Textual analysis 3

Textual analysis 2

Textual Analysis 1

Laura Mulvey - Male Gaze theory

Looks at how the audience view women who are presented in the media. She states that women are there to be seen and that the use of camera work portrays them as sexual objects, through shot types etc.

The male gaze typically focuses on:

• Emphasizing curves of the female body.
• Referring to women as objects rather than people.
• Display of women is how men think they should be perceived.
• Female viewers view content through the eyes of a man.
• Women are often sexualised and seen as objects and viewed based on sexual desire and the way they look.
• The Male Gaze describes how the audience or viewer is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man.

Laura Mulvey's theory can be applied to many videos today:

Anaconda - Nicki Minaj

Both this song and video are very sexual and based on how women should look to attract a male. The song obviously says that a man would not want a women if she doesn't have a big bottom. In the video the camera work and choreography focuses on the female body and emphasising the curves of the female body. The way that the girls provocatively dance is targeted at getting male attention; this also proves the male gaze theory as women will view this video as a male and think that this is how they should look to get male attention.

I'm not the only one - Sam Smith

Even though this song has quite a sincere meaning and the video follows a narrative of a man cheating on his wife, it still fits with Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory. At one point in the video a woman's back is seen in a very sexual way. This shows that even when the song isn't particularly sexual, the video usually still includes some sort of sexual connotations.

3 initial ideas

Idea 1
Have a boy and a girl, they fall in love at the beginning at the song but then he realises that the age gap will be a problem. She starts acting out e.g. getting high with 30 year olds, like the song says, they start to argue and he realises that the relationship is getting too serious. They break up.
Idea 2
Abstract video. Bright colours. 4 girls with different characters with the boys of the band wearing corresponding coloured ties.
Idea 3
Abstract, done in a studio and also stage performance. All focus is on the band.

Music Video survey

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

History of the Music Video

1967 - Bob Dylan - Don't look back

Bob Dylan's film 'Don't Look Back' which followed him on tour was directed by Dapennebaker. Dapennebaker did not know how to start the film so thought he would start it with the first ever 'promotional film' (music video'. This music video was of Bob Dylan's subterranean homesick blues and featured one continuous long shot of Bob Dylan holding the lyrics of the song on flashcards. Although this was the first ever music video, ironically it broke all conventions of the music video we know today. The focus of this video was mostly on the lyrics which is obvious as the lyrics are in the centre of the screen, so all focus is drawn there.

1965 - Cliff Richard & The Shadows - Summer Holiday

In the mid 60's superstars such as Cliff Richard realised they couldn't perform everywhere that they were popular so not everyone could see them live, to overcome this they began incorporating their music into films. The films usually featured the artist playing a character different to themselves and had a lot of the artists songs weaved into the storyline. The 'video' of Summer Holiday was much more conventional of that of Bob Dylan's promotional film, it included lots of close ups of Cliff Richard and had lip syncing, which wasn't seen in Bob Dylan's video.

1960's - The Beatles

The Beatles were an English group that achieved international success. Again, like Cliff Richard, they knew that all of their fans would not be able to see them performing live, so they made their music more accessible by making films. However in films made by The Beatles, they played themselves, this was a good marketing technique as it allowed for the artists to create an 'image' that they wanted to present to their audiences. In 1964 The Beatles released their first film 'A Hard Day's Night' and in 1965 they released 'Help!'. Both of these films had a lot of 'music videos' in them which involved a lot of conventions that can be seen today in music videos such as the use of close ups and editing to the beat.

Mid 1960's

In the early - mid 60's, there was an explosion of technology and lots of people started to own TV's and there was a rise in small portable radios. This proliferation increased the availability of music to people and this allowed for artists to get much more popular. In 1964, The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show and were watched by 85 million people, the NYC police said that there was no crime at that time in the whole of New York City and the week following their appearance, The Beatles' songs occupied all top 5 places in the American charts; this shows how much the proliferation of technology has helped the music industry.

1967 - The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour was The Beatles first promotional film released on television. They released this film on Boxing Day and the film was particularly unsuccessful as it was shown in black and white which made it appear to be quite boring. However it did include many performances that featured many conventions of modern music videos. Also this was the first time that subliminal messages had been presented via the use of technology and this allowed for The Beatles to present their own opinions on the civil unrest that was around in the country at the time.

1975 - Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody was the first music video ever to be released on tape. On the release of the video, the song went straight to number 1 and spent 9 weeks there. This shows that the imagery and ideology presented by music videos was now much more important than the actual song. The video featured strong performance elements and effective lighting, this was the start of rock iconography.

Early 1980's - MTV

By the 1980's everyone had a TV in their homes. MTV was a development of the music industry and an icon of the proliferation of hardware. Music videos were frequently shown on MTV and this was the time when artists started to use their videos to present their own iconic imagery. This also made the artist more important than the actual music they were producing, the artists 'image' was the most important thing. The first video to be played on MTV was ironically, 'Video Killed the Radio Star' - The Buggles.



1983 - Michael Jackson - Thriller

This Michael Jackson was ground breaking in the music industry and has been hailed as  "a watershed moment for the [music] industry". This is because it was the most prominent combination of music and film making seen at the time. The video is 13 minutes long and follows a narrative of a Michael and his 'girlfriend' in a horror type sequence. It was MTV's first ever world premier of a video and was watched by millions worldwide, even now the video has over 200,000,000 views on YouTube, which shows just how influential it was and still is.

2005 - YouTube

As the music channels started to show more reality shows, their influence on the music industry reduced massively. The online platform YouTube almost 'took over' from music channels such as MTV as it allowed people to watch music videos online for free; also with the proliferation and convergence of the mobile phone, people can now watch music videos wherever they like on YouTube.

Music video questionnaire questions

Music video questionnaire

Please state your age, genre and occupation.

What genre of music do you most like to listen to?

Do you watch music videos?

If not, why not?

How often would you say you watch music videos?

Where do you watch music videos the most?

Do you often watch music channels?

If so, what music channels do you watch?

When are you most likely to watch music channels?

What is your favorite music video?

Why is it your favorite?

What do you expect to see in a music video?

What appeals to you most in a music video?

Do you prefer videos when they follow a narrative?

What themes do you like to see in a music video?

Do you like videos that relate to the lyrics of the song or do you prefer videos that have ‘hidden meanings’?

Do you like to see a variation of mise-en-scene? E.g. Setting, props and costumes?

Conventions of pop genre

The 1975's background

The 1975's are an indie rock band, however the song I decided to do ('Girls') is not an indie rock song. This quote from the lead guitarist and singer, Matt Healy, explains why this song and its video is so different to all their others:When we released our last video ['Sex'], people really reacted to the fact that it was in colour. There was a lot of conjecture and talk surrounding it - due to the fact that it was an unexpected stylistic change. It was brought to our attention that certain people thought we were 'conforming to a record company's wishes' along with other expected and unexpected clichés. Obviously this couldn't be further from the truth, we are lucky enough to be surrounded by a group of individuals whose mantra centres on facilitating our creative wishes, we found the whole idea of us being told what to do fascinating. The story of the band who suffer at the hands of a record label shortly after a delirious rise is a tale as old as time. So we kinda wanted to make a tongue-in-cheek video about it. Twinned with our love of '80s pop, its innocence, grandiosity and conceptual ideas in music videos – we wanted to make a video about a record label's attempt at enforced conformity. We got our mate Adam down to a studio in Los Angeles at the start of our USA tour, got four models and made a video about us not wanting to make a video.This is why, although the 1975's are an indie rock band, I will be analysing the pop genre as 'Girls' is a more pop song.

Treatment

Treatment

The theme for my video is very happy and light hearted. Although the lyrics of the song are actually quite serious, the melody and the chorus of the song are very ‘happy’. My music video will be abstract. The main focus of my music video will be on the mise-en-scene where I will incorporate various bright colours and random props that will contribute to the light hearted nature of it. It will feature 4 girls of different personalities; geek,goth,girly and sporty. The boys of the band will have the same coloured ties as the girls have as the background of their area on the 4 way split screen.