Intertextuality within Music Videos

Many artists have incorporated intertextuality in their music videos to make specific references to significant events, people or pictures. The word intertextuality means to merge two text and merge them together, many artists do this for reasons such as popularity as making a reference to a popular book will boost the amount viewing the music video. Intertextuality is often quite hard to incorporate into a music video as usually the thing that is being incorporated has to be well known, easy to create and has to have a meaning for the music video to work. 

However here is an example of intertextuality being used to good effect in a music video. 'Walks Like Rihanna' by The Wanted contains multiple references to other boy bands such as 'Take That' and 'Backstreet Boys'
 

 





Here below I have picked out a specific example of where the video of  'Walks Like Rihanna' uses references to 'I Want It That Way', they are both in an airport wearing white attire.













My second example is from the Take That video of 'Back For Good'  The Wanted copy the black and white style as well as showing shots of the band in-front of a classic car just like in Take That's video.

Lyric analysis and their importance

It is common for music videos to include a narrative. The narrative tends to be based on the lyrics, sometimes the video can be a very literal interpretation and in other cases the interpretation can be a bit more open. Having a relation between the lyrics and the visuals helps to enhance and reflect emotions and themes within the song.

When creating a music video, analysing the lyrics is an important thing to do. The lyrics are the foundations to build a narrative upon. If the visuals clash with the lyrics then the audience may be left feeling confused and the effectiveness of the song and video can be lost.

Andrew Goodwin believes that there should be a distinct relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. This could be to illustrate, enhance meaning or even contradict.

This is evident in Rihanna's music video for her song 'Diamonds'. The song title is called 'Diamonds' and the word diamonds is mentioned in the lyrics. Within the first second of the video we see a shot which has a pile of diamonds therefore creating clear lyric to visual connections.

Andrew Goodwin - codes and conventions of music videos

Andrew Goodwin was a music video theorist and he identified seven main conventions which a good music video should have. 


1. All music videos must generate certain genre characteristics. For example, girl/boy bands should feature a dance routine within the music video, rap/R&B music videos should have a number of women and the artists should be wearing jewellery such as expensive watches and chains ('bling') and heavy metal/ rock videos should have performance shots. 

Screen shot taken from Jay Zs song 99 problems.

2. A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. Themes, mise-en-scene and events match the lyrics of the song to help portray the message of the song.  For example 'Alfie' by Lilly Allen the lyrics match what we see.





3. A relationship between the music and the visuals. This means that the cuts/edits and the movements in the video are in sync with the rhythm and beat of the song. For example, Bruno Mars flicks an drawing of a drum in sync to the beat at a point during his song 'Just The Way You Are'.





4. Due to the demands of the record label, there should be many close ups of the artist/artists'. This is because the record label will want their artist to gain maximum recognition, boosting their popularity and therefore their sales. 

Image from Jay Z 99 problems video, he includes many close up shots to ensure to the audience he is the centre of attention.
5. Reference to the 'notion of looking', in-particular the voyeuristic treatment, and objectification of the female body. The 'male gaze' is often used in music videos to attract male audiences. The 'notion of looking' can also include the artist looking directly into the camera, breaking down the 'third wall' to help the audience to connect with the artist. For example destination unknown by Alex Gaudino.





6. Inter-textual references can be used. Music videos reference other forms of media, most commonly film, but can also be television and other music videos. For example, Linkin Park's music video for the song 'Iridescent' has inter-textual references to the film 'Transformers Dark of the Moon' because the song is used in the film and both media products promote each other. 










7. Iconography or motifs from the artist should be included in the video. This is all about the artist's 'star image'. If the artist has their own iconic style which they have developed in their career or in their other videos, then it should be repeated in the rest of their work to help their recognition. 

 

 

Jay Z uses the same clothing and body styles throughout most of his videos he keeps a continuous theme going.

Music Magazine Advertisements

Music magazines are magazines dedicated to music, music artists and music culture. This is a great place for music artists to advertise their upcoming songs and albums as it is a direct advertising link to their audience. Dedicated music fans buy these magazines and what better audience could an artist hope to get their upcoming singles/albums advertised to. Another benefit of music magazine advertisement is that it's cheaper than some other forms of advertising in the media such as TV adverts.

However a flaw of advertising in music magazines is that only people that buy music magazines will see the advertisement and therefore their audience wont grow as well. This is a huge disadvantage as artists want their popularity and recognition to grow. 
It's noticeable that the things generally found on a music poster are also found in music magazine advertisements. An image of the artist, the song title/album name and the artist's name seem to be the crucial things to be included, which makes sense.

Before actually looking at music magazine advertisements I assumed they would contain more information than posters and billboards as the audience would supposedly have more time to read and look at it. However as it turns out I was wrong, the same amount of information appears to be in both, and they still tend to keep the information as short and snappy as possible which I thought was unexpected.

Something that I have seen on all music magazine advertisements is that they include the artist's website and their record label logo. This is definitely something we will take into consideration for our own products.


Here are some examples below that I have picked out as effective magazine advertisements.





 

Tzvetan Todorov's Narrative Theory

Todorov proposed that all narratives contain the following 5 fundamental stages in this order:


1. A state of equilibrium ( all is as it should be)
2. A disruption of that order by an event.
3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.
4. An attempt to repair the damage of disruption.
5. A return or restoration of a new equilibrium.




Todorov's theory is used across a variety of music videos in order to aid a good narrative. However all 5 stages do not need to be covered in order to do this. My example here to use is Plan B's song Writings on the wall.

Equilibrium is present. Strickland Banks is out performing, something he does to earn money for him and his wife who is at home cooking dinner for the two of them to have a nice evening in.

A disruption occurs when Strickland banks decides to go out with friends after the gig instead of going home to his wife. He then has a one night stand with another girl which betrays his wife further.

A recognition of the disorder occurred when Strickland Banks phoned his wife and told her he was not coming home for dinner he was staying out with friends.
However this is where it ends there is not attempt of repair on the damage that is caused.

Analysis of past student music video

Narrative:

The narrative in this video is very basic. A boy is waiting for a train, and there is a girl on that train and although we do not see it, we can assume that that is where they meet. We then follow snippets of their relationship seeing them spend a lot of time together, as they have a romantic time at the beach, at the arcades, dog walking and just hanging out. 
This does not support Todrov's narrative theory. 



Editing:

The editing in this music video fits the theme of a typical romance themed music video. The editing is quite slow which works as there is an absence of action, and the song is quite calm too. Fade transitions are used between clips which is also common for a music video of this theme. 

Sound:

As expected a lot of non-diegetic sound is used which is the sound track for the video, there are no other sounds overlaying the track as that is what the audience wants to hear.

However there is diegetic sound at the beginning of the video. We can hear the train arriving at the stop he is waiting. This is effective as essentially that train arriving is the girl who will later become an important part of his life arriving and so the sound is effective in drawing attention to that. 

It is also noticeable that in quite a few popular music videos there is often some diegetic sound before the track begins, sometimes just to set the scene of the story which is the purpose of it in this particular video.

There is also one more piece of diegetic sound at the beginning whilst the train is arriving. The boy is listening to the track through earphones which is a popular technique other music videos tend to have although it might not have a huge purpose. 

 

     

Mise-en-scene:

 

All of the elements in the mise-en-scene suggest the boy and girl are in a relationship. There always appears to be bright lighting throughout the video which connotes the happiness. The audience can witness the strong connection between the two due to the consistent physical contact in the video. They are always holding hands, and through this their silhouette becomes a connected figure which connotes their connection with each other suggesting their relationship is strong. 

 

 

 

 

 

The scenery of the beach is very stereotypical for music videos in this genre. The everlasting ocean could connote their everlasting relationship. 

The constant use of hearts throughout the video strengthens the idea that these two individuals are in love and are having a romantic time together. 

 

 

 

 

Camera shots & angles:

The most frequent type of shot in this video is a two shot which supports the idea of these two individuals being in a relationship. However, close ups and establishing shots are also used in the video to create the romance. Close ups of hearts as seen in the picture above set the romantic mood to the video. 

 

 

Titles: 

There are no titles used in this video which I think can be seen as a positive or negative thing. I am still unaware as to what the name of this song is and who it is by, some recognition would be beneficial maybe at the very beginning of the video. Maybe instead of just listening to the song on headphones, we could see him select the song on his device and at the same time have a close up of the song title and the artists' name. 

However, titles can be a negative thing as they can make the video appear too much like a film, and can disrupt the flow of the video. 

 

What is the purpose of a music video?

Music videos are incredibly popular and are beneficial for multiple reasons. One of the biggest reasons artists have music videos for their music is to promote, advertise and sell the song. If there was no music video, there would be a limited number of ways to advertise the track (such as on the radio) where as if there is a video to go with the track then it can be advertised on television, on website adverts (Youtube is a main source for this) and a much wider variety of places, therefore gaining maximum audiences.

Another main purpose for music videos to create an appeal with the audience by creating something memorable for them. A lot of songs nowadays are remembered by their music videos. For example the song and music video made by 'OK GO' it is called 'Here it goes again'. It sticks in the audiences mind as slightly comical and different, this may not positively affect the audiences opinion on the song however it does stick in their mind which is the idea of a unique video like this. The video is one of the most watched videos on Youtube with over 52 million views, this proves this unique video was a huge success.

 

The music video can also be seen as a narrative for the song. Sometimes audiences don't fully understand the story within a song through the lyrics and so it is beneficial to have the visual aids helping narrate the story. 

A great example of this would by in the music video for the song 'Writing's On The Wall' by Plan B. The music video and arguably the song is based around the incident of a man named Strickland Banks where he cheats on his partner with a woman. Without the visual aids in the music video, it would be extremely difficult to associate the song with the specific incident of Strickland Banks and even the topic of cheating.