Andrew Goodwin's Music Video analysis

Andrew Goodwin writing in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory (Roatledge 1992).
                                              

1.Demonstrate genre characteristics(stage performance in rock video, dance routine)

2.There must be a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.

3. There must be a relationship between the music and thje visuals.

4.The demands of a record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist, in order to make the audience more identifiable with the their target audience. In addition, the artist may also develop motifs which would recur across their work (a visual style).

5.There are frequent references to the notions of looking (examples of these references in music videos can be presented through various techniques such as screens within screens, telescopes etc). This types of looking motions are commonly presented in a sexual matter, as many female bodies in music videos have been shown to be presented in a  voyeuristic manner.In addition there have been some cases where females have been shown as love interests when they are the objects of male artists affections.

6. There would often be intertextual references to various other different kinds of media such as TV programmes,films and other music videos.

Below is a list of mainstream film-makers that began their careers by directing music videos

David Fincher- Madonna's music videos Vouge and Express yourself

                                                                   Director: David Fincher


Madonna's Vouge music video                                       Madonna's Express yourself music video                                                                

                                       

                                                  Spike Jonze- Fatboy Slim and Praise you

                                                      
                                                                    Director: Spike Jonze


                                                    Michael Gondry- Bjork, Foo Fighters

                                         
                                                           Director : Michael Gondry

Development of Technical Codes

The key innovation in the development of the modern music video was of copurse video recording and editing process, along with the development of a number of related effects such as a chroma key or Blue/Green screen.

The advent of high quality colour video tape recorders and portable video cameras enabled many pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the relatively high cost of using film.
                                                          
                                                                     Chorma key

                                                         


In the 1990's, a number of techical codes had begun to be commonly used in music videos that were made at the time:

• The most common form of editing that was associated with the music promotional videos were the fast cut montage.
• Many of the moving images that were presented in the videos were impossible to grasp on the first viewing. This would mean that the video would need to be viewed multiple times to allow the audience to fully understand the videos.
• Split screen and colourisation were also commonly used effects.
• Non-representational techniques, in which the musical artist is never shown, this technical was very commonly used in 1990's music videos.
• Lack of edits, long takes and steadicam also became a commonly used experimentation.

Definition of Intertextuality

Definition-The term Intertextuality refers to the process of creating references to any kind of media text via another media text. In other words Intertextuality essentially means for a type of media(film,television,music etc) to pay homage to another media text.

Intertextuality in Television

These two images below are an example of Intertexuality of a film being presented through a television programme.
The picture on the top shows an image of the animated character Bart Simpson from 'The Simpsons' television programme in which his appearance has appeared to be altered so that his face and attire mirrors the appearance of the person in the right picture. The image on the bottom shows a fictional film character called Alex DeLarge, who is the protagonist from the 1971 film 'A Clockwork Orange'.
As the film 'A Clockwork Orange' was released in the early 1970's and 'The Simpsons was created in the lated 1980's , it is very clear that this television programme is paying homage to this past film by presenting the character of Bart in the same manner of Alex.
A possibile reason for this Intertextuality in between these two characters could be to show the main similiarites that these two fictional characters both have, in terms of their character traits.
In each of their respective media texts both of these characters are portrayed as adolescent, male protagonists who both have very negative characteristics as both are shown to be rebellious, mischievousness and rarely show any respect for their peers. In addition these two both appear to have very sadistic senses of humor as Bart finds pleasure in being rebellious to others, and Alex' main hobbies  include  assaulting ,robbing and raping  innocent people.
  

Intertextuality in film

Parody films such as 'Scary Movie' and 'Superhero movie' were created almost completely out of Intertextuality.
For example to 2008 spoof film 'Superhero movie' pays homage to other films which had been released before this film, which all belong to the same genre of superhero films(hence the film's title). In particular, this film uses the superhero film 'Spider-man(2002) as its main template , since Superhero movie contains as similar storyline with similar characters.
In further detail the film Spider-man's story centres around an american teenager called Peter Parker who   gains superhuman abilities after he is bitten by a radioactive spider and then becomes a superhero known as Spider-man.
This is very identical to the main plot of the parody film Superhero movie, in which a high school teenager named Rick Riker  also gains superhuman abilities from after being bitten by a radioactive dragonfly and the becomes a superhero called the Dragonfly.


The 2006 comedy film 'She's the man' and the 1998 romance film 'Shakespeare in Love' were both inspired by William Shakespeare's comedy play 'Twelth Night'. This play centres around a woman named Viola who disguises herself as a man , so that she can gain a job serving the Duke of Illyria, which is a job that only a man could get in the play's time period.
This plot theme is reflected in the films 'She's the man' and 'Shakespeare in Love'. This is shown as in these two films, the protagonists(which are both female) disguise themselves as members of the opposite sex so that they can both gain something, which would be unavailable to them as women.

                           


Intertextuality in music videos

This two images below are an example of intertexuality being presented through media texts such as music. The image on the left is a clip from the 2009 Pop music video 'She-wolf' in which the singer Shakira preforms an anti-gravity lean dance move.This can be seen as a use of intertextuality in the music industry as this maneuver, is very identical to the anti-gravity lean which was famously preformed by Michael Jackson in his 1987 Pop single 'Smooth Criminal'.
 In Smooth Criminal this anti gravity lean was achieved through the use of a hitching mechanism in the floor of the music video's set that would latch on to Jackson's shoes attaching him to the floor and therefore allowing him to preform this feat.
 Shakira herself had stated in an interview on the american television programme 'Good morning America', that the purpose of her preforming this dance move that was made famous by Michael Jackson in 1987 was so that she could pay tribute to him, in her music video as claimed that 'He was the king of artistic magic'.

                                

History of Music Videos

Ever since Film Cinema was introduced in the 19th century, this technology had created the ability to bring songs and music to life. Within the time period of over two decades, there have been many advances in the technology that is used to create films and music which have helped to transform music videos from how they were orginally to what they are today.

The Early Years

Music had began in the 1920's, when Motion pitures where still in the Silent film Era.

Many Jazz musicians of the time such as Bessie Smith had made short films to accompany popular blogs.

Bob Dylan

1965- Bob Dylan , Subtarian Homesick Blues as a segment for D.A. Pennebakers film. Dont look back- widely credited as one of the first modern music videos.

Pop music TV shows

1970- The record industry discovers TV shows as a great opportunity to promote their artists.

They focus on producing short 'promos' early music videos which started to replace the live performance of the artist on the TV show.

Bohemian Rhaspsody

1975- This was considered to be a ground breaking rock music video released by Queen in the 20th century. This was marked as the beginning of the video era and set the language for the modern music video. The video is thought to be a step forward in the music video industry since it was one of the first song videos to use the most advance video effects(of its time) which was achieved by taking advantage of visual and audio feedback, using shaped lens to create the honeycomb illusion and positioning the camera at a moniter.

Technical Codes-Camera Work

• As with any moving image text, how the camera is used and how images are sequenced will have a significant impact upon meaning.
• Camera movement,angle and shot distance all need to be analysed.
• Camera movement may accompany movement of performers(walking,dancing etc) but it may also be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage perdormance, by for instance circling the band as they perform on stage, which an be used to represent their union as a band or to create an illusion effect.
• Close up shots are often used quite predominatly,  mostly TV which is partly because of the size of the screen and partly because of the desire to create a sense of intimacy for the viewer. It also empasises half of the commodity on sale(not just the song, but the artist and particulary the voice).

Editing

Though the most common form of editing is associated with the music promo is fast cut montages, which renders many of the images impossible to grasp on thefirst viewing thus ensuring multiple viewing. There are videos which use slow pace and gentler transitions to establish the mood of the video or song.

This is particulary apparant for the work of many female solo artists.