Blog Reflection Three

This week we had looked at genre and representation theories and applied them to real music videos, we did this so that we could get an idea of what we could put into our own music videos, and how we could add greater meaning and depth to the composition. 

Firstly, we looked at genre theories and the following theorists;

- David Bordwell

- Steve Neale

They had thought of the following theories; Neale - "Genre as a system of orientations, expectations and conventions" He had said that this had circulated between Industry  and Text as a subject.

For example; When we think of rap videos we think of a few different conventions, such as wealth- artist wears a lot of jewelry and expensive, trendy clothing. Although some videos could go against this convention, such as Biggie Smalls - "Sky's The Limit" music video all of the rappers are wearing smart suits, and are in a mansion so this would go against the usual conventions, as they look more posh and upper class.

Bordwell - "Any theme may appear in any genre" - some music videos would include themes that apply to a more youthful audience, some of the themes could be; Rebellion, Romance, Sex and bullying. Having this genre theory could help my own production as this gives us more flexibility to what we could include, therefore we can convey different/more messages through our music video.

We had then looked at Representation theories, and looked at the following theorists and their theories;

- Stuart Hall: Encode/Decode

Stuart Hall had said that the media has evolved and how we read it had changed, the old view within the media had only one reading and meant only one thing, now the audience must investigate the media as it is open to interpretation. He had said that media could be read in three different ways;

Dominant Reading: The reader fully shares the texts code, accepts and reproduces the texts reading. 

Negotiated Reading: The reader partially agrees with the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred reading, but the reader sometimes resists and modifies it in a way that reflects their own opinion.

Oppositional Reading: The reader doesn't agree with any of the texts codes and totally resists them.

- Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze

Mulvey had argued that the "central active" characters in movies were male, and that the male audience, and the male audience look toward females as passive.

She had said that the practise of camera lighting on the bodies of females was strong evidence that females are being viewed as sex objects for the gratification of men. For example; James Bond, he is the main hero and it has become apart of his brand to be accompanied by/mission to save an attractive female. Identifying women as weaker in society, some movies that go against this theory are movies such as Lara Croft; Tomb Raider, and Kill Bill, where the female takes the lead and beats all of the men.

- Andrew Goodwin: Voyeurism

He had stated that voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially towards females but in terms of systems of looking; using screens within screens, cameras and mirrors. He argues that a female performer will be objectified through a combination of camera work, displaying exaggerated female body parts, making the female become more sexualised. From a males perspective voyeurism is used to boost the males ego by surrounding themselves by "physically fit"  female dancers.

Looking at these theories has given me a greater idea about the thought/planning that goes into music videos, and how the media strengthens some out-dated stereotypes to get their media products viewed and know.