Theory

 Goodwin

The relationship between lyrics, visuals, music:

Goodwin argued that there are six key aspects of any music video:

- Genre conventions

According to Goodwin every genre has specific traits that are used to clearly differentiate one from the other. For example in country music videos there is a consistency of cowboy type clothing, rural backgrounds, trucks and instruments, this is shown in Blake Sheltons video for "Some Beach" where he can be seen in a cowboy had sitting on/in a truck for the majority of the video: 

- Relationship between visuals and lyrics

Goodwin suggests that in music videos visuals would match up with whatever the lyrics are. This is shown in Taylor Swifts "You Belong With Me" music video when the lyrics say "laughing on the park bench" it is simultaneously denoted with Taylor Swift and her love interest sitting on a park bench.
 

- Relationship between visuals and music

Goodwin believed that visuals in a music video should match with the music in the form of editing or movement such as dancing to the beat. This is shown most commonly in videos for music that contains lots of beats or bass so in rap although it is definitely not exclusive to rap. An example of this is in Kanye Wests "Gold Digger" video where Kanye is moving back and forth to the beat of the song, This can also be seen in Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" where the dancers are seen twerking to the beat of the song.

- Star representation (Richard Dyer)

According to Goodwin star representation helps engage audience as helps the star create a ‘look’ which will show who they are as a performer. An example of this is Lady Ganga who is clearly distinguishable from other artists through her over the top outfits.

- Notions of looking/voyeurism

The term voyeurism means “the practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity.” Laura Mulvey (feminist theorist) described the male gaze as being voyeuristic. An example of this can be seen in Flo Rida’s “wild ones” where almost all women are in revealing clothing and are holding each other or Flo Rida in suggestive ways.

- intertextual references

In music videos it is not uncommon for there to be references to other pieces of media, such as movies, video games etc. This can help the audience feel more connected to the music video when thy understand the reference (Stuart Hall) thus making the video memorable. An example of this is in Britney Spears’s “oops I did it again”, there is a reference to Titanic when they mention Britney Spears’s is co-star getting her a necklace that an old lady had dropped in the sea.

How we applied this theory:

For genre conventions we incorporated lots of colour and loud facial expressions to fit with out genre of dark pop (more here).

For relationship between visuals and lyrics we incorporated this by having a birthday scene for the lyrics "I'm so sick of seventeen" and for the bathroom scene we had her looking into a mirror that showed a different version of her for the lyrics "I hate the way i'm perceived".

For the relationship between visuals and music we had a lot of movements that corresponded with beats like at the beginning in the bedroom scene when the beat drops as she closes her laptop or in that same
scene where she rips the posters off her wall in time with each beat.

Star representation was incorporated by us distinguishing her pop/punk style, especially in the performance scenes where she can be seen wearing a spiked chocker and all black with coloured hair.

Notions of looking/voyerism was incorporated is many ways such as the mirror in the bathroom scene, the video played on her laptop in the start of the video and the old tv.

Intertextual references was a big thing in our video, especially with the music video "misery business" by Paramore which we referenced a lot through the general 'look' of the video as in the clothes and atmosphere.  Our video was also intertextual with the horror movie "Carrie", when we poured the red liquid over Olivia (Ambre) is was a callback to the famous scene in that movie where the mean kids pour pigs blood on Carrie during her prom however, we use it to create polysemy as after getting drenched in the liquid 'Olivia' smiles.

Richard Dyer’s Starr Theory:

Richard Dyer believed that ‘stars’ or celebrities are made by companies to look like ‘real people’ feeling ‘real emotions’ in order to sell products e.g. film, magazine, music. An example of this is Brittany Spears and how she was being controlled by her parents and the company she worked for to create an iconic teen sensation which would attract teen audiences and make money.

Laura Mulvey male gaze:

The male gaze was established by Laura Mulvey, a British feminist theorist. The male gaze is when women in media are presented are objects to be seen by men, this can be done by isolating a part of a woman’s body so she is seen as just her body and not a full person. A common example of the male gaze is in the James Bond films where the ‘Bond girl’ is portrayed solely through her sexuality and where the audience is encouraged to look at them through the lend of Bond who is often objectifying them.

How we applied this theory:

In scenes like the bathroom and cake scene we showed 'Olivia' licking her fingers and smushing cake all over her face after licking it, this could be seen as the male gaze as these acts could be seen as having sexual connotations.

Toderov narrative theory:

Toderov believed that any film has 5 main stages, equilibrium, disruption, recognition, attempt to fix and new equilibrium. This can be shown in the film Shrek 1:

Equilibrium: 

Shrek is an ogre who lives by himself and hates everyone.

Disruption:

 Lord Farquaad has told all the fairy tale creatures to leave their homes and go live with Shrek because he dislikes them.

Recognition:

Shrek doesn’t like being with others so he visits Lord Farquaad to tell him that he needs to undo what he did. Lord Farquaad then tells Shrek he can fix it if Shrek agrees to rescue Princess Fiona from her castle and bring her to Farquaad so they can be married.

Attempt to fix:

Shrek does what he is told and rescues Fiona from her tower.

New equilibrium:

Shrek and Fiona fall in love when Shrek gets to know her and also realises that she is also an ogre so they get together and defeat Farquaad and send the fairy tale animals back to their homes.

Campbell’s Monomyth:

Campbell’s Monomyth: the hero’s journey is a commonly seen narrative is film and tv where the hero will set off on some kind of quest, go through a character changing adventure, return home. This can be seen in films such as The matrix, Corline, Moana.

Propp’s character archetypes:

Vladimir propp found that any character could be described by what they do to help the story move along in seven character archetypes: the villain, the donner, the helper, the hero, the false hero, the dispatcher, the princess.

The villain is the person/animal/thing that causes the issue in the story. Commonly an evil person that wants to cause harm and dislikes the hero. An example of the villain could be the Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty.

The donner is the provider that gives the hero what they need to defeat their enemy or save the story. An example of the donner is obi-Wan Kenobi who gives Luke training advice.

The helper is a sidekick to the hero and helps them along their journey. An example could be the can in Coraline who helps her defeat her ‘other mother’.

The hero is who the story is centered around and someone who saves the day. An example could be Woody from Toy Story.

The false hero is someone who seems like a hero at the beginning but betrays the hero and ends up being corrupt. An example is Luke in Percy Jackson who seems to be Percy’s friend at first but then we find that he was corrupt from the beginning.

The dispatcher is the character that sends the hero on their journey. An example is Moana’s grandmother in Moana who tells her what she has to do to save her island.

The princess is the sought after character such as a princess in fairytales that needs to be saved. An example is Princess Fiona in Shrek.

How we applied this theory:

I used this by making 'Olivia' first seem like the princess then revealing her as the false hero when we realise it was actually another version of herself who poured the liquid on her and posted it online.

Stuart Hall Reception Theory:

Stuart Hall proposed that different texts may have different meanings to different audiences.

Preferred reading (also known as dominant): 

This is when the producer picks and chooses how they want their audience to view the media text.
Oppositional reading: 

This is when the audience create their own meaning for the text and ignore the preferred reading that the producer is trying to portray.
Negotiated reading: 

This is like the in-between of preferred and oppositional reading - the audience allows the preferred reading and accepts the producers views but at the same time, they would also have views of their own.

Web 2.0:

Web 2.0 describes how the line between audiences and creator have been blurred due to things such as the creation of social media where audiences can engage and create for each other. Tim O'Reilly first coined the term in 2004, Dan Gillmor described it as the 'former audience' vs 'big media dinosaurs' and David Gauntlett said it was 'the end of audience studies'. Part of Web 2.0 is digitisation such as Garageband which allows anyone to be able to record song on their own and upload it onto streaming websites such as Spotify. 

Globalisation:

When looking at concepts such as digitisation and disruption we would first have to look at globalisation. Globalisation looks at the growth of independence in the worlds cultures, economics etc through people, technology and information. Media globalisation has also inspired a participatory culture. The audience gets involved by creating their own content, and also by sharing and critiquing the content created by others on social media.