Tuesday, 3 July 2012
IMAX SALES UP 23%
IMAX reported sales up 23% to $56 million in the first three months of 2012, partly because of the strong opening of The Hunger Games in March The film made more than $10 million at IMAX screens.
STEVE ARCHER: HOW TO STUDY MUSIC VIDEOS
Music television
2 – how to study music videos
Following on from his article on MTV in MediaMagazine 6, Steve Archer suggests five essential criteria which should help you to evaluate whether that ultra-cool new video really does justice to the music, or whether it’s just a glorified marketing tool. And afterwards he and Pete Fraser present their top five music videos of all time.
Studying music video – some suggestions
Pessimists often complain that music video television has made pop superficially image-based. But my description of MTV and music video in MediaMag 6 failed to address what is still its most central and significant element, beyond the control of MTV, Viacom and Motorola: the appeal and power of pop sounds!
I’d like to suggest that the sounds are the basis of a process of visualisation that serve to enhance, not restrict, the original pop sound effect. Pop music theorist Andrew Goodwin claims that a good music video is:
a clip that responds to the pleasures of music, and in which that music is made visual, either in new ways or in ways that accentuate existing visual associations.
Dancing in the Distraction Factory
If we accept the theory that pop songs on their own are not enough to create sufficient meaning and pleasure in the audience, the ‘added value’ of star image created by CD covers, live performance and music videos can be enough to inspire the consumer to buy into the whole intensely romantic myth of it all – and therefore actually buy the pop music.
Certainly, the whole music business is sustained by the few star guarantees of profit in an unstable market. This maybe explains the somewhat fetishistic behaviour of fans who will buy the CD even if they can easily get the tracks for free on some P2P provider – we want all the packaging, the sacrosanct details in the booklet, the assurance it really belongs to us, not just the ‘stacking up’ of sounds that is the song itself. However, I am keen to keep these sounds as the primary pleasure and driving force of the music industry. This focus, therefore, is reflected in the order of my ‘Top Five Things to Look for’ when deciding if a music video is any good.
Five things to look for …
I’ve turned the ideas in Goodwin’s book, Dancing in the Distraction Factory, into checklist form for you to test out on the current crop of music videos.
At number 1 ... ‘Thought Beats’ or seeing the sounds in your head
The basis for visualising images comes from a psychological process called synaesthesia, where you picture sounds in your mind’s eye. This idea is absolutely central to understanding music video as they build on the soundtrack’s visual associations in order to connect with the audience and provide that additional pleasure.
To use this approach you need to start with the music, sorting out the way the song works, taking into account the way it has been stacked up with sound. To begin, lyrics don’t need to be analysed word for word like a poem but rather considered for the way they introduce a general feeling or mood. Very rarely do song lyrics have a coherent meaning that can be simply read off; but they are important in at least creating a sense of subject matter. So key phrases or lines (and especially those repeated in the chorus) will have a part to play in the kind of visuals associated with the song.
Here, Roland Barthes’ theory of the ‘grain of voice’ is relevant – this sees the singing voice more as an expressive instrument, personal, unique even, to the singer, like a fingerprint, and therefore able to create associations in itself. The voice of a song may even possess trademarks that work hand-in-hand with the star image – so Michael Jackson’s yelp is a trademark sound that immediately sets him apart from other singers.
Finally, if songs are stories, then the singer is the storyteller and this obviously makes music videos stand out on TV, as they feature a first person mode of address rather than the invisible ‘fourth wall’ of television narration. Goodwin interestingly compares pop singers to stand-up comics in the way the personal trademark or signature dominates the performance. The music – or arrangement of the song, including instrumentation, the mix and effects, including samples – generally works with the lyrics and grain of voice. Generally we can look at key sounds, like the tempo (or speed of the song) and structure of the song in terms of verse and chorus. To give an example of how instruments can create visual associations, the slow twang of the steel guitar could create geographically-based visual associations from the Deep South of the US – a desert plain, a small town, one road out, men chewing tobacco … We all share a memory bank of popular culture imagery (intertextuality), a sense of shared cultural history without which these references would make no sense. Places, people, feelings, situations leading to mini-narratives – all these can be summoned from the sounds of popular music.
These visualisations can arise from more personal, individual responses, sometimes even tied to a place or part of your own autobiography, the specific details of your life story and emotions. A combination of these shared and personal images tied to the words and instrumentation form the basis of music video creativity.
At number 2 … Narrative and performance
Songs rarely tell complete narratives; we are used to studying them with other visual texts like film. The narrative fuzz in songs affects the way stories are used in music video representations of a song’s meaning (see number 4 on page 22 for more on this). So, often we get the suggestion of a story, a hint at some kind of drama unfolding.
There is another important reason why music videos should avoid a classic realist narrative, and that is their role in advertising. Music videos need to have repeatability built in to them. We need to be able to watch them repeatedly in a more casual way, with a looser approach to their storytelling. I’d suggest that more important than narrative is the way that performance is used in video clips, a point I’ll look at again in number 3. Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor. Sometimes, the artist (especially the singer) will be a part of the story, acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip-sync close-up and the mimed playing of instruments that remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it. Remember that pop music is a romantic art, all about truth, talent, and magic, so we need to believe in the authenticity of the performance first and foremost (which is why, in their effort to win our respect and affections, we get so much eye-rolling, gesturing and sweat from the wannabes of Pop Idol and Fame Academy). The supposed individual and original qualities of these performers leads me to my next point, the source of all profit in the business … the star!
At number 3 … The star image
The music business relies on the relatively few big name stars to fund its activities; it usually fails to connect with popular audiences – only about one in ten acts put out by the industry actually makes any money. Therefore, what we can describe as the meta-narrative of the star image will have an important part to play in the music video production process. Meta-narrative is a term that describes the development of the star image over time, the stories that surround a particular artist.
Michael Jackson – a mini case study
Michael Jackson’s meta-narrative has been a long, sometimes difficult journey and one he has lost control of in recent years. There have been a few crucial moments in Jackson’s meta-narrative of pop stardom. The first was the successful move from being one of a group – even if acknowledged as its central talent – as child member of The Jackson 5, to becoming a solo artist. He was then able to negotiate one of the most successful solo careers ever through developing both his trademark sound and image. The ground-breaking music videos for Thriller and Beat It were an important part of this mega-stardom. At some point in the 90s, though, this meta-narrative took a wrong turn and his unique ‘star image’ became ‘freakish’ and self-indulgent; we are reminded that this child star has never grown up. Thus, the Jackson talent, his natural birthright it seems, becomes the reason for his adult weirdness. His younger self – black, funky, energetic – is constantly held up to condemn his current abnormality – withdrawn, of no ethnicity, over-produced to the point of ceasing to exist. And yet, all this means he is still talked about, the object of mass media fascination and so, in a very real sense, still a star. Whether the most recent allegations of child abuse will finally render that stardom invalid remains to be seen.
Meta-narratives of star image are not simply a matter of manipulation, but a dialogue or negotiation of what the music business asserts about their star, and what we accept! Still, in each new video, Michael Jackson tries to regain control over his meta-narrative but he can’t just switch off all the different associations he’s accumulated during his career, whether good or bad. So music videos can best be seen as one of the most important ways that the image of the artist is ‘managed’.
At number 4 … Three ways in which music videos relate visuals to the song
We can identify three ways in which music videos work to support or promote the song. These are illustration, amplification and disjuncture and I find them extremely useful in attempting to generalise the effects of individual music videos.
• Music videos can illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre, providing a sometimes over literal set of images. Here, then, is the most straightforward technique and the classic example of visualisation, with everything in the music video based on the source of the pop song.
• However, as with all advertising, the most persistent type of video adds to the value of the song. Amplification is seen as the mark of the true music video Auteur, the director as artist, and an increasingly common way to view music video creatives (VH-1’s Best 100 Videos clearly placed Spike Jonze in the Auteur category with his work always amplifying the original song’s meaning and effect, usually through surreal humour). Crucially, though, and what separates it from disjuncture, is the fact that amplification music videos retain a link with the song and work to enhance or develop ideas, rather than fundamentally changing them.
• Disjuncture is a term used to describe those music videos that (normally intentionally) seem to work by ignoring the original song and creating a whole new set of meanings. This is quite a radical technique and used by arty bands in order to assert their difference and originality. Usually, disjuncture videos of this type don’t make a lot of sense and may be based on abstract imagery. For example in Spike Jonze’s video for Daft Punk’s ‘Da Funk’ we see a man with a dog’s head and his arm in a cast walking round New York, ignored by all, with dialogue completely unrelated to the song itself. Sometimes though, disjuncture videos are just bad, ill-conceived and self-indulgent mistakes.
And finally at number 5 ... Technical aspects of music video
The last really essential aspect of music video to study is technical. This includes camerawork, movement and angle, mise-en-scène, editing, and sound. It is important to remember the more general features of music videos already mentioned when trying to work out the technical effects, especially those which are post-production, effects. Broadly, the technical conventions can be summed up as follows:
1. Speed! Speed is visualised by camera movement, fast editing (montage) and digital effects.
– Camera movement is often motivated by running, dancing and walking performers.
– Fast-cutting and montage editing creates a visually decentred experience necessary for music video consumption, with the images occasionally moving so fast that they are impossible to understand on first viewing and thus need to be viewed several times (repeatability).
– Post-production digital effects – a staple of music video where images can be colorized, multiple split screens appear, and so on, all to complicate and intrigue, providing pleasure again and again.
Not all camera movement is about speed though and some use slow pace through dissolves or static shots. This kind of editing – like Sinead O’Conner’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ – is striking and effective in setting the song apart from the hustle and bustle of most pop activity.
2. Meat! The meat of most music videos is the cut to the close-up of the singer’s face. This is because the voice is seen as the most important part of pop music.
3. Beats! Often, the video will try and represent the music through the use of the cut to go with the beat or key rhythm.
4. Lighting and colour may also be used to emphasise key moments in the song, using methods from lighting live performances for dramatic effect. Colour may be used to show a development in the song, going from colour to black and white or vice versa when the chorus comes in. Equally, any change in the mise-en-scène or camerawork can signal the same type of thing.
5. Mise-en-scène – obviously the setting for music videos is important, often to guarantee the authenticity of the clip rather than anything else. So mise-en-scène for many music videos is the concert hall or rehearsal room to emphasise the realness of the performance or the grit and practice that goes into attaining star quality. Increasingly, CGI is used, especially for dance songs, which don’t rely so much on being ‘real’ like rock, soul and rap acts.
Adverts or art – you decide
So, that’s it. Hopefully, I’ve emphasised how complex music videos are. It’d be nice to hear your views and analyses of individual music videos. What do you think? Art or ads? Soft porn (using mainly female fragmented body parts to attract the – mainly male – gaze, as Laura Mulvey suggested in 1975) or a genuinely romantic and even spiritual experience of star worship? For what it’s worth, I don’t really like MTV, I find it too repetitive and too narrow. But music videos themselves can be wonderful extensions of the song, adding ideas and pleasures on top of the primary wonder of popular music.
I do believe that sounds remain the source and proper focus of the industry, with images a necessary but less interesting accompaniment. Radio is better than music television, and music is better than radio. The success of all these different media together, along with the increasing influence of the Internet, make popular music the intriguing stew it is today. MM
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 7, February 2004
Following on from his article on MTV in MediaMagazine 6, Steve Archer suggests five essential criteria which should help you to evaluate whether that ultra-cool new video really does justice to the music, or whether it’s just a glorified marketing tool. And afterwards he and Pete Fraser present their top five music videos of all time.
Studying music video – some suggestions
Pessimists often complain that music video television has made pop superficially image-based. But my description of MTV and music video in MediaMag 6 failed to address what is still its most central and significant element, beyond the control of MTV, Viacom and Motorola: the appeal and power of pop sounds!
I’d like to suggest that the sounds are the basis of a process of visualisation that serve to enhance, not restrict, the original pop sound effect. Pop music theorist Andrew Goodwin claims that a good music video is:
a clip that responds to the pleasures of music, and in which that music is made visual, either in new ways or in ways that accentuate existing visual associations.
Dancing in the Distraction Factory
If we accept the theory that pop songs on their own are not enough to create sufficient meaning and pleasure in the audience, the ‘added value’ of star image created by CD covers, live performance and music videos can be enough to inspire the consumer to buy into the whole intensely romantic myth of it all – and therefore actually buy the pop music.
Certainly, the whole music business is sustained by the few star guarantees of profit in an unstable market. This maybe explains the somewhat fetishistic behaviour of fans who will buy the CD even if they can easily get the tracks for free on some P2P provider – we want all the packaging, the sacrosanct details in the booklet, the assurance it really belongs to us, not just the ‘stacking up’ of sounds that is the song itself. However, I am keen to keep these sounds as the primary pleasure and driving force of the music industry. This focus, therefore, is reflected in the order of my ‘Top Five Things to Look for’ when deciding if a music video is any good.
Five things to look for …
I’ve turned the ideas in Goodwin’s book, Dancing in the Distraction Factory, into checklist form for you to test out on the current crop of music videos.
At number 1 ... ‘Thought Beats’ or seeing the sounds in your head
The basis for visualising images comes from a psychological process called synaesthesia, where you picture sounds in your mind’s eye. This idea is absolutely central to understanding music video as they build on the soundtrack’s visual associations in order to connect with the audience and provide that additional pleasure.
To use this approach you need to start with the music, sorting out the way the song works, taking into account the way it has been stacked up with sound. To begin, lyrics don’t need to be analysed word for word like a poem but rather considered for the way they introduce a general feeling or mood. Very rarely do song lyrics have a coherent meaning that can be simply read off; but they are important in at least creating a sense of subject matter. So key phrases or lines (and especially those repeated in the chorus) will have a part to play in the kind of visuals associated with the song.
Here, Roland Barthes’ theory of the ‘grain of voice’ is relevant – this sees the singing voice more as an expressive instrument, personal, unique even, to the singer, like a fingerprint, and therefore able to create associations in itself. The voice of a song may even possess trademarks that work hand-in-hand with the star image – so Michael Jackson’s yelp is a trademark sound that immediately sets him apart from other singers.
Finally, if songs are stories, then the singer is the storyteller and this obviously makes music videos stand out on TV, as they feature a first person mode of address rather than the invisible ‘fourth wall’ of television narration. Goodwin interestingly compares pop singers to stand-up comics in the way the personal trademark or signature dominates the performance. The music – or arrangement of the song, including instrumentation, the mix and effects, including samples – generally works with the lyrics and grain of voice. Generally we can look at key sounds, like the tempo (or speed of the song) and structure of the song in terms of verse and chorus. To give an example of how instruments can create visual associations, the slow twang of the steel guitar could create geographically-based visual associations from the Deep South of the US – a desert plain, a small town, one road out, men chewing tobacco … We all share a memory bank of popular culture imagery (intertextuality), a sense of shared cultural history without which these references would make no sense. Places, people, feelings, situations leading to mini-narratives – all these can be summoned from the sounds of popular music.
These visualisations can arise from more personal, individual responses, sometimes even tied to a place or part of your own autobiography, the specific details of your life story and emotions. A combination of these shared and personal images tied to the words and instrumentation form the basis of music video creativity.
At number 2 … Narrative and performance
Songs rarely tell complete narratives; we are used to studying them with other visual texts like film. The narrative fuzz in songs affects the way stories are used in music video representations of a song’s meaning (see number 4 on page 22 for more on this). So, often we get the suggestion of a story, a hint at some kind of drama unfolding.
There is another important reason why music videos should avoid a classic realist narrative, and that is their role in advertising. Music videos need to have repeatability built in to them. We need to be able to watch them repeatedly in a more casual way, with a looser approach to their storytelling. I’d suggest that more important than narrative is the way that performance is used in video clips, a point I’ll look at again in number 3. Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor. Sometimes, the artist (especially the singer) will be a part of the story, acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip-sync close-up and the mimed playing of instruments that remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it. Remember that pop music is a romantic art, all about truth, talent, and magic, so we need to believe in the authenticity of the performance first and foremost (which is why, in their effort to win our respect and affections, we get so much eye-rolling, gesturing and sweat from the wannabes of Pop Idol and Fame Academy). The supposed individual and original qualities of these performers leads me to my next point, the source of all profit in the business … the star!
At number 3 … The star image
The music business relies on the relatively few big name stars to fund its activities; it usually fails to connect with popular audiences – only about one in ten acts put out by the industry actually makes any money. Therefore, what we can describe as the meta-narrative of the star image will have an important part to play in the music video production process. Meta-narrative is a term that describes the development of the star image over time, the stories that surround a particular artist.
Michael Jackson – a mini case study
Michael Jackson’s meta-narrative has been a long, sometimes difficult journey and one he has lost control of in recent years. There have been a few crucial moments in Jackson’s meta-narrative of pop stardom. The first was the successful move from being one of a group – even if acknowledged as its central talent – as child member of The Jackson 5, to becoming a solo artist. He was then able to negotiate one of the most successful solo careers ever through developing both his trademark sound and image. The ground-breaking music videos for Thriller and Beat It were an important part of this mega-stardom. At some point in the 90s, though, this meta-narrative took a wrong turn and his unique ‘star image’ became ‘freakish’ and self-indulgent; we are reminded that this child star has never grown up. Thus, the Jackson talent, his natural birthright it seems, becomes the reason for his adult weirdness. His younger self – black, funky, energetic – is constantly held up to condemn his current abnormality – withdrawn, of no ethnicity, over-produced to the point of ceasing to exist. And yet, all this means he is still talked about, the object of mass media fascination and so, in a very real sense, still a star. Whether the most recent allegations of child abuse will finally render that stardom invalid remains to be seen.
Meta-narratives of star image are not simply a matter of manipulation, but a dialogue or negotiation of what the music business asserts about their star, and what we accept! Still, in each new video, Michael Jackson tries to regain control over his meta-narrative but he can’t just switch off all the different associations he’s accumulated during his career, whether good or bad. So music videos can best be seen as one of the most important ways that the image of the artist is ‘managed’.
At number 4 … Three ways in which music videos relate visuals to the song
We can identify three ways in which music videos work to support or promote the song. These are illustration, amplification and disjuncture and I find them extremely useful in attempting to generalise the effects of individual music videos.
• Music videos can illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre, providing a sometimes over literal set of images. Here, then, is the most straightforward technique and the classic example of visualisation, with everything in the music video based on the source of the pop song.
• However, as with all advertising, the most persistent type of video adds to the value of the song. Amplification is seen as the mark of the true music video Auteur, the director as artist, and an increasingly common way to view music video creatives (VH-1’s Best 100 Videos clearly placed Spike Jonze in the Auteur category with his work always amplifying the original song’s meaning and effect, usually through surreal humour). Crucially, though, and what separates it from disjuncture, is the fact that amplification music videos retain a link with the song and work to enhance or develop ideas, rather than fundamentally changing them.
• Disjuncture is a term used to describe those music videos that (normally intentionally) seem to work by ignoring the original song and creating a whole new set of meanings. This is quite a radical technique and used by arty bands in order to assert their difference and originality. Usually, disjuncture videos of this type don’t make a lot of sense and may be based on abstract imagery. For example in Spike Jonze’s video for Daft Punk’s ‘Da Funk’ we see a man with a dog’s head and his arm in a cast walking round New York, ignored by all, with dialogue completely unrelated to the song itself. Sometimes though, disjuncture videos are just bad, ill-conceived and self-indulgent mistakes.
And finally at number 5 ... Technical aspects of music video
The last really essential aspect of music video to study is technical. This includes camerawork, movement and angle, mise-en-scène, editing, and sound. It is important to remember the more general features of music videos already mentioned when trying to work out the technical effects, especially those which are post-production, effects. Broadly, the technical conventions can be summed up as follows:
1. Speed! Speed is visualised by camera movement, fast editing (montage) and digital effects.
– Camera movement is often motivated by running, dancing and walking performers.
– Fast-cutting and montage editing creates a visually decentred experience necessary for music video consumption, with the images occasionally moving so fast that they are impossible to understand on first viewing and thus need to be viewed several times (repeatability).
– Post-production digital effects – a staple of music video where images can be colorized, multiple split screens appear, and so on, all to complicate and intrigue, providing pleasure again and again.
Not all camera movement is about speed though and some use slow pace through dissolves or static shots. This kind of editing – like Sinead O’Conner’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ – is striking and effective in setting the song apart from the hustle and bustle of most pop activity.
2. Meat! The meat of most music videos is the cut to the close-up of the singer’s face. This is because the voice is seen as the most important part of pop music.
3. Beats! Often, the video will try and represent the music through the use of the cut to go with the beat or key rhythm.
4. Lighting and colour may also be used to emphasise key moments in the song, using methods from lighting live performances for dramatic effect. Colour may be used to show a development in the song, going from colour to black and white or vice versa when the chorus comes in. Equally, any change in the mise-en-scène or camerawork can signal the same type of thing.
5. Mise-en-scène – obviously the setting for music videos is important, often to guarantee the authenticity of the clip rather than anything else. So mise-en-scène for many music videos is the concert hall or rehearsal room to emphasise the realness of the performance or the grit and practice that goes into attaining star quality. Increasingly, CGI is used, especially for dance songs, which don’t rely so much on being ‘real’ like rock, soul and rap acts.
Adverts or art – you decide
So, that’s it. Hopefully, I’ve emphasised how complex music videos are. It’d be nice to hear your views and analyses of individual music videos. What do you think? Art or ads? Soft porn (using mainly female fragmented body parts to attract the – mainly male – gaze, as Laura Mulvey suggested in 1975) or a genuinely romantic and even spiritual experience of star worship? For what it’s worth, I don’t really like MTV, I find it too repetitive and too narrow. But music videos themselves can be wonderful extensions of the song, adding ideas and pleasures on top of the primary wonder of popular music.
I do believe that sounds remain the source and proper focus of the industry, with images a necessary but less interesting accompaniment. Radio is better than music television, and music is better than radio. The success of all these different media together, along with the increasing influence of the Internet, make popular music the intriguing stew it is today. MM
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 7, February 2004
Monday, 2 July 2012
Thirty Frames Per Second
Thirty Frames Per Second: The Visionary Art of the
Music Video
Steven Reiss and Neil Feinman (Harry N.Abrams, New York, 2000)
The music video has to be densely textured so that it can hold up over repeated viewings. It has to be edgy enough to be noticed, but palatable enough to satisfy the often divergent demands of the performer, the record company and the public (A.K.A. the lowest common demoninator).
Steven Reiss and Neil Feinman (Harry N.Abrams, New York, 2000)
The music video has to be densely textured so that it can hold up over repeated viewings. It has to be edgy enough to be noticed, but palatable enough to satisfy the often divergent demands of the performer, the record company and the public (A.K.A. the lowest common demoninator).
A
plot-driven narrative usually gets boring...knowing that their music vidoes are
meant to be seen repeatedly,, most video directors prefer a denser, more
abstract style to telling a simple story.
For Jim
Farber (‘The 100 Top Music Videos’, Rolling
Stone October 14 1993), ‘Video directors reprove what good film directors
knew all along – that visuals can also be music. When excuted with élan, an
edit becomes a backbeat, a crane shot a solo, a close-up a hook.’
Friday, 29 June 2012
THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS
Look here for a post introducing Heidi Peeters
Today we study an article from Media magazine about The Manic Street Preachers.
The Manic Street Preachers have covered the following controversial topics in their songs:
• the validity of American culture (‘Blackpool Pier’)
• the madness of caged animals (‘Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky’)
• the frightening mental illness of Tourette’s Syndrome (‘Symphony of Tourette’)
• great writers such as Sylvia Plath (‘The Girl Who Wanted To Be God’)
• forgotten heroes of war photography like Kevin Carter
• controversial pornography workers in ‘Little Baby Nothing’
• anorexia (‘4st 7lbs’).
In spite of their obvious successes, they continue to tackle difficult issues in their songs and in their public demonstrations. The Manics were the first Western group to play in Havana, Cuba, and have recently contributed to the NME’s ‘1 Love’ album to raise money for the War Child charity. From within the music industry confines, they have made music that makes a difference.
The Situationists were a strong influence on punk music, and are cited by the Manics. Like Punk, the Manic Street Preachers merged a massive mixture of styles and influences – the band are big readers and culture-vultures, and this shows in their songs and videos.
The Manic Street Preachers have placed Wales firmly on the musical map. By proudly displaying their identity with huge Welsh flag backdrops, and culminating most of their tours at home, the band have forced a London-focused music industry actually to seek out bands like The Stereophonics, Catatonia and Super Furry Animals whose music is full of their Welsh roots. Could an album sung in Welsh have hit the charts before the Manics appeared?
Analysing the Manics’ music
The Manic Street Preachers can be analysed on a number of levels. Their lyrics are textually rich (Richey Edwards’ early lyrics are a painfully personal self-examination of human fragility). Their songs are musically diverse (from accessibly pop – ‘Everything Must Go’ – to the uncomfortable ‘Holy Bible’) and they are politically hard to pin down – whose side are they on?
The Manics are often associated with the emotional pain of youth. In February 1995, Richey Edwards, guitarist and songwriter, walked out of a hotel the band were staying in, never to be heard of again. Despite numerous ‘sightings’, earlier this year Richey was legally declared dead. Richey was plagued with eating disorders, cut himself with knives, and drank too much. But he left the band – and us – with a platform on which to discuss the previously hidden issues he suffered from. With songs like ‘4st 7lbs’ (about anorexia) and the self-explanatory ‘Die in the Summertime’, which uncomfortably questions our role as consumers, we have no choice but to take their music seriously.
When Richey Edwards cut ‘4 Real’ into his arm live on air as a reaction to DJ Steve Lamacq’s questioning of their authenticity and truthfulness, he did more than simply harm himself. He made all of us, as music journalists at the time, question our own validity over the artists we were interviewing. For my own small part, I gave all the money I earned from writing their biography to a self-harm charity.
A well known cultural critic, Walter Pater, once said that ‘all art aspires towards the condition of music’ – he was so right. As I listen to over a decade of the Manic Street Preachers’ music on Forever Delayed, their greatest hits album, I can see more slogans illustrating the sleeve and more about the band’s roots. There are quotations from the architect Gaudi, Dennis Hopper the filmmaker and actor, George Orwell the writer, and even from Van Gogh’s suicide note – all reminding us of human suffering – and breaking down barriers between star and audience.
At first I thought the most poignant of all the quotations was from Pablo Picasso, the artist: ‘Art is the life that helps us understand the truth’. Then I turned it over to find the group telling us, ‘We invite everyone to question the entire culture we take for granted.’
When I hear such passionate beliefs wrapped up in equally ardent sounds and delivered through a mass medium like the music industry, I’m reminded of all of the reasons why music is such an important form to study. We can use music to make meaningful sense of the world, and bands like the Manic Street Preachers, help us to do so un-blinkered. MM
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 3, February 2003
Today we study an article from Media magazine about The Manic Street Preachers.
Music 4 real –
studying the Manic Street Preachers
Biographer and journalist Paula Shutkever argues that the Manics’ music, personal history, influences and image make them an ideal band to study.
Six years ago, as a music journalist, I wrote the first biography of the Manic Street Preachers. Of all the artists I’ve written about professionally, the Manics are the ones who never cease to intrigue, fascinate, challenge and inspire me. They are as much a Media Studies student’s delight as a music lover’s companion and guide.
We spend around 25% of our time consuming music (consciously or sub-consciously), making it the biggest of all cultural or media forms. And yet it’s only been in the last fifteen years – almost as long as the Manic Street Preachers have been around – that the discipline of Media Studies at school, college and university has taken the study of music seriously. So, as the band put out their ‘Best of’ album, it seems an appropriate point to consider what they can offer us as an object of study.
One of the first people to write theoretically about popular music – in the 1930s – was a man called Theodor Adorno, who claimed that popular music produced industrially could never effectively challenge dominant meanings and values (ideologies). He may never have lived to watch Pop Stars or Fame Academy but he hated the ‘standardization’ of popular music which went ‘through the mill’ of an industry production process. Ironically, even Robbie Williams, who himself came to fame with the help of a manufactured boy-band (Take That), complains that pop music is too manufactured nowadays …
Fifty years after Adorno first wrote about popular music, four working-class boys from Blackwood, Wales, were growing up against a backdrop of political unease during the early 1980s. They began to discuss why the world was seemingly going crazy – from the IRA Hunger Strikers to the Miner’s Strike. As their ‘Best of’ album was released, the firefighters began their strikes and the world seemed to have come full circle. The Manics try to ‘break free’ through education, music and politics.
What’s in a name?
The Manic Street Preachers’ name itself suggests that the group wants to tell us something. The Manics were very influenced by a group of French intellectuals called the Situationists. The Situationists were members of an international movement founded in 1957; they wanted to break down the barriers between art and everyday life, between actors and spectators, between producers and consumers. They wanted people to live not as objects but as subjects (and makers) of history.
The Situationists aimed to reinvent everyday life by constructing disruptive situations, which would literally jolt people out of their boredom. They wanted to be the catalyst for a revolution and then disappear. Following much the same spirit, early in their career the Manics announced that they were going to make one album, become world-famous – and then split up. Later, when signing to the major label Sony, the band tackled upfront any potential accusations of selling-out. They had something to say, and they wanted to say it to as many people as possible and no independent label could support them to do that:
Biographer and journalist Paula Shutkever argues that the Manics’ music, personal history, influences and image make them an ideal band to study.
Six years ago, as a music journalist, I wrote the first biography of the Manic Street Preachers. Of all the artists I’ve written about professionally, the Manics are the ones who never cease to intrigue, fascinate, challenge and inspire me. They are as much a Media Studies student’s delight as a music lover’s companion and guide.
We spend around 25% of our time consuming music (consciously or sub-consciously), making it the biggest of all cultural or media forms. And yet it’s only been in the last fifteen years – almost as long as the Manic Street Preachers have been around – that the discipline of Media Studies at school, college and university has taken the study of music seriously. So, as the band put out their ‘Best of’ album, it seems an appropriate point to consider what they can offer us as an object of study.
One of the first people to write theoretically about popular music – in the 1930s – was a man called Theodor Adorno, who claimed that popular music produced industrially could never effectively challenge dominant meanings and values (ideologies). He may never have lived to watch Pop Stars or Fame Academy but he hated the ‘standardization’ of popular music which went ‘through the mill’ of an industry production process. Ironically, even Robbie Williams, who himself came to fame with the help of a manufactured boy-band (Take That), complains that pop music is too manufactured nowadays …
Fifty years after Adorno first wrote about popular music, four working-class boys from Blackwood, Wales, were growing up against a backdrop of political unease during the early 1980s. They began to discuss why the world was seemingly going crazy – from the IRA Hunger Strikers to the Miner’s Strike. As their ‘Best of’ album was released, the firefighters began their strikes and the world seemed to have come full circle. The Manics try to ‘break free’ through education, music and politics.
What’s in a name?
The Manic Street Preachers’ name itself suggests that the group wants to tell us something. The Manics were very influenced by a group of French intellectuals called the Situationists. The Situationists were members of an international movement founded in 1957; they wanted to break down the barriers between art and everyday life, between actors and spectators, between producers and consumers. They wanted people to live not as objects but as subjects (and makers) of history.
The Situationists aimed to reinvent everyday life by constructing disruptive situations, which would literally jolt people out of their boredom. They wanted to be the catalyst for a revolution and then disappear. Following much the same spirit, early in their career the Manics announced that they were going to make one album, become world-famous – and then split up. Later, when signing to the major label Sony, the band tackled upfront any potential accusations of selling-out. They had something to say, and they wanted to say it to as many people as possible and no independent label could support them to do that:
- 'We’ve never been the Trade Unionists of Rock, we know that we could
never reach as many people as we wanted, unless it was on a major [label].
We were willing prostitutes'.
The Manic Street Preachers have covered the following controversial topics in their songs:
• the validity of American culture (‘Blackpool Pier’)
• the madness of caged animals (‘Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky’)
• the frightening mental illness of Tourette’s Syndrome (‘Symphony of Tourette’)
• great writers such as Sylvia Plath (‘The Girl Who Wanted To Be God’)
• forgotten heroes of war photography like Kevin Carter
• controversial pornography workers in ‘Little Baby Nothing’
• anorexia (‘4st 7lbs’).
In spite of their obvious successes, they continue to tackle difficult issues in their songs and in their public demonstrations. The Manics were the first Western group to play in Havana, Cuba, and have recently contributed to the NME’s ‘1 Love’ album to raise money for the War Child charity. From within the music industry confines, they have made music that makes a difference.
The Situationists were a strong influence on punk music, and are cited by the Manics. Like Punk, the Manic Street Preachers merged a massive mixture of styles and influences – the band are big readers and culture-vultures, and this shows in their songs and videos.
The Manic Street Preachers have placed Wales firmly on the musical map. By proudly displaying their identity with huge Welsh flag backdrops, and culminating most of their tours at home, the band have forced a London-focused music industry actually to seek out bands like The Stereophonics, Catatonia and Super Furry Animals whose music is full of their Welsh roots. Could an album sung in Welsh have hit the charts before the Manics appeared?
Analysing the Manics’ music
The Manic Street Preachers can be analysed on a number of levels. Their lyrics are textually rich (Richey Edwards’ early lyrics are a painfully personal self-examination of human fragility). Their songs are musically diverse (from accessibly pop – ‘Everything Must Go’ – to the uncomfortable ‘Holy Bible’) and they are politically hard to pin down – whose side are they on?
The Manics are often associated with the emotional pain of youth. In February 1995, Richey Edwards, guitarist and songwriter, walked out of a hotel the band were staying in, never to be heard of again. Despite numerous ‘sightings’, earlier this year Richey was legally declared dead. Richey was plagued with eating disorders, cut himself with knives, and drank too much. But he left the band – and us – with a platform on which to discuss the previously hidden issues he suffered from. With songs like ‘4st 7lbs’ (about anorexia) and the self-explanatory ‘Die in the Summertime’, which uncomfortably questions our role as consumers, we have no choice but to take their music seriously.
When Richey Edwards cut ‘4 Real’ into his arm live on air as a reaction to DJ Steve Lamacq’s questioning of their authenticity and truthfulness, he did more than simply harm himself. He made all of us, as music journalists at the time, question our own validity over the artists we were interviewing. For my own small part, I gave all the money I earned from writing their biography to a self-harm charity.
A well known cultural critic, Walter Pater, once said that ‘all art aspires towards the condition of music’ – he was so right. As I listen to over a decade of the Manic Street Preachers’ music on Forever Delayed, their greatest hits album, I can see more slogans illustrating the sleeve and more about the band’s roots. There are quotations from the architect Gaudi, Dennis Hopper the filmmaker and actor, George Orwell the writer, and even from Van Gogh’s suicide note – all reminding us of human suffering – and breaking down barriers between star and audience.
At first I thought the most poignant of all the quotations was from Pablo Picasso, the artist: ‘Art is the life that helps us understand the truth’. Then I turned it over to find the group telling us, ‘We invite everyone to question the entire culture we take for granted.’
When I hear such passionate beliefs wrapped up in equally ardent sounds and delivered through a mass medium like the music industry, I’m reminded of all of the reasons why music is such an important form to study. We can use music to make meaningful sense of the world, and bands like the Manic Street Preachers, help us to do so un-blinkered. MM
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 3, February 2003
THEODOR ADORNO
Theodor Adorno
Adorno (1903-69) argued that capitalism fed people with the products of a 'culture industry' - the opposite of 'true' art - to keep them passively satisfied and politically apathetic.
Adorno saw that capitalism had not become more precarious or close to collapse, as Marx had predicted. Instead, it had seemingly become more entrenched. Where Marx had focussed on economics, Adorno placed emphasis on the role of culture in securing the status quo.
Popular
culture was identified as the reason for people's passive satisfaction and lack
of interest in overthrowing the capitalist system.
Adorno suggested that culture industries churn out a debased mass of unsophisticated, sentimental products which have replaced the more 'difficult' and critical art forms which might lead people to actually question social life.
False needs are cultivated in people by the culture industries. These are needs which can be both created and satisfied by the capitalist system, and which replace people's 'true' needs - freedom, full expression of human potential and creativity, genuine creative happiness.
Commodity fetishism (promoted by the marketing, advertising and media industries) means that social relations and cultural experiences are objectified in terms of money. We are delighted by something because of how much it cost.
Popular media and music products are characterised by standardisation (they are basically formulaic and similar) and pseudo-individualisation (incidental differences make them seem distinctive, but they're not).
Products
of the culture industry may be emotional or apparently moving, but Adorno sees
this as cathartic - we might seek some comfort in a sad film or song, have a bit
of a cry, and then feel restored again.
Boiled down to its most obvious modern-day application, the argument would be that television leads people away from talking to each other or questioning the oppression in their lives. Instead they get up and go to work (if they are employed), come home and switch on TV, absorb TV's nonsense until bedtime, and then the daily cycle starts again.
This article by David Gauntlett on his site www.theory.org.uk can be found here
Select bibliography
Links
Adorno (1903-69) argued that capitalism fed people with the products of a 'culture industry' - the opposite of 'true' art - to keep them passively satisfied and politically apathetic.
Adorno saw that capitalism had not become more precarious or close to collapse, as Marx had predicted. Instead, it had seemingly become more entrenched. Where Marx had focussed on economics, Adorno placed emphasis on the role of culture in securing the status quo.
Popular
culture was identified as the reason for people's passive satisfaction and lack
of interest in overthrowing the capitalist system.
Adorno suggested that culture industries churn out a debased mass of unsophisticated, sentimental products which have replaced the more 'difficult' and critical art forms which might lead people to actually question social life.
False needs are cultivated in people by the culture industries. These are needs which can be both created and satisfied by the capitalist system, and which replace people's 'true' needs - freedom, full expression of human potential and creativity, genuine creative happiness.
Commodity fetishism (promoted by the marketing, advertising and media industries) means that social relations and cultural experiences are objectified in terms of money. We are delighted by something because of how much it cost.
Popular media and music products are characterised by standardisation (they are basically formulaic and similar) and pseudo-individualisation (incidental differences make them seem distinctive, but they're not).
Products
of the culture industry may be emotional or apparently moving, but Adorno sees
this as cathartic - we might seek some comfort in a sad film or song, have a bit
of a cry, and then feel restored again.
Boiled down to its most obvious modern-day application, the argument would be that television leads people away from talking to each other or questioning the oppression in their lives. Instead they get up and go to work (if they are employed), come home and switch on TV, absorb TV's nonsense until bedtime, and then the daily cycle starts again.
This article by David Gauntlett on his site www.theory.org.uk can be found here
Select bibliography
- Adorno, Theodor W. (1991), The Culture Industry: Selected essays on mass culture, Routledge, London.
- Horkheimer, Max, & Adorno, Theodor W. (1972), ‘The Culture Industry’, in Dialectic of Enlightenment, Herder and Herder, New York.
- ‘The Frankfurt School and the culture industry’ in Dominic Strinati (1995), An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture, Routledge, London. [A good introduction].
- Jay, Martin (1973), The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research 1923–1950, Little, Brown; Boston.
- Wiggershaus, Rolf (1994), The Frankfurt School: Its History, Theories and Political Significance, translated by Michael Robertson, Polity Press, Cambridge.
Links
- Adorno Trading Card at Theory.org.uk
- Adorno's writings on-line -- three articles by Adorno -- good value.
- Adorno -- article cheekily reproduced from book by John Lechte.
- See the Adorno links at Popcultures.com.
- See also: Yahoo's Anti-Television category.
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| http://www.theorycards.org.uk/card07.htm |
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS
Today we use a series of DVDs called Director's Label, which include interviews:
We watch a variety of music video genres and discussed them in relation to Andrew Goodwin's framework of genre codes and conventions (from Dancing In The Distraction Factory):
Human Behaviour Bjork (Michel Gondry, 1993)
99 Problems Jay Z (Mark Romanek, 2004)
Can't Stop Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Mark Romanek, 2002)
Only You Portishead (Chris Cunningham) video analysis here
Praise You Fatboy Slim (Spike Jonze, 1998)
Closer Nine Inch Nails (Mark Romanek, 1994)
Andrew Goodwin offers us a framework for understanding the construction of a music video. He acknowledges the relationship between lyrics and images/visuals. This can be done in a variety of ways. The video can illustrate or amplify the lyrics of the song, or create disjuncture. An example of this is.......
Closer Nine Inch Nails (Mark Romanek, 1994)
Andrew Goodwin offers us a framework for understanding the construction of a music video. He acknowledges the relationship between lyrics and images/visuals. This can be done in a variety of ways. The video can illustrate or amplify the lyrics of the song, or create disjuncture. An example of this is.......
Monday, 14 May 2012
AS PROMISED, FOLKS......
- Your exam essay title: re word it so that you can write about film producers, audiences, platforms, issues and case studies.
- One para per point; underline; don't highlight. You may have to COVER ALL THESE SOMEWHERE:
- GLOBALIZATION = spread of products, people & practices from one to many countries; entails interconnectedness between a multitude of countries leading to the integration into one global economic, cultural network; e.g. the megapower Big Six companies and horizontal integration with its benefits of synergies
- It involves global organization (companies like The Big Six with global reach) as well as global production (co-productions between national institutions to pool resources, risk & distribution as well as global consumption (proliferation of platforms with new distribution & exhibition forms [satellite TV, DVD, internet] reaching BOTH mainstream AND niche audience world-wide. I would argue that Web 2.0 also a form of globalization, but with INDIVIDUALS LIKE YOU AND ME able to access global reach through platforms like YouTube, Twitter, FaceBook
- Hollywood & The Big 6; Dalecki (“4-S Megafranchise Model”, comprised of synergy, sequelization, story and spectacle); Hollywood’s move from vertical integration towards horizontal integration and films whose core value is their deployability across multiple media platforms, as well as their “sequelizability” and ability to be cross-promoted with other media texts.
- SEQUELS - dominate film production esp. Hollywood (name current ones)
- SYNERGY - the Disney Stores promote the consumer products which promote the [theme] parks which promote the television show.
- SPECTACLE - big sets, big action, bleeding-edge computer generated imagery (CGI) and other special effects, high production value in any form— does not simply attract and provide enjoyment to audiences, it also increases the given megafranchise’s brand value. The ultra-high-budget spectacle actualized in megafranchises provides a robust “barrier to entry” to lower-budget, would-be competition (smaller budgets can't offer CGI). Spectacular design elements developed via CGI can be leveraged directly into other media, particularly videogames.
- STORY - All of the big franchises invest heavily in the development of their screenplays (Lord of the Rings, Pirates, Shrek, Spider Man, Hunger Games, Avengers). The majority of megafranchises present, and then re-present, a hero’s journey in fairytale-like fashion— an effective, simple, and reduced narrative which then is integrated into other synergistic media within the franchise.
- As former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner put it : constant media synergy.
- Schatz (1997): 'movies, videogames and theme-park rides aren't separate entities or isolated media texts. Rather, they are related aspects or ‘iterations’ of entertainment supertexts, multimedia narrative forms which can be expanded & exploited ad infinitum, given the size and diversity of today's globalized, diversified entertainment industry. The essential UR-text within these media franchises is the Hollywood blockbuster.'
- ISSUES ABOUT GLOBALIZATION: cultural imperialism (Team America says it all; threat to national cinemas; lack of provision for niche audiences; mainstream audiences are not the only ones to be served; disagree with Cameron & think of the loss - King's Speech did just fine, a UK Council funded film from lottery money; if 'easy appeal' is the aim, then all we'll get is stuff like The Boat That Rocked when Danny Boyle says we should be producing challenging not easy-pleasing stuff.
- What characterizes British films and what do global, international and national audiences want to see? BRITISH FILM INSTITUTION; what British film industry does best (identify genres: historical films [Kings Speech], literary adaptations [Salmon Fishing], social realism [Made In Dagenham], romantic comedy); we need a national film industry to serve national and local audiences and national concerns ( drugs - Shifty, ethnicity - Four Lions); small films emerge from local sources ( crowd funding: Tortoise In Love, Compton Bagpuize; niche audiences [InBetweeners (Ben Palmer, 2011) TV spinoff. How the film beat records as most successful British comedy article here on breaking box office records]
- DIVERSITY DIVERSITY DIVERSITY is good!
- Shifty (Eran Creevy, 2008) SlideShare here and interview with Eran Creevy here on how they came out of nowhere to win acclaim
- Tortoise In Love (Guy Browning, 2011) How TIL (very low budget film) built its audience using social media TIL on FaceBook
- It's a UK success story but it isn't typical (say why: Universal): Working Title: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson, 2011) View TTSS trailer here and Working Title website here
- INDEPENDENT FILM PRODUCERS AND DISTRIBUTORS in Hollywood are LIONSGATE interesting because they handled both The Hunger Games and Salmon Fishing In The Yemen. They have stakes in production companies, TV channels,digital platform Hulu, pay TV movie channel, music albums; acquired Summit (Twilight Saga) SO THEY ARE ALSO MEGAFRANCHISES
- The Hunger Games(Gary Ross, 2012) Home page for The Hunger Games website : how are audiences engaged? Best opening weekend box office for non-sequel taking $200 million. Use Box Office Guru to compare audiences sizes click here for figures and projections and how Lionsgate involved fans all along the way with carefully scheduled marketing. Production budget relatively low ($75 million plus $45 for domestic marketing= under £76 m). Movie tie-in book here. Distopian game play Wikipedia article here
- PLATFORMS have proliferated: (platforms= hardware used by audiences to view films) go from big IMAX to small handheld, including home cinema. Talk about how film insitutions use digital media to build audiences ( film websites, FaceBook, Twitter, two-step flow model of audience behaviour); give example of SHERLOCK (I WILL SUPPLY THIS IN TUESDAY'S REVISION) how audiences were built. CONVERGENCE CONVERGENCE! SAY WHAT YOU USE
- ISSUES include digitalization (plusses= perfect quality, ease of distribution, proliferation of points of exchange & ease of exchange; minuses= piracy, loss of income, piracy 'haemorrages income'.
- ISSUES include Web 2.0 = interactivity, consumers as producers Ridley Scott: Life In a Day is a time capsule that will tell future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010,” said Kevin Macdonald."I hope it will be something that will open people's eyes to the possibilities of user-generated film."
- TRENDS? Newspaper reports and trends: serials, sequels, superheroes, CGI, IMAX? CGI? 3D? Web 2.0 and user generated content? Certainly sequels....Avatar and CGI trends Read this PDF on Avatar's use of digital technology here.
- The FDA 2012 annual report on the British film industry; the winners and losers
- GOOD LUCK GOOD LUCK GOOD LUCK!!
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