Gaby Beckley

Thursday, 27 June 2013

Music in films: history

1900s - silent movie era

Soundtracks were mostly simple piano music created especially for the film.

The Great Train Robbery (1903)

1915 - scores from existing music started being used in films

1930s-50s - movie musicals

Warner Brothers' film 'The Jazz Singer' released in 1927 was the first musical movie, featuring Al Jolson singing songs such as "My Mammy".

Al Jolson - 'My Mammy' from 'The Jazz Singer', 1927

The movie musical craze continued through the 50s, with other successful releases including 'Singin' in the Rain', which featured Gene Kelly performing the 1929 hit of the same name.

Gene Kelly - 'Singin' in the Rain' from 'Singin' in the Rain', 1952

60s - modern-style movie soundtracks

Many songs that are now classics were featured in films, such as many Simon and Garfunkel songs from the 1967 film 'The Graduate', including 'Mrs. Robinson' and 'The Sound of Silence'. The film raised the duo's profile considerably, showing how films can benefit music artists. It also raised their prestige as Simon received a Grammy for 'Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture of Television Special'

'Mrs Robinson' - Simon and Garfunkel, from 'The Graduate'

The songs featured in films were very popular, and soundtrack sales boomed. The soundtrack for 'The Graduate' rose to No. 1 instantly. The soundtrack for the 1961 musical film 'West Side Story' stayed at #1 on the album charts for 54 weeks, giving it the longest run of any album.
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Story_(soundtrack))

Some films were also based around music, rather than just containing music appropriate to the film. In 1968 the animated musical film 'Yellow Submarine' was released, and was based on the music of The Beatles.

70s - start of big money soundtracks

The songs which were in the charts for the longest time started to be determined by whether they were featured in films. Of the 8 singles that have remained at the top of the UK charts for 10 or more weeks, over half have been featured in films. For example, the Wet Wet Wet version of 'Love Is All Around' was featured in the 1994 film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', and stayed at No.1 for 15 weeks.

Films also harnessed their power to revive old hits, such as the 1992 film 'Wayne's World', which brought Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' back into the charts.

During this time soul or rock 'n' roll soundtracks started to be the most popular choice, such as in the 1986 film 'Stand By Me', although some films such as 'Jaws' continued to create a demand for big orchestral musical scores.

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

Music video analysis

The video I am analysing is for Taylor Swift's song 'You Belong With Me', directed by Roman White. It is a narrative-based video, with the only performance being through the protagonist character that Taylor Swift plays in the video. I am going to be analysing the video with Andrew Goodwin's theory in mind, to see how his theories about music videos fit this particular example. His theories, in short, are that:

Music videos from within the same genre feature similar characteristics
There is a relationship between the visuals and the song lyrics
There is a relationship between music and visuals
There will be close-ups of the artist and probably the development of an artist motif (visual style) which recurs across their work, because this is what the record label demands of a music video
There are references to the notion of 'looking' and voyeuristic treatment of the female body
There are often inter-textual references to other music videos, films, TV shows, etc.

Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me

The song is part of the country pop genre. Although the lack of pure performance footage (Taylor performs through her protagonist character) is quite unusual for both these genres, and music videos as a whole, many elements of the music video are likely to appeal to the young female target audience of the country pop genre (and of Taylor Swift in particular). The love story, the high school setting, the happy ending which takes place at a prom, the focus on a transformation for the prom, pretty dresses and a pretty boy will all appeal to the target audience of teenage girls. There is a sense of a moral happy ending, where the only character who gets hurt is the antagonist who seems to genuinely be a nasty character. This is very suitable for the country genre and for the young impressionable audience. There is obviously also still a big focus on the artist without a lot of performance as she plays two main characters in the narrative, acting as both our major protagonist and our antagonist. While there isn't a dance routine, which is a characteristic for lots of pop videos, since this is country-pop it makes sense to not fit that element of typical music videos for songs that are purely pop.

There is a clear relationship between the music video and the lyrics, meaning the video adheres to Andrew Goodwin's theory in this area. The music video illustrates the song lyrics in a fairly literal sense, which works well as the lyrics are already quite specific about the situation. For example, the song starts with the lyric 'You're on the phone to your girlfriend, she's upset'. The visuals before and during this lyric show the love interest and male protagonist pacing while talking on the phone during what does not look to be a pleasant conversation. Later, for the lyric 'I wear t-shirts', Swift pulls at her appropriate costume for effect.

Another example of the music video's close relationship to the lyrics is when Swift (as the protagonist) is literally seated on a bench (although perhaps not a park one, to be fussy) with the love interest for the lyric 'Laughing on a park bench thinking to myself, Hey isn't this easy'.

The visuals are also very literal for the lyric 'She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers', with the shots cutting between Swift as the cheerleader antagonist and Swift as the geeky protagonist on the bleachers. The visuals to fit these lyrics are also cut into the middle of a separate scene, which is then returned to afterwards, suggesting a specific effort to interpret those lyrics literally through the visuals.

The music video also complies with Goodwin's theory through the relationship between music and visuals. The video uses fairly long takes throughout, as the song is not particularly fast paced and has quite a relaxed vibe to it (although obviously the lyrics are very serious and dramatic, like all teenage love stories).

The video starts at a very calm pace, with quite long takes and the actors moving fairly slowly, sitting down for most of the section. The use of a fade after the initial establishing shot also makes the pace feel very gentle. When the music changes from verse to pre-chorus, we cut to Swift in front of the mirror, without any shot of her walking there. This mirrors (I make no apology for my word choice) the transition to a different section of the song. The pre-chorus is also more fast-paced, and although the takes do not get significantly shorter, there is much more movement in the shots, with Swift dancing around in front of the mirror. Swift's change of outfits also helps create the effect of this section being slightly more fast-paced as there is more to take in visually. The visuals change again with the start of the chorus, now featuring Swift dancing around her room and singing as the nerdy protagonist. The last takes of this section are a longer than standard take on Swift's face, zooming in as she falls to the bed, and then a shorter take of the love interest, which fades to black. This sets a significant end to the bedroom scene, which also fits the song changing back to the calmer verse music.

After the bedroom scene we start a romantic outdoor scene with our female protagonist and the love interest.This time there is no change in the continuation of the scene when the pre-chorus starts, but there are shots at the football game scene in the prechorus (for the lyrics 'she's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers'), and this scene is then cut to when the chorus starts. This transition around the chorus is therefore more gradual as there is an element of crosscutting between the previous verse scene and the upcoming chorus scene during the pre-chorus, but the change in scene is also more significant as it is a completely different setting and a much more flamboyant scene than the romantic, softly lighted daylight scene in the verse.

When the song changes from the dramatic bridge to the more gentle chorus, the visuals mirror this change. There is a fade to black before we transition to a prom scene where Swift (as the protagonist) is wearing a flowing white dress. The drums come back in as our love interest starts to walk towards Swift, signalling the upcoming happy ending we've all been waiting for! (don't pretend you're not excited to see Swift and the pretty boy get together).

Although Swift plays the parts of both the antagonist and the female protagonist, we connect the protagonist with Taylor Swift more because she sings through this character, and wears her hair in its signature style, whereas she wears a wig to play the antagonist. This obviously represents Swift as the 'good character' and the one we relate to. The protagonist is fun, romantic, nice, a good friend, and is nerdy but by the end proves she is beautiful (because girls aren't pretty until they put on prom dresses and take off the glasses which are there for a reason like I don't know to SEE THINGS AND NOT FALL OVER). This is likely to appeal to the female teenage audience, as they may well be able to relate to feelings of not being very 'cool' or popular, and can relate the song to their own crushes and lives. Taylor Swift is portrayed through the protagonist as a relatable role model suitable for the target audience.

Taylor Swift as our protagonist: a caring friend

The image of Swift as this young romantic fits her other music videos such as for 'Love Story' and 'White Horse' (where she realises perhaps she has been too romantic and unrealistic in regard to a boy who is in reality not very nice). This image fits her songs, mostly romantic especially during the earlier years, and fits her young female target audience who are likely to seek escape in romantic, fairtytale-esque songs.

There are quite a few close ups of Taylor (as the protagonist), for example during the bench scene and the final scene to fit the demands of the record label and create a close connection between Swift and her audience.

The video does not overly sexualise Taylor Swift, as this would not appeal to the target audience and would not help represent Taylor as an appropriate role model for teenage girls. However, when Swift is acting as the antagonist at the dance in the final scene, the dress she wears is fairly revealing. Although this may represent showing off one's body as a negative thing to the target audience, it still sexualises women through the antagonist character.

There are also other references to the notion of looking that don't involve a voyeuristic treatment of women. In the first scene, Taylor and the male protagonist are watching eachother through their windows. You could also say the use of reflections portrays a notion of looking. In the bedroom scene, Taylor first sees the reflection of her disappointed face in the window glass, then we cut to the part where she is dancing around in front of the mirror. In the final scene there is a sense of a focus on looking, as all the other people at the dance turn to look at Taylor (protagonist) as she makes her big entrance.

Now that Tay-Tay has changed into pretty clothes she is the center of attention. Because of course that's how high school works.

Goodwin states in his theory that music videos often feature intertextual references. There don't seem to be any obvious references to specific films in the music video, but it follows the generic narrative of a stereotypical high-school 'chick-flick' film, with a geeky girl being transformed for a dance so she can finally have the hot guy she has always had a stonking great crush on.

It's pretty clear from the start that this music video is quite a generic narrative video, and it fits all areas of Goodwin's theory in some way.

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Music in films: purpose

Films can help music artists in a similar way to music videos. The use of music in films can:

promote
raise the artist's profile
expand the audience
expand the artist's media platform
reveal a different side to the artist
create an image or persona for the artist
increase sales

Example:

Adele - Skyfall

Adele part-wrote and performed the theme song 'Skyfall' for the 2012 Bond film of the same name. This served several purposes for Adele:

Raised Adele's profile. 'Skyfall' won awards at the Golden Globes, the Brit Awards, the Critic's Choice Awards and the Academy Awards. She is now more of an esteemed artist for winning these awards.
Introduced Bond fans to Adele's music. This would especially have introduced an older generation to her music, as many older British people would have seen the film out of tradition, whereas they might not have heard Adele's music through other mediums such as chart shows on the radio, or the internet.
Adele's sales will also be increased. They will firstly be increased by any new fans she gains through the film audience or through her new esteemed position as a multiple award winner. But she can also expect increased profit as 'Skyfall' will also appear on Bond compilation albums.

The history of music video

20s: Start of short films being made to accompany music

One of the earliest surviving music videos on YouTube is a 1929 video for Bessie Smith's hit 'St. Louis Blues'. Although the music video would be considered very slow paced, simple and cheap compared to the music videos of today, even from such an early music video one can see several conventions still used in promotional videos today. There are elements of a narrative with her appearing drunk and being in a bar. There are also plenty of shots where she is performing, and elements of audience participation.

Bessie Smith - St. Louis Blues

50s-60s

TV was increasingly popular, so it was more important for people to see as well as hear artists. Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Bob Dylan produced short forms for TV.

In 1965 Bob Dylan is credited for releasing the first modern music video: a video for Subterranean Homesick Blues which was used as a segment to the film 'Don't Look Back'. The video is fairly basic, with lyrics written on paper and held up by a boy, but this idea is actually still popular today.

Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues

70s

It wasn't until the 1970s that the music industry really started using TV shows to their full potential in terms of promoting music. The short promos produced started to replace live performances of the artist on TV shows, meaning the artist could be promoted in many places at one time. Queen's video for Bohemian Rhapsody is a great example. At the time it was a groundbreaking video which marked the beginning of the modern music video era, with real time and effort being put in to the video.

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

80s: the launch of MTV

In 1981 MTV was launched - the first music channel! This changed music PR forever, becoming the artist's largest promotional tool of the decade. Ironically, the first song played on MTV was 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by Buggles, a reference to the importance of artists' looks, not just their talent, since music videos had become a prominent form of promotion. Before this change a look at Top of the Pops would reveal an array of appearances, as it was the music that mattered.

Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star

Music videos got more time-consuming and expensive as successful artists competed to create the most impressive music videos. In 1983, 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson was the first music video produced with a budget over $1 million. It was also the first feature-length, narrated video.

Michael Jackson - Thriller

To date, the most expensive music video is 'Scream' by Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson, released in 1995. The video cost $7 million to produce, which would be about $10.5 million today.

Michael Jackson - Scream

MTV and the rising importance of making expensive music videos created problems. The MTV generation did not have access to the internet, so they were only exposed to the most successful artists who could make expensive videos. There was therefore little variety and people only had access to a few genres. So audiences suffered, and so did small artists because they were struggling to be promoted.

2005 - YouTube

The video-sharing site as powerful (if not more) than MTV was launched! It created an opportunity for any artist to promote themselves worldwide. This gave a chance for creative and funny artists who were not yet popular to promote themselves, and this new approach appealed to younger audiences so new artists had a way into the music industry.

One of our frequent examples on this blog (sorry guys, but it's such a good example) is OK Go's 'Here It Goes Again'. We can see from the video that the filming equipment used is not brilliant quality, and the band is not particularly popular in the mainstream music industry even now. But through YouTube, their creativity and effort could finally pay off! This is a great example of a smaller artist with a low budget gaining popularity through YouTube, where their video would probably never be seen if the only option to promote it was through MTV.

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

Sunday, 16 June 2013

Functions of music videos

Today we started looking at the functions of music videos, of which the major overarching function is to promote artists.

The main functions of a music video include:

To promote the artist
To raise the artist's profile
To create a fanbase
To increase sales
To clarify the meaning of a song, or to add alternative meaning
To create an image and persona for the artist
To strengthen the connection with existing fans
To expand the artist's media platforms
To create a platform for synergy
To confirm the genre (or create a new type of genre)

Music videos can promote artists by creating hype. Many artists vastly increase their fan base through music videos going viral. Many of OK Go's original music videos have gone viral on YouTube, with their 2012 video for 'Needing/Getting' racking up over 25 million views on YouTube. Recently the mass international success of PSY's song 'Gangnam Style' was driven by the incredibly popular music video which led to the Gangnam Style dance move craze.

OK Go- Here It Goes Again

OK Go - Needing/Getting

PSY - Gangnam Style

Music videos can also serve to clarify the meaning of the song, or even develop the meaning of the song, sometimes in what seem to be the unlikeliest of videos. Even 'Gangnam Style', a comical viral music video, has a deeper meaning. The music video may be fun but it is also a satirical comment on the Gangnam area, and how people outside of the neighbourhood want to belong to it. The lyrics, although meaningless to the English-speaking population among which the song has become so popular, represent a 'subversive message about class and wealth in contemporary South Korean society'. The deeper meaning behind the lyrics of PSY's gangnam style is addressed in this article, and the message is reflected through the music video. PSY plays a 'clownish caricature of a Gangnam man', and in many of the scenes he appears to be a rich man in a posh area, when the reality is far from it. For example, at the beginning viewers might presume from the sand and the props closest to him that he is on the beach, but really he is in a children's playground.

Some more obvious examples of videos that clarify the meaning of a song include many of Ed Sheeran's videos such as for 'The A Team'. His video for 'Give Me Love' fits the theme of the lyrics but creates a story beyond this, with the main character appearing to take on the mythical role of cupid. This makes the video more interesting than the lyrics alone. The music video for 'Time' by Chase and Status featuring Delilah depicts a story and theme that is not really contained in the lyrics, so adds a whole new dimension to the song. They have also linked the music video, which centres around domestic abuse, to the charity Refuge which is an anti-domestic violence charity for women and children. Videos like this can serve a bigger purpose, to educate or make a moral point. Another example of a music video that does this is the video for 'Same Love' by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, which fights for marriage equality.

Ed Sheeran - The A Team

Ed Sheeran - Give Me Love

Chase and Status - Time

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ft. Mary Lambert - Same Love

Music videos also provide us with messages about the artist, creating their persona through the music video. This will in turn help to promote the artist. Lady Gaga's performance videos such as 'Poker Face' represent her edgy side, with her wearing very memorable and dramatic clothing. Artists are also often filmed in exotic or expensive locations, such as the massive mansion and pool setting in 'Poker Face'. This represents them as having a very glamorous lifestyle, leading the audience to admire them and be interested in this glamorous, rich image. Some narrative videos may place the artist in positive roles to send a certain message to the audience. In the video for 'The A Team', Ed Sheeran only appears briefly but it is as the only person who stops and talks to our protagonist, who the audience sympathise with. This clearly paints him in a positive light and helps form his persona, even without him being a major character in the narrative or there being lots of performance shots of him.

Lady Gaga - Poker Face

Ed Sheeran - The A Team

By appearing in their music videos, artists also strengthen their connection with existing fans. For example, Ed Sheeran's fans might be excited to spot his appearances as an extra-style character in 'The A Team'. One Direction's music videos such as 'What Makes You Beautiful' keep their younger fans interested and excited by including plenty of shots of the band members laughing, having fun, frolicking on the beach, and employing plenty of close up shots so the young fans can admire their faces obsessively. Almost all fans want this sense of interaction with their favourite artists, they enjoy seeing these artists performing and showing off their personality through music videos. So music videos also serve a purpose for the existing fans, strengthening that bond between artist and audience so that the fanbase is regularly reminded about the artist and feels they can consume the artist's products both visually as well as aurally.

One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful

Uses of synergy are frequent in music videos, especially in music videos of songs which have been used in films such as Paramore's 'Decode' from the film 'Twilight'. Product placement can also be useful to music video producers as it can generate quite a lot of money for little trouble. I will be exploring the use of synergy in music videos further later on, as it is a large and important topic.

Paramore - Decode

The style of music videos tends to vary between genres because they are trying to appeal to different audiences. So music videos can confirm the genre, or even create a new genre, as with RUN-DMC's cover of Aerosmith's Walk This Way, which introduced the new sub-genre of rap rock. This was a groundbreaking song and the music video expresses the idea of their genres mixing. Therefore music videos can confirm the genre of a song, or help to introduce a new genre.

RUN-DMC ft. Aerosmith - Walk This Way

Friday, 14 June 2013

If Romeo and Juliet were triangles..

Just watched the video for Hiatus ft. Shura - We Can Be Ghosts Now. Amazing how so much emotion can be conveyed through... triangles? This is different which would be enough to make me watch it anyway, but it's also very well done. I honestly got quite attached to the triangles by the end and was captivated throughout.

Hiatus ft. Shura - We Can Be Ghosts Now

The use of colour to represent opposing sides is classic but effective, and I like that there's no attempt to use black and white to represent a 'good' and 'bad'. There is just the message that in reality both sides do not have the best interests of their individuals, love or freedom at heart. And of course a beautiful triangle couple :) I totally ship it.