more important in a
postmodern text than any
deeper meaning
Postmodernism

44. Textual analysis of music
videos

45. Vance Joy - Riptide
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ_1HMAGb4k

46. Codes and conventions –
performance/narrative/experimental features
Camera work (framing – shot types, angle, position,
movement)
Editing – beat-matched?
Elements of continuity/montage
How does the video interpret the music and/or
lyrics?
Structure/narrative
Intertextuality
Sound
Mise-en-scene – colour, lighting, location,
costume/dress, hair/make-up

47. Focussing on textual
analysis
• It is absolutely essential that you are able to make
specific reference to the music videos that you will be
focussing on. These references cannot be circumstantial.
They must make reference to a range of Media theory,
and link explicitly to the focus that you have selected.

48. Structuralist approaches:
binary oppositions
• Structuralism focusses on the underlying meanings in
signs and symbols. It is closely related to language and
how we use language to perceive the world.
• Claude Levi Strauss argued that we all make sense of the
world through binary oppositions. This is to say we can
only understand something through what it is not.

49. binary oppositions
• Look out the window. It’s day. But how do you know it’s
day?
• Bart Simpson is really naughty. But how do we know
he’s really naughty?
• Psycho is set in an isolated motel. But how do we know
it’s isolated?
• The killer jumps out of the cupboard in [every slasher
film ever] and it’s very loud! But how do we know it’s
very loud?

50. binary oppositions
• Day ---------------------- Night
• Bart (naughty) --------------- Lisa (good)
• City (crowded) --------------- Motel (isolated)
• Loud --------------------- Quiet
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s come
up with as many as possible!

51. More examples
Friends
The Breakfast Club
The Terminator
Inside Out

52. Why do producers use
binary oppositions?
(2 minutes)

53. Why binary oppositions?
• They make things easy for the audience. We know who
the nerd is in [every teen movie] because the
cheerleaders laugh at him as he walks past.
• They can be funny for the audience. Think about how
many comedy shows have mismatched couples!
• They make things easy for the producer. More time can
be spent on driving a narrative forward!
• They make ideas more intense. A horror film is
particularly scary when the evil and bloodshed contrasts
with an upbeat opening.

54. How to discuss binary
oppositions
• “In the video to Anaconda by Nikki Minaj, there is a binary
opposition between Minaj’s girlish appearance and the crude
sexual lyrics of the song.”
• “In the video to Beauty and a Beat by Justin Bieber, there is a
binary opposition between the representation of Bieber and
guest star Nikki Minaj. This emphasises Bieber’s clean cut,
‘nice guy’ image”.
• The binary between enslavement and empowerment is
explored in the advert for the fragrance Killer Queen by Katy
Perry.

55. Micro element Examples Analysis- why is it used? Effect on audience
Camera angles
Editing
Mise-en-scene :
lighting
Mise-en-scene :
props and
costume
Mise-en-scene :
performance
Binary
oppositions

56. Formation – Beyoncé
(2016)
• Formation, lead single for the album Lemonade, was released
the day before Beyoncé performed at the Super Bowl final in
February 2016. The Formation music video, directed by
Melina Matsoukas, was released with the song.
• This music video has won numerous awards including a Clio
Award for Innovation and Creative Excellence in a Music
Video at the 2016 awards, and has been nominated in the
music video category at the 59th Grammy Awards.
• The video is set against the backdrop of the flooding in New
Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the associated racial
tension in America, and also draws historical parallels with
references to racism and slavery.

57. Formation – Beyoncé
(2016)
• In what ways are the themes of conflict encoded in this
video?
• What are the functions and purposes of this music video?