Music video theory statements

         1.

“The relationship between the song lyrics/subject matter, musical style, genre, vocal delivery and star persona/physical presence all interact with three minutes’ worth of images” (Davies 2006: 11).

I think there should be a relationship between the song lyrics and subject of the music video, if there was no relation then the video would not fit in and could possibly be quite random, so if the lyrics and video relate it would be more relevant and understandable to the audience. The musical style, genre and vocal delivery should all fit in with the persona and physical presence of the artist. 


For example, for a rap video you would expect as a stereotype an African American, with a deep voice rapping, wearing a hoodie and a chain and not a country singer wearing cowboy boots and a check shirt to be rapping. Similarly, you would not expect a typical country singer to be an African American in a hoodie and a chain. Therefore, the physical appearance should relate to the genre and vocal delivery of the singer, continuing with the main stereotypes in society. All these factors should interact within the three minutes and the images used as the video should be of relation to the lyrics and the singers genre and style.


2.

Goodwin on Davies “video behaves like a mini-film using cinematic devices, ‘fictional’ characters and the dramatisation of a story”.

I agree to some extent that video does behave like a mini film using cinematic devices as in music videos effects and a large amount of editing are used which is the same in cinema movies. Effects are a main part of cinema films as they have to be creative and incise the audience to watch the film, similarly they are used in music videos for the purpose to show the creativity of the artist as well as to make an exciting well made music video. A music video that is based around effects is Kanye West - 'Good Life,' iconography is used throughout this video and the overall product is mainly edited by a computer. 

Some music videos do use fictional characters for a dramatic story although I do not believe this is necessary to do in all music videos. I think an artist doing so in a one off music video is acceptable as it is doing something different but not for every music video the artist creates. Keeping with the same artist, in Kanye West's music video 'Runaway' he created and directed a mini film to be used as the music video. It has a duration of 34 minutes 33 seconds and includes fictional characters with a narrative story-line. His reasoning for creating the music video is purely for creativity and trying something new which is not of the style of work he is used to, where he could be a director of his own music video because this allowed him to do exactly what he envisioned for the finished product.