2. 1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance
routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either
illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects
that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist
may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and
particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a visual style)
7. There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc
Andrew Goodwin’s 7 Features of Music Videos
3. Sven E Carlsson Theory
Music Video artist as a “modern mythic embodiment”
The music video artist is seen as embodying one, or a combination of “modern mythic characters or forces” of which there are three general. The music video artist is
representing different aspects of the free floating disparate universe of music video. There are two groups of music video:
Performance clip - When a video shows an artist mostly dancing and singing. There are three types; song performance, dance performance, instrumental performance.
Narrative clip - A short silent movie to a musical background, a visual story that is easy to follow.
Conceptual clip - When the clip has something else during it's duration often with artistic ambitions
In one type of performance, the performer is not a performer anymore; he or she is a materialization of the
Commercial exhibitionist – Uses influence to sell products or services
Televised bard - A singing storyteller who uses actual on screen images instead of inner, personal images.
Electronic shaman - Usually a DJ in modern society but can be any artist that doesn’t sing e.g. Skrillex and Daft Punk – They wear a mask so their identity is concealed and
they can change the mask at any time
Music - Sometimes the musical elements shape the moving pictures.
- Moments like footsteps are often synchronized with the beat, so that people in the music video seem to walk in sync to the music. Melodic phrases can also be visualized by
tilting the camera vertically to match the musical phrase’s up and down travel on the scales.
Lyrics- lyrics and images interact creating meaning.
- New meaning is added to the banal lyrics through metaphorical language
- The greater the leap between the content of the lyrics and the imagery in this metaphorical joining, the more difficult it becomes for viewers to understand and interpret
the context.
- The environment is made to mirror the feelings of the lead characters
The image - the visual form is close to the musical form. - By manipulating colour, motive setting, story footage, clothing, etc the music video director creates a couple of
ideas which are repeated and varied.
- The concept is to rearrange visual motifs so that the work forms a whole.
There are three forms of visual tradition in music videos they are: performance clip, narrative clips and art clip.
Art Clip - if a music video contains no perceptible visual narrative and contains no lip-synchronized singing then it is a pure art clip. While the music video uses popular music
the artistic video uses more experimental music, such as electro-acoustic
- The connections between the music genre and the visual genre of music are weak. There are, however, some connections: dance music video clips are sometimes art clips.
The editing technique in soft ballads is mostly mixing. The hard rock music genre usually features standard clips consisting of concert shots and inserted narrative shot
4. John Stewart Theory
• The music video has the aesthetics of a TV commercial, with lots of close-ups and lighting being
used to focus on the star’s face.
• He sees visual reference in music video as coming from a range of sources, although the three most
frequent are perhaps cinema, fashion and art photography.
• Stewart’s description of the music video as ‘incorporating, raiding and reconstructing’ is essentially
the essence of Intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar, to
generate both nostalgic associations and new meanings.
• The video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can. The mise-en-scene,
in particular, can be used to emphasise an aspiration lifestyle.
5. Thirty Seconds To Mars - Hurricane
https://vimeo.com/38704588
“Hurricane” is a song by the American rock band, Thirty Seconds To Mars that originate from Los
Angeles. “Hurricane” is the fourth and final track on the bands album – This Is War. Due to the explicit
content “Hurricane” was never released onto the air and was banned from several networks around
the world. The song for “Hurricane” itself has a duration of 6 minutes and 21 seconds whereas the
full music video has a duration of 13 minutes and 16 seconds.
6. Song lyrics
No matter how many times that you told me you wanted to leave
No matter how many breaths that you took, you still couldn't breathe
No matter how many nights that you lie wide awake to the sound of poison rain
Where did you go? Where did you go? Where did you go?
As days go by, the night's on fire
Tell me would you kill to save a life?
Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?
Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn
This hurricane's chasing us all underground
No matter how many deaths that I die I will never forget
No matter how many lives that I live, I will never regret
There is a fire inside of this heart
And a riot about to explode into flames
Where is your God? Where is your God? Where is your God?
Ooooooo-ooohhh Ooooooo-ooohhh
Do you really want...
Do you really want me?
Do you really want me dead,
Or alive to torture for my sins?
Do you really want...
Do you really want me?
Do you really want me dead,
Or alive to live a lie?
Tell me would you kill to save a life?
Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?
Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn
This hurricane's chasing us all underground
The promises we made were not enough (Never play the game again)
The prayers that we have prayed were like a drug (Never gonna hit the air)
The secrets that we sold were never known (Never sing a song for you)
The love we had, the love we had, we had to let it go.
(Never giving in again, Never giving in again)
Tell me would you kill to save a life?
Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?
Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn
This hurricane's chasing us all underground
Whoa, This hurricane [x3]
Whoa
Do you really want...
Do you really want me?
Do you really want me dead,
Or alive to torture for my sins?
Do you really want...
Do you really want me?
Do you really want me dead,
Or alive to live a lie?
7. The Chapters
The music video for “Hurricane” is chaptered into three
subsections that mark the journey of life for all living
creatures. Each chapter marks the periods of existence that
8. Fears
During the whole music video there are many appearances of frightful figures that chase and attack the band
members. The frightful figures link into the videos discreet plot line of dreams. The figures in masks in
addition to the scene at 8:57 - at the time one of the band members is forced into an enclosed coffin alive
relate to the fears and nightmares that feature in dreams.
9. Running from fears
Initially at the beginning of the music video for “Hurricane” one of the band members is in desperate attempts to
escape a specific man with a mask that is equipped with a sledgehammer who begins to chase the band member at
2:23 - This leads to the band member jumping out of his window of a multi-storey skyscraper where the descent lasts
for a screen time duration of 10 seconds before surviving the impact upon landing. (Both the extensive descent time
and the survival upon impact are connotations to dreams and what would happen in the dreamworld). The attempt to
escaped is however is futile as the masked man appears soon after to which the band member tries to flee on foot
(3:09). At this moment slow motion editing is used to symbolise how its impossible to run away from the fears that take
refuge in ones mind and meanwhile is another connotation to reflect personal dream-world/ nightmare experiences
and the suspense that builds when struggling to runaway from fears in the dream-world.
10. Confronting the fears
At the beginning of the music video, the only option for the band member was to run from the man in the mask
without hesitation, however at 12:05 the band member confronts the man in the mask - To some viewers that have
made speculations regarding the reference to dream-world. specifically in regards to overcoming personal fears. This
scene illustrates the development of the main member of the music video.
11. Desires
Throughout the entire music video there are consistent nudity scenes that involve references to sex and
erotic pleasures which occasionally come in the form of S and M (S) - Sadism and Masochism. In the music
video these references are very unclear to most but to my belief they are closely related to the music video of
“Hurricane” and how there are reoccurring references to elements that prominently feature in dreams that
the everyday person may encounter. In regards to the explicit images, it would be a person darkest fantasies.
Each desire is an opportunity for the male gaze which is also an opportunity for voyeurism due to the lustful
and intimate displays of affection shown.
12. Other
At 5:50 in the music video the viewer is shown a scene that only further research/ knowledge would explain clearly.
At the time of filming, Thirty Seconds To Mars had a difficult lawsuit to deal with as they didn’t adhere to the
agreement set - relating to the amount of music videos they had to produce per annum. This looming oppression
that they were put in was reflected in the music video, most prominently this particular scene as the illustrative
lyrics: “There is a fire inside of this heart, And a riot about to explode into flames” is a repeat of the second half of
second verse, however misses out the final line to the verse – “Where is your God? Where is your God? Where is
your God?” Which would be sung at the time the religious scriptures make impact with the flames. The repeat of the
verse is a non diegetic sound heard behind the imagery of three opposing religious men, all throwing their holy
scriptures into the flames to symbolise the “Hurricane”/ Lawsuit that made Thirty Seconds To Mars, specifically the
lead singer, Jared Leto who question his beliefs just as the religious men are questioning the validity of their beliefs
by throwing their scriptures into the flames.
“No matter how many deaths that I die I will never forget
No matter how many lives that I live, I will never regret
There is a fire inside of this heart
And a riot about to explode into flames
Where is your God? Where is your God? Where is your God?”
(Second verse)
13. Disjuncture
This disjunctive scene in “Hurricane” occurs at 11:58. It acts to continue the tradition of reoccurring visually
strange people that is seen in many of the Thirty Seconds to Mars music videos. Such as the large woman at
3:33 in Thirty Seconds to Mars music video – “Up In The Air” The disjunctive images symbolise how people
express themselves more confidently when alone.
Thirty Seconds to Mars music video –
“Up In The Air” (3:33)
Thirty Seconds to Mars music video –
“Hurricane” (11:58)
14. Performance and narrative aspects
The music video for “Hurricane” by Thirty Seconds To Mars is a narrative performance. However only has few
elements of performance aspects. This uses Steve Archers theory that a music video needs to be both performance
and narrative and not just purely one or the other.
15. Hidden motif of keys
At 9:55 there is a subliminal message that has a screen duration of less than
a second:“Find the Argus Apocraphex”
Argus Apocraphex is a Latin-English term signifying a way of life. The
mentality of this culture includes escaping the harshness of reality into a
blissful environment deeper within our minds. Progress is made on an
independent pathway before rejoining the life as an ensemble.
This is a connotation to dreaming as the mind is in control of the dreams and
the mind is the environment that the culture is said to retreat to.
How they
obtained
the keys:
What they
did with the
keys:
16. Foreign languages
Throughout the song there are multiple accounts where another language has been implemented: I personally feel that
each time foreign language occurs in the music video, there is a direct relation to the explicit images shown and as a
result the actions that follow.
At 4:48 a woman's voice is heard that translates from Spanish to mean – “This sad heart is about to turn into flames.”
This is a metaphor for a change in mood from sadness to passion. The same passion that is seen in pleasure which is
seen throughout the music video.
At 7:08 a similar sounding woman compared to the one that is heard earlier in the music video says in a non diegetic
sound (Translated to English from French) to mean – “Abandon all your senses to pleasure, may it be the only God of
your existence. It's for him alone that a young girl must sacrifice everything and nothing in her eyes must be as sacred
as pleasure” which is hidden connotation to purity until marriage which goes against the music video due to the
sexually explicit scenes that would be seen as not pure – especially in Catholic terms.
Finally a French mans voice is heard at 10:09 that translates to – “Virtue is not always the safest, there are
circumstances in the world where the complexity of a crime is preferable to the denouncement” meaning that the thrill
of adventure outweighs the punishment for getting caught. In relation to the music video for “Hurricane” the thrill
would be involving yourself in the S and M activities that are frowned upon even though how they are regularly
referenced to in the music video.
17. Lots of close ups
Even despite this music video being far longer than the ordinary length music video “Hurricane” has
very few close up shots especially of the band members themselves.
18. Frequent references to looking
Even despite the music video for “Hurricane” being approximately 10 minutes longer than the average music video
it has very few references to looking especially due to the length of the music video. This is due to the large amount
of fast cuts in addition to the constant change of setting.
19. In general
To recapitulate, the heavy symbolic references involved in the music video: “Hurricane” are very ambiguous
with no exact answer to many of the questions that viewers may want to ask. For example:
What extent does the reality begin and end in the music video?
What does it say on the scroll that is opened at, 9:48?
What do the children drawing represent at 10:29?
Thirty Seconds To Mars have on purposely left questions unanswered so the viewer can decide upon their own
personal interpretation.
Genre characteristic:
“Hurricane” has a genre of alternative rock. The video challenges all conventions set for the alternative rock
genre music videos.
