The Soundtrack, 2012

IASPM@Journal, 2018

Master's Dissertation, 2023

This dissertation aims to shed light on the way popular acts used the music video as a medium to promote their artistic identity, and on how they utilize representations in the 2010s decade in order to achieve the former. The key question addressed in this dissertation is how music videos belonging in different genres present similarities in their forms and representations. Given the fact that little research has been conducted on the music video as an art form, this dissertation is an opportunity to expand our knowledge on this field, and, especially, on an era where there seems to be a lack of clear focus when it comes to one or few ‘formulas’ that largely dictate the way videos are conceived and produced. According to academic literature, music videos are essentially a creation of the music industry in the 1950s in order to capitalize on an act’s ‘general package’, however, this shifted in the decades that followed, with the 1980s being considered as the ‘golden age’ of the music video, and the 1990s being the ‘experimental’ age, where the convergence between music video, cinema and art video became apparent. As there is little research on the way music videos were produced in the 2010s decade, the aim is to combine all of the existing bibliography of some very popular music videos, while meticulously examining their forms and representations through a thematic analysis derived through phenomenology. A subsequent goal is to find the way several popular music genres present themselves visually to their potential internet audience, and how the latter responded to some of these representations.

The Chart Show was a weekly UK TV programme showcasing music videos from the Media Research Information Bureau (MRIB) Network Chart and a range of independent and specialist pop music charts. It began broadcasting on Friday evenings on Channel 4 in April 1986 and ran for three series until September 1988. Its production company, Video Visuals, subsequently found a new home for The Chart Show with Yorkshire Television on ITV, where it went out on Saturday mornings between January 1989 and August 1998. What made the show unique in the British broadcasting context was that it was the first presenter-less pop chart programme that showcased popular music exclusively in video form. Beginning at a time when MTV was still unavailable in the UK, The Chart Show was innovatory in consolidating music video as the lingua franca of the pop singles market. Drawing on archival sources from Channel 4, and the trade and popular music presses, this article shows how The Chart Show helped shape the form of music video, contributed to its commercial status, boosted singles sales, and drove industry demand and production schedules. It argues that an appreciation of music video is dependent upon the historical specificity of its broadcast context.

Journalism Quarterly, 1989

Networking Knowledge, 2017

This study aimed to explore how young people can critically engage with music videos to explore dominant constructions of gender and sexuality. As the primary consumers of popular music and music videos, adolescents are also a group who exist in a unique sociocultural space, where both misogyny and feminism are present in highly media-driven lives. This study used focus group workshops with young people in high school to generate qualitative data based on the participants' discussion and interpretations of gender and sexuality in two music videos. Seven groups of young people aged 14 – 16 analysed two popular music videos and reflected particularly upon discourses of expected femininity and female sexuality. Discussion elucidated insightful analysis around gendered subjectivity, and presented three complex and opposing themes, which are explored in detail. A cohesive thread emerged in the data in which young people demonstrated their capacity to identify hegemonic gender constructs, while also relying on these constructs to read and police the women shown in the music videos.

The Open Social Science Journal, 2009

For over a half century, the evolution of rock music has been marked by controversy over its social influence. Arguments by the pro-and anti-regulation/censorship camps echo those encountered in debates over the effects of media violence and pornography generally [1]. The present study reviews empirical work on the content and effects of violence in rock music and music videos. In evaluating whether the research meets the high burden for regulatory intervention, we must first establish (1) whether the content of these popular arts is, in fact, providing an increasingly graphic content environment, and (2) whether such contents actually influence audience attitudes and behaviors. A narrative review of the literature suggests that critics of popular music have needed to "fill in the blanks" of their empirical arguments with selective citations to the voluminous literature on general media effects (e.g., with TV violence). The literature on popular music and music videos provides little in the way of longitudinal, externally valid findings that can establish a "smoking gun" with media influences as potent causal agents with human behavior. Implications for media regulation are discussed.

2014

2011

Recent research by Gill (2008) claims that women within the media are being presented as powerful, sexually active and independent women. Gill uncovered three common figures women used to express these characteristics; the hot lesbian, the midriff and the vengeful women. The current research claims these figures could be seen to have a double meaning, and are being used to exploit female sexuality, and are the result of heteronormative boundaries. A discourse analysis of numerous female music videos was undertaken in order to investigate these assertions. The findings showed that Gill’s research failed to notice the importance of binaries and that many other characters are used by women in order to sell. It also showed that heteronormativity appears to be the barrier, preventing women from being seen as empowering, and the images of irony and nostalgia may reveal the females desire to revert back to a traditional role. It was suggested that future research should consider a way to s...