Andrew Godwin identifies 6 features of music video, these being:
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. dance routines in a pop song)
2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals
3. There is a relationship between the music and visuals
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups and the artist may develop a visual style that repeat across their work
5.There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
6. There is often intertextual reference (e.g. films, TV programs, other music videos etc.)
I have gathered further information from a slide share document online :http://www.slideshare.net/guestc6d43a4a/andrew-goodwins-theory
Feminism, Male Gaze, and Post- Feminism
Initial thoughts on gender representation, How males and females are typically represented or portrayed in music videos,
Gender Stereotypes in Music
Current research findings suggests men in music videos are significantly more aggressive and dominant in music videos, moreover they are represented as independent, adventourous, and compotent stereotypical gendered occupations apparent (i.e. Males are mechanics whilst women are cheerleaders). Women engage in significantly more explicit, sexual and passive behaviour. Women are more likely to be represented as sexual objects of sexual advantages within a music video. Women are more likely to be presented provocatively or presented in revealing outfits. Women are almost portrayed as decorative objects within a music video. (Taken from Dots' May 2009 OBJECT)
Feminism (1960/70's)
A movement in which women questioned their position within a patriarchal society and their private sphere' of 'home/children/domestic bliss.' Serves to uncover, challenge and eliminare opposition and dominant gender imagery. Women began to debate the narrow range of stereotypes present across all media; Women as virgins, mothers or promiscuous. Women as sex objects. Women as inferior to men.
Sexual Objectification and the Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey 1975)
Voyeurism: Erotic pleasures gained from looking at a sexual object (who is unaware of being watched). Presence of women solely for the purpose of display (rather than narrative function). Female on display is passive and objectified for a male gaze regardless of viewers. Gender Voyeuristic treatment of female body in 'male' videos - use of dancers as adomments to the male ego. The inclusion women for display to stape element in music video's - across all genres. In conclusion women connote to-be-looked-at-ness and are the object of the male gaze.
Looking at the music video 'Buttons - Pussycat Dolls ft Snoop Dogg' Taking Muvleys theory into account the feminist reading of the video may potentially say sexual power is derived from physical attractiveness to men. Snoop Dogg Voyeuristic male gaze/ POV shot invites male viewer to join in.
Post Feminism and the Female Gaze (1980's)
A re-appraisal of feminist values does not strive for 'equality' as this assumes men are 'the best' - they wish to surpass male achievements. Objected to theories in which position them as objects of the 'Male Gaze' identifies a 'Female Gaze' - women actively desiring men. Women began to assert their right to dress and be sexually attractive.
Rihanna is not on show for the benefit of male audiences, but is enjoying herself experiencing different identities. She is successful, independent and in control. Connotes messages of Empowerment/Confidence/ Independence to female audience . In contrast to other representations here Britney is in control and dominates men within the narratives. She also takes a variety of identities e.g. super heroine. There is also opportunity for the female gaze.
Richard Dyer’s Star Theory
Richard W. Dyer is an English academic specialising in cinema since 2006, he is a professor of Film Studies at Kings College London.
Stars’ was Dyers first full book. In it he developed the idea that the viewers’ perception of a film is heavily influenced by the perception of its stars and those publicity materials and views determine the way that audiences experience the film.
His theory suggests a ‘star’s’ construction takes several forms:
The star is a construction
The image of the star has been developed by the star themselves and/or the management team across a wide range of media (advertising etc). It helps the star has a USP (unique selling point) for example Lady Gaga’s range of earpieces, this construction brings with it connotations of the artist. Lady Gaga suggests that she is eccentric and she wants to stand out from the crowd.
The star is a Commodity:
A record company will listen very closely to audience demands and will construct stars that will appeal to the likes and tastes of various different audiences. Stars are constructed to meet the audience demand, for example Girls Aloud were constructed to appeal to a female audience who would most likely imitate their fashion and dance moves. Whereas kings of Leon were constructed to appeal to more grungy down to earth audience (both male and females)
The star is an ideology
This star represents a set of values and attitude that reflect audiences own values. For example, Miley Cyrus gained a lot of media attention after claiming she is a virgin and wouldn’t have sex until she was married – young girl audiences might follow her lead, and this can also be beneficial to society and its problems of underage sex etc.
Characteristics of a Music Video
Music, particularly rock has always had a visual element. The album cover, the ‘look’ a band strived for in performance, concert staging, and promotional publicity have all stimulate album sales and the birth of MTV as a continuous outlet for viewing simply served to enhance the visual potential present in rock.
Viewers typically do not regard the music video as a commercial for an album or act.
Aufderheide (1986) describes the connection of viewer to video. ‘With nary references to cash or commodities, music videos cross the consumer’s gaze as a series of mood states. They trigger nostalgia, regret, anxiety, confusion, dread, envy, admiration, pity, titillation-attitudes at one remove from the primal expression such as passion, ecstasy and rage. The moods often express a lack an incompletion, an inability, a searching for location. In music videos those feelings are carried on flights of whimsy, extended journeys into the arbitrary’ (pg 63)
That music videos present compelling mood states that may claim the attention of the viewer is not a matter of happenstance.
Abt (1987) states that ‘directors of videos strive to make their products as exciting as the music. In the struggle to establish and maintain a following artists utilize any number of techniques in order to appear exotic, powerful, tough, sexy, cool, unique’ (pg. 103) Further, Abt indicates ‘a video must compete with other videos.’ ‘They must gain hold of the viewers attention amidst other videos; help establish, visualize, or maintain the artist’s image; sell that image and the products associated with it; o perhaps carry one or several direct or indirect messages…’ (pg.97)
Music videos may be further characterized by three broad typologies: Performance, narrative and conceptual (Firth 1988).
These types describe the form and content selected by the director or artist to attract viewers and to convey or indirect message.
Performance videos, the most common type (Firth 1988) feature the star or group singing in concert to wildly enthusiastic fans. The goal is to convey a sense of the in-concert experience. Gow (1992) suggests ‘the performance of performance as a formal system in the popular clips indicates that music video defines itself chiefly by communicating images of artists singing and playing songs’ (pg. 48-49). Performance videos, especially those that display the star or group in the studio, remind the viewer that the soundtrack is still important. ‘Performance oriented visuals, cue viewers indeed, the recording of the music is the most significant element’ (Gow 1992, pg.45)
A narrative video presents a sequence of events. A video may tell any kind of story in linear, cause-effect sequencing. Love stories, however are the most common narrative mode in the music video. The narrative pattern is one of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen (Schwichtenberg 1992). Conceptual videos rely on poetic form, primarily metaphor (Firth, 1988). The conceptual video can be metaphysical poetry articulated through visual and verbal elements. ‘These videos make significant use of the visual element, presenting to the eye as well as the ear, and in doing so, conveying truths inexpressible discursively’ (Lorch 1988, pg. 143) 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 (Firth 1988).
Conceptual videos contain the possibility for multiple meanings as the metaphor or metaphoric sequence is interpreted by the viewer.
‘Thus the metaphorical relations between images structured according to musical and visual rhymes and rhythms play a suggestive role in soliciting multiple meanings from us, the viewers/listeners, that resonate with our experience-something we can feel and describe’. (Schwichtenberg, 1992 pg. 124)
A given music video may actually have elements of more than one category. Goodwin (1992), in describing Madonnas’s videos, suggests that the essential narrative component of a music video is found in its ability to frame the star, ‘Star-in-text,’ as all madonna’s videos seem to do. A story exists solely for its ability to create, or in Madonna’s case recreate, the star’s persona. This blending of elements can also enable a type of music such as rap to have cross-over appeal to a wider audience, Although we may profitably interpret the message potential of music video using these three catagories as a basis for content analysis, certain limitations exist if we remain on that path. ‘Analysis of music video narrative have been all to eager to freeze the moment and study videos shot by shot, but here the problem is that this generates not too much but too little knowledge, because the individual narrative is highly intertextual’ (Godwin, 1992 pg. 90)
As a blend of video technique and imagery from film and television, music video offers us a new perceptual agenda by providing allusions to and incorporations of old iconic imagery from film, allowing us to reconstitute the pieces of the 20th century information explosion (Turner 1986) The brevity of the music video has created a new grammar of video techniques particular to this miniscule video form.
‘Visual techniques commonly employed in music videos exaggerate… interest and excitement is stimulated by rapid cutting, intercutting dissolves, superimpositions, and other special effects, that taken together with different scenes and character, make music videos usually and thematically dynamic.’ (Abt 1987 pg. 97-98)
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