AR: Music Video Theory

“Music videos are simply a tool for promoting an artist”. With reference to a promotional campaign, how far do you agree with this statement?

Lana Del Rey used Vevo to advertise her latest album ‘Ultraviolence’ on YouTube. The album was released in the summer of 2014 and consistent with her previous albums it conformed to the alternative pop genre, specifically chamber pop and her electric style also places her within the trip hop sub-genre of music. It is an original cinematic style that appears to reject rock and grunge but is built of a fan base that has distaste for popular music trends. It endeavours to return to the elegance and classically based style of 1960s baroque pop, a period that is reflected in Del Rey’s star image and visual motif through how she dresses and her style of hair and makeup. This image is enhanced through Rey’s constant reference in her music to pop culture from 50’s and 60’s America and her visual influences that include film noire as well as artists such as Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse and Nirvana. Matt Hanson considered music videos to be an art form, for example he stated that ‘music video is the place where the moving image avant-garde comes alive’ meaning it is a platform for an expression of innovative, experimental art. In contrast to that Laura Mulvey suggested in 1975 that music videos could be reduced to just soft porn ‘using mainly female fragmented body parts to attract the-mainly male-gaze’ this explicit theme gets the artist lots of attention. Another debate is that a music video is a commercial device and used to sell a product rather than having any conceptual purpose.

Music videos can be defined in terms of genre of the track and the encoding of formulaic conventions for example considering Lana Del Rey’s ‘Shades of Cool’ Goodwin would access the genre characteristics present such as the deep abstract meaning of the narrative, generic of alternative indie music concerned with expressing emotion and originality. Goodwin discussed the relationship between lyrics and visuals. In relation to this music video it is clear that an amplification technique has been adopted as there is a link with the song that develops the artist’s ideas into visual form but does not completely change them. There is a surreal effect by the use of this technique in ‘Shades of cool’ for example where the lyrics say ‘prays for peace’ and the Japanese peace flower is presented along with missiles in the background and explosions happening all over the frame contrasting the lyric and so creating irony due to the juxtaposition of images. Another of Goodwin’s conventions of a music video is how the visuals change in synchronization with the music. An example of this is when the first chorus ends and the location changes to Del Rey walking down the suburban street. This happens as the tempo of the whole song develops suggesting something about this location as it resembles a shift in mood. Voyeurism is something Goodwin describes in his theories behind music video characteristics. This techniques is used in Del Rey’s video specifically fetishism which is the sexual lingering of the camera on the artist breaking the fourth wall. The focus on her makes us notice her nature and beauty that is often sexual like how she swims in the pool and dances around the room. This conforms to Mulvey’s idea that music videos are a form of soft porn. There is an Inter-textual reference when Del Rey gets out of the pool as the shot references Marilyn Monroe in ‘Something’s Got to Give’ (1962). This reinforces the 50’s/60’s image that she regularly portrays and enhances her visual motif. This technique suggests that the video employs an artistic approach to conventions in that it is art as it takes inspiration from other pieces of art however as Monroe is a famous sex symbol, Del Rey’s imitation only categorises herself in the same way and so the video comes across as predominantly closer to porn.

Deconstructing the signifiers constructed in the digipak enables audiences to evaluate the text in terms of representation and ideologies. With reference to Lana Del Rey’s ‘Ultraviolence’ signifiers such as the black and white colouring connotes the aged retro feel Del Rey’s aims to show in her star image. Del Rey is positioned in the right third of the frame which means the viewer’s eye is drawn to this area which signifies the artist’s importance. She has a blank expression so although her positioning makes her present to the viewer, because her expression gives little away she is simultaneously absent.  The beautiful subject with the glamorous car in the background represents a desirable lifestyle that welcomes the consumer, inviting them to be part of the narrative world by buying the product. Her extra-diegetic gaze breaks the fourth wall as it recognises the audience’s presence and balances a power relationship between the artist and the consumer. The conventional reading path starts from the top left however in ‘Ultraviolence’ this area is blank, dark, irrelevant background. This makes the viewer uneasy as it is an original composition so it is eye catching to the viewer and helps persuade them to but the album. These features all suggest that the artist is simply a product of commercialism rather than a platform for creativity or for the simple purpose of soft porn.

Different features of an image have individual significance as they allow us to find meaning such as the linguistic and iconic signs in Lana Del Rey’s album cover. With reference to the Vevo advertisement shown on YouTube before many related music videos, the indexical signs such as the linguistic sign ‘new’ in the bottom left constructs the myth of needing what is fresh and exciting rather than old and unoriginal. This word appeals to a viewer as they are made to realise it is something they have never experiences before so must experience now. This cultural sign targets society’s weaknesses in order to sell the artists product.

There is a metanarrative in her work often referred to in her songs and seen in her music videos and promotional campaigns which is her struggles with alcohol dependence from a young age and her interest in philosophy and God spurred on by her Catholic school education. Her narrative follows her self-styled gangsta image as she appears involved with dangerous high-profile mobster type men. She is shown to be innocent which is emphasized by her ‘Lolita’ relationship with older father-figure sort of men. Her previous participation in a cult while living in New York where the guru surrounded himself with young girls and held the belief that people had to be broken to be built back up seems partly responsible for her psychological worries in her songs far from that of the generic mainstream artist. Her involvement with older men in her videos may be due to the guru’s influence on her.  Richard Dyers study of the stars helps us identify the characteristics of a star such as youthfulness and rebellion so that we can recognise an artist’s persona and how it has been constructed in their music video. The mythological set of meanings evident in Lana Del Rey’s star persona in her music video ‘Shades of Cool’ includes rebellion and originality. Del Rey reinforces her rebellious star image with the sequence of shots were the mis-en-scene shows her drinking and smoking. The props used in these BCU shots develops from a strawberry to a cocktail finishing with a cigarette. Del Rey gets pushed further and further out of shot as the sequence goes on emphasising the taboo of her developing situation. Therefore this is evidence of a disregard of social values. When applying Dyer’s critical framework to the digipack and Vevo advert it is evident that the perception of the star is heavily influenced by the promotional campaign. The audience of Del Rey’s product are positioned within the mainstream as they feature generic characteristics such as having the artist on the album cover in one third looking directly at the audience. However one aspect of this theory does not apply as Del Rey is an alternative artist so you would expect her audience to be positioned outside of the mainstream. This suggests that the digipack is simply a tool used by Del Rey to access the widest audience, being the mainstream audience, to make the most amount of money.

Del Rey often presents herself in a fetishistic way as there is a sexual lingering of the camera on her in her music videos however it is done in a classy way, not necessarily showing too much skin or coming across provocative therefore I believe there is a debatable reading to whether Mulvey’s theory applies in this case. With her alternative music it is inevitable that her music videos are quite arty and have quite confusing, personal concepts guided by her metanarrative so Hanson’s ideas behind the purpose of a music video are much more relevant. Del Rey is not made to seem like a product in her videos so I think the commercial theory is least relatable to her music videos. However other aspects of her promotional campaign like her album cover and Vevo advert present her in a generic advertisement format making her a complete tool to sell her product.