Visual/Audio Music Video

Chapters five, six, and seven are concentrated in three different aspects of music video; however, the chapters reveal the collaboration of audio and visual in creating music video. Neither audio nor visual is represented as a dependent, rather as a complete whole working to enhance a new form of art.

Chapter 5 Style

Part of chapter 5 expresses the understanding and critic of music video based on social phenomenon and movements.  Although the author never used these words, there is an idea of music video as an ill constructed- thoughtless mesh of shots used simply to please the audience. However, music video is far more than an ill construction. In chapter 5 the author explains that “visual presentation of music television is not free-floating, as it has been conceived, but follows a musical logic. "(14)

" The “vision,” or better the audio-visual aesthetic, of music television is indeed an institutionalized vision. " (21) This being said, music video can be identified as its own art.  Throughout the chapter style was identified as something that had its own ideologies; that sought its own purpose; that could be simplistic or complicated, and could choose its own audience. As a form of art, music video certainty possesses its own style because it embodies all the characteristic of style.

Since music video is its own art, than we can deductively reason that it is not an enhancement of audio since it exists as its own creation. Just as music video exists as does music and video separately. Therefore, the visual aspect of music video is no less important, than the music itself.

Chapter 6 The Persistence of Vision

Chapter 6 explained the importance, and impact of vision. “Phrases like, “seeing is believing,” and “I see what you mean” reveal the significance of this visual bias as they the seeing to knowing.  And in the process make vision the epistemological sense” (2)

There was a significant movement from orality to literacy, that trained new generations to think of vision as the epistemological sense; however, music video tosses their audience back and forth from one sense to the next. The visual complements the audio; likewise, does the audio complement the visual. “MTV wants to be understood with both ears and eyes open.  Moreover, the visual, as has been hinted at in previous chapters and as we shall see in the following, does not dominate music video” (9) Chapter 6 refers to the Guess advertisement as a prime example of this co-force where the audio would work off the visual, then press back to being the less dominating force before pushing the visual back as the prime stimulant.

 One of the most interesting statements is that while we have these senses being simultaneously stimulated each of the sense are actually releasing two deeper aspects: “With the sense of sight the idea communicates the emotion.  Whereas with sound, the emotion communicates the idea, which is more direct and therefore more powerful (Alfred North Whitehead, in Lateen, 1994, p. 4)” (1)

Chapter 7 Realism and Hyper reality 

Chapter 7 spoke about audio, and visual in terms of how viewers are suppose to view the work. It also mentioned the difference between how we perceive each of them, and their relationship in that perception.

“As tele-visions of music, these shows construct particular relationships between music and visuals, sight and sound, audio and video;  these relationships follow, for the most part, the codes of televisual realism”(2)

“the music video does indeed constitute a new relationship between sight and sound, and create a new way of visually presenting music performance” (3)

TV is rarely recorded live, most TV is prerecorded, and shown with an intention of looking live."The camera attempts to render itself neutral by acting like a body, by giving the viewer a vision that resembles embodied sight. "(5) However, when the audience hears a drummer, but does not see the drummer hit the drum, then their perception of their TV reality seems less real because the audio, and visual do not align.

Chapter 7 states that “The visuals articulate the depth of the music, and, at the same time, the music articulates the depth of the visuals”(21) Therefore, when one becomes less real, or more real, than the other becomes just as real as the first. For example the chapter explained that if the visuals are moved toward the drummer, for example, than the audio levels of the drummer will be heightened. Although the drummer never got louder, the audio for that particular instrument will because of the visual focus. Conversely, bringing up the audio levels in post-production can direct the audiences attention to some instrument to make it seem more real in the visual. 

Although style, persistence of vision, and reality cover different aspects of music video, they all showcase the individuality of audio, and visual as well as their combined force in music video.“As the visual performance does not translate the musical performance, the music video offers the television viewer another mode of television viewing, one that draws from the experience of television and music” (32)

Gender Press

Of all the advertising concepts that we have delved into I think that gender in media has been one of the most fascinating aspects to explore. Generally speaking, we all have an understanding of the way each gender is portrayed in the media; however, we do not understand the depth of the images that we constantly see nor the impact those images have on our daily lives.

Johanna Blakley: Social media and the end of gender, The Codes of Gender, and Killing Us Softly 4 are phenomenal presentations concerning gender in media. The three highly recommended videos unravel the reality of this thesis:

“The strangest thing about seeing an advertisement is that we think it looks normal.”

Although I believe that men and women were created differently, “We don’t come from the womb with proper gender understanding,” we are taught the code of our genders. As Erving Goffman said, “advertising tells us about ourselves.” Women in advertising are often shot “lying down, submissive, sexually available, and dependent. They are often pictured as being unbalanced, dazed, nervous, infantilized, and even dead.  Men, on the contrary, are often shot with a look of self-assurance, strength and a cognitive, yet, unbothered presence.

There are small, yet, distinctive gender dividing postures in advertising for example: women touching themselves, or “showed in a breathless posture, or in a posture being held.” Women are constantly shown touching their faces, torsos, arms, and even feet. However, men are rarely ever shown touching themselves. In one of the video presentations, this advertising norm was shown for the opposite gender. Men were positioned in ways that we would often see women in advertising. They were in powerless positions where they were off balance, or they were photographed touching themselves. It was even stated that the rare occasions these types of images were shown were in gay magazines. The media tells us that unless you are a man in control with a firm, empowering posture, that you are gay. Likewise, it teaches us that unless you are insecure and ungrounded, that you are not really a lady.

Women Olympics http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8156/7607619464_1a2d920954.jpg

In addition to helping us realize that this bias exists in advertising these videos reveal proof of the strong affects these images have on our lives.  The audience is directed to famous women athletes who initially appear to be strong women completely unaffected by the advertising around them. These women had won Olympic medals, and continue to take control. They are women that appear to be redefining the code of gender. Then, we were directed to images of these same women in advertising. Most of them were in limp powerless positions, or in places of power with only sexuality as their weapon. I found these images most disheartening. Our gender roles have been so deeply ingrained that women of great power, talent, and strength are encouraged to come before the media like vulnerable little girls or objects of sex in order to be seen as feminine.

  Jean Kilbourne also made the point that even are clothing sizes teach women to become completely powerless. We have sizes such as 0, and 00. Media teaches women not to exist, but to be there as zero exists but is nothing.  

We’ve been taught that there is a difference between media and reality, but are we making those distinctions, daily? What postures have we learned without making an effort to learn them? How do we portray our genders, and how are they really?