Andrew Goodwin, Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992) carried
out research into mainstream music videos and identified typical conventions. Applying his critical framework to music
videos such as “Dirt” by Wu Lyf, directed by ‘the Lucifer youth’ (2011)
determines to what extent the text is conventional.
Firstly he stated that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. This video could be categorised as being in the alternative rock genre. It is conventional in that it has an extremely fast cutting rate where it looks almost stop motion as there is a cut on almost every drum beat and as the drumming is quite ferocious it gives it a strobe feel, this is conventional as a fast cutting rate is common across most genres especially faster alternative rock. Iconography is also something that the Goodwin discussed as he found that the iconography of a band and their star image is very important to their perceptions from their audiences. In this particular video the group have dropped their iconography to speak for a larger, more selfless cause to which they believe in. theyre speaking for themselves the world unite Lucifer youth foundation and showing clips and extracts of riots with the lyrics printed over the top it gives you more insight into the cause that theyre talking about. This is unconventional as there are no shots of any of the group at any point. Goodwin says that close ups are crucial in music videos and are part of his framework, however this is not the case in the video. There is very intense post production that has gone into this video with the fast cutting rate and the changes in filters and font colour with the very intense cuts and the change of lyrics and the wu lyf symbol appearing and disappearing at very fast rates. The amount of post production is conventional for an alternative rock group however it is done in an unconventional way with the constant black and white and grainy filter used.
Goodwin discussed the relationship between lyrics and
visuals. In relation to the lyrics it is
clear that they have a clear message but due to the frontmans voice we need the
visuals with the lyrics to understand what the song is really about. The visuals
are amplifying the whole ‘rising up’ viewpoint that the band seem to have. This
example of amplification allows the audience to home in on the point that the
group are making, this is apparent throughout.
He also considered the relationship between music and
visuals to be an important convention.
In the whole video we can see the scenes of rioting and fighting against
the police, and along with the heavy drums and the distinct guitar I would
imagine the cutting rate to be quite frantic. However it is conventional in the
way that it cuts with the beat and does this very successfully along with the
lyrics being flashed on the screen.
Music videos are a postmodern form which implies that they
often borrow and rework ideas from other texts and forms. Wu Lyf uses intertextuality in the form of
the common idea of rebellion shared between alternative rock artists themselves
and the music they produce inflicts rebellious connotations. And the ideas have
come from other artists such as the clash who very irreverent in their music
making.
Therefore the video could be seen as conventional in that the cutting rate matches the beat and
is very in time, with very precise and accurate cutting and use of filters.
However the video is unconventional in that there is no
performance or narrative it is simply delivering a message. The video employs an artistic/creative approach
to conventions in that it uses intense cuts with multi-coloured text lay over
it, flashing with just enough time so we can see it properly. A possible reason as to why the theory cannot
be applied to this video is the lack of meat shots and any shots containing the
group and even without any narrative, however the lyrics tell the story enough.
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