Essay 1 - Contemporary Music Video (3/10/14)

Essay - "Contemporary music video's are nearly elaborate adverts with little artistic,   social or moral integrity. Discuss with refernce to music videos and theorists you have studied." 

This essay will discuss how contempary music video can be interpreted in different ways and that the form, style and genre contribute to perception of a Artists video whether its to bolster the commercial profile or to allign and enhance the artists creative and visual processing to accompany the track for the purposes of there own moral purposes.

Like Sven E Carlson remarks music video is open is open to public perception, he highlights that a form of analysis can be "breaking up the music video into black and white and seeing everything that is perceived as opposites i.e commerce or creativity or naturlism or materilism." For me Carlsons process of analysis is effective as it can distinguish the true purposes of artists video. Now we all understand the basic formalities of a music video and you cannot avert the fact that videos are used to bolster the profile of the artist. This is usually seen in music videos for commercial artists in genres such as RnB, rock and pop. Artists like Nicki Minaj and Britney Spears create overtly sexualised and provocative videos to appeal to the different ideals of the audience. In Nicki Minaj's Anaconda video women are portrayed in revealing clothing and this is perhaps too entice a male audience to which Laura Mulvey  describes as the male gaze theory.

Perhaps Nicki Minaj's Anaconda video is conforming to male expectations of women. In a society were pop culture is becoming increasingly relevant the images of sex is advertised so prominently the guise of sex is a advatageous selling point for the artist label and managment team. For me I feel strongly that Nicki Minaj's Anaconda video lacks creativity, there is no avant garde expression or a stark visual purpose that drives what can already be called a poor track but instead it fits in with the examples of videos that are just elaborate adverts for the artists corperate brand and image. The recent twerking craze as seen in Miley Cyrus we can't stop video represents a ratchet culture where by Cyrus denounces the role of black women in the video and to the ironic 'cheers' of black culture for which the twerking dance originates from. As a white women the variety of angles via the close up shots of Miley shaking her buttocks and the frequency of upper and lower body shots where the camera oribits around her croutch and breasts is designed to advertise her reformed image as this provocative, seductive and overtly sexual women. It;s clear like in Nicki Minaj's video that both women are the dominiant ideoligies and its through the use of voyeuristic images and themes reinforces the concept that sex sells.

The same cannot be said for videos that are actually designed to drive hard hitting social themes with a sharp visual creativity and narrative. Some of the best examples for me can be seen in the genre of Rap. Often this genre is seldom seen to be associated with the sexual exploitation of women, the ideals of success and wealth by the means of illegal activity but its not the case for others. I can use artists like Nas and Mobb Deep for example, where there lyrics contain social realistic subject matter which is represented visually not just for commerical purposes but also for the morality of the artist to because they want to give the audience an insight into there struggle. In Nas's the 'world is yours' video we do not see images of a materialistic nature but visuals that reinforce the struggle of growing up in a deprived area of New York. Contrast this to a video like 50 Cent's candy shop and the ideas are very much omniprescent with women, money and cars protruding the visuals. I think that in the rap genre it's easier to distinguish whether a artist is purposeful in advertising there ideals and virtues as the 'gangsta' or the 'playa' to a artist like Nas who is trying to emphasize social and moral intergrity.

Modern mythical embodiment is a concept developed by Sven E Carlson. Perfomance videos are typical of implementing the artist for the sole purposes of promoting the there product (album, single, etc.) I think that this is a prominent feature of the pop genre. The culture of commercialism is something which the audience expect in a music video. The use of cliched imagery such as for product placement as observed in lady gaga's 'telephone' music video for instance is an example of  and highlights the fact that the video is a elaborate advert to furter reinforce and enhance there video. Anouther theorist Michael Shore maintains similarly to Laura Mulva's male gaze theory that Video's such as the provocativity of Lady Gaga's telephone is a recycled style of soft core pornography to appease to male fantasies. The same can be said for videos such as 50 Cent's 'PIMP' or DJ Khaleds 'Hold you down' video which both connote these recyled visions of wealth, power and girls. From the male perspective dominance over women is a feature that a lot of men aspire to and its something which both men Khaled and 50 Cent have used to promote there ego's to the male eye and even perhaps to certain women.

Elaborating on a point that I previously made, the growth of product placement via media platforms such as music videos is staggering and concedes with the point that some music videos are now just adverts. Advertising in music videos have become progressively prominent and the materilistic implementation of products in the videos are overshadowing the artists creative ambitions. Intertexualtiy as seen in many modern day videos like Miley Cyrus's 'we can't stop' through the 'Dr Dre beats pill' can encourage the people to buy the product as its given light by the established brand image of Miley Cyrus. Such practices that were once deemed to be selling out have now allowed corperate compatibility as now the norm for which artists can make more money from. So in some instances yes it is argueable that videos of today are just a platform for corperations to utilise the popularity of a artist for finicial purposes.

To conclude,  it's not a matter of opinion that the purpose of the artist is to promote there material. However what is questionable is the intent of that artist. The promince of company logo's nowadays is sanitising audience perception with regards to the artists moral and social values. Are they making videos for the purposes of a brand like Dr Dre splattering the product over the video or are they doing it because they want there music to sell and a good way of doing this is by creating a video. The creative process of a video has been a significant player in the music industry. We have seen artists making it or breaking it on the basis of there video like Robin Thicke's 'blurred lines.' His video gave dramatic prominence to controversy in relation to themes like rape and female exploitation and it is his video that gave air time to this. So to terminate my discussion in my opionion certain artists have different approaches to there videos and this is based on there popularity. How a artist like Miley Cyrus makes her videos can be very different to a artist like Tallia Storm a who is a relatively unknown quantity makes hers. It's a matter of your brand image that allows the audience to interpret your video with little or no social or moral intergity or a video that is.