RossMedia

post modernism analysis.

What more can you say about the influence of these videos on the types of music videos that are created today? Give an example.

I think Michael Jacksons thriller shaped the way a lot of music videos are made today. The way that the music video is more of a film than a music video, is an inspiring idea. I think this is mimicked in a lot of recent music videos such as lady gaga – paparazzi this is because the video tells a whole story rather than just a performance or a meaningless video with no relevance to the lyrics. The dancing in Michael Jackson’s thriller may have inspired a lot of young aspirational artists one that comes straight to mind is Chris brown in the video for kiss kiss he is surrounded by a lot of people performing a dancing routine as Michael Jackson does in thriller. Rihanna’s video disturbia is a strange music video but also may have inspired some new videos to be a little bit astray from the regularity of all music videos. I think an example of this could be Oliver heldens new video gecko because this is very different to the average music video and Rihanna’s video may have inspired this.

What more can you say about the type of music videos that dominate the current medium? Look at reading again, make notes and then address this question in your question. It is very important that you understand the reading and apply it.

The music videos in today’s current medium are very different to those of 30-40 years ago, a video from this time probably would have been an artist on stage, and the video would have consisted of watching one of their performances. In current music videos the idea of exhibitionism is very common with female artists, they show off a lot of their body in order to entice the male viewers and also to make them recognised or remembered so that when someone thinks good music video they think of them. A lot of theorists say that modern music videos are a form of advertising, this means that through their own music video the artist will advertise themselves to their target audience this is very different to what has been seen in the past. An example that springs to mind that incorporates both of these factors is Nicki minaj’s video anaconda although is it very explicit, it will definitely attract the male viewer and possibly the female viewer, also because of all the speculation in the media about this video it has meant free time in the press for her which she finds perfect probably.

http://prezi.com/embed/jm5kfmqy6zo2/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&features=undefined&disabled_features=undefined

When starting with narrative you have to really look at three different narrative theorists; Todorov, Propp and Strauss. Todorov broke narrative down into periods of equillibrium and disequillibrium as well as highlighting common elements of narrative into five stages:

Beginning 1. Beginning
Middle 2. Disruption
3. Recognition of disruption
4. Attempt to solve the disruption
End 5. Resolution

Instantly we are montaged with dark shots of strange things, there is a man with an eye patch on and Rihanna is sitting on what is not a normal chair. The editing is fast paced at this moment in time and we see her on a table moving around and the editing is being used to make her look animalistic with fast movements like a predator. Through mise-en-scene we can see she is trapped behind a cage and she is wearing contacts that make her eyes look pure blank this probably represents the blankness of her thoughts as an animal, the way in which she is portrayed. We then later see her in a dark room where she is on a bed with nothing on it just the frame and she is going crazy and keeps staring at the mirror, this could show how she doesn’t want to see herself, we also see her black nails which could mean she has no feelings. Later in the video she is in a room where fire ablaze from the centre the cuts are still fast to represent the madness of what is going on, she is also very dirty to suggest that hygiene is not adhered to on what seems to be a boat. The tarantulas are crawling over her body and she seems to not even care, this may be because she is represented as an animal herself. In terms of structure this video has none it is the same all the way through just different cuts of strange things going on, there is no climax to the video and no obstacle to overcome, and it does not adhere to regular narrative patterns. Rihanna is then lying around in some very skimpy clothes this is a show of exhibitionism and the shots slow down to make the viewer watch her. Towards the end the cuts begin to look the same as they were at the start this is example of circle theory, because we are being directed exactly to where the video started.

In the case of Thriller it can be seen that the music video begins in equillibrium with everything appearing fine and calm between Michael Jackson’s character and the girlfriend, however this quickly moves into disequillibrium when Michael Jackson turns into a werewolf and tries to kill his girlfriend. As the music video progresses, it is then revealed that it was merely a film Michael Jackson and his girlfriend were watching in the cinema and so it moves back into equillibrium. This continues up until a few verses of the song when the zombies appear and surround both Michael Jackson and his girlfriend and the video quickly moves back into disequillibrium. This unbalance continues up until the very end of the video where it is revealed that it was merely a dream…..kind of. The ending to the video almost winks at the audience and breaks the forth wall, revealing that Michael Jackson may still be a zombie, thus resulting in a new equillibrium which greatly differs from the original equillibrium. So as you can see, a roller coaster of equillibriums.

Going back to the five stages of narrative, Thriller also lends itself to this structure.

1. Beginning = Michael Jackson and girlfriend watching film in the cinema / walking her home.
2. Disruption = Zombies rising Michael Jackson and girlfriend being surrounded.
3. Recognition of disruption = Girlfriend realising Michael Jackson has become a zombie.
4. Attempt to solve disruption = Girlfriend runs home.
5. Resolution = Girlfriend realises it was a dream, however Michael Jackson could still be a zombie.

 

 

 

Discuss the medium of a music video (what is a music video) and how they maybe analysed. use at least four music videos to support your ideas, as well as pictures/images.

 A music video is a visual imagery of the music, its way to portray the lyrics of the song so the viewer can visualise them through a video. This is not always the case though sometimes the narratives of the music and the video seem to be different.

The videos are analysed through 8 conventions:

1.Lyrics

2.Music

3.Genre

4.Camera Work

5.Editing

6.Intertexuality

7.Movies

8.Exhibitionism

Andrew Goodwin, an established media theorist, said that all music videos are used as visual advertising to promote their media product.

This music video uses exhibitionism to advertise itself and men in general will associate the song with the video and advertise it through word of mouth.

He also stated that music videos have characteristics of genre.

As we can see in this music video it has an evident genre which is romance and many other music videos follow suit, and they have tendency’s of a genre.

As we can see in this music video the genre it tending towards horror.

Fiske, another media theorist, stated that all music videos are a form of television and this is just post modernism.

In this media product we can see some dancing in a school, the relevance to the video is minimal and it could support this theorists view that its just there to watch.