Deborah Holdstein

Music Video: Messages & Structures

The ‘3 Striking Qualities’ of a Star in Music Videos

1. The star as a fantasy ‘seer’ or prophet

2. The star as a political commentator or narrator

3. The star as a mediator or point of resolution for social conflict

Holdstein - Music Video: Messages and Structures

• “Videos seem to divide into two categories: Those with allegedly explicit ‘political’ themes, and those which revive the traditional U.S. film musical.”

• The fantasy video is based entirely on performance. This format puts “the group or star in a mythical, medieval, exotic or surrealistic series of images and locations.”

• “Videos make the artist more accessible to the fans. When they come to a performance, then they bring or wear things they've seen in the video.”

• “In the past, artists portrayal will only be left to the viewers imagination or how they are seen in concert, the record album cover pose, photographs and interviews in Rolling Stone, Time.”

• But nowadays, “the video image is quicker and more powerful.”

Holdstein - Michael Jackson - ‘Beat It’

http://youtu.be/p3jCPtxOkGo

• Holdstein: “Is Jackson portrayed as a ‘fantasy’, a ‘political commentator’, or as a ‘mediator of social conflict’.”

• The song does address ‘racism’ and ‘social class’ : “They told him don't you ever come around here, don't wanna see your face, you better disappear.”

• It doesn't need words, it has faces, gestures, emphasis, and a narrative one could easily follow without ‘Beat It’ on the soundtrack.

• Jackson, the mediator, has become a surreal ‘fantasy’ figure, involved yet detached from the action he seems to resolve.

• With a vivid start to the scene's, we see several men, who we will learn are members of a gang about to meet their rivals for a ‘rumble.’

• Political Commentator: “We come upon Jackson in his apartment, lying on his bed. Somehow he instinctively knows there will be trouble.”

• Crosscutting continues from Jackson to the gangs, alternating between one gang piling on a truck, presumably to the rumble's location, and the other gang, walking.

• The suspense of ‘who'll get there first,’ and ‘what'll happen when they get there’ is heightened by a question: Where's Michael Jackson, and what role will he play in all of this?

• The traditional U.S. film musical: WEST SIDE STORY is revisited. Both gang leaders line up against each other, jabbing knife shots.

• But the scene is portrayed as a ‘fantasy’ through dance. Jackson enters to stop the fight (‘mediator of social conflict’) before all characters dance behind him in one large choreographed routine.

Duran Duran – ‘Hungry like the Wolf’

http://youtu.be/oOg5VxrRTi0

• The videos' pace and editing are strikingly like that of TV commercials. As Holdstein would state: “It is the selling of both product and image”, in this case, the ‘star’.

• Cinematic music video, with shots of jungles, rivers, elephants, cafes and marketplaces.

• Referring to Holdstein’s theory that videos ‘revive the traditional U.S. film musical’, the band have been inspired by the atmosphere of the film: ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.’

• The lead singer is on a hunt in Asia, where black women are painted to resemble and act like savages.

• In the video, lead singer Simon Le Bon's head rises in slow motion out of the river as rain pours down.

• He then chases a tiger-like Indian woman played by Bermudian model Sheila Ming, from open markets in the city through obstacles in the jungle.

• During the chase, Le Bon has his face mopped by a young boy and overturns a bar room table, culminating in a final chase and struggle in a jungle clearing, which is sexually suggestive.

• Fantasy Video: As Holdstein suggests, the mythical and exotic location is relevant here, with Ming being the desirable prize of the chase.

• Like in Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’, crosscutting occurs with the other band members in the meantime, hunting for Le Bon.

A More To-Date Instance…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I

Star as a point of resolution for social issue:

Sex Trafficking in Russia

Lady Gaga – Bad Romance (2009)

Forcefully is drugged against her own will by two other women, who

presumably, are already part of the sex trafficking

business

As she is in a room dominated by the

colour white and as she is in white, this

draws attention to the colour which could

symbolize purity and innocence, which

Gaga’s character is now going to lose

Unnaturally large eyes emphasises that she is under the influence of drugs, and also shows that these drugs have

extremely bad effects on the user

Lady Gaga - as herself – cries as she sings:

‘Caught in a Bad Romance’ as if she is suggesting that

the character is ‘caught’ in a terrible situation. She acts as the narrator in this particular

image/setting.

Fights to keep clothes on whilst the other dancers try to rip them off: She still has some sense of what is going on despite

being drugged Finally she is

completely subdued by the drugs and sells

herself. She wears white to emphasise

her purity and making her more desirable to

her potential purchasers

Lady Gaga is given the highest bid and is bought

for 1,000,000 Russian ruble’s.

Completely embraces her new given identity and presents herself for her audience in

black symbolizing her loss of innocence and

purity

Presents herself to her ‘purchaser/bidder’

but instead of satisfying his sexual desire, she sets him on fire in attempt to

save herself from the issue of sex trafficking

Closing shot – Gaga’s character has won and one of the Russian sex

trafficking culprits is dead, lying next to her. So she has become a point of resolution for

this issue.

In Conclusion…• Lady Gaga plays two roles; one is herself and the other is a victim of

sex trafficking. She uses her music video to portray the step-by-step process though which young women are taken and made into a product of male sexual desire, that later is sold to the wealthy men of the Russian society.

• When Gaga plays herself, she sings ‘caught in a bad romance’ which emphasises her beliefs of the ‘bad romance’ which in this case is sex trafficking.

• In character, Gaga is a physical imitation of the goings-on in becoming a product that may later be bought, to enable the audience to empathise with the terrible extremity of the social issue.

• As the character Gaga plays finally burns her Russian buyer, she becomes a heroine as she kills someone who is partly responsible for the ‘murder’ of innocent young girls.