What music means to me

Audience Questions

      How do you consume music?

My daily routine for music depends on what I am doing that day. On a normal school day, I listen to music on the radio on the way to school and music on the radio on the way home from school, this is companionship. The radio station I listen to most is either Kiss, Radio 1 and capital as they all play the type of music I like. On a weekend, I tend to listen to music alot when I am with my friends. This gets us in the mood to go out For example, when I am with them getting ready for a party or getting ready to go out we always listen to music via music channels on sky or by an aux lead plugged into speakers. We listen to this in the bedroom whilst getting dressed. This is called social interaction. I listen to music because in my opinon it always gives a happy vibe if you listen to happy music. It helps express emotions, like if someone was sad if they listened to sad music it could explain their situation, but if they listened to sad music then it could cheer them up and make them happy. This is personal identification. People consume music for entertainment, as they can sing along and listen to it whenever they want to.

Representation Task

We were given a task to find music videos that has a representation of homosexuality, female gaze and a strong dominant female.
Here is a few key words that we have been talking about and learning about:

Voyeurism- (Freud) Erotic pleasure can be gained by looking at a sexual object (preferably when the object is unaware of being watched).
           |Maria Carey- Touch my Body
 

Male Gaze- Laura Mulvey 1975 proposed that because filmmakers are predominantly male the presence of women is often for the purposes of display (rather than narrative). This is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators, which presumes a male gaze (regardless of the gender of spectator) one that is or may feel like a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display who is effectively objectified and passive. In male performance videos the voyeuristic treatment of the female body is often apparent, with the use of dancers as adornments to the male star ego.
     |Benny Benassi- Satisaction
 

Exhibitionism - Female performers being at once sexually provocative and apparently in control of and inviting a sexualised gaze in what could be termed as the opposite of voyeurism.
     | Lady Gaga- Bad Romance




Male Gaze
  | J-Lo Ft. French Montana- I Luv u Pupi



Homosexuality
   | t.A.t.U - All the things she said

Star Profile

Dry the River- No rest

Today in class, we was given a task where our teacher played us the audio of this song and we were asked to picture what the music video was like for this song and what we could imagine it being like. When i listened to the song, i thought that the music video could be something like the shots flick from one couple to another with all different sorts of relationships.. For example a heterosexual couple, and homosexual couple and so on. The shots would include the deterioration of their relationship and how it ended. Arguments would be shown, and at the end it would include one person from the couple smashing up everything in their home like pictures of them together and presents that had been bought, then it would finalise with them sitting with their hands in their heads crying about the relationship ending. We then had to give our suggestions to the teacher and she read them out to the class so we had a whole collaboration of what people thought so all our ideas were mixed together so we could see if anyone was close to the real Music Video. Here are some of the classes suggestions:

• A man in an empy house looking at photos, the house then starts to shake and all the pictures smash infront of him.
• A black and white image of the vocalist up against a dark background. It then cuts to a woman walking down the isle and it then turns to colour. The woman turns around and runs away and the man is left standing alone.
• The man's body is slowly falling apart, and when the whole of the body is gone they all each turn to ash. A pile of ash is then left there, symbolising his presence.
• The singer is walking away from the camera along a road in a Spanish Village. She goes to the beach and lays on the sand. It then flashbacks to her past relationship and then wakes up with him at the end.
• A close up of a mans face with the sky behind him. The band playing in the air. A woman then floats past and the man tries to grab her.
• There is a weddinh scene, which then goes to photots of both of the people getting married single. There is a reverse timeline leading to their divorce from infidelity.

We were then asked a series of questions about how we felt when we was listening to the soundtrack without watching the video.

1. What are the emotions it stirs in you?   The emotions I feel when I am listening to this song, is the serious emotion of heartbreak. The lyrics state 'I loved you in the best way possible' so to me, this lyrics suggest that the singer is going through a break up that they did not want and they were left heartbroken as they are still in love with the person who hurt them.
2. What images are conjured up in your mind when you hear the song? Like my answer to question 1, the images that are conjured into my mind are heartbreak and hurt. Like the person singing has been left for another man or something along those lines.They are unhappy without that person and feel like they cannot live without them. Like she was his everything, and now his everything has been taken away from him.
3. What kind of video / visuals / effects? (Performance, narrative, concept, intertexuality, voyerism)? I think the music video would be more of a narrative music video, as I think the band will want to go furthur into the situation their lyrics explain and show to us the true meaning behind them and explain maybe the situation they are talking about. I do not think there will be any effects on this music video except maybe a black and white filter, due to the fact the lyrics explain an emotional situation that they are talking about and a range of over the top special effects could make the music video less serious.
4. Which idea, out of your class mates, did you like the best? A man in an empy house looking at photos, the house then starts to shake and all the pictures smash infront of him.
5. What is the connection between music, lyrics and visuals? There is no connection between the visuals and the lyrics as the band are just doing a performance laying on the floor singing to the camera. There is a link between the music and the lyrics as the lyrics are talking about an emotional issue, and the music goes with lyrics therefore it is parrallel as the music and the lyrics give off the same emotions and do not contradict eachother.

Banana Phone

For a task in class, we were put into groups to make a creative video of Banana Phone. We were given a set list of tasks that we were asked to include in our video. Once all filming was done, we was then told to edit our clips together but independantly. I then went on to edit our clips together, and there was some good parts and some bad parts towards the process.

Good things were that the filming went well, and some parts of the lip syncing was effective. The clip of the foot squashing a person was very successfull as the boy was very clear in the camera. Another thing that was good is that the first shot shows James in another camera, and the head and body match up well as one is not bigger than the other and they look very realistic. For the cloning task, things that went well was that we made James start to move up in the chair towards the sky.

Things that was not so good was a different part the cloning task, as the camera frequently moved so it was a challenge to make all the backgrounds remain the same and in the same places.

Music Video Analysis

Narrative

 

Relationship: I think that there is a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as the lyrics in the song are about battling emotional issues some people go through in their life. In the song 'A Team', Ed Sheeran is talking about being homeless and the lengths some people have to go to just to try and survive. This is a narrative as a story is being told and makes you feel emotional when you watch it. The lyrics for this song are deeply emotive and powerful as they talk about issues some girls in the world do in fact go through.

"Burnt lungs, sour taste

Light's gone, day's end

Struggling to pay rent

Long nights, strange men"



Here this is a close up shot of the main girl in the video taking money from a man's pocket, which from previous clips and lyrics makes us aware she is going into prostitution. This associates the lyrics above of 'Long nights, strange men' as we are then aware by what the girl is about to go through. This video explains an emotional situation, that some young girls unfortunately go through as they feel alone and that they have no where else to turn. And Ed Sheeran is trying to tell us that.

As Ed Sheeran is both a singer and a song writer, the songs he writes tend to talk about a lot more personal issues than some artists that do not write their own songs, due to the fact he must have strong opinions on the situations he sings about. Talking about such personal and fragile situations enables the audience to form a relationship with Ed as they may go through some of the problems he talks about which makes them become more emotionally attached to his music. Most of his music videos are narrative, which tells a story to the audience as the things he sings about are very emotional and maybe even personal to him or someone he knows. So telling a story within the music video creates a strong link to the visuals and lyrics and makes the audience understand what is being spoken about and feel more emotive towards his music. The video is told from another perspective, like Ed Sheeran is watching this girls life and telling us about it.

The editing for this music video is not very productive, but simple and plain which gives a clear indication. The video has been edited into black and white, which creates the dull and dark situation that Ed Sheeran is raising awareness about. The girl in the music video is clearly at a very dark place in her life and this black and white filter signifies the situation and causes the more sympathetic approach to the girl we are watching. The shots for this video contains a lot of close ups of the protagonist, to make us sympathize with her and her life. The main target audience for this particular song and video is about 15- 23, which is similar to Ed's age as he is 23. This song and video targets another issue of drugs, as the girl is doing all this abnormal things to get money for drugs. Drugs is something that some people in this age group get caught up in, so it could target both males and females that are faced with these drug issues.

 Concept





Relationship: There is no actual relationship between the lyrics and the visuals accept the fact that maybe when the plane is in the air, it could be going to an island that is someones opinion of paradise. Also, occasionally there are cards held up by the elephant that contains some of the lyrics written on the screen. The elephant is dancing to try and make money, and the typical cardboard piece with words written on is used to write the lyrics so that the elephant can hold them up.

Coldplay is a rock band, and this music video does feature some characteristics of a rock band music video. In a lot of rock videos, the band is shown at their own concert with all the fans and showing their performance. This video is a mixture of performance and concept as they are wearing elephant costumes, and they are also at a concert performing. The elephants are dressed up in a desert, which is one type of performance. And another type is that they are actually at their concert with elephant heads on performing. The music video has inter textual references to London. The video contains shots of the elephant riding Boris bikes, which is a well known attribute to London culture. Also, the elephant is shown in the London underground busking and walking round. This is a typical thing you find in London as people tend to busk there as they know it will be busy and people are more willing to give them a reward for their performance.

Performance

Relationship: There is no link at all between the lyrics and visuals, as this is a performance based music video therefore the video just shows the two main artists, Rihanna and Shakira, dancing and singing along to the song. This video creates voyeurism, as when watching this video it is trying to make you look at them as sexual women. This is being done because they want people to look at them sexually and show that they look nice. Rihanna and Shakira are originally known as 'sexy' girls because of the way they portray themselves in the media and throughout their music videos. This video makes people look, as there are a lot of close ups that signify sexual things. Like close up's of both girls bottoms and the movements that they do in the process. There is also an aerial shot of both of the girls laying on a bed wearing hardly any clothes showing lots of their body, this will attract men to the video as they could be classed as being in a sexual position. The audience of these two stars are probably 14- 30 year olds, both male and female. This is because females want to be like them, and men want to be with them. The costumes of both artists change throughout, but each costume is very limited and does not cover much of their body at all. Both stars are known for this in each of their videos that they make.

More on Andrew Goodwin

Six conventions:

 1) Relationship between lyrics and visual (visuals illustrates/amplifies music. Or contradicts it)

2) Relationship between music visuals.

3) Particular music video genre with their own music style/iconography.

4) Close up of main actors/vocals

5) Vogurism-subjectifity of woman(looking). (Screen within screen)

6) Intersexual references (Billie Jean)

Star image is a key aspect in music videos. Lady Gaga can go from extreme to "natural".

Music Video Theory

Music Video Theory

Today we learnt about Andrew Goodwin's music video theory.
We were told to look at the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals,
(Whether the visuals illustrate, amplify or contradict music)
We were also told to look at the relationship between the music and the visuals.
Is it a particular music genre with their own music video style/iconography?
Another important thing to look at was close up shots of the main artist/vocalist.

Steve Archer said consider these main elements:
  -Lyrics                 -Camera
-Music                 -Editing
         -Genre                  -Intertexuality
  -Performance       -Narrative