Laura Mulvey's The Male Gaze

The theory:

The term 'male gaze' derived from an essay (Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema) written by Laura Mulvey in 1975, a feminist film critic who studied at Oxford and is now a professor at Birbeck University for screen theory.

This theory of the male gaze suggests that media texts regard the audience to mostly be heterosexual male. In other cases where this may not be true the theory still applies, as the method of objectifying women will attract this male audience. The media text is presented from a point of view of this male, so they see what would appeal to them. The female characters hold no value to themselves but are there for the male's needs, and their presence in media texts is in relation to the male's.



The theory revolves around the idea that women are stripped of their human identity and are rather seen as objects of desire, and this can be done via many methods of camera work.These include panning across a women's body, cutaways and even zooming or close ups that can be seen as appealing to a male audience. As for the female audience, they get the secondary perspective and often find themselves consuming media texts from this male view. To support this theory, only 16% of media creators are female, which indicates that it is these male creators that saturate the industry with texts that contribute to the male gaze.

Mulvey suggested that women have two purposes in a media text:

1. To be an erotic object for characters within the narrative to view.
2. To be an erotic object for spectators outside the narrative to view.

Gender Roles:
Men are seen to have an active role in media texts due to being this spectator that observes other people. They are the ones that push the narrative forwards by making actions/events occur. The female characters on the other hand are seen as passive as they are there to be looked at. They also slow the narrative down due to being inspiration for men to act upon.

This theory can result in the idea of this hegemonic society, in which men are dominant due to saturating this industry with the portrayal of women of objects of desire and pleasure. This is rarely seen being the other way round, as women consume these texts either way whether they are the secondary perspective or not.


Example:
An example music video that supports this theory is Dear Maria Count Me In by All Time Low. The location for this song is a club in which they have a woman dancing for them, and many close up are featured of her legs and body as she dances. She is also commonly seen facing the camera many times, and there are panning shots and cutaways featuring her too. This supports the theory in which this character is there for the two purposes of being an object for both the characters and the spectators.

I could use this theory in my own music video as my artist is female, however my this wouldn't be appropriate for my target audience who will be teenagers, mostly female themselves.

Genre Research

Music Video Technique

A technique is a skillful and/or efficient way of doing or achieving something. Example music video techniques include lip syncing, cutting to the beat, multi-screen, animation, and chroma key.

Cutting to the beat:

This technique involves having images in the music video cut/transition to the significant beats of the music. This results in grabbing the attention of the audience and emphasising certain lyrics.

An example of this is Believer by Imagine Dragons, in which this technique occurs frequently, especially in the pre-chorus, which can emphasise the build up to the chorus and conflict of the music video.

Multiscreen:

This is when multiple videos are shown on screen all at once, this can be common in bands when showing all members, or to show what's going on when more than one thing needs to be viewed by the audience. An example music video is Talking to Myself by Linkin Park, in which this technique is used to show all aspects of their tour.

Animation:

This technique is a method which can be used to tell stories that you may not be able to in real life. An example of this is Do I Wanna Know by Arctic Monkeys.

Chroma Key:

This technique involves using a green screen and adding a new backdrop through editing. This enables the artist to achieve visuals that would be otherwise expensive or unrealistic. This is a technique used a lot in the music industry, and is said to have started from the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, and his song Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (1979).

Lip Sync:

This involves the artist(s) miming to the song to give the allusion that they are in fact singing it. This can be seen a lot in music videos. One of many examples of lip syncing is Little Girl by Faith Marie.

Playback and Lip Sync:

This technique gives the effect that everything is in slow motion, however the lip syncing is still in time with the correct speed of the song. The process involved requires the song to me mimed with double the speed, and then once edited it is slowed down by 50%. An example video which uses this technique is People Help the People by Birdy, as the girl is singing at normal speed but everything around her is in slow motion.

Playback and lip sync in reverse:

This technique is similar to the playback and lip sync, however the song is recorded in reverse, meaning the artist has to learn to lip sync the song in this way. An example video is The Scientist by Coldplay.

In terms of my own music video, I want to use playback and lip sync and cutting to the beat, as I feel it could really influence the portrayal of my performance/narrative and is seen in electropop music videos.

Music Video Style

There are four main music video styles: performance, concept, narrative and intertextuality. Within some of them are smaller sub categories of these styles, for example within narrative there is both an illustrative and interpretative style, and within intertextuality you can have both a parody and pastiche.

Intertextuality:

The first style that I will be talking about is intertextuality. Intertextuality is the relationship between two media texts, and in terms of the music industry, it means that there is a relationship between two videos, as one is referencing to the other; or the music video could be referencing to a different type of media text, such as a film or a book. This can occur in two ways, the first being a pastiche. This is like a tribute to what the artist is referencing to in their video, as it's seen as 'affectionate' and the artist may also pay homage to the creator of the other media text.

An example music video with the pastiche style is LA Devotee by Panic! At the Disco.

The artist pays homage to the famous netflix show 'Stranger Things', which you can tell as the actor who plays the character of Will in the series, Noah Schnapp, stars in the video. He appears to be trapped in a villain's lair, who is supposedly the singer Brendon Urie. The whole idea of the music video could be interpreted that this a take on what happened to Will when he went missing throughout the series.

Other clues that show that this music video is a tribute to the show is the symbol shown at the beginning of the video in a field, which can connote an alien presence as this feature is usually associated with this, and this can relate to Stranger Things being a sci-fi, as the creature discovered by the government lab is an alien to them. However, the symbol can also relate to this logo of a government agency, much like the one that was experimenting with Eleven.



Furthermore, props such as an old camcorder are featured which can support this 80's vibe, as this is the timezone that Stranger Things was set in. The character is also watching an old projection on the wall in front of him of some clips that look outdated, which also contributes to this theme.

The second sub genre of intertexuality is a parody, in which the artists make a reference to a media text or even another artist in a mocking way; and they do this in such a way that they don't have to pay homage to the artists. This is because their set up isn't exactly alike to the original video, as there are slight differences, whether it's in the costume or the actual location.

All Time Low's song I Feel Like Dancing is an example of a parody music video, because not only is it a parody of some famous artists such as Lady Gaga, but it could also be said that it is a parody of the music video as a whole and how music videos are made.

At the start of the video, the band are in a meeting with a man who is telling them how to be successful, as the idea is that this is their first record label that they have signed on to. He starts by shutting the band members down and telling them how to really gain fame fast, which is the start to the parody of the music industry, as the acting and concept is really exaggerated.

One method that is featured in the video is product placement, in which the band go over the top with promoting the drink Rockstar in order to be successful so they can promote each other and earn more money. The last method that the band had to carry out was stealing ideas from other people, in which it was also a parody of artists like Katy Perry.

Narrative:

The style of narrative involves creating a story that the audience can follow which can link to the lyrics or not at all. There are two types of narrative, the first being illustrative. This is where the lyrics tell the story and is very closely related to the visuals of the video. An example music video I have found which does this is Riptide by Vance Joy, in which each lyric is linked to a visual exactly.

The second type of narrative is interpretative, in which the story and meaning of the video is not entirely clear, and the artist leaves the audience to interpret their own meaning from what they saw. This can generate different meanings based on the person, meaning that there is no common meaning, unless it is a hidden one that only the artist understands.

An example music video that uses this style is This is Gospel by Panic! at the Disco. The meaning can be interpreted in many ways, for example he could be accepting his death and just wanting to enter the afterlife, but other people are not willing to let him go, hence the lyric "If you love me let me go". Another interpretation could be that he is trying to break free of social norms and people are trying to hold him down and make him conform.

Performance:

A performance is when the artist is featured in the music video, singing and/or playing an instrument to the camera, performing the song to the audience.
An example performance video is Ride by Twenty One Pilots, as it just features them performing in a forest both during the and and night.

A sub genre of the style of performance is a live/in concert music video.This style is commonly found in rock and indie songs, and the example I have below is Do or Die by 30 STM, and the genre of their music is alternative rock.

   

Concept:

The last music video style in concept, in which the music video is very abstract due to being based around a single idea. The video may not link to the lyrics of the song.

An example concept video is Somebody I Used to Know by Gotye, as the video features him getting painted whilst he sings along to the song, and has no direct relation to the lyrics or its meaning.

From this research I have gathered an idea as to what style I would like in my own music video, and as it's from the electropop genre I will rely a lot on performance however I will incorporate a narrative into my video.

Roland Barthes Theory

Example Videos and explanations:

Enigma:

Melanie Martinez, Sippy Cup- This video was chosen as there can be a lot of unanswered questions left after viewing. The audience doesn't know what happens to the mother who killed her husband, if she gets caught or gets away with it. At the end we don't know what happens to the daughter, Melanie, as she is gassed by her mother and we are left wondering as to whether she is dead or not. Upon further reading, I have found out that what happened to this character is that she is put to sleep so when she wakes up she forgets the events from the night before. This is enigmatic as without this further reading we are left not knowing what happens to the characters in the narrative of the music video.

Action:

Eminem, Space Bound- at the end of this video Eminem's character commits suicide, an event that triggers this tension. However there are previous events that acted as this build up of suspense,  for example a girl leaving him at a bar, which trigger other events until we get to the suicide. This is the action code as suspense for the audience is being built up all throughout the video until we get to the end of the narrative.

Semantic:

Justin Timberlake, Cry Me a River- as well has having its overall meaning of going through a breakup in a really negative way, there is a hidden meaning that is personal to the artist. The only way in which the audience can guess this meaning is via connotations, but also having background knowledge on the artist. By obtaining this we then know that the song is about Justin's breakup with Britney Spears after she cheated on him. We can also see hints of this as we briefly see a girl with blonde hair that may represent her.

Symbolic:

Lady Gaga, Bad Romance- within this video there are many objects which can symbolise other connotations through association. For example, Lady Gaga at one point wears all black, which can symbolise death and power. Another setting involves a room featuring what looks like modern looking coffins, one of which having the word 'Monster' written in red on it. This can again connote death and have quite a satanic feel to the video. Other examples include the enlargement of the artist's eyes, referencing drug abuse, and the colour red, which symbolises love and passion, but also danger and anger.

Referential:

Sia, The Greatest- the song references to the Orlando shooting, which is clear from the start as a girl puts rainbow coloured paint across her cheeks. The children dancing with her also represent the victims of this tragic event.

Macklemore, Same Love- this love references to same sex marriage being legal, promoting the equality of sexuality. This is done through showing a wedding between two men and also how the character is clearly unsure and worried about his sexuality and what other people will think.


Application:
In terms of applying this theory to my own music video, I would like to use the enigma and action code together to keep the audience hooked onto the narrative of my story and to leave them wanting to know more at the end. I'm also considering the semantic code as I could use a song that has a really special meaning that only fans of my artist would be able to work out.

Institutional Research

The Music Industry:

The music industry is made up of a mixture of both independent and mainstream record labels, whom make their money by creating new songs and promoting their artists. This will eventually result in huge revenue as multiple artists sign onto the label, release new albums, and sell out when they go on tour.
The industry is made up of a variety of vital roles, such as the songwriters and composers who create the music, the musicians and singers who perform the music, the companies who sell recorded music (such as the retail and online music stores), and finally the people that help put together live performances (booking agents, music venues, etc.).
Both independent and mainstream companies can benefit from this process and earn a large profit, however both to different extents. For example the 'Big 3' are an oligopoly of mainstream companies that saturate the market by around 80%. The Big 3 include: Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group. They also own many independent companies too, for example smaller record labels such as Atlantic Records are a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Because of this, the Big 3 are more successful than smaller, independent record labels. They have the big artists, even if they are signed to a subsidiary of their company, they can still advertise the artist and gain money from their success. These big artists end up becoming viral on platforms such as YouTube when they release singles and music videos; and when it comes to them going on tour, they'll have a big enough fan base in which they sell out their shows. This is a huge success for the record label as touring a vital pathway to gain a profit, especially today with the popularity of streaming growing rapidly.

From Ed Sheeran's official website: most of his shows are now sold out, and at the time that the tickets went on sale, big venues such as Wembley Stadium sold out within minutes. Record Label- Atlantic Records, subsidiary of Warner Music Group

As for independent companies, they have a lot of competition if they are not a subsidiary of a mainstream music group; as their artist's music could get 'lost' under all the promotion and hype around a more popular artist. An example of a completely independent record company is Hopeless Records, whom are the label for artists such Neckdeep and All Time Low. These are there more well known artists, however they used to work with artists such as Divided by Friday, who are now disbanded, which could suggest they weren't that successful in the music industry. These independent companies don't gain as much profit due to this competition, as their shows sell out a lot slower or don't sell out at all, and they also may do smaller gigs due to having a small fan base. For example, recently All Time Low revisited the town of Kingston, in which they performed a short acoustic set in a theatre with a small capacity of around 900 people, as the fan base there isn't huge. However, All Time Low is still a successful band that have been around since 2003, so this suggests that there are ways in which artists signed onto independent companies can acquire fame and gain some profit for a long period of time. One way in which they have done this can be due to technological advances and online platforms such as YouTube and Spotify.

Effects of Technological Advances:

The music industry is one that is growing fast; and has already developed a lot in the past few decades due to many factors, such as technological advance. Physical copies of albums and songs used to be very popular, from when they were cassettes to be played in a Walkman to CDs being played in a car radio or other device. This changed when technology such as the iPod was released in 2001, and from there kept developing. Songs were still being bought, however downloaded onto these devices rather than being bought as CDs. It's the recent technological advance that has affected the music industry, and this advance is the introduction of streaming. Spotify is an example streaming site founded in 2006 and its application launching in 2008, and offers its service to both members who pay a monthly subscription and those who aren't members, as they can listen to music for free, just with features such as advertisements playing every few songs. Today, Spotify has 140 million users, 60 million of which are members, and in 2015 their revenue increased to $2.18 billion, making them a huge success. Other streaming sites include YouTube and Apple music, and others featured below:

These streaming sites benefit independent companies and artists, as they are able to freely put their music online and gain popularity from views, and maybe eventually getting recognised by record labels that they can sign onto. It's completely free to upload a song to YouTube, which was launched in 2005, so this means that there are a growing number of aspiring singers posting their videos to YouTube alongside famous singers that are signed onto a record label. Referring back to All Time Low, because they're signed onto an independent company it was said that it would be hard to compete in the music industry with the Big 3. However by posting their music videos on YouTube and putting their music on other streaming sites such as Spotify, they have found an easier way to promote their music to gain profit through accumulating a secure fan base.

Another example of someone who has become more successful on these platforms is a YouTuber known as Ally Hills. She posts music videos and singles on both YouTube and now she is verified on Spotify, meaning that she is growing in both popularity and success just from these online platforms.

This can also benefit mainstream companies, as streaming sites will want big artists to have their music featured, meaning they are willing to pay these companies for that. Example artists include Ed Sheeran or even Taylor Swift, who recently put her music onto the streaming site of Spotify. This way, a share of what the streaming members pay to the company is given to the record label, the artist and people who support this artist. However, this share is very small due to there only being 60 million members out of 140 million users on Spotify, so it could also be suggested that putting music on streaming sites is not worth it. This leads onto the disadvantages that these streaming sites have on mainstream companies Due to there being more people on the site that would rather listen to the music for free with ads than pay the monthly subscription fee, the record labels that agree to have their artist's music featured on the site only earn a very small share depending on how much there song is played. This can also affect independent companies, especially as they have a lot of competition with the mainstream companies, who can have there songs on a featured page or playlist on Spotify to help promote their music. 

Because Spotify offer this free service, more people are drawn in by this feature, and would rather use these sites than buy a copy in store or on apps such as iTunes. This results in less sales of physical copies such as CDs, and companies begin to lose profit as people are just listening to their songs for free due to it being readily available. To overcome this, some artists have withdrawn their music from certain streaming sites that offer smaller shares; for example Beyonce has put her album 'Lemonade' on only a few streaming sites such as Tidal, and not Spotify. Other artists in the past have also done this however eventually put their music on Spotify, such as Taylor Swift and Kanye West, and this has caused Spotify to get concerned about what this could mean for them in the future.

So this technological advance has both positive and negative effects on record labels, but also to different extents depending on whether they're independent or mainstream companies.

Copyright and Censoring:

In the music industry, artist's songs are played on a variety of platforms in a variety of different situations. Because of this, in situations with certain circumstances, for example a young child may be present, censorship is needed for the protection of both the artist and audience, and for moral and political reasons. In order to have their songs featured on platforms such as radio and TV, there are certain guidelines that these broadcasters point out to the record before they can play the song to the public. Examples may include that the song shall not include offensive language or make reference to another text that is already copyrighted.

There are many reasons as to why a song may be censored, with the first being that it includes derogatory terms and/or sexual references, which is not suitable for young children to hear, and also people may just prefer not to hear it when listening to music. The songs are edited as a result of this, producing either a 'clean version' or a 'radio edit', or alternatively, these stations may feature these songs at a specific time, for example in the evening, to avoid presentation to a younger demographic.
Editing techniques used to censor this includes distorting the vocals by bleeping them or backmasking (in which the lyric is recorded backwards onto the track so it's hard to decipher it), or even to replace then with alternative lyrics. As well as lyrics, sound effects can also be censored out, for example gunfire that connotes violence.
Another reason as to why music may be censored is due to sensitivity, for example a sensitive time may be after a specific event (such as a disaster) in which a certain song would be too inappropriate to play.
Finally, another reason as to why songs maybe censored is due to legal issues, for example copyright cases, such as sampling, in which involves reusing existing samples from song for other uses. An example of sampling is Fall Out Boy's song Uma Thurman, in which they sample the song Munsters a few times throughout the song.
Furthermore, it's not just the lyrics that have to be censored, for example if shows such as MTV want to feature artist's music videos, there are further guidelines that have to be met before the video can be premiered. However, MTV censorship has come under a lot of criticism and a lot of debates, for example they have had to remove or change shows due to a number of complaints. In terms of music videos, complaints have resulted in censorship and the videos are sometimes even banned from the channel. References that have had to be removed from lyrics include: drugs, sex/nudity, violence/weapons, homophobia, suicide, racial slurs, advertising and derogatory terms.

Music videos may also me moved to late-night/obscure rotation, much like songs on the radio. The reasons in which this might occur is due to sexual content; for example revealing clothing,and misogyny (e.g one of The Progidy's songs was given late night rotation before being removed altogether due to a decision made by the feminist group National Organisation for Women.
Music videos can also be banned from MTV altogether, depending on location, as even the censored form of the video was too controversial to premiere. In the UK, one music video (My Favourite Game by The Cardigans) was filmed with five different endings, which were all banned from MTV due to fears of encouragement of causing car accidents.

The Music Law refers to the legal aspects of the music industry, and covers a range of subjects from the copyright law (part of intellectual property law and competition law. Copyright is the legal right in which the creator of an original work piece is granted exclusive rights for its use and distribution for a limited time.
In order for the work to be eligible for copyright it must meet the standards of originality, and different countries conduct different tests for this. However the standards are generally quite low, for example in the UK there must be some skill or labour that has gone into the work.
The typical copyright notice is the letter c inside a circle, ©, but more recently for sound recordings of music the copyright symbol can be a p inside a circle, ℗.
In terms of music, copyright protection is present from creation (once lyrics are recorded or set to paper) according to the US Copyright office. However, in order to sue and claim damages the creator should enforce their rights at this office. Various rights that copyright gives the artist includes the right to reproduce the work, adapt, perform and distribute it. This protection lasts for 70 years after the life of the artist if their music was produced after Jan 1st in 1978. Other facts about music copyright include that unpublished works are also eligible for protection, and a sound recordings are generally copyrighted separately from the musical composition due to not being considered the same work under the copyright law.

Convergence and Synergy:

Synergy involves the interaction of two or more organisations to produce a combined product or effect. This products promote each other in which the audience want to consume both of them. In terms of the music industry, an artist has collective image, in which the consumers will associate with them, such as their CD, merchandise and tour, So by listening to their songs, the audience may want to go to their concert for that album.

Convergence is where the company such as the record label will promote a product across different media platforms to obtain a bigger profit. An example in the music industry is how music can be streamed on YouTube and Spotify, played on MTV, downloaded or even sold as a CD or Vinyl.

An example record label is Sony Music, whom is part of the Big 3. They also have a branch for technology, such as the Walkman, TV even Sony phones, in which music can be listened to on both. This is cross media convergence as their music can be played on different devices, but also synergy as the items promote the overall company and its products. Sony also have a film company called Sony pictures, meaning that synergy can occur here as music products can be a soundtrack for a certain film, so the music promotes the film and in turn the film will promote the artist; and this is made a lot easier when they both come under the same company.
This has changed the music industry, in which it benefits big conglomerates as they can use different platforms to promote multiple products easily, saving and gaining more money. However this may by harder for independent companies as they may not have the money or publicity to promote music on other platforms, and record labels may not also be under the same company as one in the film industry.