Difference between revisions of "Music Television (Discussion)"
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==Sample analyses== | ==Sample analyses== | ||
| − | * | + | '''From Melissa Lockhart:''' |
| − | * | + | *Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris - "We Found Love": This music video is narrative, because although the song is made up of small fragments of scenes, it outlines a story of love, drugs, breakup, and heartache between the two musicians who are playing roles of fictional characters. |
| − | * | + | *Drake featuring Rihanna - "Take Care": This music video is non-narrative, because a cohesive story is not told but ideas and feelings are evoked through a series of images such as those of the bull, the bird, and the smoldering ground. The video also has a performance aspect through the large amount of rapping you see Drake do. |
| − | * | + | *Gotye featuring Kimbra - "Somebody That I Used To Know": This music video is largely based on graphics through the special stop motion editing that was used for painting the walls and for painting over Gotye himself. The video really centers around these visual effects which indicate it as graphic focused. |
| − | + | *Katy Perry - "Wide Awake": This video is narrative, because of the storybook journey she takes through a maze in the video. Although a little confusing, the video tells a story through short scenes and through dialogue featured before and after the actually song portion of the video. | |
| + | *M.I.A. - "Bad Girls": This video is mostly non-narrative because it focuses on shots of dangerous car stunts and dancing scenes; however, a lots of scenes are very performance based because they focus on the singing by Maya. | ||
| − | + | ==Music television's antecedents== | |
| − | # | + | List the five principal antecedents of (that is, predecessors of or influences on) music television that Allan identifies. |
| + | |||
| + | '''From Melissa Lockhart:''' | ||
| + | #From the cinema it gets the synchronization of sound and image of musical performance. | ||
| + | #From film musicals it gets the valuable nature of both the performance of a song and narrative accompaniment as well as choreographic influence, music videos also get the idea of a pre-recorded song that is then lip-synced in the video, and it gets spatial incoherence and visual discontinuity. | ||
| + | #From documentary films, music videos gain influence from the filmed recording of music festivals that inspire performance-based videos. | ||
| + | #Soundies, Scopitone and Telescriptions were short films of performances by popular musicians. Soundies and Scopitone came in coin-operated machines. Telescriptions were films packaged usually for television stations. | ||
| + | #Television had offerings of music before contemporary music television on shows like ''American Bandstand'' and ''Soul Train''. [And ''The Monkees''] | ||
==Sample production== | ==Sample production== | ||
Revision as of 22:38, 5 December 2013
Types of expression
Allan contends that one can group music videos according to types of expression -- separate from genres based on content. That is, genres such a rock, pop, rap, country and R&B are the most common way of grouping music videos, but cutting across those genres are certain expressive forms. Allan lists four of them:
- Performance - Group 4
- Narrative - Group 1
- Nonnarrative - Group 2
- Graphic - Group 3
Each group should be prepared to explain the characteristics of their "type of expression" to the class, and choose one video that exemplifies it. (The video must be available online: YouTube, mtv.com, Yahoo Music, etc.)
All groups
- List four ways that the Replacements' Left of the Dial breaks the conventions of the music video. Be as specific as possible and draw examples from the video.
- List the five principal antecedents of (or influences on) music television and explain the specific aspects they contributed to music TV.
- While discussing "The Sound of Video," Allan discusses the mix of music and nonmusical elements in music video.
- Aside from genres and types of expression, what generally characterizes the music presented in music videos?
- How can nonmusical elements be used?
Sample analyses
From Melissa Lockhart:
- Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris - "We Found Love": This music video is narrative, because although the song is made up of small fragments of scenes, it outlines a story of love, drugs, breakup, and heartache between the two musicians who are playing roles of fictional characters.
- Drake featuring Rihanna - "Take Care": This music video is non-narrative, because a cohesive story is not told but ideas and feelings are evoked through a series of images such as those of the bull, the bird, and the smoldering ground. The video also has a performance aspect through the large amount of rapping you see Drake do.
- Gotye featuring Kimbra - "Somebody That I Used To Know": This music video is largely based on graphics through the special stop motion editing that was used for painting the walls and for painting over Gotye himself. The video really centers around these visual effects which indicate it as graphic focused.
- Katy Perry - "Wide Awake": This video is narrative, because of the storybook journey she takes through a maze in the video. Although a little confusing, the video tells a story through short scenes and through dialogue featured before and after the actually song portion of the video.
- M.I.A. - "Bad Girls": This video is mostly non-narrative because it focuses on shots of dangerous car stunts and dancing scenes; however, a lots of scenes are very performance based because they focus on the singing by Maya.
Music television's antecedents
List the five principal antecedents of (that is, predecessors of or influences on) music television that Allan identifies.
From Melissa Lockhart:
- From the cinema it gets the synchronization of sound and image of musical performance.
- From film musicals it gets the valuable nature of both the performance of a song and narrative accompaniment as well as choreographic influence, music videos also get the idea of a pre-recorded song that is then lip-synced in the video, and it gets spatial incoherence and visual discontinuity.
- From documentary films, music videos gain influence from the filmed recording of music festivals that inspire performance-based videos.
- Soundies, Scopitone and Telescriptions were short films of performances by popular musicians. Soundies and Scopitone came in coin-operated machines. Telescriptions were films packaged usually for television stations.
- Television had offerings of music before contemporary music television on shows like American Bandstand and Soul Train. [And The Monkees]
Sample production
Each group should choose one well-known song and pretend they're video producers. Design three videos for that song that use the narrative, nonnarrative and graphic types of expression; but do not use the same concept that the real music video used. You may divide your group into sub-groups to work on these videos. And you may want to storyboard your video.
Bibliography
- Butler, Jeremy G. Television: Critical Methods and Applications. New York: Routledge, 2012.
