The document discusses music videos and their messages. It analyzes several music videos based on Deborah Holdstein's theory that videos fall into two categories - fantasy videos based on performance, or political videos commenting on social issues. Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video is described as reviving the film musical genre, with Jackson as a mediator resolving conflict between gangs through dance. Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" video portrays a fantasy chase through exotic locales. Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" depicts her character being drugged and sold into sex trafficking, with Gaga playing narrator and ultimately resolving the issue.

1. Deborah Holdstein Music Video : Messages & Structures

2. The ‘3 Striking Qualities’ of a Star in Music Videos The star as a fantasy ‘seer’ or prophet The star as a political commentator or narrator The star as a mediator or point of resolution for social conflict

3. Holdstein - Music Video: Messages and Structures “ Videos seem to divide into two categories: Those with allegedly explicit ‘political’ themes, and those which revive the traditional U.S. film musical.” The fantasy video is based entirely on performance. This format puts “the group or star in a mythical, medieval, exotic or surrealistic series of images and locations.” “ Videos make the artist more accessible to the fans. When they come to a performance, then they bring or wear things they've seen in the video.” “ In the past, artists portrayal will only be left to the viewers imagination or how they are seen in concert, the record album cover pose, photographs and interviews in Rolling Stone, Time. ” But nowadays, “the video image is quicker and more powerful.”

4. Holdstein - Michael Jackson - ‘Beat It’ http://youtu.be/p3jCPtxOkGo Holdstein: “Is Jackson portrayed as a ‘fantasy’, a ‘political commentator’, or as a ‘mediator of social conflict’.” The song does address ‘racism’ and ‘social class’ : “They told him don't you ever come around here, don't wanna see your face, you better disappear.” It doesn't need words, it has faces, gestures, emphasis, and a narrative one could easily follow without ‘Beat It’ on the soundtrack. Jackson, the mediator, has become a surreal ‘fantasy’ figure, involved yet detached from the action he seems to resolve.

5. With a vivid start to the scene's, we see several men, who we will learn are members of a gang about to meet their rivals for a ‘rumble.’ Political Commentator: “We come upon Jackson in his apartment, lying on his bed. Somehow he instinctively knows there will be trouble.” Crosscutting continues from Jackson to the gangs, alternating between one gang piling on a truck, presumably to the rumble's location, and the other gang, walking. The suspense of ‘who'll get there first,’ and ‘what'll happen when they get there’ is heightened by a question: Where's Michael Jackson, and what role will he play in all of this? The traditional U.S. film musical: WEST SIDE STORY is revisited. Both gang leaders line up against each other, jabbing knife shots. But the scene is portrayed as a ‘fantasy’ through dance. Jackson enters to stop the fight (‘mediator of social conflict’) before all characters dance behind him in one large choreographed routine.

6. Duran Duran – ‘Hungry like the Wolf’ http://youtu.be/oOg5VxrRTi0 The videos' pace and editing are strikingly like that of TV commercials. As Holdstein would state: “It is the selling of both product and image”, in this case, the ‘star’. Cinematic music video, with shots of jungles, rivers, elephants, cafes and marketplaces. Referring to Holdstein’s theory that videos ‘revive the traditional U.S. film musical’, the band have been inspired by the atmosphere of the film: ‘ Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.’

7. The lead singer is on a hunt in Asia, where black women are painted to resemble and act like savages. In the video, lead singer Simon Le Bon's head rises in slow motion out of the river as rain pours down. He then chases a tiger-like Indian woman played by Bermudian model Sheila Ming, from open markets in the city through obstacles in the jungle. During the chase, Le Bon has his face mopped by a young boy and overturns a bar room table, culminating in a final chase and struggle in a jungle clearing, which is sexually suggestive. Fantasy Video: As Holdstein suggests, the mythical and exotic location is relevant here, with Ming being the desirable prize of the chase. Like in Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’, crosscutting occurs with the other band members in the meantime, hunting for Le Bon.

8. A More To-Date Instance….. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =qrO4YZeyl0I Star as a point of resolution for social issue: Sex Trafficking in Russia Lady Gaga – Bad Romance (2009)

9. Forcefully is drugged against her own will by two other women, who presumably, are already part of the sex trafficking business As she is in a room dominated by the colour white and as she is in white, this draws attention to the colour which could symbolize purity and innocence, which Gaga’s character is now going to lose

10. Unnaturally large eyes emphasises that she is under the influence of drugs, and also shows that these drugs have extremely bad effects on the user Lady Gaga - as herself – cries as she sings: ‘ Caught in a Bad Romance’ as if she is suggesting that the character is ‘caught’ in a terrible situation. She acts as the narrator in this particular image/setting.

11. Fights to keep clothes on whilst the other dancers try to rip them off: She still has some sense of what is going on despite being drugged Finally she is completely subdued by the drugs and sells herself. She wears white to emphasise her purity and making her more desirable to her potential purchasers

12. Lady Gaga is given the highest bid and is bought for 1,000,000 Russian ruble’s. Completely embraces her new given identity and presents herself for her audience in black symbolizing her loss of innocence and purity

13. Presents herself to her ‘ purchaser/bidder ’ but instead of satisfying his sexual desire, she sets him on fire in attempt to save herself from the issue of sex trafficking Closing shot – Gaga’s character has won and one of the Russian sex trafficking culprits is dead, lying next to her. So she has become a point of resolution for this issue.

14. In Conclusion… Lady Gaga plays two roles; one is herself and the other is a victim of sex trafficking. She uses her music video to portray the step-by-step process though which young women are taken and made into a product of male sexual desire, that later is sold to the wealthy men of the Russian society. When Gaga plays herself, she sings ‘caught in a bad romance’ which emphasises her beliefs of the ‘bad romance’ which in this case is sex trafficking. In character, Gaga is a physical imitation of the goings-on in becoming a product that may later be bought, to enable the audience to empathise with the terrible extremity of the social issue. As the character Gaga plays finally burns her Russian buyer, she becomes a heroine as she kills someone who is partly responsible for the ‘murder’ of innocent young girls.