Conventions/influences: video

IN THIS POST: 

• Conventions 1- 5 in a vodcast
• Conventions 6 -10
• Notes taken in class
• Some initial note taking on music videos

CONVENTION VODCAST 1:

KEY ELEMENTS:

Relationship between lyrics, visuals & narrative

• Andrew Goodwin’s 6 common characteristics of music video
• Firth -> Performance, narrative, concept 
• Vernallis -> too elliptical of a format for narrative, non linear
• Campbell’s mono myth (hero’s journey)
• Lip syncing breaks up narrative/concept 
• Pacing changes, lighting changes, dynamic cuts, colour pop
• Closed versus open endings (polysemic endings)

CONVENTION VOD 1-5 (Improved):

KEY ELEMENTS:

1. Lyrics, visuals, narrative
2. Genre conventions
3. Intertextuality & Post-modernism
4. Representations
5. Cinematography and Editing

CONVENTION 6: UGC

UGC (User-generated content) is the audience creating new content influenced by or using the media (music and music video in this case). This can create a cultural zeitgeist and is increasingly pushed by music labels as it is a form of free marketing. Thanks to digitization, the line that separates the audience from the producer is blurred (web 2.0 - O'Reilly). This convergence causes a passive audience to become active and industries are inclined to prioritize the user/audience (prosummer). 

Here are some examples:

- Music video, fan-made as none was produced for the beloved song - 

Everything In it's Right Place by Radiohead

- Parody, of popular song Barbie World by Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice (and Barbie World by Aqua)

Note: The song + artists themselves are not being parodied (See Bart Barker) but a social phenomenon.

This is a YouTube Short, a shorter, vertical video format resembling TikTok. Prioritizes the short attention spans of a younger audience.

- Dances and TikTok trends, for the song Say So by Doja Cat

This dance was very widespread and also helped boost the song itself, the dance can be seen recreated in the official music video by Doja Cat.

- Lyric Video - same song

The "Why don't you Say So?" is added in the title as the TikTok sound with this passage became more well-known and searched than the original title. 

- 8D audio for headphone users - same song, further shows digitization and the wider accessibility to change audio production for a new listening experience. 

CONVENTION 7: Alt Vids

It's not uncommon to see more than one promotional music video per song, when a new version of the song such as a remix or remaster version of the song is released a new video may be released beside it, this will help generate more traction in magazines and articles about the release. 

Heres a list of alt vids as seen in the music industry:

• unwrapping
• lyric 
• vertical
• dance performance
• animation
• tour 
• teaser
• album sampler
• single take

- Old(er)/classic example:

Original/official clip:

Alt video 1:

Alt video 2:

- Contemporary/recent example:

Original/official clip:

Alt video 1:

Alt video 2:

There is an increase in types of alternative videos due to digitisation and the effort to innovate how we consume music content. Many of these are inspired by UGC as described above. 

Artists sometimes do this to hold more control over monetisation.

In this unconventional example Taylor Swift creates a vertical lip syncing video from her phone, very minimally edited. 

This is an interesting case of digitisation/convergence - Taylor had previously refused to distribute her albums to the popular platforms : Spotify and Apple Music. This caused Apple to have to drop their plans to create a free version of Apple music with lower artist payment. 

This is something that we think of doing as an alt video alongside our music video.

Here are 2 lyric videos I may consider taking inspiration from:

CONVENTION 8: Distribution, Social

The most popular distributor of music is Youtube by far (spotify having a total of 381 million users free and paid), with two billion active users listening to music on the app/website.

"These pricing structures are indicative of the competitive nature of the music streaming industry, where services strive to offer value to consumers while maintaining competitive pricing" - Forbes

Olivia Rodrigo's youtube stats according to social blade:

CONVENTION 9: Branding/promo package

See more on Olivia Rodrigo's branding in the genre and chosen artist

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES : SUMMARY

NOTES TAKEN IN CLASS + NOTES ON INDIVIDUAL MUSIC VIDEOS:

CONVENTIONS VODCAST - NOTES

1 Lyrics/visuals; Narrative 

• Andrew Goodwin: defined general music video format 

Notes on conventions: Tame Impala

• Audience U+G : looking at characters, youth audience isn’t reached, middle aged salt and pepper hair

• Cinematographic, presented as TV, movie

• Influences of Hitchcock surrealism

• Entirely narrative, no performance, media language taken from film 

• Vernallis, too elliptical for a full narrative -> Lack of exposition and anchorage, polysemy and narrative enigma

• Goodwin (7 common characteristics, 90s)

• Fast paced editing and short takes (always variation in pace) single take, whip pans, push pull, handheld camera work

• TEST LONG TAKE VIDEOS AS A SECONDARY

• The Verve Bittersweet Symphony 

• Use of CGI use of SFX (wind machine, green screen, more)

JOJI 

• GOODWIN, FRITH (performance, narrative, concept), VERNALLIS 

• Flashing lights (TW) avoid

• Discontinuity editing -> French new wave filmmaking

Depeche mode - Never let me down again

• Starts and stops lip-syncing, deconstructionist 

• Quirk : older male, surrealist and strange

• French New Wave signifiers

• Visually striking, juxtaposition, unusual

• Very long take, 1m, bizarre 

• Other members pop up but not for long

• Anton Corbin : MUSIC VID auteur -> Film tech

• Mans head dragged across the screen

• Narrative isn’t explicit 

• Western film genre deconstructionism 

KATY PERRY - HOT N’ COLD

• Bright (colour pop) mise-en-scene, lipstick, colour correction -> soap opera/tv drama + humorous

• For Pop/electropop 

• Diegetic intro, showing a child (4 quadrant), target tweenager 8-12

• Man avoid getting married -> normative 

• Campbell’s monomyth (hero’s journey)

• Dancing -> can be replicated -> UGC 

• Lip-synching cut aways

• Feminist vs. Post-feminist

• Costume change (multiple) + settings

• Wigs

• Performance = good, breaks up narrative only

• Pink microphone 

• Teen spirit counter typing

• Female agency, church vs. Rest of video

• Very different looks

• Recap of all scenes 

• Heteronormative, conservative

• Representation of ethnic groups in hiphop sequence

CONVENTIONS 1

FRITH:

- Concept, narrative, performance

- Concept and narrative are slightly ambiguous

VERNALLIS: 

- Narrative is always there but can be vague…  but too elliptical to be narrative

- Narrative has clear structure and characters it is a narrative video

- Combination of CNP

- Diegetic world of the narrative

- Performance is integrated in the diegetic world of narrative 

- Dancing -> concept

- Shift towards narrative videos, more convenient for instruments 

- Artists are struggling due to death of physical media

- Disruption through digitisation (the internet transforming distribution)

- Aspects of narrative, impossible for absence of narrative (despite VERNALLIS)

GOODWIN: 

1. Find a visual “stamp” (Guns n’ Roses, Dance in pop and r&b -> ugc interaction)

2. Michel Gondry (auteur)

3. Screens, mirror, etc…

4. Intertextuality

5. Lipsyncing vs Informal footage (BTS) 

-> Informal footage is deconstructionist, “respecting the audiences intelligence” (Sweet child o mine)

NARRATIVE

Kate Domailes narrative categories -> plot archetypes

1. Achilles: The fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or almost flawless, person, e.g. Superman, Fatal Attraction.
2. Candide: The indomitable hero who cannot be put down, e.g. Indiana Jones, James Bond, Rocky etc.
3. Cinderella: The dream comes true, e.g. Pretty Woman.
4. Circe: The Chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent and the victim e.g. The Terminator.
5. Faust: Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs to him, e.g. Devil’s Advocate, Wall Street.
6. Orpheus: The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of loss or the journey which follows the loss, e.g. The Sixth Sense, Born On the Fourth Of July.
7. Romeo And Juliet: The love story, e.g. Titanic.
8. Tristan and Iseult: The love triangle. Man loves woman…unfortunately one or both of them are  already spoken for, or a third party intervenes, e.g. Casablanca.

Use these as inspo for our narrative (blend aspects)

Theorist’s attempt to categorise narrative stories

CONVENTIONS 2:

Genre signifiers: Representations, cinematography & editing (etc)

Use counterexamples also 

CONVENTIONS 3:

Post-modernism

Intertextuality 

CONVENTIONS 4:

Gender, age, intertexuality

Tropes 

Control, deconstruct your characters - bundling together signifiers

Stereotypes, male gaze is super prevalent (deconstructionism) 

Use those school videos 

Queer Identities: Butler 

Look at race, social class, sexuality also 

Blurring the proppian archetypes (Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Murder On The Dancefloor poisoned the punch) both villain and hero

Nostalgia is key (Fancy, Thank you, next) Retromania

“We can perceive the male gaze is present here”

U+G = PIES (personal identification, information, escapism, social interaction) 

BRAND AND IMAGE:

1 example and 1 counter

Melanie Martinez, Gaga, visual stamp

Location/mise-en-scene

Pop vs RnB (gritty urban location)

CINEMATOGRAPHY AND EDITING

Pace, notable shots

Use of SFX, slow-mo, colouring, impact of label/budget?

GENERAL CONVENTIONS: 6

Fan-made music videos (e.g. Radiohead Everything in its right place)

Fan-made lyric videos

TikTok edits

Parody

Reaction videos

ALT VIDS

Lyric video, dance performance, carpool karaoke, interactive, instagram, etc

DISTRIBUTION, SOCIAL

How is the video accessed/distributed

(Spotify, youtube, MTV, chat shows)

Initial detail of revenue from this

https://www.musicgateway.com/royalties-calculator

YT signs deals with BIG 3