Is meaning created through music videos? Media Magazine Analysis

Is meaning created through music videos?

In the September 2013 episode of Media Magazine, rapper David Aidoo, aka ThisisDA, discussed 'reading' lyrics in rap songs. He spoke about deciphering the meanings of songs, his writing process and whether or not we should decipher the lyrics at all. As I am creating a music video this year, whilst reading this I couldn't help but apply it to music videos and the way in which they can work in tandem with the lyrics of a song to create an even stronger meaning.

Interpreting Songs

Towards the start of the article Aidoo says that the way music makes us feel is where the 'basic interpretation' of the song's meaning comes from and I think that this feeling we get from a song is completely supported by the music video. Watching, just as much as listening, creates a visceral reaction (Altman), and combining them both together creates synergy between the two products; a good music video together with a good song creates a much bigger reaction than each one on it's own, at least in my opinion, allowing us to interpret in an even stronger way. I think this is most obvious with the music video for Stan by Eminem. The song, contrary to the ideas of Lyotard, has a very strong singular narrative following the story of the character Stan and in this sense it is the perfect song for translating into a music video. This is utilised well in the video, with Eminem almost becoming a narrator for the video.

"Sometimes I scribble addresses too sloopy when I jot em" 

This screenshot is a clear example of where meaning is added to Eminem's story through the video. It gives a visual representation of the basement in which Stan writes his letters to Eminem. The use of mise-en-scene, particularly the prop of the magazine which has an article open about Eminem. This creates the idea that Stan is obsessed with Eminem, confirmed by the setting, with the pictures of Eminem's face on his wall. This shows a child like fascination which appears unhealthy at Stan's age. The dark lighting also sets a very obvious twisted tone to the video, representing Stan as someone hidden away from society. This clearly shows how meaning can be portrayed through a music video and gives another tool to intepret the music. However, Aidoo debates whether or not we should stick to this raw visceral reaction that the lyrics create.

Kanye West in the studio

Visceral Reactions

For example, he tells the story of when he was watching a documentary on Kanye West which shows him producing Late Registration. He tells us that Kanye West inspired him to 'record on the spot' without pre-written lyrics because, in Kanye's words, it allows you to 'connect with the beat more'. This 'connection' is clearly a way of creating a more visceral reaction to music, abandoning a more methodical, intellectual approach. In my opinion this is just as a valid way of producing and writing music as any other, backed up by the 3.1 million sales Kanye's Late Registration has made, making it a triple platinum album. One thing I wondered was whether or not this visceral approach extends to Kanye's music videos and viewing the video for Gold Digger seems to tell me that it does.

A screenshot from the Gold Digger video

This screenshot is a good example for the theme of the video; portraying Kanye looking behind his back at a provactively dressed woman. The shots of Kanye and Jamie Foxx singing throughout the video create a very raw visceral image, as do the images of the provactively dressed women on magazine covers. The screenshot itself has been created for a very visceral response. The setting of the shot, with the black background with a red light tells you everything you need to know. The red is a very raw colour, as it can represent ideas of both love and anger, arguably two themes present towards the women referenced in the song. Therefore, I think that a music video gives a very good way of anchoring meaning (Goodwin) from the artists perspective, in this case creating the very raw visceral emotion that the song is looking to create. 

Screenshot from an Eminem video

Dangers in interpreting songs

Another part of Aidoo's article which I think can be translated in an interesting way to music videos is his views on interpreting lyrics. Whilst I disagree with his view as far as lyrics go, I think it can be applied to a music videos. He says that people should 'admire from afar' when it comes to rapper's lyrics and not interpret them too much in order to avoid creating controversy from misinterpreting the words, adding that the older generation have a tendency to 'blame rap for much of the violence that goes on within the younger world'. To some extent I disagree, as I think that if you were to not attempt to interpret a video, it would be easy to blame rap for the violence you see in the media. When you see the iconography of guns in videos or Eminem gesturing as above, it would be easy to take this view, without considering the video holistically, with the song and its context included in that. However, looking too much into the videos can lead to misinterpretations and make the issue worse. A lot of the older generation would not have an understanding of the context and culture behind songs and whilst there is no other way to gain it, it can clearly lead to misunderstandings and represent rap as a genre in a negative way. A contrasting perspective to this is the fact that a large amount of rap fans are young people who are stereotypically more impressionable. Glorification of violence as well as other factors such as negative gender representations for women can result in social problems.

Summary

To summarize, I feel reading Aidoo's article and applying it to music videos has given me a new perspective on what I want to create going forwards. Previously I had in mind a very singular narrative video for the song, but having read his views on the visceral reactions lyrics can create, I want to interpret this with my video. The idea of Kanye West coming into the studio without any pre-written lyrics for a beat and just seeing what resonates within him is something that I feel I can apply to our creative process for the video. The visceral way the Gold Digger video is created with very basic elements such as colour has changed my views on creating a music video. However one thing I still want to consider is whether the song we choose is appropriate for the visceral interpretation. The current idea we have is Swimming Pools by Kendrick Lamar, and the visceral message of the song is completely different to the intellectual interpretation. On the surface, it seems like a drinking anthem, due to the chorus of the song. However, when carefully considering the lyrics it is clear it is the complete opposite of that and actually advocates self control whilst drinking. Overall, I think it would be interesting to interpret the difference between the visceral and intellectual reaction into our video. If I could create a video which initially looks like a pro-drinking video when in reality it is the opposite, I think I would be doing the song justice.

Source: Media Magazine, Issue 45, September 2013

Ancillary Task Practice - Magazine Advert

In order to prepare for creating a magazine advert for one of my ancillary tasks, I have made a practice one for a currently unreleased Drake album. I used a picture of Toronto found on Google Images which would obviously have copyright issues but for practice I figured it would be fine. I included the artist name, the album title and the fact that the album is now released and made the image the same dimensions as another advert I have analysed. I also added a parental advisory sign; I'm not sure if this is required on an advert so this is something I need to find out for creating my final product. One thing I wanted to include was the actual 'views from the six', so I found an image showing off famous buildings from the city. I also used a calming photo filter to try and match what I expect from the album thematically. Furthermore, Drake is extremely loyal to Toronto and two sports teams from the city use this colour so it gives an element of continuity. I also used the healing brush tool to try and add the number 6 to the buildings in their lights. Drake refers to Toronto as the six because of the area codes for the city so I thought it would make the image unique and bring it together. The idea for adding it to the building lights is something I found online with the image below and I wanted to try it myself. One thing I need to consider when creating my actual ancillary task is that the advert needs to be portrait and not landscape. However in this case I was just looking to practice my editing skills and the photo I liked was more suited to a horizontal image. 

A mock up album cover I found online

Magazine Advert Analysis

Preparation for music video practice

In order to better understand the processes involved in making a music video, our group has decided to make a short clip from a real music video. This should help us understand some of the conventions of recording in more depth and also give us an idea about all the small details involved, such as storyboarding and planning recording sessions. The music video we have chosen to recreate is Roses by Outkast. This was chosen as it has a set very similar to something in our sixth form so we should be able to accurately recreate it.

The segment of the video we are initially aiming to recreate is 0:57 to 1:27. As part of our planning, we created a storyboard and took pictures of the shots to give us an idea of what we are going to be filming and how to frame it and set up the set itself.

The storyboard we prepared

The folder with the pictures we took in preparation

Comparison of one of the shots

 

Another comparison of a shot we recreated

Ancillary Task Practice - Album Cover/Digipak

In preparation for my ancillary task of creating a digipak for the music video, I have created two different album covers as practice. 

Swimming Pools - Kendrick Lamar

This is an album cover I created for the song Swimming Pools. I found a stock image of Compton, Kendrick Lamar's hometown. This idea of loyalty to where you are from is a strong convention within rap and this is something I had in mind with the creation of the of this cover. I wanted to make the city look like a prosperous place to live and as such I created two layers of the stock image and applied a soft light layer setting to the top layer and blurred the bottom layer. I thought that this would make the lights look brighter. I also slightly moved the bottom layer to create a feeling of distortion in order to be congruent with the themes of the song. To further the feeling of distortion I also added noise to the image. I think this also had the inadvertent effect of making the city's lights look brighter and busier so this is a skill that I learnt in the creation of this cover. One thing I would look to improve for this is my font choice for the text 'Swimming Pools'. I think it contrasts and compliments 'Kendrick Lamar' well but I think there is something about it which looks unpolished that I would like to improve. Therefore when creating my final ancillary task I will take extra care with my font. However I do think that the text placement on this cover is something that I did well as it shows off the interesting parts of the image, such as the skyscrapers, whilst clearly communicating the text.   

U - Kendrick Lamar

This is another album cover I created, this time for the song 'U' by Kendrick Lamar again. I took the image for this cover myself and this is good practice for the final ancillary task as it avoids copyright issues. I wanted to created a grimey kind of feel for this cover, reflecting the topic of the song. Therefore I desaturated the image and created a red glow on the hand print to create the look of blood on the hands. I used a paintbrush and reduced the opacity so it blended into the image and wasn't an abrupt change to colour. Similarly to the other album cover, I feel that my font choice is something I can improve on. I think the 'U' is something a little hard to read and I am unsure if the 'Kendrick Lamar' text is place well. My thinking was to integrate it with the gaps in the bricks but I don't think it worked as well as I wanted. 

Digipak analysis