Music Video Theorists & Theories

This is a video I made and published on YouTube about the media theorist Michael Shore.

Michael Shore

Michael Shore believes a music video is one or more of the following..


recycled styles … surface without substance … simulated
experience … information overload … image and
style scavengers … ambivalence … decadence … immediate
gratification … vanity and the moment … image
assaults and outré folks … the death of content … anesthetization
of violence thorough chic … adolescent male
fantasies … speed, power, girls and wealth … album art
come to turgid life … classical storytelling’s motifs …
soft-core pornography … clichéd imagery …


This list was taken from Sven E Carlsson's perspective on music video analysis document. Below are a few example of Michael Shore's list..

 The music video to Ed Sheeran's song The A Team is an example of decadence. Decadence is a state of deterioration, in this video a person who has fallen into a decadent state of mental or moral decay. Decadence can mean morally corrupt or self indulgent.

T.I's music video of his song Whatever You Like is an example of speed, power, wealth and girls. The music video features fast cars, private jets, big houses, jewels, money and girls. This lifestyle is also an example of an adolescent male fantasy.

T.I's music video is also an example of clichéd imagery. The shots of the girl sat on her bed in her room at night deciding weather to call the man is a cliché scene used in film and music videos often. 

Surface without substance means lyrics which have nothing to do with the on screen video. An example of this is Artic Monkeys music video of their song Fluorescent Adolescent. In this the song lyrics are about a girl and the video is just clowns and civilians fighting.

Shakira's music video to her song She Wolf is an example of soft core porn. You do not see any sexual body parts but the video is very revealing and she acts in a sexual nature. 






Modern Mythic Embodiment

Sven E Carlsson has a thoery about artists which he calls “modern mythic embodiment”. He thinks artists “embody one or a combination of modern mythic characters in music  videos”. His three types of performances in which he thinks describes an artist are commercial exhibitionists, electronic shaman and televised bard.

Commercial exhibitionists are artists who try to sell their own body, attractiveness, style, face, record label, hairstyles, fashion, voice etc. and perform in the spotlight to try to gain popularity, stardom and success. One major example of a commercial exhibitionist is the modern Lady Gaga. Her videos have hundreds of millions of views. I have chosen to look at her video Telephone which features Beyoncé another big example of a commercial exhibitionist. 

The first example of commercial exhibitionist in the video is the high sexuality she try's to get across. She does this by acting in a sexual nature by kissing another woman and dressing the cast in sexual revealing costumes, she specifically is wearing only underwear at one point. 

The next example is a very cliché and is used in a majority of commercial exhibitionist music videos. The artist is dancing to the camera with an entourage of other dancers all dancing in sync to her, this happens multiple times in the video.  

The shots below of the artists looking into the camera singing and posing is a prime example of how the director has used close up shots to try to sell the star.

Lady Gaga has a very unique obscure style which she try's to get across as a commercial exhibitionists, I think she try's to get get her various styles across to the audience such as woman power, rebellious, outrageous, high charisma, unique, weird and random and very individual. She gets these styles across by her unique fashion and the costumes she wears, the fact there are very few men in the whole video and the narrative shows women as stronger and conspiring against men and Lady Gaga and Beyoncé even murder people. The occasional use of strong language, the setting of being in a jail and being wanted by the police. Her videos are also very long and have parts of extended narrative were she does very random things like kisses another woman.

Electronic Shaman is described by Carlsson as "a guide on a spiritual journey through blipping and magical attributes". It means the artist or music video is doing something out this world or magic, things that wouldn't happen in real life. 

My example is The Maccabees music video Feel To Follow. In this video people float/fly in the sky into space. This is an example of electronic shaman, they have used it because it shows the journey of people who are following something.

Televised Bard is the singer telling a story. Sometimes the artists acts in the story sometimes the story is just told through images. My example is Eminem's music video Mockingbird. In this video he is telling a story about his children, he used real footage to tell the story. He also acts in the video watching the real footage. The footage on screen matches that of the lyrics.

Visual Music Styles

Sven E Carlsson visual music video styles are categorised. A standard clip has more visual traditions than one. It can be a filmed performance, narrative clip and art clip. An example of a standard music video is Queen's music video Bohemian Rhapsody.

A performance clip is mostly filmed performance, the performance can be song, dance or instrumental. It does not  have to be live performance. An example of a performance music video would be some of Michael Jackson's videos which contain dance performance.

A narrative clip is a visual story that is easy to follow. Bruce Springsteen's music video to his song Im On Fire is an example of a narrative clip.

A art clip is a clip with no narrative and no singing lip syncing. Some examples of art clips are below. An example of an art clip video is Lisa Stanfield's video So Natural.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin is a media theorist who has identified his own theory of what he thinks are the key aspects of a music video. His first point is the relationship between the visuals and lyrics. He believes a music video visuals either illustrate, meaning the images illustrate the meaning of the lyrics. Or amplify, which means continuously repeated into the viewers mind. Or are contradicting, which means the visuals go against or ignore the lyrics.

Similarly the relationship between the visuals and music. The visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the music.

Goodwin says another key aspect is self imagery. Who is the star of the imagery? And how they use multiple close ups of the main artist or star, and lots of looking into the camera and self publicity.

Voyeurism is the practice of obtaining sexual gratification by looking at sexual objects or acts. Goodwin believes voyeurism is a major aspect of a music video.

Andrew Goodwin also says a music video may have intertextuality to provide further gratification to the audience.

He also says an audience can simply like or dislike a music video through the individual audio-viewers musical taste.