HL: Media Videos - Commercial, Porn or Art?

Recently with the development of new technologies and the current instability of the music industry, many have discussed the necessity of the widely appreciated 'music video'. Is the production merely a promotional stunt to advertise the band and the new track, or is it an opportunity for a director to be praised alongside the success of the track. This question is too bold to be answered in one clear section, to help answer this question one must first split this into three categories:

Commercial

• The band image is shown through the use of visual motifs that of which stay with the audience. Other examples similar to this also include meta-narratives which emphasise the illustrative and amplified ideas.

• This created image is then seen a promotional stunt as the video is seen is more of an advertisement to further improve the bands takings.

• Other features which link a video as a commercial is the excessive use of 'meat shots' which help to almost objectify the band members, creating a link between the members and the actual band.

Porn

• In many ways music videos can also be seen as 'porn' due to the objectification of the female form, which in turn puts women in a bad light, showing men to be just fetishistic 'objectifiers'.

• This representation of women is shown according to Erving Goffman, who analyses the use of the female body in music videos in a number of ways:

1. Artificial Look - the slim, big breasted 'beauty' that is shown in almost every single pop music video.
2. Dismemberment - Where parts of the women are displayed, usually the legs, breast and eyes.
3. Commodification - Which really focuses on the objectification of women, mainly shown by a powerful male protagonist.

• More examples include Ritulization and Relative size however they are very similar to the points made above.

• Other examples of theorists also include 'Laura Mulvey' who focuses on the 'Male Gaze' in music videos where the audience is forces to view the material in the eyes of a heterosexual man.

Art

• Many videos are able to be viewed as art, this is sometime due to the clever and unique content they contain, but also by the introduction of a clever or well known artistic director, whom takes the initial idea and creates a masterpiece.

• New technologies also give directors more power over what they shoot, some directors decide to drop the idea of filming and animate the performance/narrative all together.

• Another reason to agree with the artistic aspect is how music videos are now being viewed more as a film, which higher production values and well written stories in most cases.

Conclusion

To conclude this question, even though music videos and the music industry are changing it still doesn't mean that we will soon lack the creative people, the ones who cut away from the bunch and create something superb and new. For this reason alone i personally and strongly believe that many music videos, not all music videos!, but many can and should be classed as art, Examples such as 'Runaway  - Kanye West' and 'Rabbit in the headlights - UNKLE' are both milestones in filmography which make something that originally was for a promotional benefit into something that can be seen and appreciated a piece of art.