Roland Barthes signs and signifiers

During music videos there are many signs and signifiers that both advertise the artist and send out meanings to the audience. These are either private or shared.

There are two layers of messages that can be sent through visual images, Linguistic message and the literal image. Each of these also has separate sections that build up a modern music video.

Roland Barthes deals with the relationship between the linguistic and the semiological sign. He notes several points of difference between the two:

1) Whereas the elaboration of language systems is brought about as the result of the "speaking mass”, that of semiological systems is more usually associated with a group who fabricate the language.

2) In semiological systems parole or "speech" is poor. Barthes gives the example of cars. The range of choice of difference of cars is very restricted by comparison to those offered by speech. Semiological signs are second order signs; they rely for much of their meaning on the linguistic signs within which they are framed.

Posted by Dominic

Props we needed for our video and reasons why

List or props for our music video

.Candles

.Smoke machine

.Strobes (6)

.Mic and Mic stand

.Keyboard and Keyboard stand

.Bass guitar

.Electric guitar

.Mannequin

.Hang able torches

.Camera (2, one for handheld and one for fixed camera)

.Tripod

.Extension cable

.Glass Jugs (5)

. Laser machine

The obvious things that are needed for a music video e.g. a camera, tripod, mics and mic stands and also instruments don’t need to be explained. But there are specific reasons why we need the rest.

Lighting is obviously very important in any music video, but more important in ours than most as were filming in a dark, dirty cellar that without appropriate lighting would be very dark and unclear. For real rock performance effect we used a laser machine, to create bright ultra modern looking feel. This added more depth to our video as the same shot could look different with editing etc but also could look different with different amount of odd lighting; different colours, brighter or darker, whether the lasers were on flashing mode or constant etc. We felt this added an extra dimension to all performance sections of our video, which was the large majority so we didn’t want to bore the audience. Mise-en-scene and the general ambience of the video is extremely important to us so to make it look like a cold evil cellar in the abstract parts, we decided to include old wine making jugs that looked like old alchemy tools. And tea candles that had two purposes, one looking ominous and making audience think about rituals and two helped with the lighting of the dark cellar we were in. To aid in the process of transforming the cellar into this scary looking performance space we used a smoke machine. This made the video look more professional and also helped the idea of our video by increasing amount of smoke throughout video, it shows how were fighting against music corporations and losing the battle as smoke is filling cellar. Originally to create more variety in lighting we had 6 strobe lights that illuminated the faces of the band members making them stand out more in the video. Due to technical difficulties 5 of them broke so we replaced them with hang able torches that illuminated the face of the keyboardist and the lead singer when they were performing.  The mannequin was included by us to aid the narrative and reason for our music video, how bands are losing their identity after being controlled so much by big music corporations. So we decided that in some shots Theo the keyboardist was going to be replaced by a mannequin, this is quite abstract and shocks the audience for a split second making them want to watch on.

Posted By Dominic

Hall vs Cohen

A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Those who start the panic when they fear a threat to prevailing social or cultural values are known by researchers as "moral entrepreneurs", while people who supposedly threaten the social order have been described as "folk devils. Marxist theories account for some diversity, because they focus on classes and class-fractions rather than youth as a whole. Stuart Hall described youth subcultures as symbolic or ritualistic attempts to resist the power of bourgeois hegemony by consciously adopting behavior that appears threatening to the establishment. Conversely, Marxists of the Frankfurt School of social studies argue that youth culture is inherently consumerist and integral to the divide-and-rule strategy of capitalism. They argue that it creates generation gaps and pits groups of youths against each other (e.g. mods and rockers), especially as youth culture is the dominant culture in the west. Interactionist theorist Stan Cohen argues youth subcultures are not coherent social groupings that arise spontaneously as a reaction to social forces, but that mass media labeling results in the creation of youth subcultures by imposing an ideological framework in which people can locate their behaviour.

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Analysis of Costume

Although in some ways our video goes against the conventions for performance based rock videos we wanted our costume to clearly represent a rock video.  We have three members of our band; Jack the lead singer and guitarist, Matt the bassist, and Theo on keyboard.  Above is an image of our band together.

Firstly we decided after studying and analyzing The Foo Fighters video ‘The pretender’ we aimed to emulate the look provided by the lead singer Dave Grohl, e.g. black jeans, white shirt, dark hair and dark punkish shoes. The decision of this was because the dark clothing represents the dark heavy sound of our song and the stark contrast of the white t-shirt shows that Jack is the light of the band and has been reborn as he’s singing about his past troubles. This is shown through the lyrics (see previous post) and the flash of the church at the beginning.

The bassist; Matt, we decided should look more grungy and more heavy rock as to take less attention from the lead singer. To get this look we simply gave him a beanie hat, this almost covered his eyes. Through Intertextuality and a shared social code, this shows he doesn’t want his identity shown and this keeps with our theme of fighting against the establishment and being underground. He also assumes the role of the ‘Head banger’ in our band a convention or rockers when songs get to deep heavy beats they bang their heads up and down and usually move there long hair about. Matt doesn’t have long hair, so this is another technical reason why he wore a hat along with a dark brown t-shirt black jeans and black shoes.

We decided to include a keyboardist in our video because the song has a lot of synth in it. Theo the keyboardist was probably the most difficult to dress as a keyboardist in a grungy rock video isn’t really going with conventions which we were trying to do with the costume. So we chose dark clothing such as brown hoody and navy trousers and vans, to again show he doesn’t want people to know his identity. We decided also to in some shots to replace him with a mannequin this would be fairly abstract and shock the audience but It does have a purpose. When we were discussing how keyboardist aren’t shown in rock videos when in some rock bands they would still need them, it showed the music companies have clearly thought they don’t look good enough or are important enough to be in the actual band and only play for them and don’t appear on cover or in videos. So we included a mannequin to show how if music companies change and remove things from indie acts even more, then bands will become faceless and not have an identity and how some bands don’t even play their own music live so might as well be replaced with mannequins.

Posted By MaD

Pictures of our band and set as we found it

Jack the lead singer:

Matt the Bassist:

Theo the Keyboardist:

Full Band:

What we were planning to be the first shot, the entrance to the cellar, and various angles of the set:



Posted By MaD

Historical Context

Historical Context or ‘Zeitgeist’ is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age. Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and/or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, and mood associated period. In other words the taste or outlook characteristic of a particular era, for example  linked with music videos the cultural norms and general views of a 1940’s child watching lets a Rhianna video would be completely different to 2011.

The zeitgeist for our video was easier to create as Muse who are quite a modern band don’t have a video for the song we covered so we couldn’t be distracted. We moved away from the old rock video of just performance and decided to involve some abstract. We decided the topic of our music video is how small Indie acts are controlled by big music corporations and makes them something there not by changing their style and making them more mainstream. In the news there is always something about a band having arguments with management or on singing competitions people are changed from their style to suit wider audience. We feel out video’s zeitgeist is appropriate to are target audience of 16 -25 year olds (mainly male) because they may have felt in their own life’s that they are being controlled and forced to be who they’re not, like at school where identity is removed.

Posted By Dominic

Plans for what we want band and set to look like

Below is the inspiration for what our band and set will look like:

Jack our lead singer:

Location:

The band performing:

The laser lighting:

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Male Gaze - Laura Mulvey

Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey based on work done by Freud created the theory of the ‘male gaze’, which was key to the feminist Film theory movement in the 1970’s and has influenced media ever since. The male gaze which is both voyeuristic and fetishistic, is the objectification of women within media, with them often being portrayed as only objects of sexual fantasy. Mulvey argues the audience is created in a manner that they are all heterosexual men, and that men can sit back and watch their perfect passive female, without feeling guilty. Women within media are placed in three categories due to this, Mulvey claims mother and they are mother virgin or whore stereotypes. The typical male audience member is aligned with the films protagonist, by identification, admiration or aspiration so because of this women are never the protagonist and are just ‘eye candy’ for the male audience.

Below is an example of Male Gaze in the Muse video ‘Knights of Cydonia’

The woman is seen below the man in terms of levels. And is being used for sex after a fight, both examples of how this video has been made for heterosexual men.

(see bottom picture)

This goes against Laura Mulvey’s theory as the woman is saving the man. However you could argue the fact she is saving him half dressed shows that women can’t just be heroes they have to satisfy men sexually as well.

Posted By Dominic

Literal Music Videos

A literal music video, also called a literal video version, is a parody of an official music video clip in which the lyrics have been replaced with lyrics that describe the visuals in the video. Although they are amateur and made as a joke, it makes modern music video makers aware of how obvious some of the shots they are using are. Nowadays a music video isn’t just an extension of advertising for the artist and song; they can be pieces of artwork made famous for the messages sent in the video and not the music. Here is a few examples of literal videos made by people on YouTube:

Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart:


James Blunt's Your Beautiful:


As the song we have chosen has only three verses and therefore not many words in the song for the length it is were going to be careful in the types of shots and things we use so there not so obvious it distracts from the performance. Instead weve planned certain shots at certain places in the song where they fit, for example the beginning of the song there is long electric intro, and to fit this were going to include a sped up handheld entrance into a church and into a cellar.


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Narrative Theory and Theorist; Propp, Todorob and Levi-Strauss

Narrative theory is the way in which a story is told in a music video, keeping the video comprehendible for the audience. ‘Narrative’ is the coherence given to a series of facts.  There are a few theorists that have tried to typologies the narratives of music videos. The human mind needs to narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on those connections. There are three theorists that have tried t typologies the narratives humans encounter; they are Todorov, Vladimir Propp and Claude Levi-Strauss.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Binary opposition coined by a French anthropologist and ethnologist theorist called Claude Levi-Strauss is at its basic roots the principle of contrast between two mutually terms; on/off, light/dark, old/young, high and low. He argued the brain has certain characteristics which stem from the function of the brain, it’s the system by which, in language and though, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against each other. Or put more simply we understand what one is because he understand what the other is. Similarly to synaesthesia these common mental structures lead to people thinking comparatively regardless of their cultural or social background.  He often spoke of the human need to classify, the need to impose order on relationships with different aspects of life such as nature and other people. Levi-Strauss believed the most common means of doing this is through using Binary Opposites. A classic example of a binary opposition is the presence-absence dichotomy, distinguishing between presence and absence is often viewed as polar opposites for example presence is the presence of absence. And absence is absence of presence.

Vladimir Propp

Born in 1895 Propp is a Russian scholar who theorized plots of narrative and to simplify all text and media into the same elements. Although he died in 1970’s before music videos were big his ideas on the way character roles were structured and plotlines were told are still completely relevant. Propp analysed hundreds of folk tales in a famous book called ‘Morphology of the Folk’. He observed that narratives are shaped and directed by certain types of characters and specific kind of actions. He believed that there are 31 possible functions or stages in any narrative, and these may not always appear in the same story, but are always seen within the same sequence.

A function is a plot motif or event in that particular story, he proposed that tales may skip functions but cannot shuffle their unvarying order.  Propp believed that there are seven roles characters may assume in the story:

1. The villain (struggles against the hero)
2. The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. Her father
6. The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

The 31 Narratemes

Here are the 31 elements of stories that Propp identified, plus their symbol, interpretations and discussion. Note that some of these functions generally occur in pairs, such as departure and return. They may also be repeated.

Few stories contain all elements, but where they do contain elements, they will very largely occur in the sequence given here.

·       0. Initial situation

1st Sphere: Introduction

Steps 1 to 7 introduces the situation and most of the main characters, setting the scene for subsequent adventure.

·       1. Absentation: Someone goes missing

·       2. Interdiction: Hero is warned

·       3. Violation of interdiction

·       4. Reconnaissance: Villain seeks something

·       5. Delivery: The villain gains information

·       6. Trickery: Villain attempts to deceive victim

·       7. Complicity: Unwitting helping of the enemy

2nd Sphere: The Body of the story

The main story starts here and extends to the departure of the hero on the main quest.

·       8. Villainy and lack: The need is identified

·       9. Mediation: Hero discovers the lack

·       10. Counteraction: Hero chooses positive action

·       11. Departure: Hero leave on mission

3rd Sphere: The Donor Sequence

In the third sphere, the hero goes in search of a method by which the solution may be reached, gaining the magical agent from the Donor. Note that this in itself may be a complete story.

·       12. Testing: Hero is challenged to prove heroic qualities

·       13. Reaction: Hero responds to test

·       14. Acquisition: Hero gains magical item

·       15. Guidance: Hero reaches destination

·       16. Struggle: Hero and villain do battle

·       17. Branding: Hero is branded

·       18. Victory: Villain is defeated

·       19. Resolution: Initial misfortune or lack is resolved

4th Sphere: The Hero’s return

In the final (and often optional) phase of the storyline, the hero returns home, hopefully uneventfully and to a hero's welcome, although this may not always be the case.

·       20. Return: Hero sets out for home

·       21. Pursuit: Hero is chased

·       22. Rescue: pursuit ends

·       23. Arrival: Hero arrives unrecognized

·       24. Claim: False hero makes unfounded claims

·       25. Task: Difficult task proposed to the hero

·       26. Solution: Task is resolved

·       27. Recognition: Hero is recognised

·       28. Exposure: False hero is exposed

·       29. Transfiguration: Hero is given a new appearance

·       30. Punishment: Villain is punished

·       31. Wedding: Hero marries and ascends the throne

Tzvetan Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov tried to simplify the idea of narrative whilst allowing for a more complex educated interpretation with his theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium. This is it simply in a diagram.

The theory is simply this:

• The fictional environment begins with a state of equilibrium (everything is as it should be)
• It then suffers some disruption (disequilibrium)
• New equilibrium is produced at the end of the narrative

There are 5 possible stages of Todorov’s theory you can find in a music video:

•  A state of equilibrium (all is as it should be)
• A disruption of that order by an event
• A recognition that the disorder has occurred
• An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption

·         A return or restoration of a new equilibrium

With this theory Todorov is saying that narrative is not set in a linear structure but a circular one, which means that the end leads back at the beginning e.g. travelling from equilibrium through the stages and back to equilibrium.  This type of narrative is always driven by attempts to restore equilibrium, however although the economy of effort the equilibrium is not always the same and the original equilibrium.  Todorov argues that narratives have to involve a transformation, the situations or the characters are changed through the progress of disruption.

Posted By Dominic

Star Analysis - The Kooks

The Kooks are an indie/pop band who formed in Brighton, East Sussex in 2006. They have reached the top of the charts with a number of their singles from their album inside in/inside out, which was their debut album.



The music video for the song 'Naive' mainly consists of the lead singer walking around a dark bar/club looking for someone. There are occasional cuts from the bar/club to the lead singer and a girl sitting at home. The lighting is dark to show the dark place he's in, however, you are still able to see that he is lip syncing along with the lyrics of the song. The video is outlandish or in your face, instead it is incredibly simple, and you don't see a lot, however it is a good video to sell the lead singer. One thing I don't like about the music video is that it only sells the lead singer and not the band as a whole, as you very rarely see them.

The music video for the song "She Moves In Her Own Way" shows the band as a whole and is therefore different to "Naive". This video helps to sell the band to their target audience as everyone is shown. The video shows lots of different clips of the band in different places around the world, which is something that isn't seen very often in music videos, representing the bands individuality.


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Lyrical Analysis

These are the lyrics to the Muse song ‘House of the rising sun’

‘There is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

Well its been the ruin of many a poor boy

And god, I know, I’m one

Well mother, tell your children

Not to do what I have done

Or you’ll spend your life in sin and misery

In the house of the rising sun

Well there is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

Well its bee the ruin of many a poor boy

And god, I know I’m one ‘

Although there are only three verses (two the same) we feel this song suited our message with the sound anguish in Matt Bellamy’s grain of voice (Barthes) depicting a whore house or a brothel in New Orleans at the time the song was written. Although the Muse cover isn’t the full song, it’s foremost a story of warning, about a young boy who has made past mistakes and is spreading the word to others to not make the same mistakes he did. He is regretting being pulled in by the allure of drink and debauchery, and wishes people to heed his warning.

We have applied this to our message about how small Indie acts are lured by fame and the wonder of the modern music industry. But they are controlled and forced to be commercially appealing rather than keeping their individual music style. 

Although were obviously being marked on our music video, we made sure we chose a song with lyrics that suited our idea but wasnt too literal or obvious making it cheesy and cheap looking.

Posted by MaD