Media Theories

Aswell as researching music videos, DVD covers, album covers and adverts i also want to look into Media Theories, as this will help our group create a more realistic video.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin identified several different key components that make up music videos, such as:

* Genre-related styles and iconographies evident
* A link between lyrics and visual aspects – with visuals “illustrating, amplifying or contradicting” the lyrics
* A link between music and visual aspects – with visuals also “illustrating, amplifying or contradicting” the music
* Voyeurism often evident with female characters
* Several close-ups of the main vocalist
* Intertextual references to other media texts occasionally present


Alot of these are evident in music videos, depending on genre, narrative, and the aim of the record company.

Laura Mulvey – “Male Gaze” Theory (1975)

Theory from British Film Theorist, Laura Mulvey. The theory states that women in film are often objectified from a male point of view, and seen only as objects for their beauty.

Blumler and Katz – Uses and Gratifications (1974)

Audience-based theory, by researchers in the 1970’s that questions audience’s purposes for consuming different types of Media. The theory is broken down into four different reasons:

* Diversion – for the audience to escape everyday life and routines.
* Surveillance – for information about what is going on in the World around the audience (for example news and weather)
* Personal Relationships – for emotional and interactive purposes (for example, relating to characters in soaps/television programmes)
* Personal Identity – audience exploring their own personal problems (through characters in television programmes)

Emanuel Levy (1990)

Theory from American film critic, Emanuel Levy, who conducted research into Hollywood film stars, between 1932 and 1984. From his research, he theorized that female stars considered beauty and youthfulness more than male stars.

Steven Archer

Steven Archer’s theory for music videos is that “There needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos. It needs to market both the song and the band”

Sven E. Carlsson

Sven Carlsson’s theory of Music Videos analysis suggests that a music video communicates to audience through both audio and visual elements, in which messages and values are shown through the music, the lyrics and/or the video itself. He also theorised that there are two different types of Music Video:

* Conceptual Clip – A video containing more of a narrative, or an artistic style.
* Performance Clip – A video where the main artist is shown dancing and singing throughout

This can be developed into more detail, by analysing each type more closely. In certain Music Videos, the artist is often seen as materialized, into a Commercial Exhibitionist, which is the main selling point of the music, as opposed to the song itself. Another type of singer is the Televised Bard, who acts as a singing storyteller, who relies upon voice as opposed to more personal traits of the Commercial Exhibitionist, who relies upon body, costume etc. The final type is the Electronic Shaman, whom is often not seen in videos, and relies on their voice alone.

Stuart Hall – Encoding/Decoding (1973)

Audience-based theory, by cultural theorist Stuart Hall, that questions audience’s acceptance of consuming different types of Media. The theory contains three possible outcomes:


· Negotiated reading – the reader partly understands and accepts the ideas the text conveys, however they adjust certain things to fulfil their own personal interests and experiences.

· Dominant (or “Hegemonic”) reading – the reader/viewer accepts and agrees with the ideas that the text is conveying.

· Oppositional (or “Counter-Hegemonic”) reading – the reader understands the ideas that are being conveyed, but rejects them due to their own personal morals and beliefs.

Keith Negus – Popular Music in Theory (1996)

His theory challenges the idea that many people have about relationships between the culture of today's youth and popular music. He states that this music is particularly popular in younger audiences, with the artists making the music of a considerably older generation. This can be applied to bands such as Paul McCartney, Donny Osmond and ‘The Rolling Stones’. Negus also states that popular music is “inherently rebellious”.


Hopefully these theories should help us to achieve our desired music video and print products.