FEMINISM/Annie Lennox

I've briefly posted on AL before; her 80s vids for Eurythmics caused a national outcry when she played with gender expectations by dressing as a man (theory ref: Judith Butler - gender as performativity; also Chomsky's propaganda model as the 'flak' she received was designed to filter such counter-hegemonic thinking out of mainstream media and therefore public consciousness)

Fascinating article here (from the Guardian) in which she discusses this past and her efforts today to use music for feminist ends, including launching a new pressure group

Romance in Vids: Sade's No Ordinary Love

The (1985) video is embedded and discussed in this Guardian article: feature's Sade as a mermaid, her would-be lover 'literally an ocean apart' - (fish)food for thought for any future romantic-themed vids!

The binary opposition seen later in the vid - the glamorous Sade in white wedding dress running through littered, grimy urban streets and then a dock - are also a memorable, highly impactive feature.

USING STILLS TO RESCUE FOOTAGE

I'll embed a classic 80s (1985) video by A-Ha below (Take On Me) which might help illustrate this point...

If you find yourself with footage thats shaky or simply lack sufficient footage to work with, you could get extra usage out of the same material by applying strong FX, or generating stills - and maybe working with these in Photoshop, as with the Warhol effect.

Watch the vid below, and see if this generates any fresh ideas...

Spoof vid eg1 Whitesnake Here I Go Again

Seen as the epitome of hair-metal absurdity (albeit with some decent tunes) David Coverdale (nicknamed Percy by Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, who he's widely seen as copying) and his band Whitesnake provide a neat template for the hair-metal vid: manly men (with 'girly' hair) with serious expressions, hot car, hot lady, a bit of smoke...

Here's the original, followed by a spoof...

Is the following really any more absurd?!

M.LANG filmicVid eg: Big Bad Moon

Posted a day late, but here's an archetypal 80s metal vid which links nicely into the moon story over the past few days (closer to Earth than for some years if you were unaware); note the filmic influences: Angel Heart, The Lost Boys and Trick or Treat

Researching vid conventions - metal eg

Easy enough to find analysis and egs of conventions of most major genres - a google search such as "[genre] music video conventions" (try other variations too) will get relevant results, including several from A2 students elsewhere!

UPDATE: FEB 22ND 2011 - these are some useful egs of the glam metal genre, with many useful additional vids on the sidebar when you click through:
Parody, highlighting the dubious morality of the genre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&v=aDUOC9Xk2wM&annotation_id=annotation_777924
Montage of vid clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z82IqIxC50&feature=related
80s Glam A-Z part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_HzhhFsGKg&feature=related
Quirky 80s+now pics of singers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvp_TUX_LC4&feature=related
Best 80s hair metal bands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qNnDus7yAw&feature=related
Skid Row - typical 'power ballad' - lots of other bands/vids in sidebar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivFYVAntpw0&feature=related
Silly, overdone, retrospectively very camp but foregrounding rebellion for their teen aud to relate to - Ratt were US kings of the 80s scene before Motley Crue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo9GsHuJSEA&feature=related
High notes by singers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwQhn429FGM



An example follows: detailed breakdown, with clear egs, of conventions of metal vids, including an historical perspective on their evolution and changes


SOURCE for article below: http://people.virginia.edu/~rlk3p/classes/usem180/bibliography/metalVideo/MTVMetal.htm

Bibliography » MTV and the "Live" Metal Concert Video

These sources were viewed or referenced as part of a discussion about the depiction of "live" concert imagery in music video primarily related to the Heavy Metal genre. Heavy Metal is used loosely here to include the widest number of sources within this genre of music.

The term "live" (used in quotes) denotes a video production that attempts to capture or simulate the visual experience of a rock concert. Most of these sources are studio or sound-stage productions. Some were shot on location in an arena with an invited audience. A few appear to contain footage from actual concerts. Many of these sources mix concept footage with "live" footage in different ways.

No attempt is made her to create a definitive list. Some videos were selected because of specific content, themes, or images presented. Others were selected at random.

This page is under development

[add classification notes]
[add chronology notes]

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Historical Sources

MTV News and Specials. "It Came from the 80's II: Metal Goes Pop" Dir: Abbie Kearse. Writ/Narr: Chris Connelly. MTV Networks 1996.

Produced for MTV this special program is structured around a series of interviews with metal band-members about the transition of metal into the mainstream and it's sudden abandonment by the record labels. There are many short clips of music videos demonstrating the height of ridiculousness of the genre. A couple of those interviewed express anger or resentment about the experience of being launched into the pop-metal genre and then quickly dropped. Most of those interviewed, however, are able to joke about their unlikely short ride into the pop music spotlight.

Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister on the transition of heavy metal into pop music:

There was Twisted, and we were …street urchins, bad boys, ugly, angry--but other bands were starting to smile. And the biggie with that of course was Bon Jovi—you know—the birth of happy metal. Suddenly everybody found out …that some of the bands had teeth… Instead of everybody scowling and being pissed off, they were saying hey, what are we pissed off about, we’re making millions of dollars, we’re playing happy metal now.

Music vids as ads

We've discussed 2 examples, both of which used the expensive but prestigious ad-breaks within Saturday's X Factor to launch the campaign. In each cases we can see a company looking to extend (or consolidate) its reach to the lower end of the youth market, 15-24, with humour the main tool used to achieve this.

I came across these examples by reading the Media Guardian online - can i urge you all again to flick through this from time to time...

We can take from this the widening use of the music video format; as well as commercials for bands/singles/albums/tours/merchandise, as well as 'art films', we are seeing the form used within advertising - an ad trying to disguise its status as an ad!

In the 2nd example we get a straightforward use of juxtaposition which you could consider yourselves: the urban, bling-heavy rap set and performed in a farm by supposed farmer types wearing country clothing! Nice effects with the tractor, the owl and quirky shots of cows all thrown in.



The song dates back to 1980, so as well as our core youth target audience we're looking at clear appeal to a secondary nostalgic mature youth market, 35-44.


As Media Monkey notes:

At first glance Monkey was mightily impressed with the breathtakingly fresh, unique and offbeat approach the ad agency BBH had taken creating dairy company Yeo Valley's first TV ad. It was a a well-planned debut: Create an ad of a bunch of young "farmers" performing a rap homage to their trade and hog an eye-wateringly expensive two-minute slot in The X Factor's first live knockout round on Saturday. Except it seems that the idea for the campaign may not be that new at all. It seems a Canadian TV campaign from a year ago, the "Milk Rap" by the Dairy Farmers of Ontario, which aimed to make milk a bit "cooler" (strapline: "It doesn't get any cooler than this") featured a bunch of, you guessed it, young hip farming typers rapping about the virtues of the white stuff.
Spot the difference, you decide: here's the Yeo Valley TV ad and the Canadian Milk TV ad .

There's a nice link from this into our 2nd stimulus song: Cars...