We conducted this research as it allowed us to think more in depth about our genre forms and conventions and our target audience. We had to know about the forms and conventions of the pop/rock genre first in oder to create our own music video which successfully appealed to our target audience.
Intertextuality is when a text's meaning (story, book, article, song, video, movie) is influenced by another text. intertextual references can be subtle or obvious. The key idea is that these intertextual references allow for a deeper understanding of the text. Intertectual thinking can also be looking at patterns of events across stories, or looking at how designers/directors/authors have chosen to convey ideas about the same topic in different ways. Saturday Night Fever and Mark's and Spencer's advertisement:
Saturday Night Fever
Mark's and Spencer's advertisement.
Both of theses videos use the same song "You Should be dancing" which was released in 1977. In both of these videos the people are dancing in slightly similar way which shows intertextuallity because the dancing crosses over in both of these videos. Also, in the Saturday Night Fever music video the famous actor of the time period, John Travolta stars in it, therefore when people of today's time (30+) see the Mark's and Spencer's advert they will be reminded of Saturday Night Fever, bringing back memories and taking them back to when they were younger.
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor, Roar - Katy Perry and We are the Champions - Queen.
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Roar - Katy Perry
We are the Champions
All three of these music videos contain intertextuality. The main way that intertextuality is found in this music video is by listening to the lyrics that all three of these videos have the element of singing about being 'winners of life' which makes the artists/bands in all three videos seem powerful and strong willed. Intertextuality can also be found by listening to the lyrics of Roar by Katy Perry and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. Both of these videos contain lyrics that talk about having the 'Eye of the Tiger' again, which is an example of intertextuality as the lyrics cross over in both videos. Another example of intertextuality within these music video can be found in Eye of the Tiger and We are the Champions as these are both well known anthems.
Every so
often, music videos become the object of a bit of a moral panic, where various
writers and groups offer their opinion on how dangerous the form might be for
young people, usually citing a particular example as having ‘gone too far’ and
suggesting that the boundaries have been pushed just that bit further. Often
this leads to calls for new regulations, usually in the form of age
restrictions.
Within my
chosen genre of ‘Pop’ music there has been much controversy over music videos,
in recent years some of these include Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ and Miley
Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’.
People have
named ‘Blurred Lines’ to be the most controversial song and music video of the
decade. When looking at the music video for Robin Thicke’s blurred line music video
the one thing that stands out to us are the half-naked girls that are strutting
around the men. This can be seen as highly sexual and the women being greatly
objectified. The University College London student union (UCLU) took the
unusual step of even banning this song and it joins around 20 other UK student
unions to do so. People argue that this song and music video promotes a very
worrying attitude towards sex and consent. One blogger branded it a "rape
song", and two months later Tricia Romano of the Daily Beast described it
as "rapey", a word that caught fire in other media outlets. Other
lyrics such as “You know you want it” stands out as it is suggesting that
consent is no longer needed when it comes to sex. This song and music video has
sparked much debate and has even led ‘anti- Robin Thicke protesters’ to the
streets in Chicago protesting to get this highly explicit song banned all
together. Even the most prominent model in the Blurred Lines video, Emily
Ratajkowski, has said: "I'm glad that people are criticising pop lyrics,
because I think that's an important thing to do."
Many people
who follow pop music closely, however, are surprised that Blurred Lines has
become such a lightning rod. "It really did boggle my mind when people
started freaking out about it," says US music critic Maura Johnston.
"This is just a cheesy pickup line song and everyone was like: 'No, it's
about forcing a woman against her will.' There are so many songs out there that
are worse about demeaning women. Thicke himself has been a woeful defender of
the song in interviews, recalling Spinal Tap's response to being called sexist:
"What's wrong with being sexy?”
This music
video is also joined by Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’ video as being one of the
most controversial songs of the decade. This music video includes visuals of a
naked Miley Cyrus swinging on a wrecking ball as she sings. People have
criticised this music video for being far too sexual especially because of the
young fans that Miley has from being a massive Disney star, perhaps suggesting
to young women that they should be more sexually available. Miley herself
however, argues that the message of the song is expressed more in the opening
of the song rather than the fast paced parts of the video. Miley explained: ‘I
think the video is much more, if people get past the point that I'm naked and
you actually look at me. ‘You can tell that I actually look more broken than
even the song sounds.’ 'I'm broken': The 20-year-old claims the
provocative imagery is indicative of how vulnerable she feels adding: ‘The song
is a pop ballad. It's one of these songs that everyone is gonna to relate to,
everyone's felt that feeling at some point.’
Whatever you
think of these songs it is hard to deny that they were huge hits, breaking
records for the number one views on Vevo and in chart tables.
In the past,
of course, pre-internet, it might have been possible to age restrict the
audience for a music video, either by banning it for TV or not playing it till
late at night, or even by cutting bits of it out to play a ‘safe’ version. With
the online age, that is not really feasible, as any kind of age restriction can
be by-passed relatively easily.
In my own
opinion that uproar based around these music videos should be present as both
of them highly objectify women and I disagree with this. I agree with Laura
Mulvey’s ‘Male Graze’ theory where she explains that camera movements and
visual highly sexualise and objectify women in music videos as they are filmed
to be in the view from the perspective of a heterosexual male. This can lead to
problems such as being seen as ‘rapey’ and even have effects on how women look
at themselves in a demoralising way.
Planning:
In our own
music video we plan not to make it include controversy or controversial ideas.
We are doing this so that all people in our target audience can enjoy the music
video and not have to be put off by it if it did include controversial ideas. I
think that it is very important to have a music video that ALL can enjoy and
this way it can reach out and gain a wider audience. To ensure that we do not
include any controversy in our music video we are going to make sure all people
that are seen in it are fully dress and are not seen as being purposefully objectified
or sexualised. The lyrics of our chosen may be seen as controversial but we
will make sure our visuals are not too extreme.
These types of music videos tend to show the artist/band performing throughout the music video, sometimes they may even play through the whole song.
Last Night - The Vamps
An example of a performance based music video is Last Night by The Vamps. In this music video the band are playing their instruments throughout most of the music video. This is very typical of The Vamps as all of their other music video also show them playing their instruments at some point in the music video. By being a performance based video this gives the music video a feel of high energy, the fast editing and range of camera shots also add to this feeling of energy.
Narrative based Music Videos:
Narrative based music videos mostly contain footage that attempts to tell a story that links to the lyrics of the song and moving image. These videos also tend to be popular with songs that are featured in films as the film will cut to a music video like scene.
Who's Laughing Now - Jessie J
Who's Laughing Now by Jessie J is an example of a narrative based music video as the lyrics link with what we are seeing in the music video. Jessie J is singing about her bullies at school from when she was younger. From watching the music video and listening to the lyrics of the song, we gather that the story/narrative to this music video is about Jessie being bullied because when she was younger nobody believed that she was going to make it as a popular singer and now that she has after many attempts she can throw it back in their faces and prove that she was able to.
Concept based Music Videos:
This is a style of music video that is based around a concept or idea. They tend to be fairly unique and use a particular filming or editing technique.
Relax, Take it Easy - Mika
Mika is commonly know for his eccentric and 'out of this world' music videos. The visuals in most of his music videos don't normally link to the lyrics of the song, making them have no specific story line. The visuals in this music video are brightly coloured which are usually linked to upbeat and high energy music. This makes this music video seem odd as the lyrics about 'relaxing' and 'taking it easy' are juxtaposed with the visuals. The bright/multi-coloured, tie-dye like visuals in this music video are quite psychedelic and hippy-like, which again juxtaposes the lyrics with the visuals of the video.
I am an A-Level student and I am writing to request your permission to use one of the latest track by 5 Seconds of Summer. The track we wish to use is 'Good Girls.
With your permission, this task would be used in my current A-Level Media Studies project, which involves creating a music video to a popular music track, as well as producing an album and a magazine advert for the artist.
If I received your permission, this track would ONLY be used in an educational context and be viewed by our media class, our teacher and the OCR exam board moderator. It would not be released to a large audience.
The artist and your company would of course be fully recognised throughout pre-production and the final video itself. A copyright notice with wording supplied by you can be included in the records of the project. If this is required, please send full details.
