Analysis 1: f(x) – Electric Shock
The music video is heavily reliant on the stereotypical genre
characteristics of a girl band, particularly one in the sub-genre of K-Pop.
This sub-genre usually consists primarily, if not entirely, of young women
dressed in fairly generic outfits but usually with a western element, for
example, one of the women in this video wears an ACDC band shirt.
The video also consists mainly of up-close shots or shots of all the girls as a whole at the same time as them dancing, singing or perhaps both. The shots in this video are positioned ever so slightly below eye level or sometimes quite far below it in order to convey the band’s importance and make sure that the audience knows that the band are the main subject. The band also manages to wear clothing that allows the audience to get a full view of their physique without the group’s clothes being considered slightly scandalous. This is a typical formula for the genre of Pop and K-Pop and therefore supports Michael Shore’s theory that music videos are recycled styles that contain the views of adolescent males, particularly with the use of power, girls and wealth. He then believes that this all conveys into clichéd imagery and “soft-core pornography”.
The video also gives a sense of synaesthesia throughout, too, with the use of a fun and catchy beat being mimicked by the band also dancing around and having fun, too. They also do things in time with the music, helping to add to the element of synaesthesia. The music video also expresses the typical ideologies of the target audience through the band members, for example, having perfect skin, looking young and being thin and healthy. This is a fairly usual ideology as the target audience of this genre are females between the ages of 16-23 and they supposedly have aspirations primarily based on looks and looking attractive, just as the band members represent. Ultimately, the stars in the video are commodities that the record companies use in order to sell the brand that is their image and the values of which they represent. This is often done by trying to make them look more relatable, too, by using lots of close-up shots and lots of action matches.
Analysis 2: Big Bang – Fantastic Baby
This video is also relatively reliant on some of the generic
elements of a usual Pop/K-Pop boy band, however, it does introduce some other
interesting elements that are seen less so in the said genres. For example, on
more than one occasion, the males objectify themselves and are represented as
sexual objects. This is done to a point where even the camera is used to split
up the male’s body parts as it normally would a female in music videos, as
shown below. This, therefore, challenges current imagery and conventions and
this is thought to be due to the rise in sexualisation in the media industry as
stated by Reichert and Carpenter in 2004.
The clothing normally worn is also a relatively new element to Pop/K-Pop boy bands as, in this video, the males wear quite unconventional clothing and they all look remarkably different from one another. This contrasts older conventions as it was thought that males would usually wear similar, if not the same, outfits.
Similarly to the music video for Electric Shock, this video
uses frequent up-close shots of the males in order to help the audience to
establish with the group. However, contrasting with the other video, it has an
ever-so –slight narrative involving a corporation who are opposed to music and
the band fighting against it. This is often seen as being quite unusual for a
typical pop video and is not usually seen with a boy band, either. The majority
of the shots are also on eye-level with the main males, too, as it makes the
band seem far more relatable to the audience than if the camera was above or
below eye-level.
Michael Shore’s theory is also
supported by this music video as the video itself contains many elements of
power, girls and wealth, once again. He describes music videos as a recycled
style that contains information overload and is fantasised by adolescent boys.
Stereotypically, this would be heavily supported by the video as it addresses
all 3 of the previously stated elements.
The video and lyrics also have a primarily disjunctive link as most of the lyrics have no possible link to what’s going on in the video. There is, however, a rare, occasional moment in which the lyrics will use the word “clap” and the band in the video will clap accordingly, giving a slight illustrative link between the two elements of the song.
However, bar that,
they have a primarily disjunctive link. This is all in accordance with Andrew
Goodwin who theorised the three ideas about the links between the lyrics and
visuals, the three of them being illustrative, disjunctive and amplifying.
The video also has a slight element of synaesthesia at
certain points, too. For example, during a scene when one of the band members
is dressed relatively tribally, the music involves more drums and has a more
tribal undertone, as shown below.
The video often also expresses values held by their target
audience, presumably being males and females in the age range of 16-23 once
again. For the males, they represent the ideas of being attractive, being in
good shape, attracting women and having power and money, which is all thought
to be the ideal “dream” for men of these ages. This also supports Michael
Shore’s theories. For the females, they are represented as being good-looking,
but not being arrogant about it, as well as being in relatively good shape and
having money and power. All of these are relatively similar to that of what they
represent to the males, just slightly different to who they are of. In short,
they represent themselves as having males who want to be them and females who
want to be with them.
Sources List:
No comments:
Post a Comment