Simon Frith's Music Video Typologies 1988

Simon Frith theorised that music videos by 3 broad typologies, performance, narrative, conceptual. Performance consists of the artists featured heavily in a stage environment singing or playing instruments, narrative music videos have a storyline aspect like a mini film and a conceptual video is more art house style.

The most common type in 1988 at Frith's time was performance, the star and band singing in concert to fans, the goal was to convey a sense of the in concert experience.

The narrative form present a series of event, linear, cause-effect, sequence. Love stories are the most common narrative.
The conceptual narrative is usually used to convey a certain view of the artist or an ideal, it can create a standout music video but the downside is that the artist is rarely featured so that a synergistic link between the artist and the video is not as strongly created as it would be in a narrative. The performance typology is the most commonly used as it shows the musicians performing and has clear direct links to the music video. It is also fairly inexpensive to do so smaller artists would prefer a more performance based video in a financial case.

Narrative



Love Story by Taylor Swift is a textbook example of a narrative video with masses of intertextuality to enhance the storytelling. It initially starts with various long shots and establishing shots of a typical American high school, instantly this video is linked to American stereotypes and has intertextuality with infamous teen movies such as Clueless, Easy A and Mean Girls. These stories are infamous for having a teen love story which fits right in to the narrative portrayed in Love Story. Another example of intertextuality is created with many links to Romeo and Juliet either through the lyrics or through visuals, the dresses and medieval romantic castle styling. Throughout the music video the artist plays out a love story with a man and in the end they get together even though she is stranded in a castle. It is a simple narrative but highly effective because it emphasises the lyrics and underlines the romantic message of the song.

Conceptual



In Up and Up by Coldplay the conceptual theme throughout is a mixture of the weird and wonderful throughout nature, it uses impressive editing techniques to combine various elements of life such as the planets and car racing to create a striking effect. But the most important reason for this concept is to get across the beauty of nature and to show sometimes how humans stand tall and proud in such a natural environment. This is conveyed through such clips as the artists being larger than mountain ranges and cars racing around Saturn's rings. The message that this conveys is that nature and humanity are intrinsically linked and even on places like oil rigs things of beauty can happen, like a giant butterfly. A conceptual video is what we are aiming our video to be so this video provides inspiration as it tells a message though innovative means.

Performance



In the iconic Red Hot Chilli Peppers, By The Way, the band is shown throughout the entire video as simply performing on the stage. This typology is more out of date but in the past performance videos were more popular as music videos were not as easily accessible without YouTube. The music and the musicians abilities are the only focus of this video not the visuals, this conveys that the artists care more for the music than for a narrative story.

Overall the main inspiration for us is conceptual videos but we will incorporate some form of loose narrative to make the story more engaging.

Andrew Goodwins 6 Features of a Music Video

Andrew Goodwin wrote a book called "Dancing in the Distraction Factory" and featured inside is his theory consisting of the 6 characteristics you can find in music videos:

1. Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics

In The Spice Girls' music video "Wannabe" we can see that the genre of pop is shown in the video. The setting is a vibrant mansion full of varying coloured lighting to emphasise the fun and exciting atmosphere that pop music creates. The clothing worn by the singers is bright, loose and casual which reflects the nature of pop music to be fun and not tight knit and restrictive. The bright greens and pinks of highlight the jolly vibe stereotypical of the Pop genre and the dance routines are simple and repetitive which attracts the target audience of pop music, teens, as they can easily learn and replicate the dance.

Similarly in "...Baby One More Time" Spears' clothing mirrors the target audience and the overarching young influence over pop music. Her school like attire matches the juvenile genre of pop but interestingly it is more sexualised which reflects the growing maturity and sexualisation of the pop genre and the music industry. In contrast to "Wannabe" it shows a great deal of provocative dancing but still retains the pop genre, the setting of a school and the teenage hairstyle of Spears exaggerates this. Even though this was released just two years after Wannabe in 1998 it highlights the changing face of genres, and how they can rapidly adapt and even now continue to be more sexualised or make comment on the sexualisation of videos, for example in Lily Allen's "Hard Out Here".

2. Relationship between lyrics and visuals

In Coldplay's innovative "The Scientist" the visuals fit perfectly with the lyrics, especially the chorus and the most repetitive line, "lets go back to the start". Throughout the entire video the footage is played in reverse highlighting a "return to the start" but initially this is not clear. When Chris Martin first says the line the camera pans up and we can see a cyclist going backwards as Martin gets out of bed in reverse. This clever twist amplifies the lyric or returning to a better time as well as visually complementing it, it also makes for an enigmatic and different conceptual music video. This idea of a different concept is definitely something our group will want to include in our production, and this video will provide inspiration for creativity.

Snow Patrol also link the visuals to the lyrics to add needed emphasis to their smash hit, "Chasing Cars". The lead singer, Gary Lightbody, repeats the line, "If it just lay here, would you lie with me". He delivers this line across various uncomfortable surfaces to lie upon, such as flooring and gravel. This enhances the surface meeting of the words as it visually shows that no matter how

uncomfortable the place or situation the bond that he shares with the subject of the video is strong and resilient. It is a subtle touch that emboldens the lyrics and does add more layers of meaning, this technique is again something out group would consider replicating, subtle filmography that adds meaning and is not as glaringly obvious as pop.

3. Relationship between music and visuals

The most common relationship between music and visuals is the pace of the music, the tempo. In Flo Rida's "Right Round" the tempo and volume of the beat changes and in accordance to it the visuals change also. In the opening 10 seconds there is a plinky countdown timer that gets deeper in tone, and when each pip sounds Flo Rida's logo flashes up, this establishes his brand and makes you immediately recognise the artist as well as 'introducing the song' with a countdown. Also during the chorus of "you spin my head right round" there are slower sound effects and each note lasts a lot longer as this corresponds with the slow turning of the turntable that Flo is standing on, and when the verses start the beat kicks in as it matches the much faster paced rapping. This is an example of creating synergy between music and visuals to create cohesion and a more enjoyable experience for the viewer as it is not disjointed.

Madonna also implements this tactic but to a more narrative structure, in "Hung Up". At the start it shows Madonna in a dance studio wearing a leotard, she turns the stereo on and the music begins to play, the tempo is slow at first and it gradually builds up with "time goes by so slowly" repeated. This introduction is a 'warm up' to the full song and the visuals mirror this, it shows Madonna stretching getting ready to dance and another group of young people stretching and getting ready. Then as soon as the beat kicks in and the tempo picks up it corresponds with a man suddenly running towards the camera and Madonna emphatically dancing. This coupling of visuals and music adds more to the narrative, emphasising the warm up and the exhaustive dancing which Madonna is trying to use as a distraction to the man she is "hung up" about.

4. Close ups of the artists

Close ups of the artists are used to create an identity, and to involve you more in the video. They ted to be in more performance style videos such as Sum 41's "In Too Deep".  Frontman Deryck Whibley created a style that was present from 1990s up till modern day. There are a great deal of close ups in this song of Whibley screaming into the mic showing off his short spiky blond hair, this is where he creates a house style. Across most Sum 41 videos close ups of him are used and his blond hair is short and spiky in each one, this creates a sense of brand loyalty and becomes his visual trademark in order to stand out in the music industry.

Of course in regards to Sia she creates a trademark brand by doing the polar opposite of the close up of artists. This shows that in order to stand out in this era you have to do something radically different and Sia not appearing in any of her music videos certainly draws attention. In some ways it is similar to a close up as it is strikingly clear that Sia is not present, she is 'replaced' with the actress Maddie Ziegler in "The Greatest" and in most of her other videos. Similar to Sum 41 she creates  brand loyalty of not showing herself/face in public or music videos. Close ups are used frequently of Ziegler in this video, as if she were a vessel for Sia's music, adding more grandiose emotion to the video, Sia doesn't want her songs to be about her or stardom, she wants to convey a story and the use of close ups in The Greatest definitely helps the narrative, ad it conveys the subjects emotions in a clear way.

5. References to looking

Duran Duran quite literally present the voyeuristic view of women in music videos with "Girls On Film". The opening shots and sounds of cameras clicking highlights the treatment of female bodies in this video, as objects of entertainment. The band are looking at a wrestling ring where various women in revealing outfits sumo wrestle and ride other man as cowgirls (see left). Women are being presented as things to be viewed as beautiful and worthy of photography, but also under the controlling camera click of a man. The women are the subjects of all the 'looking' in this video as matched by the lyrics. But on the other hand this video doesn't necessarily seem to be misogynistic, it is saying that pictures are taken of women because they are beautiful and that they are "turning heads", this suggests that the notion of voyeuristic looking doesn't have to be a sexist ideal, this music video asks this question.

In contrast Justin Timberlake's "Mirrors" addresses the references to looking in a different light, he using mirrors to show looking into the past and remembering a better time and trying to recapture that youth. This is created in the music video by an old couple looking on their past through mirrors in order to reinvigorate themselves and to look deeply into themselves, it may seem a simplistic embodiment of looking into the past, a mirror, but it is effective. It makes the subjects themselves be the object to be looked at and to revaluate their lives, creating powerful scenes of reuniting and making a memorable music video, all form a simplistic idea. Such simple ideas is what we hope yo base our production on, simple ideas that are effective and deliver a meaningful message.

6. Intertextuality

Intertextuality is essential in some music videos to link them to the real world and to back up their satirical and mocking message. The entire video of "Californication" by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers is pretty much entirely intertextuality as they mock Californian life and the falsification by Hollywood. They mockingly present L.A. through the medium of visual effects video games, suggesting that all Hollywood life is just a pointless game and means nothing. The use of games like "Grand Theft Auto" add an even greater level of intertextuality as they begin to use a video game about crime to represent L.A. Intertextuality is essential in this video to emphasise RHCP's point and to make Hollywood life more understandable to all ages and cultures by using video games.

Eminem could be argued as the King of intertextuality, his satirical and mocking rap lyrics coupled with outrageous visuals and parodies of American culture create a brand identity and allow him to engage a wider audience much like RHCP as most people will be able to relate to at least one issue in his raps. His breakthrough video, "My Name Is" has a vast amount of parodies from stupid redneck hillbillies to obesity, The Brady Bunch to The President. His range or mocking portrayals matches the lyrics and accents the points he is trying to explain, without intertextuality his music wouldn't be as shocking and defining on the history of music. This is useful for our production as we might consider using intertextuality to convey a message.

Overall Andrew Goodwin's 6 features are present in a vast majority of music videos and they greatly define what makes an iconic video. We can use his 6 features and the inspiration from these examples to create a well rounded professional video, by including or deliberately not including certain features to create an overall dramatic effect.