Brief outline about development of music video and focus on intertextuality

1. Music Video

2. Lesson Focus
 This powerpoint will focus on music
video with particular attention to the
technical codes and conventions of the
music video.

3. Music Video
 Since cinema was invented it created
the ability to bring songs and music to
life.
 Advances in technology have
transformed the music video into what it
is today.

4. The early years
 Surprisingly, music videos have been around
since the 1920s
 Many Jazz musicians of the time, such as Bessie
Smith, made short films to accompany popular
songs
 Bessie Smith

5. Bob Dylan
 1965: Bob Dylan Films
Subterranean Homesick Blues as a
segment for D. A. Pennebaker's
film, Dont Look Back – widely
credited as one of the first modern
music videos.

6. Subterranean Blues - Dylan

7. 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-stage

8. Bohemian Rhapsody
 1975: Bohemian Rhapsody a groundbreaking
video released by Queen marked the
beginning of the video era and set the
language for the modern music video. The
video is considered one of the first to use
advanced visual effects
 Whole video on Youtube/Google Video (6.05)

9. Technical Codes
 Camerawork
As with any moving image text, how the
camera is used and how images are
sequenced will have a significant
impact upon meaning.

10. Technical Codes
 Camerawork
 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
performance, by for instance constantly circling the
band as they perform on stage.

11. Technical Codes
 Camerawork
 The close up does predominate, as in most
TV, 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
emphasises half of the commodity on sale
(not just the song, but the artist, and
particularly the voice)

12. Technical Codes
 Editing
 Though the most common form of editing associated
with the music promo is fast cut montage, rendering
many of the images impossible to grasp on first
viewing thus ensuring multiple viewing, there are
videos which use slow pace and gentler transitions to
establish mood.
 This is particularly apparent for the work of many
female solo artists with a broad audience appeal,
such as Dido.

13. Technical Codes
 Editing
 Often enhancing the editing are digital effects
which play with the original images to offer
different kinds of pleasure for the audience.
This might take the form of split screens,
colourisation and of course blockbuster film
style CGI.

14. Camerawork and Editing
 Watch The Following Video, What Do
You Notice About It In Terms Of
Camerawork and Editing ?
 Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories - Stay (I
Missed You)

15. Camerawork and Editing
 If you watch it closely you will see that the
video has no cuts whatsoever.
 The entire video was done with a hand held
camera (steadicam) and some very clever
choreography in terms of camera position
and singers movement around the flat.
 It took over 8 hours to get it right.

16. Development Of Technical
Codes
 The key innovation in the development of the
modern music video was, of course, video
recording and editing processes, along with
the development of a number of related
effects such as chroma-key or Green/Blue
Screen
 The advent of high-quality colour videotape
recorders and portable video cameras
enabled many pop acts to produce promotional
videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to
the relatively high costs of using film

17. Development Of Technical
Codes
In the 1990s, a number of technical codes became common:
 Most common form of editing associated with the music promo
is fast cut montage
 Many images impossible to grasp on first viewing thus
ensuring multiple viewing
 Split screens, colourisation are also commonly used effects
 Non-representational techniques, in which the musical artist
is never shown, become more common
 Lack of edits, Long take/steadicam also a common
experimentation

18. Development Of Technical
Codes
 However, as the genre developed music
video directors increasingly turned to
35mm film as the preferred medium,
while others mixed film and video.
 By the mid-1980s releasing a music
video to accompany a new single had
become standard.

19. Goodwin’s Music Video Analysis
 Andrew Goodwin writing in ‘Dancing in the
Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992)
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
(e.g. stage performance in rock video, dance routine.
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and
visuals
3. There is a relationship between music and
visuals

20. Goodwin’s Music Video Analysis
 4. The demands of the record label will
include the need for lots of close ups of the
artist and the artist may develop motifs
which recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of
looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc)
and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the
female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to
films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

21. Intertextuality and Cinema
 It is perhaps not surprising that so many
music videos draw upon cinema as a
starting point, since their directors are
often film school graduates looking to
move on eventually to the film industry
itself.

22.  Directors Who Started With Music
Video Include:
David Fincher: Madonna Vogue and
Express Yourself.
Spike Jonze: Fatboy Slim Praise You
Michael Gondry: Bjork, Foo Fighters

23. Intertextuality
 It is perhaps not surprising that so many
music videos draw upon cinema as a
starting point, since their directors are
often film school graduates looking to
move on eventually to the film industry
itself.

24. Intertextuality
 From Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’ (Mary
Lambert 1985, drawing on ‘Diamonds
are a Girl’s Best Friend’) to 2Pac and Dr
Dre’s ‘California Love’ (Hype Williams
1996, drawing on ‘Mad Max’) there are
many examples of cinematic references
which dominate music video.

25. Intertextuality
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Madonna Material Girl (1985)

26. Madonna Material Girl
 The intertextual
image is not
necessarily of
Monroe, but of the
Hollywood
archetype of the
sexy blonde who
uses her looks to
get what she wants.

27. Intertextuality
 Television is often a point of reference too,
as in The Beastie Boys’ spoof cop show
titles sequence for Sabotage (Spike Jonze
1994) or REMs recent news show parody
‘Bad Day’ (Tim Hope 2003).

28. Intertextuality
 Visual reference in music video coming from a range of
sources, though the three most frequent are perhaps
cinema, fashion and art photography. Fashion sometimes
takes the form of specific catwalk references and
sometimes even the use of supermodels, as by George
Michael in both ‘Father Figure’ (Morahan/Michael 1988)
and ‘Freedom’ (Fincher 1990).
 Probably the most memorable example of reference to
fashion photography is Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted to Love’
(Donovan 1986), parodied many times for its use of
mannequin style females in the band fronted by a besuited
Palmer. Shania Twain copied it for her ‘Man I feel like a
woman’ (Paul Boyd 1999) and Tamra Davis directed a
$350 parody of it for Tone Loc’s ‘Wild Thing’ (1988).

29. Intertextuality
Robert Palmer Addicted To Love
(1986)
Shania Twain Man I Feel Like A
Woman ( 1999)

30. Intertextuality
 The influence of video games will
predominate for the younger audience
with the more plasticised look of
characters emerging (as seen for
example in Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Love
be your Energy’ dir. Olly Reed 2001
and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers
‘Californication’ dir.Jonathan Dayton
and Valerie Faris 2000)

31. Intertextuality
Robbie Williams Let Love Be
Your Energy ( 2001)
Linkin Park Breaking The
Habit (2003)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Californication 1999

32. Intertextuality
 John Stuarts description of the music video
“incorporating, raiding and reconstructing” is
essentially the essence of intertextuality.
 Using something with which the audience may be
familiar to generate both potentially nostalgic
associations and new meanings. It is perhaps more
explicitly evident in the music video than in any other
media form, with the possible exception of
advertising.