The Music Video
The media concepts of genre, narrative, institutions, representation, audience and overall media language can be applied to my media coursework – my music video for the indie band ‘Cults’’ single of ‘Oh My God’, as well as the digipak and magazine advert which accompanies it. In my music video, a girl dressed in an old-fashioned, white night dress is roused from her slumber by the sound of a ticking clock coming from outside. She leaves the constrains of her home to enter a world of revelry and magic, being led astray by a Carroll-esque ‘White Rabbit’ figure – the source of the ticking, to join with a band of nymph-like bohemians who party at the back of her unkempt garden. In a nutshell, it has been described as ‘Alice in Wonderland meets LSD’, and though it may appear relatively benign at first, the video could open up to discussions of voyeurism, corruption and debauchery and the effects of hallucinogenic narcotics. These topics are generally associated with a youthful, decadent style of living – often explored in the music videos and songs of current artists.
Essentially, my music video is in the ‘Illustration’ genre-category of music video, established by Goodwin. Rather than performance, my music video is entirely narrative and though the band do not feature, the music is linked to the visual action as the characters dance in sync with it and the lyrics tell of wanting to ‘go outside’ and ‘being stuck in the same ancient tradition’ - the monotony of every-day life, which is matched by the fact the protagonist escapes into the night with her new-found friends. Thus, the music video is an ‘amplification’ of the lyrics to the song and not a complete disjuncture. Therefore, my music video does not conform with Goodwin’s idea that lip-syncing is essential in music videos and mine does not contain a sense of repeatability either.
Nicholas Abercrombie describes genre boundaries as being ‘shifting and permeable’. My music video may adhere to this as on the outset is appears to be an escapist fantasy tale of a girl’s encounter with woodland nymphs. However, the genre can be blurred when the video is perceived as an account of a girl’s corruption into drug-taking and decadence, with the mystical factors actually being a representation of the hallucinations she envisages under the influence of drugs. Thus the genre is split between fantasy and social-realism – if perceived as a drug video. A moment where both the fantasy and social-realist genres collide is apparent during the protagonist’s ‘point of no return’ and her final corruption – accepting an unspecified drink from the persuasive nymphs. This could be viewed as either a homage to ‘Alice in Wonderland’s’; tea party scene and the ‘drink me’ bottle which causes Alice to grow to giant proportions. On the other hand it could be viewed as her rejection of a decent, clean lifestyle and the adopting of a reckless bohemian one. This is exemplified by the fact the nymphs regard her drinking from the tea with voyeuristic intrigue and perhaps triumph.
Music videos of a narrative format, conventionally follow a structure of beginning, middle and end – also known as Todorov’s narrative structure of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. I decided that I would conform to this structure as leaving the audiences without an end or climax may have made for an unfulfilling watch. However, there is not much of a strong equilibrium to start, as the ticking noise is the first thing to be heard, before the opening eyes of the protagonist, thus, the disruption of the ticking breaks the equilibrium almost immediately and establishes Barthe’s ‘enigma code’. The mysterious source of the ticking noise is the initial interest of the audience, also alluding to the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, who would often proclaim his tardiness. Disequilibrium occurs when the protagonist encounters the white rabbit who leads her off into the thickets. This is highlighted through the filter change in the video, which goes from a washed out sepia to a high contrast, glow. The new equilibrium occurs at the end, after the climatic dance of the nymphs which celebrates the protagonist’s integration with them, the music dies away to reveal a medium shot of snowfall over the protagonist. The confetti-snow then retreats backwards and the protagonist is left staring wide-eyed at the audience. This establishes the new equilibrium as it suggests that either the protagonist is now a nymph like her counterparts or that due to the retracting snow; she has either awoken from a dream or recovered from her hallucinogenic ‘trip’. Unlike Propp’s character theory, the protagonist is in fact female and there is no romantic interest or reward. The corrupting force of the nymphs could be seen as corrupting though the lightness in my model’s expressions would suggest their actions as liberating rather than corrupting – thus they cannot be deemed the villains. Thus, the music video subverts the traditional roles of characters in accordance to Propp’s theory.
Laura Mulvey claims that the cinema positions the audience as male and that the ‘male gaze’ objectifies the female character on screen. This is true in my music video too, though there are elements of Mulvey’s argument which are subverted. Mulvey’s theory can be particularly linked to mainstream and hip hop genres which routinely portray scantily dressed and aesthetically pleasing females, often dancing behind the male performer in a suggestive manner. In my music video, females are not portrayed in this way, at least in not such a blatant and callous way – this can also be said for the majority of indie music videos, which often turn a blind eye to the desire for sex, power and wealth exuberated by hip hop musicians. It is evident that the protagonist in my music video is under some kind of scrutiny and of voyeuristic interest to both the audience and the rest of the characters. To start with, the music video begins with an extreme close up of her eyes opening. This is simultaneously an establishing shot, to portray the time setting as night through the fact she has abruptly woken up as if roused by a noise (the ticking). The next shot we see of her is her feet descending the stairs – clearly feminine feet with their red nail varnish and their bareness exemplifies her innocence. The camera then crawls upwards from a long shot, to reveal the rest of her body up to her head. Throughout the music video, the camera acts seemingly stalks the protagonist’s progress through the night and her joining of the bohemian-nymphs. A variety of close ups enhance the feeling of closeness we have with her. Whereas close up shots of her are intended to draw the audience more intimately to her, close up shots of the nymphs are intended to intrigue the audience and wonder at their strange masks and outlandish costumes. The Dionysian figure in the leopard shawl and crowned with a laurel wreath represents merriment and wine, just as the cult god he represents does. Greek mythology is also represented through the majority of the female figures, who are adorned with flowers, symbolic of feminism and fertility combining both Dionysian and Apollonian themes. Apollo being the god of music, this is also represented through the use of the tambourine in the video, an instrument often associated with gypsies and carnivals and other bohemian lifestyles. A male reveller in a ram mask is also present, representing the Greek mythological figures; ‘the satyrs’ – half men, half goat beings who were part of Dionysus’ cult. Other intertextual references are again aimed toward Alice in Wonderland, with the female protagonist, the white rabbit and the mad hatter character. The mad hatter in the music video subverts hegemonic norms due to the fact I cast the traditionally male character with a female. This was done to obscure the accuracy of Mulvey’s theory that the camera frames the male character watching the female. Though this does occur, it is evident that the female characters, including the mad hatter, are also framed watching the protagonist with interest, perhaps even more so than their mae counterparts. The female nymphs are the first to approach and apprehend the girl and can be seen tugging at her hair in wonderment. Gradually the male nymphs begin to do so also. This implies that in this bohemian world in which the protagonist has entered, patriarchal and hegemonic norms do not exist, with gender being completely irrelevant to power, painting the liberal lifestyle in a somewhat positive light. Though there is no power struggle amongst the nymphs themselves, there is one between the protagonist and them, a struggle in which the protagonist wins. At first, when she is fully surrounded, the camera shoots from a high angle to emphasize her vulnerability in a sea of bohemians. Towards the end however, in the final shot, she is portrayed from a slight low angle to indicate her victory through her liberation. Prior to her transformation, the camera establishes that a change is in progress by blurring the actions in front of the camera in order to portray both a light-headed and dream-like illusion. The fact that her costume has changed to a nymph-like dress which is shorter in cut and the fact she is now adorned with flowers is an indicator of her psychological change, she is also perhaps more glamorised to the male audience – indicating her corruption or integration (depending on how you look at it) into a freer lifestyle.
The Magazine Avert
The magazine advert conforms to conventional magazine adverts in the indie genre. Many of the real-world products I analysed either portrayed the band of promotion, or some kind of a conceptual message. I decided that due to the fact my band do not have a strong presence in the rest of the products, I would keep to my theme of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and use an image from the world of the music video. I also applied filters and edited a photo of my ‘White Rabbit’ figure in a way so that it looked retro – an aesthetic appreciated by indie audiences. I also conformed to other magazine adverts by providing outside opinions and star-ratings for the album. I provided a five-star rating from NME – a trusted source of indie music. I also included the new-technology features with mentions of iTunes and internet.
The Digipak
The digipak conformed to convention by continuing the theme seen on the magazine advert and in the music video – it had very much an escapist feel, with the use of photographs outdoors – and also a sense of the mystical through the foggy and retro-looking pictures. There was also a cover with a personal credits page, as well as all the necessary institutional details on the back. The front cover is typically the most visually attractive cover on a digipak and so I decided to conform to this by choosing a photo which conveyed the music video and album themes as well as show off mise en scene in order to capture shopper’s attention.
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