Theorists on Music Videos

There are four different theorists on music videos. These are;

1. John Stewart
2. Sigmund Freud
3. Laura Mulvey
4. Steve Archer

They all demonstrate different methods to how music videos are presented. These are explained below in the different theorems.

 

Steve Archer 

• There needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos.
• Music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band
• A carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the 'repeatability' factor.

Linking this back to Goodwin's idea of features in a music video, we can see that Archer has a similar take on what a music video features. For example they both mention a dance performed by the artists and the editing.

John Stewart

• The music video has the aesthetics of a TV commercial, with lots of close-ups and lighting being used to focus on the artists face
• Visual references comes from a range of sources, most frequently cinema, fashion and art photography
• 'Incorporating, raiding and reconstructing' is essentially the essence of intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar, to generate both nostalgic associations and new meanings
• The video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance
• Mise-en-scene, in particular, can be used to emphasise an aspirational lifestlye

Apart from the first bullet point and the third, the other information provided by this theorist is completely different to what Goodwin identified.

Sigmund Freud

• Voyeurism - refers to the notion that erotic pleasure may be gained by looking at a sexual object (preferably when the object is unaware of being watched)

This theory is nothing like what Goodwin had said in his identifications of the features in a music video. In fact it has little information on a theory to music videos



Laura Mulvey

• Because filmmakers are predominantly male, the presence of women in films is often solely for the purpose of display instead of a narrative purpose
• The purpose of this display is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators which presumes a 'male gaze' one that is a more powerful controlling gaze then to that of a female on display. The woman is effectively objectified and passive

This theory relates to more music promos back in the 70's/80's however, you can still sometimes see this theory present in music promos in the modern day.