Star Image

Stars are constructed, artificial images, even if they are represented as being "real people", experiencing real emotions. Stars are not presented as a ‘person’ but through an image ‘a persona’ Constructed and can be analysed semiotically. 

Pop stars have the advantage over film stars in that their constructed image may be much more consistent over a period of time, and is not dependent on the creative input of others. a true pop star does have a lasting significance, and has "brand awareness" amongst a wider market over a period of time. 

Many of the so-called pop stars populating the top forty currently have not made a sufficient sociological or cultural impact to be classified as true stars. Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and promote a certain ideology. 

Audience interest in these values enhances their 'star quality', and it is through conveying beliefs ideas and opinions outside music that performers help create their star persona. A star may initiate a fashion trend, with legions of fans copying their hairstyle and clothing. They establish their character and personality through songs and performance and will strive for immediate star identity with a first album.

Star Marketing

Star Marketing covers all areas of an artist's 'brand' image. To be successful, particularly in the age that we live in, an artist must be marketed successfully so that they can be portrayed to a potential audience in a good way, leading to possible music sales. Social media is where artists can keep fans up to date with music and tours etc, they must be professional to an extent on social medias as their profiles act as what would be a 'shop window' for fans and potential sales. The star marketing will tell you many things - what they can expect from your products and services (your star), and how you differentiate from other artists and competitors.

Narrative Theorists

Roland Barthes was a french semiologist. He suggested that narrative works with five different codes which activate the reader to make sense of it. He also used the terms denotation and connotation to analyse image.

• The Hermeneutic Code (enigma) refers to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the reader, raising questions that demand explication. Most stories hold back details in order to increase the effect of the final revelation of all diegetic truths.
• The Proairetic Code (action) refers to the other major structuring principle that builds interest or suspense on the part of a reader or viewer. The proairetic code applies to any action that implies a further narrative action.
• The Semantic Code points to any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation.
• The Symbolic Code - can be difficult to distinguish from the semantic code and Barthes is not always clear on the distinction between these two codes; the easiest way to think of the symbolic code is as a "deeper" structural principle that organises semantic meanings, usually by way of antitheses or by way of mediations (particularly, forbidden mediations) between antithetical terms. 
• The Cultural Code designates any element in a narrative that refers "to a science or a body of knowledge". In other words, the cultural codes tend to point to our shared knowledge about the way the world works, including properties that we can designate as "physical, physiological, medical, psychological, literary, historical, etc.

Vladimir Propp was a Russian critic and literary theorist, who analysed over 100 Russian fairytales in the 1920s. He proposed that it was possible to classify the characters and their actions into clearly defined roles and functions. Films such as Star Wars fit Propp’s model precisely, but a a significant number of more recent films such as Pulp Fiction do not. The model is useful, however as it highlights the similarities between seemingly quite different stories. He came up with the basic character structure that is used still today:

• The hero (seeks something) 
• The villain (opposes the hero) 
• The donor (helps the hero by providing a magic object) 
• The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way) 
• The false hero (falsely assuming the role of hero) 
• The helper (gives support to the hero) 
• The princess (the reward for the hero, but also needs protection from the villain) 
• Her father 

Tzvetan Todorov was a Bulgarian literary theorist who suggested that most narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which life is ‘normal’ and protagonists happy. This state of normality is disrupted by an outside force, which has to be fought against in order to return to a state of equilibrium. This model can easily be applied to a wide range of films:

Equilibrium > Disequilibrium > New Equilibrium 

Claude Levi-Strauss was a social Anthropologist, who studied myths of tribal cultures. He examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. These are usually expressed in the form of binary oppositions . His research has been adapted by media theorists to reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media texts. 

Forms and Conventions

 Lyrics

Lyrics tend to help to establish a general feeling, or mood, or sense of subject matter rather than offering a coherent meaning. Key lines may play a part in the visuals associated with the song, but very rarely will a music video simply replicate the lyrics wholesale.

Music

A music video tends to make the use of the tempo of the track to the drive of the editing and may emphasise particular sounds from the track by foregrounding instruments such as guitar, keyboard or drum solo.

Genre

While some music videos transcend  genres, others can be more easily categorised. Some, but not all, music channels concentrate on particular music genres. If you watch these channels then over a period of time, you will be able to identify a range of distinct features which characterise the videos of different genres. These features might be reflected in types of mise en scene, themes (see post students did for summer), performance, camera and editing styles.

Camerawork

As with any moving image text, how the camera is used and how the images are sequenced has a significant impact on meaning. Camera movement, angle and shot distance all need to be analysed. Camera movement may accompany movement of performers (walking, dancing etc) but it may also be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage performance, for instance by constantly circling the band as they perform on stage. The close up camera shot predominates, as in most TV, partly because of the size of the screen and partly because of the desire to create a sense of intimacy for the viewer. It also emphasises hlf of the commodity on sale – the artist, and particularly the voice. John Stewart of the mucic video production company Oil Factory said, that he sees the music video as essentially having the aesthetics of the TV commercial, with lots of close ups and lighting to focus on the star’s face (aka the product for some commercials).

Editing

Although the most common form form of editing associated with the music promo is fast cut montage, rendering many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing, so ensuring multiple viewing, some videos use slow pace and gentler shot transitions to create a mood. This is particularly apparent in promos for many female solo artists with a mass appeal such as Dido. Often enhancing the editing are digital effects, which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure to the audience. This might take the form of split screens, colourisation and blockbuster film style CGI.

Intertextuality

The msic video is often described as a ‘Post-Modern’ form, a slippery term which is often used to describe intertextuality., one of post-modernism’s more easily definable features. Broadly, if we see music promos as frequently drawing upon existing texts in order to spark recognition in the audience, we have a working definitions of intertextuality. Not all audiences will necessarily spot a reference and this need not significantly detract from their pleasure in the text itself, but greater pleasure might be derived by those who recognise the reference and feel flattered by this. Arguably, it also increases the audience’s engagement with, and attentiveness to the product, an important facility in a culture where so many images and narratives compete for our attention.

Narrative and Performance

Narrative in songs, as in poetry, is rarely complete and often fragmentary (David Bowie is renowned for writing words and then jumbling them up sporadically to create his lyrics). The same is true for music promos , which tend to suggest storylines or offer complex fragments in a non-linear order, leaving the viewer with the desire to see them again.

Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a crefeul choreographed dance might be a part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor. Sometimes, the artist (especially the singer) will be a part of the story, acting as a narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lyp sync close-up shots and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of music videos.

Representation Of Women

  Good Girls

Developing My Treatment

Laura Mulvey (Theorist) on Representation

Laura Mulvey - Representation Theorist

 



Laura Mulvey

 The 'Male Gaze' is a theory developed from a feminist view to address the lack of equality between men and women- analysing the way in which men see women, the way women look at themselves and the way in which women look at other women.

The theory portrays that the audience are forced to view the from the perspective of a heterosexual male. The camera constantly focuses on the curves of a women's body, completely objectifying female characters making them less 'important' than other male roles.

Sexism has been shown to be presented where the audience are encouraged to look at women in advertising that sexualises a women's body, even when the advertised product is completely unrelated to the women's body. 

As audiences watch films without being watched by the characters they become onlookers of their lives.
 Therefore they become voyeurs of the people on screen.
This can lead to two effects: objectification and narcissistic identification.
Voyeurism involves turning the represented figure into a fetish so it becomes increasingly beautiful but more objectified.

It has been contended filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock objectified his female subjects, positioning them to merely arouse the audience.

The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events. 

This relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.

A photo analysed showing aspects of the male gaze.