REPRESENTATION QUESTION

Explain how music video producers use representation to promote their artist(s). 

Refer to one of the music videos you have studied to support your answer. [10] 

You should have studied two music videos: one from List A and one from List B below. 

List A	List B
Corinne Bailey Rae – Stop Where You Are  Emeli Sandé – Heaven Lil Nas X – Sun Goes Down	Radiohead – Burn the Witch   David Guetta – Titanium   Sufjan Stevens – Sugar

MARK SCHEME

The structure of the essay is:

None existent/random = 0      

Clunky but possible to follow = 1   

Clear and coherent throughout = 2

The answer is:

Not focused on the question = 0   

Somewhat focused on answering the question = 1

Consistently focused on answering the question = 2

The use of examples is:

Non existent or weak = 0

Clear but not detailed/consistent = 1

Clear, detailed and consistent = 2

Analysis is:

Non existent or unclear = 0

Follows most examples but may lack precision = 1

Clear, precise and follows every example = 2

The use of terminology is:

Non existent or weak = 0

Fairly secure but no consistent = 1

Excellent throughout = 2

SOME OPENING POINTS

• A generic convention of most music videos is to promote the artist by representing them as a skilled and passionate performer.
• One of the ways that music videos producers promote artists is by representing the artist as an aspirational figure.
• Another of the way that music video producers promote artists is by constructing representations that encode value alignment with the target audience.
• Another way that music video producers promote artists is by constructing narrative elements in which they are represented interacting positively with an avatar of the target audience.

LET'S TRY THE TOP ONE...

A generic convention of most music videos is to promote the artist by representing them as a skilled and passionate performer. 

EXAMPLE ESSAY

Music videos have existed for around fifty years, acting as advertisements for the song and artist. Initially, performance footage took precedence and is still a convention of many music videos, but increasingly there is an attempt to build a representation of the artist as someone with whom the audience can identify, either as an aspirational figure or someone with whom their socio-political values align.

 

While the music video to Stop Where You Are (SWYA) does not include the convention of representing the performer using concert footage or performing a choreographed dance routine, it does use direct mode of address with the artist lip syncing direct to camera. Corinne Bailey Rae’s (CBR) performance is impassioned and emotive and the use of low angle shots may be intended to position the audience to feel as they would at a concert, encouraging them to want to see her live.  However, the halo effect created by the backlighting, and the use of shallow depth of field construct a representation of the artist as an ethereal/angelic figure; perhaps the intention is less about presenting the artist as a performer and more about promoting spiritual value enlightenment with the audience.

 

Another convention used by music videos producers is to construct a representation of the artist as an aspirational figure. Within a capitalist western paradigm, this type of representation is often encoded using mise en scene that connotes a lavish lifestyle: wearing expensive clothing, driving expensive cars or partying in luxurious locations. The second shot of SWYA features a low angle close up on Corinne Bailey Rae’s (CBR) expensive designer shoes; she is also wearing a designer dress, a possible signifier of her wealth. However, it seems unlikely that the producers intend this to be aspirational in a capitalist sense because the location is neither lavish or luxurious, and the socio-political messaging of the video is not about aspiring to wealth but rather aspiring to spiritual contentment. Again, it seems that value alignment is the most important element of promoting the artist.

The anti-capitalist socio-political messaging is obvious in one set piece which features a homeless woman interacting with a male white-collar professional. Applying Hall, their first encounter seems to fix a hegemonic preferred meaning; the mise en scene constructs her gender nonconformity, and the lighting draws attention to her aggressive facial expression. hooks may point out that the indifferent way she is treated by the male white-collar worker, encodes a message of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. However, after a shot of CBR seemingly looking down at the event the sequences cuts back to the white-collar worker returning with a drink then sitting down in a two shot medium closeup that emphasises their equality by using eyeline matching. This short narrative promotes CBR’s progressive moral perspective on homelessness by constructing a narrative that features a counter typical relationship between homeless people and the middle classes, establishing socio-political value alignment with her younger, left-wing target audience.

We can apply Hall again when examining the messaging around the representation of stereotypes. In one sequence, CBR is shown walking through a dark alleyway; the forbidding mise en scene is emphasised by the combination of back lighting and low-key lighting that literally cuts the shot in two, building a binary opposition between CBR as the innocent protagonist and what appears at first to be a representation of a young black thug. Hall would point to the way that black men are consistently stereotyped as violent criminals and this sequence uses the same narrative shorthand, framing CBR as the potential victim.  However, a series of subsequent shots establishes that he is a breakdancer who goes on to perform for and with the CBR. This short narrative typifies the progressive value transfer between the artist and her audience as it challenges stereotypes about race by establishing a counter typical representation of young black males.

So, as we can see, the music video to SWYA uses several generic conventions around the use of representation to promote its artist, but central to the process is encoding socio-political and spiritual value alignment that promotes identification between the artist and the target audience.