Archer: How to Study Music Videos

Steve Archer constructs a list of 'Top Five Things to Look For' when defining the quality of a music video:

 

1. 'Thought Beats' or Seeing the Sounds in your Head:

• The idea of visualising images comes from the psychological process synaesthesia, where an individual pictures sounds in the mind's eye. This is central to understanding music videos as they build on the soundtrack's visual associations in order to connect with the audience and provide additional pleasure.
• Lyrics don't need to be analysed word for word like a poem but rather considered for the way they introduce a general feeling or mood. Very rarely do song lyrics have a coherent meaning that can be simply read off. So key phrases or lines, and especially those repeated in the chorus, will have a part to play in the kind of visuals associated with the song.
• Roland Barthes' theory of the 'grain of voice' is relevant. This sees the singing voice more as an expressive instrument, personal, unique to every singer and therefore able to create associations. The voice of a song may even possess trademarks that work hand-in-hand with the star image.
• Finally, if songs are stories, then the singer is the storyteller and this obviously makes music videos stand out, as they feature a first person mode of address rather than the invisible 'fourth wall' of television narration. Goodwin compares pop singers to stand-up comics in the way the personal trademark or signature dominates the performance. The music generally works with the lyrics and grain of voice, generally by looking at key sounds, like the tempo and structure of the song in terms of verse and chorus. We all share a memory bank of popular culture imagery, intertextuality, a sense of shared cultural history to aid references in music videos. Places, people, feelings and situations can be summoned from the sounds of popular music.

2. Narrative and Performance:

• Songs rarely tell complete narratives, the narrative fuzz in songs affects the way stories are used in music video representations of a song's meaning. So, often only suggestions of a story are shown, or a hint at some kind of drama unfolding.
• The music video's role in advertising provides another reason why music videos should avoid a classic realist narrative. Music videos need to have repeatability built in to them. We need to be able to watch them repeatedly in a more casual way, with a looser approach to their storytelling. Performance is usually considered more important. Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the 'repeatability' factor. Sometimes, the artist, especially the singer, will be a part of the story, acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip-sync close-up and the mimed playing of instruments that remains at the heart of music videos.

3. The Star Image:

• The music business relies on the relatively few big name stars to fund its activities; it usually fails to connect with popular audiences - only about one in ten acts put out by the industry actually makes any money. Therefore, what we can describe as the meta-narrative of the star image will have an important part to play in the music video production process. Meta-narrative is a term that describes the development of the star image over time, the stories that surround a particular artist.
• Meta-narratives of star image are not simply a matter of manipulation, but a dialogue or negotiation of what the music business asserts about their star. Still, in each new video, the artist tries to regain control over their meta-narrative but they can't just switch off all the different associations they've accumulated during their career, whether good or bad. So music videos can best be seen as one of the most important ways that the image of the artist is 'managed'.

4. How Music Videos Relate Visuals to the Song:

• There are three ways in which music videos work to support or promote the song: illustration, amplification and disjuncture.
• Music videos can illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre, providing a sometimes over literal set of images. This is the most straightforward technique and the classic example of visualisation, with everything in the music video based on the source of the pop song.
• Amplification is seen as the mark of the true music video 'Auteur' or author, and an increasingly common way to view music video creatives. Crucially, though, and what separates it from disjuncture, is the fact that amplification music videos retain a link with the song and work to enhance or develop ideas, rather than fundamentally changing them.
• Disjuncture is a term used to describe those music videos that, normally intentionally, seem to work by ignoring the original song and creating a whole new set of meanings. This is quite a radical technique and used by arty bands in order to assert their difference and originality. Usually, disjuncture videos of this type don't make a lot of sense and may be based on abstract imagery. Sometimes though, disjuncture videos are just bad, ill-conceived and self-indulgent mistakes.

5. Technical Aspects:

• The last really essential aspect of music video to study is technical. Broadly, the technical conventions can be summed up as follows:
• 1. Speed: Speed is visualised by camera movement, fast editing (montage) and digital effects. Camera movement is often motivated by running, dancing and walking performers. Fast-cutting and montage editing creates a visually decentred experience necessary for music video consumption, with the images occasionally moving so fast that they are impossible to understand on first viewing and thus need to be viewed several times, repeatability. Post-production digital effects, a staple of music video where images can be colourised, multiple split screens appear, and so on, all to complicate and intrigue, providing pleasure again and again. Not all camera movement is about speed though and some use slow pace through dissolves or static shots. This kind of editing is striking and effective in setting the song apart from the hustle and bustle of most pop activity.
• 2. Meat: The meat of most music videos is the cut to the close-up of the singer's face. This is because the voice is seen as the most important part of pop music.
• 3. Beats: Often, the video will try and represent the music through the use of the cut to go with the beat or key rhythm.
• 4. Lighting and Colour: This may also be used to emphasise key moments in the song, using methods from lighting live performances for dramatic effect. Colour may be used to show a development in the song, going from colour to black and white or vice versa when the chorus comes in. Equally, any change in the mise-en-scene or camerawork can signal the same type of thing.
• 5. Mise-en-Scene: The setting for music videos is important, often to guarantee the authenticity of the clip rather than anything else. So mise-en-scene for many music videos is the concert hall or rehearsal room to emphasise the realness of the performance or the grit and practice that goes into attaining star quality. Increasingly, CGI is used, especially for dance songs, which don't rely so much on being 'real' like rock, soul and rap acts.

References:

Steve Archer, Music Television 2: How to Study Music Videos, (MediaMagazine, 7 February 2004)