John Stewart and Julia Kristeva's theories about how media texts are constructed
John Stewart:modern media "incorporates, raids and reconstructs" Julia Kristeva:"any text is the absorption and transformation of another"
These two are basically saying that media takes ideas from other media and uses them either with some edits or just copies them.
I think this is partly true as there are similarities within stuff if the same genre e.g. lots of action movies has the protagonist discovering and stopping the antagonists plans in the end.
Synaesthesia 'A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a colour.'
Narrative
In stories narratives have a beginning, a middle and an ending. However, this doesn't work in as well in songs and the narrative are usually incomplete. This is referred to as a fragmentary narrative.
Fragmentary narratives may help the repeatability of the music promos.
Andrew Goodwin
Andrew Goodwin came up with this theory that music promos it into three different categories to see how they link to the songs. These are the three categories and examples:
Illustration - the promo basically illustrates the ideas/narrative in the song lyric.
An example of this is Within Temptation - Memories.
The narrative fits the song perfectly as it is portraying someone going through their memories which is basically what the lyrics mean.
The editing, camerawork, narrative/performance and the mise-en-scene are pretty conventional for the genre and they help illustrate the meaning behind the song.
Ampification - uses a key idea/image from the lyrics and develops it into a concept within the promo. A link remains between the lyric and the promo.
An example of this is Nightwish 'Storytime'
The lyrics that the promo fits around is the part of the chorus 'I am the voice of Never-never-land,
The innocence, the dreams of every man, I am the empty crib of Peter Pan, ... I am the story that will read you real, Every memory that you hold dear'. This is shown as the costumes they are wearing are different characters ,e.g. the phantom from the Phantom of the Opera, Snow White, but with a slight twist so that they fit in with the genre of the song, e.g., Sow White is slightly gothic. The narrative is a lot of 'behind the scenes' footage of the band members doing other stuff that sort of fits with the lyrics although not as much as the performance narrative which seems to involve scaring the audience/child in the promo.
Disjuncture - the promo bears no resemblance to the lyrics or its meaning; abstract; often seen as unconventional/'arty' videos; creates a new range of meanings for the song.
An example of this is Red Hot Chilli Peppers 'Can't Stop'.
The narrative/performance has nothing to do with the song and seems to mainly be the band making a slightly weird tribute to abstract art.
The camerawork is fairly conventional as there are long shots, mid shots and close ups which are what the majority of music promos have.
The editing is also conventional as there mainly straight cuts and some multiple images.
The mise-en-scene is helps show the disjuncture of the promo. The lighting is artificial and therefor pretty conventional. The costumes are casual clothes so that is also conventional. The location appears to be a studio/warehouse like place. The props are the abstract art tribute that makes the disjuncture very clear as some of the props are bins, lights and a wall.
The 2000s has a range of good music promos. The 2000s also has a range of music genres.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers 'Californication' was a important music promo.
This promo references a much of different video games as well as other media texts in a creative way.
Includes good animation for the time of the band as little video game characters.
Hip hop dominated the early years with artists such as Eminem, Jay-Z, Black Eyed Peas etc.
This is 'Stan' from Eminem.
This promo is illustrative as it illustrates the meaning behind the song with the narrative.
Slipknot's 'Vermillion' music promo is important because of the editing.
This video contains post production techniques such as speeding up one part of the video and slowing down another part.
The narrative fits with a few of the lyrics of the song.
This is from Foo Fighters and is called 'Learn to Fly'.
This promo includes comic references to airplanes and the narrative fits with the song.
The promo does this in a entertaining and rather film like way as the pilots fall unconscious and the band go and fly the plane while one of them reads a book called learn to fly.
A lot of bands that started in the 90s are still around today. Grunge became very popular in this decade and was included in some music promos.
Nirvana was an inspirational band for many bands and people around today. This is the video for 'Come As You Are'.
This video has quite a bit of post production effects such as cross fades and filters.
The video also includes a weapon which could be considered quite controversial because it is a gun.
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers were important to the rise of alternative rock music with their album 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik' bringing worldwide attention to this genre of rock music.
This is their song from this album 'Give it Away'. This promo includes post production techniques such as black and white filter.
They are also wearing body paint which could be considered weird and therefor memorable.
The promo also doesn't really have much to do with the lyrics and there doesn't appear to be a narrative.
Green Day was an important band for punk rock in the 90s as no big record label was willing to sign a punk band until Green Days huge success. This was a factor for independent record labels to achieve commercial success such as 'Epitaph Records'.
This is Green Day's single 'Basket Case' released in 1994.
The promo has post production techniques such as the colour filter. These are used to enhance the promo.
The promo also involves special effects make up for the ward guys heads.
David Bowies promo for 'Ashes to Ashes' costed £250,000 which was very expensive in the 80s and was one of the most expensive music promos of the time.
This promo consisted of the following conventions: surreal locations, images within images, extreme close ups and strange costumes.
The next important music promo of the decade was Devo 'Whip it' as it is argued to be among the first true long term video production.
The promo was quite weird so it was memorable. The promo also borrows things from other texts.
Another important thing of the decade was the creation of MTV. The Monkees member Mike Nesmith created it as he had an idea of filling an entire network with music promos 24/7. It was a good idea as it only costed royalties to bands. This changed music promos as people started to make big budget TV friendly promos so that MTV would play them on the shows.
Another important promo of the 80s was Michael Jacksons 'Thriller'. This was a no 1 single and costed a vast amount of money. This is mainly because it is a short story in itself as well as a music promo.
This music promo includes references to early/50s horror movies, storyline over story, iconic dance and the storyline fits the performance. This all makes the promo such a memorable and unique music promo.
Aerosmith/Run DMC 'Walk This Way' provided a crossover of rap and rock music and broke the white dominance that MTV created. After this promo MTV started to play more promos from people who weren't white males.
This promo shows representations of a white rock band and black rappers and how different they the environments they play music in are different.
Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' broke the traditional single - album - tour format because of MTV as Madonna made money from her singles. It also involves controversies like featuring a black Jesus and her representations of race.
The narrative enhances the song as there are literal representations of the lyrics. The narrative and performance intertwines. This is conventional for modern day pop promos.
In 1972-3, David Bowie had promos for his songs 'John, I'm Only Dancing' and 'The Jean Genie'.
'John, I'm Only Dancing' was turned down by the BBC due to homosexual undertones being distasteful and Top of the Pops replaced the promo with a biker and dancers.
The music promo for 'The Jean Genie' was shot in one day and was edited in less than 2 days. The promo contains a performance due to the live clips and a slight narrative.
Queens 'Bohemian Rhapsody' is also an important promo.
Queen made this promo free of charge to networks, making sure it was played everywhere and it got to number 1 for ages due to it being very popular. It was thought to be the first promo, probably due to the narrative being separate to the performance. In the narrative there is several post production techniques such as the echo effect and multiple images.
The British show 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' made a lot of promos for the show throughout the 70s. The idea of the Old Grey Whistle Test was for the bands to have a slot of time to be impressive while they often played to bare studios or walls.
In the early 60s most of the promos didn't have much of a narrative and were mostly performances of the band.
However, The Beatles changed this and set out what we expect from a music promo nowadays with their promo 'A Hard Day's Night' in 1964. This was from a film they had made, like a lot of other bands.
Another impressive promo from the 60s is 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' by Bob Dylan.
This promo broke conventions as the promo is one take of Bob Dylan holding cards with lyrics from the song on in an urban setting. This broke conventions as the promo doesn't really have a clear performance or a narrative included in it.
Another important thing that came out of the 60s was the music program 'Top of the Pops'.
This is because Top of the Pops was based on singles and had the band mime along to the single while on stage in front of a large audience. When the band couldn't appear on the show there were a dance band that would dance along to the song and then there were short films that the bands had probably made. This was a forerunner of music promos. Top of the Pops also got the bands that played on them a lot of money and slightly more fame so bands wanted to get their songs played on the show.
The colour music promo 'Strawberry Fields Forever' from The Beatles was also important for the history of music promos. This was because it was the very first purpose-made concept video that attempted to illustrate the song.
There is also a lot of post production effects such as film transitions/effects, sped/slowed shots, colour filters and warping the images. There was also a canted angle, narrative and reverse shots. This all makes the audience feel like the are on drugs.
The Monkees 'A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You'
This promo is important as The Monkees was a constructed band for a US TV show and they established certain conventions; surrealism, jump cuts etc. The promo includes these conventions: film within a film, band apart of narrative, jump cuts and speeding up. These are important as a lot of artists/bands nowadays use these conventions in their promos.
In this music promo there is very simple editing. This is mainly the straight cuts in between each of the shots. The other main editing technique is the colour filter that is making the video seem darker. This is used to make the video fit the darkness of the song as well as the genre of the band.
Camerawork
Narrative/Performance
The performance and narrative is very simple as there isn't much going on. The narrative seems to fit with song but there is very little actual narrative as it is just a couple of girls doing a few things and dancing. The performance is very conventional as the band are all there and they are using instruments.
(Was shown to me by Joe Dickinson in a media lesson)
Unedited version/Behind the scenes version
This promo is very effective because the of the post-production editing as the promo goes backwards at some points and forward at others which makes the promo look engaging to the audience.
The camerawork is very simple as there is one shot which starts off as a long shot and ends up being a mid shot as well.
The mise-en-scene is also pretty simple as the band is in casual costumes, the location is a backstage area, the lighting seems to be artificial lighting and the props are instruments and confetti.
There is a slight narrative as some of the lyrics are illustrated in the video but it is mostly a performance.
The mise-en-scene fits with the lyrics of the song. The dead-like dancers and the forest location fits with the lyrics 'You're so quiet but it doesn't fazeme' as forests are usually seen as quiet and eerie which is the same with dead things and Ellie seems to be fine walking among them, which illustrates those lyrics. The props fit in with the title of the song and the lyrics 'And let's join forces We've got our guns and horses' which is quite literally illustrated as there is a white horse in the video and while there may not be guns there are swords which are also weapons.
The camerawork is quite simple as there are many mid shots, long shots and close ups in the music promo.
Another part of the editing is the camera spinning part where you see the crew and slight behind the scenes of the video as they are blurred. This is usually a post-production effect but it can be done on camera. This is kind of unconventional as you don't normally see the crew members and other people filming in pop video.
The narrative is illustrative as it has taken a few lyrics of the song and made a narrative that fits with the meaning of the song. This links in with this music promo as the narrative is set in a forest with dead dancers in period soldier uniforms and Ellie in casual clothes. This links in with the lyrics 'You're so quiet but it doesn't fazeme' and 'And let's join forces We've got our guns and horses' this fits in with the narrative as forests and the dead are usually seen as quiet and Ellie seems quite comfortable performing there, fitting in with the first lyrics and the dead soldiers fits in with the second lyrics as visual representation as well as the fact that there is a white horse in the narrative as well.
In this video there is a great use of colour, especially the lead singers hair against the rather dull, greyish background.
Editing
In these scenes the use of editing colour is very effective as before she hugs the leader everything is dull and greyish while as afterwards suddenly the colour is brighter and clearer, suggesting they have won the war they are fighting in the narrative of the story as the world is bright again but while they were fighting the colours were duller and not as noticeable.
Camerawork
There are lots of mid shots and long shots and a few close ups. The long shots show the location as well as the people in the narrative from head to toe. This is done to show the location of the promo which appears to be a field. This is showing that the battle is quite far away from civilisation which makes it realistic as in history a lot of the battles were fought in fields away from a lot of civilisation. The mid shots and close ups show the emotions of the people in the narrative as well as some of the props. There are a lot of shots of the lead singer which is very conventional of music promos as they tend to focus on the singer as they are generally the one the fans care about the most and will find the most appealing.
Typical camerawork in a music promo. This is a close up of the singer which is very conventional as there are more shots of the singer as they are generally the person in the band that has the most appeal for the audience due to knowing who they are or looks.
Mise-en-scene
This is quite conventional mise-en-scene for a pop/rap group. It involves the main rapper in casual clothes, the other two guys in smart casual and the female in dressy clothes at night with artificial lights in a city/urban setting. This suits the genre.
Editing
In the conventional promo the main editing is straight cuts which this video has. Depending on the genre, the pace can be slowed sown or sped up. In rock promos conventional editing includes fast paced editing whereas conventional pop promo editing is slower paced editing.
In this promo there is also a few filters and the pace of the people in the promo has been edited.
Narrative/Performance
In music promos there is usually a performance element in there. This usually involves the band/performer performaning. In pop promo the performance is usually the singer singing and/or dancing in the promo.
There is also a narrative element in the promo. This is one of the following; illustratiion, ampification or disjunture. The conventional music promo's narrative usually uses illustrative or ampification as they have something to do with the lyrics which isd genreally what promo narratives are about.
Digital technology has impacted on the exhibition/consumption of music promos as it has improved over the last 40 years.
People can view music promos on the internet, especially on YouTube, which has impacted the consumption of music promos as now people can watch the music promos whenever/wherever they want to, instead of having to watch them on a music channel where they might not actually get to see it at all or after a while.
The artists can put their videos online on places such as YouTube, their own website or social networking sites as well as on TV/radio. This has impacted the exhibition of music promos as the promos will get viewed by a larger audience as the artists aren't limited to TV/radio stations to get the music promo press coverage or attracting record labels and an audience as they can now post online to a worldwide audience.
