Music video is a medium intended to appear directly to youth subcultures by reinforcing generic elements of musical genres. These are called pop-promos as they are used to promote a band or artist. Music videos are post modern texts whose main purpose is to promote a star persona (Dyer, 1975) Music videos do not have to be literal representations of the song or the lyrics.
In 1984 Michael Shore argued that music videos are:
- recycled styles
- vanity and the moment
- the death of content
- adolescent male fantasies (speed, power, girls and wealth)
- album art come to turgid life
- classical storytelling motifs
In 1894 the first step towards a music video was produced, music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern wanted to promote their song 'The Little Lost Child' This was known as an 'illustrated song' and includes a series of still images on a screen to show the live performance.
The English rock/pop band The Beatles established their music videos showing that young people had power. There wasn't really a music industry before this, just the entertainment business. Music videos were done as part of the narrative, as they stil are today. A music video is usually a short film to support the song, the band within the music video becomes the product, which creates an image to give the audience voyeuristic pleasure.
The performance in a music video can be of three types:
- song performance
- instrumental performance
- dance performance
Some music videos use intertextual references within their narrative, for example the song Buddy Holly by Weezer uses the American sitcom Happy Days for the music video, this helps to attract a much wider targer audience because not only will Weezer fans be interested in this music video and song, but also fans of Happy Days will also be attracted to this product.
In one particular type of performance, the performer is not a performer anymore, he or she is a materialization of the commercial exhibitionist, for example Lady Gaga. She is not selling the music specifically, she is selling herself as the product.
Genre:
What is genre?
Genre is a critical tool that helps us study texts and audience responses to texts by dividing them into two categories based on common elements.
Genre paradigm
institution--text--audience
- specific categories
- audience to identify
- recognisable characteristics
All genres include sub genres (a genre within a genre). Generic characteristics across all texts share similar elements of the below, depending on the medium...
- typical mise-en-scene/visual style
- typical types of narrative (plots, hystorical setting, set pieces)
- typical characters
- editing style (timing of the lyrics)
- studios/ production companies
Types of genre for audiences:
- emotional pleasures
- visceral pleasures
- intellectual puzzles
The strengths of genre theory:
- everyone uses and understands it
- it is useful across a wide range of texts
Genres develop and change as the wider society develops and changes:
- experimental stage
- classical stage
- parody stage
- deconstruction stage
In terms of genre, there are narrative and performance, Greenday - Basketcase (1996) is an intertextual reference to One flew over the cuckoo's nest (1975). Other music videos include themes which may fit around the lyrics of the song or society, this particularly applies to bands or artists which are well known activists who are known for supporting a cause, this is a medium known for being experimental and controversial, the generic conventions stay the same but the style changes between music genres.
Some music videos have themes for a more youthful audience such as:
- teen angst
- rebellion
- romance
- sex/loosing your virginity
- nostalgia
- nihilism (the belief that there is no future)
- coming of age rituals (e.g. prom, falling in love)
- bullying
- tribalism
other themes:
- war
- crime
- poverty
- capitalism
- racism
Genres are not fixed, they are dynamic, they change.
"Any theme may appear in any genre" David Bordwell (1989)
