Intertextuality

Intertextuality is the relationship between different forms of media, including, film, music, and even literature.

One example of this is the Music Video for Wait and Bleed by American Nu Metal band, Slipknot. The video mirrors scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s cult classic, The Shining. Scenes include the famous ‘one shot’ tricycle riding scene, and the bar scene. Also, the famous shot from the film which shows the word ‘murder’ written in blood on the door, is mimicked by having ‘Slipknot’ written instead. Another example of Intertextuality is the video for Skrillex’s Bangarang. Oddly enough, this is based on the children’s tale, Peter Pan. This is because of the references to the video’s Antagonist’s hook for a right hand, which mirrors that of Captain Hook (the main antagonist of ‘Peter Pan’).

Intertextuality is used because it can make connections between different forms of media, such as content and background. This helps to create relationships between different media forms for audiences, this can further lead to more sales, for other media forms, due to the references to other forms of well-known media. An example of this is people might buy the Suicide Squad Soundtrack, solely based off of an interest in the accompanying film.

I may use a little amount of intertextual references in my music video. However, the few references made will be directly linked to conventional references made by other bands of the metal genre, an example may be the ‘over the top’ style of Rammstein's music videos.  

Laura Mulvey's Music Video Theory

The ‘Male Gaze’ theory is correct in saying that in music videos featuring women, the low camera angles, and ‘sexualised’ Mise En Scene are used to objectify women. This is often done from a heterosexual man’s perspective, which obviously, sexually objectifies the women. As mentioned in Andrew Goodwin’s theory, this is more common within more ‘radio friendly’ genres, such as Pop and some Rap Music Videos. An example of this is Jennifer Lopez – On the Floor Ft. Pitbull. The video for this song objectifies ‘J-Lo’ seeing her through high camera angles which are used to sexualise herself, whilst the male in the video (Pitbull) simply watches her.

Mulvey also mentions the idea that another part to the Male Gaze Theory is that women, typically, are portrayed one of two ways in music videos, as an innocent, helpless person, or as a ‘whore’, (The Virgin/ Whore Dichotomy). An example of an innocent portrayal of women is the video for the Arctic Monkey’s I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor, which shows a woman, as a prostitute. However, despite her occupation, she is simultaneously portrayed as innocent, and weak, as she is constantly taken advantage of. As well as this, the Mise En Scene in the video (Costume etc.) shows how she doesn’t want to be a prostitute, but has to be to stay stable, financially. On the other hand, an example of women being portrayed as ‘Whores’ is the infamous video for Robin Thicke’s hit single Blurred Lines. The ‘unrated’ version not only shows the women as completely topless, but also dancing sexually and ‘getting intimate’ with the males in the video.    

The 'Male Gaze' theory will not apply to my Music Video, as it will not have any female actors. 

Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory

Music videos and what they contain are based on the typicality of the genre of music. For example, Pop videos will contain choreographed singing and dancing, to reflect the upbeat tone of the song, whereas, a Metal video would typically show the band performing, as Metal is seen as about the music itself, and the meaning behind it. Also, Goodwin’s theory depicts the idea that the content of the video is usually reflective of the lyrics, or deeper meaning(s) of the song itself. This is done via contrast, and direct links, for example, Korn’s ‘Spike in my Veins’ is about the media, and its stereotypical reflections, and to add to this, the video for the song contains screenshots of controversial news stories, which makes the video appear to be a protest video.

As well as the lyrics, the overall tone of the song is paralleled with the overall look of the video. For example, if a song is very upbeat, such as a pop song, the video will incorporate bright lighting, with colours that have positive connotations. On the other hand, a song with a darker meaning’s video might have dark lighting, and a more serious theme throughout the video.  An example of this is the Netsky remix of ‘Everyday’ by Rusko. The songs positive tone is reflected by the ‘rave’ shown in the video, where everyone is happy, and dancing, which has positive connotations. A contrasting example of this is ‘Mein Herz Brennt’ by German ‘Neue Deutsche’ band, Rammstein, the overall dark outlook of the video is reflected by the dark lighting, and the serious expression shown by the characters in the video.

In addition to this, there is a need, by the record label, to have lots of close ups of the band/ artist as a form of marketing. This is because artists become very marketable, and having them appear dominantly in a video instantly makes the artist and therefore, the video more recognisable to viewers. This could lead to further sales of albums/ singles, which will result in a boost in revenue for record labels. An example of this is Justin Bieber who is very marketable and is therefore, shown through lots of close ups. However, a contrast to this is Sia, who is never shown via her face fully in a video, but this is her own, successful, marketing technique.

Through most videos, the ‘Male Gaze’ stereotype is acted upon. Because of this, it is very popular to sexualise women in music videos, across all genres. Where it is stereotypical of genres such as Rap, or Pop music to sexualise women, it happens in all genres, even unexpected ones, such as metal, as seen in the original video for ‘Engel’ by Rammstein. In the video for ‘Engel’, the female is presented as mystical, yet sexual, as presented by her blue contact lenses, pet snake, and bikini outfit.

Some videos include intertextual references within them, to other forms of media, such as films, or games. This is mainly done through promotional material. One main example of this is Aerosmith’s ‘Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing’. This song was capitalised upon by the creators of the film ‘Armageddon’, as, being the films ‘theme song’, the video for the song included clips from the film, and the narrative of the video, was parallel to that of the film, and integrated well. Another example of this is Linkin Park – ‘What I’ve Done’. The video for this song includes clips from Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers’, which the song appears in, and is used as a form of promotional material for the film.