Research for Music Video: Laura Mulvey's ideas

Laura’s mulvey’s theory on representation is ‘In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly’ to my knowledge I would interpret this quote by saying this means that men and women are still unequal within society and that therefore women are perceived as sexual objects. The idea of the ‘fantasy’ may indicate that women become whatever men want them to especially in music videos for instance walking around in a bikini, with a lot of makeup on looking stunning.

Two videos that illustrate my understanding would be:

• Akon Feat Eminem-Smack That

This music video is an example of how women are represented as sex symbols. This was a good choice to use as the idea of women being used as part of the male gaze is enhanced by the fact that the lightening I very dark and hidden. This reinforces how men may perceive women. Women in this video are dancing around the artists in tiny hot pants and low cut tops revealing alot of their clevage and bums. This shows how women are sometimes degraded as human beings and how men look at them. The music of the song also emphasis the concept 'smack that' a term referred to sexual desire'a and interests in women. As viewers there are lots of close ups and explicit shots.

·         Chipmunk Feat. Mavado - Every Gyal

In this video we directly see what Mulvey was trying to convey through her theory as throughout the video we see girls dancing around in bikini’s some where even topless which really suggest the way women are downgraded within society. Viewers can also see the women handing the artist with his chain and a glass of baileys. This can reinforce the status of women and that they are suppose to act like providers for men. This furthermore indicates the roles of an active male and passive female. There is also a lot of close up of girl’s bodies, particularly their bums and hips this may seem ‘fantasying’ to the male species. A female never speaks in the video neither and it’s as if they know how they are suppose to behave without being told.

There are artists who challenge this and are still able to be very successful musicians without falling into the trap of the 'male gaze' An example would be Adele who is always appropriately dressed in her music videos and breaks the idea of a 'half naked girl in front of the camera' 

Missy Elliot is also much more reserved and covered up in her music videos. She seems to be happy with her size and doesn't let it effect how she appeals to the audience. In this video that i will post below also breaks the typical conventions that are usually portrayed not just in music videos but society. The fact that men re supposed to be active while woman remain passive, however in this video Missy Elliot is able to flip it opposite ways, we see her being the much more dominate person in the relationship acted in her music video. 

Research for Music Video: Carol Vernali's theory

Carol Vernallis studied the edition and camera work closely in music videos. She began to observe that the edits formed in music videos where much more frequent than that that may appear within films. This made her believe that they stood out more as disjuncture and that the editing seemed to have a rhythmic basis that related closely with the song. As I previously mentioned having a clear rhythm editing pattern is one of the factors that makes a good music video as well as another.

Some of her observations are that jump cuts are often used in which two particular shots may not directly flow for example someone holding a mug then the next shot would be them drinking from it. We wouldn’t see the transformation from of the mug from the table to the person’s mouth. Another of her ideas was a master shot (base track) which are frequently used to give the video a structure. Furthermore the camera may move in time with the music, obvious edits such as wipes or special effects and the rule of continuity may be broken to draw more attention to what is on the screen.

Some examples of videos that illustrate her ideas are:

JUMP CUT- At 0.30 seconds you see the ball on the ground rolling towards his feet then at 0.32 seconds you see the ball in his hand this can be seen as a jump cut because we don’t actually see him bend down and pick up the ball.

SPECIAL EFFECTS ADDED- At the beginning you can see that the artist has used a little girl to resemble her for the opening of the music video as the little girl sits crossed legged then gets up to walk around the big teddy bear situated in the middle of the scene then the young girl gradually turns into the artist (Jessie J) as she walks to the other side of the teddy bear. The video on a whole is rather ‘animated’.

BASE TRACK-Throughout the beginning of the music video the base track and the flashing lights as well as the woman banging on the drums matched. This allowed the music video to perform a good structure and it flowed quite nicely. The most interesting part would be when the number 32 transformed as crackling ice from beneath the ground and you could actually hear the transformation.

Research for Music Video: Andrew Goodwin's theory

Andrew Goodwin discusses ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’. His main concepts are the way the music videos may be structured in order for the viewers to perceive the video in a particular way. He says that there are different narrative structures such as pop videos are built around songs, pop videos uses the singer as both the narrator and the character and thirdly the singer often looks directly at the camera, commonly big close up’s are used for this. Images throughout the video are usually repeated, this is known as repetition a good example of this type of music video is Outcast-Hey Ya where there were over 23 shots repeated from different angles.

The repetition of music videos can also appeal through listening to the song on the radio, watching the video on Youtube or TV and sometimes there may be advertising for films or TV tie-ins which make the song even more familiar to the listeners or viewers. All music videos have a form of closure where the song comes to an end. They only just last for at least three minutes but it must end and it is therefore sometimes reflected through the structure of the music.


Some videos are autonomous form the music they spring from. The visualisation of a song may go beyond the original meaning. Sometimes the video provides a visual pleasure that encourages repeated viewing which therefore promotes the music. Sometimes the videos might be promoting other commodities such as films There it can be said that there are three types of relations between songs and videos.


There are three types of relations between songs and videos ILLUSTRATION, AMPLIFICATION, DISJUNCURE


EXAMPLE OF ILLUSTRATION-Kelly Rowland 'stole' has a distinctive narrative throughout her music video and has people act out her lyrics this is known as where the video tells the story of the lyrics. Dance is often sometimes used to express the feelings or moods in the song.

EXAMPLE OF AMPLIFICATION- Katy Perry 'fireworks' is a good example of when in a music video it may occur that it introduced new meanings that do no contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning. For instance the acting in some parts of the song.

EXAMPLE OF DISJUNCTURE- Michael Jackson 'Man in the mirror' is an example of when there is little connection between the lyrics and the video or where the video contradicts the lyrics. This song is about self-realisation but the video is full of radical world events.

Research for Music Video:Analysis of Music Video

Ludacris - Runaway Love ft. Mary J. Blige

I believe that this is a good music video because it follows a illustrative narrative which is conventional of this type of genre and many others. The use of the young girls being portrayed as the victims enhances society as a whole and makes the music video that little bit more interesting. There are a few jump cuts which allow   a variation of slow and fast edits. There are also quite a few themes related to the lyrics that are illustrated through the video for example love, hate, relationships and abuse this helps the audience to be intrigued as it appeals to many aspects of peoples lives. The detail of reflecting the acting through the lyrics is what made me think that this is a good music video. It also allows the audience to sympathise with the music more which could evolve a Strong passion for the song or artists. 

Research for Music Video: Function of a Music Video

A function of a music video is to entertain and keep the fans interested I the particular artists. As an up and coming artist in the 20 century you need to be known, recognized and attract a certain type of audience. Selling the album can be quite difficult to achieve because of internet downloads and piracy. Also to put across the genre of the song through the music video, so for example, if the genre is hip hop or r'n'b artists most commonly use fancy cars, money, attractive girls (male gaze) or on the other hand if the genre was rock, the video would include  guitars and flashing lights, drums, microphone stands. It is important to know what type of audience will appeal to the song so that the video is appropriate. This makes the fans satisfied when they watch videos from the artists that they enjoy. A music video is another way to advertise the artist or band to their audience whether globally or niche. It is an easy way to get millions of views and lots of interesting feedback comments.  For a successful music video one of the main functions for it will be promoting the artist or band in an attempt to get work, so it should be of a high quality.

What makes a good music video? (A quick recap and brainstorm of ideas)

• Rhythm editing
• Attractive artist
• Interesting location
• Choreography
• Fast edits
• Image song music should all match
• Tempo(fast, slow)
• Originality
• Repeated central image
• Attractive bodies
• Good message

Research for Music Video: CopyRight Clearance

I have set out to gain permission for a couple of labels.

• Wretch 32- Don't Go feat Josh Kumba
• Jessie J - Price Tag feat B.O.B
•  Ed Sheeran- You Need Me, I Don t Need You

Reflecting back on the AS year: Lip sync Tutorial

During the lip sync tutorial in June I learned a number of different skills in order to help me with my production in the future. We were able to re-shoot a lip synced music video for the first time in groups and my allocated song was ‘RESPECT’. As the lead singer I had to lip sync to the song which I found rather difficult at the beginning and then I slowly got the drift of it. It was a hard task as we had only one lesson to complete the video and only a couple of hours to edit it which was very challenging.  I learnt how to apply ‘markers’ to particular moments in the footage filmed so that I could accurately put the voice over in place so the lip sync looked as realistic as possible. This sometimes took than one or two attempts for it to look as good as I anticipated. One of the things that became apparent to us as a group was that singing the words normally is better than miming it because you are able to get mouth movements accurately and see the full expression on the artists or band member’s face. I also learnt that compared to filming for our Thrillers we need to be able to film a lot of footage for music videos this is so we have a lot of varied shots and at different angles. I learnt how to apply ‘markers’ to particular moments in the footage filmed so that I could accurately put the voice over in place so the lip sync looked as realistic as possible. This sometimes took than one or two attempts for it to look as good as I anticipated.