Voyuerism - Laura Mulvey

Goodwin stated that woman in music videos are objectified as they are put in small amount of clothing and are used to attract attention from a male audience. Another theorist, Laura Mulvey, supported this theory by writing about 'scopophlia'. Scopophlia is the pleasure gained from looking or watching something or someone and in this case it would be gained by watching a music video. A video that supports this theory is Rihanna's "Stay". She spends the entire video presumably naked inside a bath and although everything is covered it is still provoking a male audience into watching a song that actually has a lot of meaning behind it.

 



In my opinion I think that the song is very moving and the video could have gone many other ways in terms of narrative yet Rihanna interestingly choose this style, which I think only provides emotion rather than the story that the song is expressing. This particular style does not suit me, likely because I am female, yet a male audience may enjoy this due to the voyeurism in the video. This is not to say that females cannot enjoy the video but I personally think that there could have been a strong narrative used in this video but this style was chosen, possibly to gain a male audience. This supports what Mulvey expressed as the camera can be considered as the 'male gaze' as Rihanna is always in the centre frame and is clearly seen to be undressing.

 

In contrast to Mulvey's theory, the male body can also be displayed in videos to attract female attention. Typically if both a female and male character are present the female character will take the role of reacting to the male body and how much of it is showing. However a video where the entirety of it is just the male body is Panic! At The Disco's "Girl/Girl/Boy". All the three minute video shows is the main singer with no clothes on lip-syncing and spinning, but similar to Rihanna's video nothing is shown yet it is still clear what the video is suggesting.

 

 

There is no narrative for this video, yet a small outline of the song is about sexuality which is why he is likely 'naked' and just like the 'male gaze' this video likely attracted just as many women as Rihanna's attracted men. Similar to Rihanna's video this video could have had an interesting plot yet this was the chosen theme for the video and in some ways it makes sense as the song is linked to sexuality yet so much more could have been done.

 

Something interesting I noticed about each video was the comments left on YouTube video. On Rihanna's video people commented about how meaningful the song was and how it had helped them through tough times in their life however Panic! At The Disco's video comments were all about the amount of clothing, which was none, the singer was wearing. Most of these accounts had a female name or icon and were commenting on how attractive the singer was. A drastic difference. I did not find a single comment on Rihanna's video about the amount of clothing she had as the song is what stood out to that particular audience, who also happened to be female. This could have been because males are less likely to comment on this particular kind of content but it was interesting to see the difference.

Overall Mulvey's theory applies very well to these two videos as it attracted the opposite gender to the video, however from what the comments suggested more females were attracted to the male body which is the opposite of a majority of the both Goodwin and Mulvey's voyeurism theory.

Carol Vernallis's Theory

Carol Vernallis has a theory on music videos called "The Kindest Cut: Function and Meanings of Music Video Editing". Her theory explains that there are 4 main aspects of a music video:

• Narrative
• Editing
• Camera Movement and Framing
• Diegesis

NARRATIVE

Vernallis states that a music video is a response to the music, meaning the song comes first and the video is based around the sound and lyrics. She also states that the narrative of a music video does not need to be complete, this is shown through artistic narrative that leave the viewer questioning what they have just seen. Other narrative stories can leave the audience hanging by not completing the story or answering the questions that they raised in the video. A video that leaves many unanswered questions is Green Day's "21 Guns". After researching the plot it turns out that the couple in the video robbed a bank and the police are shooting their apartment but this plot is very unclear and requires several re-plays to fully get a understanding on what is happening:

EDITING

The editing of a music video typically has to match the tone and beat of the song and the most common cut to achieve this effect is the jump cut. Unlike a film a music video requires a different method of editing as continuity edits are not needed as much as they would be in a film. Rules such as the 30 and 180 degree rule do not apply as strongly and the transitions between texts are something noticeable, however this brings back the viewers attention.

CAMERA MOVEMENT AND FRAMING

Vernallis believes that music videos contain camera angles that move in time to the music and more extreme shots, such as close-ups and establishing shots, to show the characters emotions and expressions in more details to get a better feel of the song and how the character is reacting to the lyrics. There is always a theme amongst all of the shots which usually relates back to the lyrics. This is similar to the unanswered questions. A video were there are many close-ups and long shots is Eminem's "Love The Way You Lie". The close-ups of the two characters capture their emotions and how they are reacting to the story, Rihanna and Eminem also have some close-ups where they are serious faced to match the tone of the song. Eminem also moves in time to the music when we is shown in the field to help create a sense of rhythm and pace within the song:

DIEGESIS

Diegesis is the world created inside a video and how the characters react and behave to match the narrative that is at play. Characters may move in time to the music and the video and shot could hint or show glimpses of a characters personality and their mood from the way they are presented but will never fully disclose who the character is and why they are the person that they are in the video. This similar to the narrative as there can be many unanswered questions about the characters presented in the video.

Star Image - Richard Dyer

Star image is the concept that artists create a certain 'image' through the way they are presented, both through their looks and behaviour. Nearly every artist presents themselves in a certain way, whether it is positive or negative, and this is what can attract or send away people depending on their taste. For example One Direction's image is very different from Linkin Park's and they both have very different fanbases:

Linkin Park's fans are older and both genders whereas the One Direction fans are all young, impressionable girls screaming out for them. Linkin Park's fans may also relate a lot to the band and identify themselves with the band and in some cases could project themselves. One Direction's fans mostly have a emotional connection to the band and will go many lengths to show that.

Having an image is important for any artist as it is the first thing fans will think of when the artist is mentioned and is what will attract new fans. Image is also what can gain the star some publicity. For example a negative image will likely gain a lot of press coverage and even thought it is negative it will turn people towards that artist. A big example is the change of Miley Cyrus from 2008 to 2015:

Miley gained a lot of publicity because of her new images and because of this attention she gained many new fans that liked this new image. However she did lose some fans because of this but overall that change has made more of a name for her and not many artists are willing to dramatically change their image like she did. People, particularly adults, saw the '2008 Miley' as a role-model and under Dyers theory this would have meant that parents would have liked their child to identify with her (self identification) and to have a emotional connection with her (emotional affinity) and in some cases imitation would have been a good thing, however since Miley has changed her image parents have decided that they no longer think she should be idolised and imitated.

In the alternative rock genre a band that has changed their music genre over time but kept their image the same is Green Day. There are many fans that are disappointed with their recent music which falls under the alternative rock rather than punk but I think they have still portrayed themselves well and are still the same band only with a different style, not image. Something that comes to mind when I think of Green Day is both performance, partying and emotional content which are both shown in nearly all of their videos. Green Day's songs touch on some very serious topics which are matched with the visuals shown and they are designed to make the viewer feel strong emotions and all of their videos display this kind of content. If the video does not contain emotional content it will contain a party scene or a wild scene at the least. My favourite example of emotional content is "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and wild scenes is "Holiday":

The actual band's image is the same with dark clothes and hair and they have kept this image up for a long time and that is what people think of when the band is mentioned to them. They still look exactly the same, in my opinion, and I think that for a 10 span of time they have developed and stuck with their style and image.

Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin stated that there is a theory behind music videos that involve 6 different points:

• Genre Characteristics
• Relationship between lyrics and visuals
• Relationship between music and visuals
• Star Image
• Intertextual References
• Voyeurism

As the genre of out chosen song is a alternative song with a hint of rock to it I wanted to find a song of a similar genre and see if it matches Goodwin's theory. I chose Paramore's "Only Exception", the song is more of a rock song that ours but it still falls under the same genre:

  

The genre characteristics of this type of music are that there will be performance shots, which there are plenty of. The singer is surrounded by the musicians whilst she holds the microphone and sings which is a common feature of music videos of this genre.

The lyrics of the song explain that the person in the song will never fall in love because of her parent's marriage falling apart, however she falls in love with a man and he is the 'only exception' to this rule. The visuals follow this and tell the story of the woman and how she decides to stay with him through a unique set where each door leads to the next part of the story development. The visuals do not precisely follow the lyrics as the performance shots break the flow of narrative but the story is linked to the idea of falling and realising you're in love.

The scene with her father could link back to the theme of love as the main protagonist loves her parents, as her father is the parent shown it is likely she prefers him, which shows a different kind of love and that she will still love her father even though she never wants a romantic partner.

The music and visuals are interesting as overall the colours are fairly faded but not so much that the scene looks washed out. Love songs usually contain a lot of pinks and reds and there is a particular scene where these colours are used but overall the visuals are fairly normal. As a sad sounding song with happy lyrics the visuals are not overall sad, except for the sad looks given from the character, yet the visuals are not extremely colourful like a happy, positive song would be. A small detail that stands out to me is during the wedding scene the singer is wearing black, a contrast from all of the white surrounding her, and black is typically associated with darkness and depression, whereas white is pure and clean. I think this could be a small detail to show that the song is representing both the happy and sad times that can be experienced when you are in love.

Paramore's image is that they are a rock band with a female lead, they use many performance shots and have a very dedicated fan base. Although this video was created almost 5 years ago their loyal fans still adore both the song and the band and have watched the band blossom into who they are today. Their image today is still very similar to how it was back in 2010 and they still have a alternative rock style to their name which they still maintain, even after some members left. Some fans have stated that Paramore has turned into a pop group and dislike their more current music but dedicated and loyal fans will buy the songs despite the change in genre as they have watched the band grow. The band's image continues to show in both fast song (Misery Business), sad songs (Now), happy songs (Ain't it Fun) and the slower songs like Only Exception.

PARAMORE IN 2010

PARAMORE IN 2015

When watching the video again, I tried to spot some intertextuality however I could not spot anything. A small piece of information that links back to Paramore's fans. During the scene where Haley Williams can be seen lying on letters, these letters are actual letters that fans sent them. The band selected their favourite and placed them in the video and although it does not reference a TV show, film, piece of art or any other intertextuality, it does give a small nod towards their fans and their appreciation.

This video is very tasteful and at no point are gender sexualities exploited like voyeurism would suggest. Each outfit covers up everyone's body in the video, this might be because it would not match the song or visuals but also because it does not suit the band's image. However during the scene where Haley Williams is lying on the bed of letter her legs are being shown and the camera gradually shows more of her legs, this could be interpreted as the male gaze following her body down to her legs. Her body language is very open and inviting to the audience and the bird's eye shot could show her vulnerability about falling in love yet this could be taken in many different ways. Despite the music video not displaying any sexual content there is still a scene that could be interpreted as voyeurism due to her dress showing off her legs.
 

 

Overall the video ties in well with Goodwin's theory. Most of the arguments that Goodwin stated in this theory can be applied in this video and prove his theory to be correct. There are some contrasting points, such as the amount of voyeurism displayed in the video and how much the lyrics match the visuals, but overall this music video could be applied to Goodwin's theory.