Music Video Questions
How are the [different] audience/s positioned to respond and interpret the representations/messages and values/ideologies that the music video offers the audience?
Live life to the fullest, because you never know what day will be your last.
Be more open to advice and listening to people.
Appreciate what you have.
How have the social and cultural contexts affected the representations on offer in the music video?
She has taken an Arthurian/early medieval cultural idea of a funeral and set it in a more modern era within which she is living.
How has the music video’s version of reality been constructed through the techniques of re-representation?
Interpretation of Tennyson’s poem The Lady of Shalott. Repetition of petal picking by different loved ones (mother, boyfriend) and anchored by the scenes in the boat reflecting the chorus.
How do the representations in the music video chosen by the producers promote the artist?
The band is singing/playing music as well as acting.
How does the music video reflect individuals or social, cultural and historical issues and events?
Don’t let your circumstances define you or stop you from being who you want to be or doing what you want to do. The Lady of Shalott let her curse define her and stayed in her tower until one day she saw Sir Lancelot’s reflection in the mirror and turned around to see the real him, triggering the curse. She then went on her way to see Camelot in the flesh as she would die no anyway and wanted to die doing something she wanted to do.
The video shows the lead vocalist to have realised that in order to live her best life she needs to spend it with the people she loves and do things that she enjoys doing whilst she still can.
Have stereotypes been used in a positive or negative manner (or both) how and why?
The negative stereotype of people being self-absorbed and being unappreciative of what they have and the people around them and inverting it in order to encourage people to only feel sorry for themselves when there is something to really feel sorry about.
‘Gather up your tears, keep ‘em in your pocket / save ‘em for a time when you’re really gonna need ‘em’
When placed in a global context do you think that the music video offers representations that are under or over represented in society? Why do you think this?
Under-represented, because it encourages appreciation of who and what you have around you which is unusual as it is more about discovering how she wants to live in the future instead of being like many other songs that are about peoples’ personal experiences.
Does the music video challenge or subvert the codes and conventions of a music video? Does this lead to multiple meanings?
No, apart from the fact that it is probably more for a niche market i.e. people who are familiar with medieval history and literature, and that the representation is not simple. This does lead to multiple meanings, for example, living life to the fullest, and appreciating the people around you.
What viewpoints/representations and messages and values does the media language of the music video highlight about society and how realistic do you think these representations are?
How we don’t listen to people or appreciate what we have around us and the people we have around, until too late? – Fair representation of society
Near death experience can wake you up to look at life with a better perspective – sinking in the water wakes her up, helping her realise what and who she has. Representation differs from the Lady of Shalott as she chose to carry on living whereas the Lady of Shalott felt trapped and as though she had no choice, she was cursed.
How is the music video influenced by the concept of intertextuality?
The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson – she is reading Poetry: Tennyson
‘I’ve never known the loving of a man’ – Lady of Shalott never saw any people until she saw Lancelot.
You have demonstrated a clear understanding of the video and its influences. Try to consider what effect the representations will have on the audience, as well as typical representations of class, age, gender, ethnicity etc. and how they are being used for a certain purpose.
ReplyDeleteMiss Cook :)