Intertextuality in Goodwin's Theory
Intertextuality refers to the use of other popular culture objects within another video and the audience creates their meaning of the video according to the intention suggestion created with relationships between primary and secondary texts. For example, a music video can contain references to a book. Many editors or directors use intertextuality in music videos because it combines different cultural codes taken from previous texts that are sensible for many audience. Using intertextuality in music videos allow a viewer to identify with their theoretical framework of knowledge and use it to define their identity. This will also open up to a range of audiences viewing the video. For example, in Paramore's Decode there will also gain some views from twilight fans since it is a soundtrack for the film 'Twilight'.
A very popular example of intertextuality is 'Material Girl' by Madonna. In this video, Madonna acts like Marilyn Monroe in Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend. This is a direct cinematic reference which allows an active audience to draw conclusions to the meaning of the message.
Another example of intertextuality that I found is 'Love Story' by Taylor Swift. The song is about love and they have used references from the classic Romeo and Juliet play by Shakespeare because it matches the theme perfectly with its passion and story. Using a well-known reference that fits the song perfectly is another bonus as it can gain more popularity and makes the music video more memorable.
Apart from the lyrics mentioning scenes from Romeo and Juliet they also used mise-en-scene to connotes the period that it is set in. For example, the use of corsets on Taylor Swift and peasant blouses on guys. They also chose to based the shooting on a castle which is a huge signifier to Romeo and Juliet.
Recreating scenes such as Taylor Swift (as Juliet) standing on a balcony looking out using a low angle long shot, the dance inside and meeting in the dark to see each other allows audience to realise the link between the song and music video to the play 'Romeo and Juliet'.
Balcony Scene
Dancing Scene
I am still not too sure whether to use intertextuality in our music video because we need to find a good example and recreate it the best way possible to have a positive effect. If we do decide to use it, we need to avoid recreating the scenes badly because it will just make it seem like we are making fun of the original reference which will result in a negative effect. However, I understand that using intertextuality can give our video a deeper meaning and recognition.
Recreating scenes such as Taylor Swift (as Juliet) standing on a balcony looking out using a low angle long shot, the dance inside and meeting in the dark to see each other allows audience to realise the link between the song and music video to the play 'Romeo and Juliet'.
Balcony Scene
Dancing Scene
Meeting in the Dark Scene
I am still not too sure whether to use intertextuality in our music video because we need to find a good example and recreate it the best way possible to have a positive effect. If we do decide to use it, we need to avoid recreating the scenes badly because it will just make it seem like we are making fun of the original reference which will result in a negative effect. However, I understand that using intertextuality can give our video a deeper meaning and recognition.
Objectification of Women
Although sexual objectification is common in the media culture, music videos provides the most potent examples of it. Compared to male artists, female artists were more sexually objectified, held to stricter appearance standards, and more likely to demonstrate sexually alluring behaviour. In addition, sexual objectification was more prominent in R&B/hip hop and pop genres than in country videos.
There are a lot of music videos featuring male artists that is a good example on objectification of women. For example, 'Whistle' by Flo Rida have a lot of sexy scenes in it. This video is all about the body of a women and how having a sexy girl around and being rich is all guys would ever want.
At the beginning, there are lots of inter-cuts with mid shots of Flo Rida raising his arms and establish shots of the place he is in to connotes that he owns the place and he is rich. The choice of location also gives audiences a glimpse of something amazing(sexually) is going to be shown like a party with a bunch of girls in sexy bikinis.
Since there are lots of sexual shots of women therefore the target audience will be men who are around the age of 16-35. The first thing we see with women is a extreme close up of a girl 'whistling'. This links to the song lyrics and 'whistling' could signify an sexual action which is considered as a sexual pleasure to men. Women are represented in a wet look to make them look sexier and attract more male audiences.
The 'happy' nooding reaction from guys suggests that they are what males likes to see - women in bikinis on the floor with wet hair at a beach. This almost shows exactly what male audiences will look like when they view the video. Videos with these images create the sense of sexual pleasure just from watching (same principle as watching porn).
There is a stereotypical way to show off a women's body and it has shown that in the music video by using all sorts of sexy pose to lure male audiences. For example, a shot of a model half naked staring at the audience giving the sexy eye contract or laying on the sand bed to show off her 's line'.
Actions like crawling towards the camera can give audiences the sexual intention that the
women wants to go on top of him and have fun.
Extreme close up/close up shots of women's lips, buttocks and boobs are very common to create an eye candy for men and make them want to continue to stare at the screen and possibly repeat the video over and over again.
Here, Flo Rida is making an action that looks like he is calling for something connotes that he is the leader and no only has he got the power towards guys but he also can 'boss' around good-looking girls. By wearing gold chains/watches and having big houses suggest he is rich and is popular.
Directors love to use water and beach to associate with sexiness in music videos. This is all because we think that flicking hair around is sexy and water on women's body creates the ideal sexual pleasure. Therefore this suggests that objectification of women is heavily used in most music videos by male artists to achieve the male target audience.
This is a good example of how guys find women's body a sexual pleasure. It is also a good advertising technique to get sponsors from companies by featuring their product in their video.
According to the theory, male artists always have some sort of female dancers dressed quite minimal dancing around them when they sing. Here are some examples from Flo Rida's videos. This again show the class difference and it also points out who is the main lead of everything.
Objectification of Men
The idea objectification of men/women comes from Freud, and it has been used especially in Media Studies to explain the gendered pleasures of cinema. For example, women are always represented in a sexy way by wearing the least amount of fabric possible and men are represented as 'fit' and handsome with suits or abs. This allows audiences to gain sexual pleasure by just watching a video or film. Objectification is mainly used on women such as music promos where the female acts an display staple element for the male artist.
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
It is very common for women to be the objectification in the industry simply because they are women and the body. For a change, Jennifer Lopez has came up with making a music video for her song 'I Luh Ya Papi' based on the objectification of men to show the contrast with the gender reversed. Although it is another way of marketing the video because it is different and people like changes.
In the video, the first shot of her was a mid shot with half naked guys behind her on the bed and that shows the power she holds towards the men - almost like she is the queen. All the men who appeared in the video are naked which provide pleasures for the target audience who is females around the age of 17-30. This links to the song because the lyrics is about how women has the power and men are just 'puppies' that women can play around with.
The use of close up and water on the guy generate the 'ideal' type to show off the artist.
This shot of her looking at one of the shirtless guy washing the car shows exactly what is meant by voyeurism and how watching can brings the sense of pleasure. It also contrast with the 'normal' music videos full of half-naked girls by showing a guy 'undressed' instead of a women while washing the car which is considered as a attractive action.
Another example using men's body to provide sexual pleasure which is a total contrast to how a usual music videos would be with the male artist having lots of sexy girls around them.
The use of slow motion and low angle shots with pool boys wearing speedo allow audiences to get a clearer view of the body and enjoy the sexual pleasure. It also creates a dream-like feeling to connote that this is the ideal fantasy that all the female audience would dream of being in. The low shot angle once again suggests that he has very little power and is just an 'item' to style the main character like a piece of jewellery.
The number of guys around her serving her signifies that women is the 'boss' and the guys are just there to make her stand out. Those muscular guys are also holding the trays and feeding her which creates a sense of jealousy and all the women wishing that this was their life.
The use of close up and water on the guy generate the 'ideal' type to show off the artist.
This shot of her looking at one of the shirtless guy washing the car shows exactly what is meant by voyeurism and how watching can brings the sense of pleasure. It also contrast with the 'normal' music videos full of half-naked girls by showing a guy 'undressed' instead of a women while washing the car which is considered as a attractive action.
Another example using men's body to provide sexual pleasure which is a total contrast to how a usual music videos would be with the male artist having lots of sexy girls around them.
An example of how male artist always have girls dancing around them as decorative objects and how Jennifer Lopez swapped the role around. The male artist is not dressed in a way the other guys has been represented in the entire video shows that he is not on the same level as them and he has some sort of fame. However, this totally oppose the whole point of the video as the theme is meant to be objectification of men.
The use of posh cars and blings is a signifier for money which often appears a lot in music videos for male artist as that's what it is considered the most important thing to have in life for men- things that make others jealous. They also use girls to show that they are popular/show off and Jennifer Lopez has used boys to show that in this video.
Inspirational Music Video Director
Kash
Kash is a production group that directs and produce creative videos for their clients. There are 3 people behind the crew called Simon Alveranga (Head of Production) , Phil Good (Creative Director) and Jamie McCormack (Producer).
They uses lots of post-production effects in his videos such as multiple screens, graphics on after effects and others. For example in one the videos called 'Baby Sol - Always' they changed everything to black and white and played with a range of special effects to create a very graphic video.
In this video, there are less special effects used but I have realised that they play a lot with the lighting and likes to add filters to the shots of when the artist is singing. At some point there was also a blue light streak flashing across the screen which made it more interesting to view for audience. Near the middle of the video, they used a multiple screen which is one of their top post-production techniques to use to make it more unique.
Another example of the multiple screen technique is the music video they produced for 'Akala - Lose Myself'. They have used the same shot over and over again in different sizes to create a collage of the actual shot. It makes it so fascinating that the audience can't take their eyes off the video. I also like the way they did the title at the beginning.
This is another example of of the great title they created. When the title goes behind some of the items in the shot it makes it different to other titles and make it seem like it is actually part of the video and is not an add on. They also had some interesting close-ups at the beginning.
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