Music Theory

Micheal Shaw has made the following critics
recycled styles without substances information overload image and style scavengers decadence immediate gratification adolescent male fantasies speed,power, girls and wealth,cliché imagery, soft core pornography

Music promo= recycled styles Madonna Marilyn Monroe
surface without substance
information overload- red hot chilli peppers- high energy- Michael shore said it was overload
image and style scavengers- Adam and the ants new romantic style 17 th century
decadence- juran juran show how much money they earn't- cars these days
immediate gratification- Liam Gallagher getting drunk
adolescent male fanatieses- no creativity no thought
spped power girls and wealth- cars and girls and showing their wealth cliché
clichéd imagery- Lady gaga spinal top
soft core pornography spinal tap

Narrative in music promos
total elcplise of the heart doubled by rocky

what is narrative
the way those events are put together to be presented to the audience

A connection-
an understanding - allow others to contructr the meaning
a comparision- compare narratives
narrative is animating a story- beginging middle and end

traditional Narrative structure
beginging
Middle
end
Narrative is often non-linear
Building a narrative roland barths

enigma code
refers to any element that is not explained and therefore exists as an enigma, raising questions that demand explanation. Most texts hold back details in order to increase the effect of the information

Action code
An action code refers to plot events that imply further narrative action. for example, a story character confronts an adversary and the reader wonders what the resolution of this action will be. Suspoense is created by action ratherSuspense is created by action rather than by a reader's wish to have mysteries explained. It applies to any action that implies a further narrative action.

Russian theorist, Tzvetan Todorov, suggests that all narratives follow a three part structure. They begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium is re-established.

Claude Levi-Strauss: Binary Opposition

Believed constant creation of

conflict /opposition propels narrative. Narrative can

only end on a resolution of

conflict. Opposition can be visual

(light/darkness, movement/still

n

ess) or conceptual (love/hate,

 control/panic), and to do with

soundtrack.

  Binary Opposition Examples

Good vs Evil,
Black vs White,
Boy vs Girl,
Peace vs War,
Civilised vs Savage,
Democracy vs Dictatorship,
First world vs Third world,
Domestic vs foreign/alien,
Articulate vs inarticulate ,
Young vs Old,
Man vs Nature,

STEVE ARCHER’S THEORY

•There needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos.

•Music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band

•

•A carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor.

JOHN STEWART’S THEORY

•The music video has the aesthetics of a TV commercial, with lots of close-ups and lighting being used to focus on the star’s face.

•Visual references comes from a range of sources, most frequently cinema, fashion and art photography.

•‘incorporating, raiding and reconstructing’ is essentially the essence of intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar, to generate both nostalgic associations and new meanings.

•The video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can.

•Mise-en-scene, in particular, can be used to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle.

SIGMUND FREUD’S THEORY

•Voyeurism - Refers to the notion that erotic pleasure may be gained by looking at a sexual object (preferably when the object is unaware of being watched)

Many music videos use this notion - via cameras, images within / of images perspective of the viewer, CCTV, views through opened doors, windows, etc

LAURA MULVEY’S THEORY

•Because filmmakers are predominantly male, the presence of women in films is often solely for the purposes of display (rather than for narrative purposes).

•The purpose of this display is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators, which presumes a ‘male gaze’ one that is a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display, who is effectively objectified and passive.

•Another part of her male gaze theory suggests that women are only portrayed as one of two possibilities.  Either a virginal innocent character or a sexy “whore” (her words, not mine)!  This is called the virgin / whore dichotomy

•A dated theory (1970s)? See Madonna, etc – now powerful female representations?