Michael Jackson Thriller Analysis

Narrative Based Music Videos

Forms and Conventions of Music Videos

Thinking About Audience

The track that I have chosen to use is Conversations with My Thirteen Year Old Self, originally by Pink. The Genre of this track  is Pop Rock.

Core and Secondary Audiences

The Core Audience for this genre are teenage girls. This is mainly because a lot of Pink's songs are about emotional topics and females are stereotypically the emotional ones.

Other Tastes and Media
The teenage girls may also listen to rock or pop music as well because Pink's music genre can be classed as a mixture of both these genres.

Image and Personality
Listeners to Pinks music would see the world in a darker and rebelious light as this best describes Pink herself. She can be a big influence on others.
The audience's look would be edgy, rock chick, rebellious and not too glamorous.

Uses and Gratifications
The audience may have a personal relationship with Pink's music as she sings about touching, relistic topics and situations that she has experienced herself. Others who have been in a similar situation as her songs, may listen to her songs because of this relationship

Surviellance is about learning about the political and social issues that happens around the world. Although Pink doesn't sing about big, global issues, she does sing about social issues such as domestic violance, divorce and being brought up with a single parent. The audience may find out about these situations through how Pink sings about them in her songs.

Pink herself has her own unique personal identity. She has her unique dress scence and is not afraid to be open about her troubles that she had. I feel because she is such a big inflence on her fans and those who listen to her music, that they would have similar unique personal identities.

Album Covers that I Have Made that Abide by the Indie Conventions

This first album cover is made from a simple image from Google and then added text on a Photo Editing Software.

This album cover abides by the Indie conventions as it simple but effective. The inspiration for this album cover came from the Florence and the Machine album cover Lungs; pictured above. Florence has no eye contact with her audience showing that she is not the main ect of the cover; her lungs are. Therefore I felt that a girls head turned away from us so we only see the back of her head had the same effect and message.

The name of the album "Don't Look Back" reinforces the image of the girls head turned away from us, so that the audience are looking at the back of her. It suggests that she is not turn back to look and face us and not to look back to the past.

The colour temperature of this album cover is very mellow with different shades of grey and black. The lack of bright and "happy" colours can suggest the sad meaning to the album name; to not look back on the bad in the past. It also suggests that all is not well and this song will be of deeper thought and meaning.

The actual font type looks as if the artist herself has hand written the text. This illustrates that the music on this album is all of her own work; as if she is signing it to be hers like a painter would do with their painting.

Indie music is normally about reality and the music being the most important aspect rather than who the artist themselves actually are. This is again shown through the audience not being able to see the actual face of the artist in the album cover; just like who she is is not as important as the music she has made.

This album cover is a bit more vibrant than the album cover above. Again the background image was found on Google and the font on a Photo Editing software.

The inspiration for The People's Pot of Gold  came from Jack Johnson's album cover. The artist himself, Jack Johnson, is not pictured in his album cover and this suggests that the album is about his music not who he is, which is following the typical conventions of Indie music. I have decided to do this also.

The image of a nature scene suggests the down to earth theme of the music that would be within the album. It shows the freshness and purity of nature which gives realism look on the music.

The rainbow colours of the title of the album "Pot of Gold" is based on the idea that there is a Pot of Gold at the end of every rainbow, which is a familiar quote that is well known. The use of this quote will give familiarty to the audience and could imply that this album is the Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow. The fact that the colours of the font seem to be fading, reinforces what a rainbow would look like in real life as rainbows don't have bold colours. 

This album cover is a lot more sinister than the others and was made by an image from Google that has been edited to have a negative colour scheme. The font was then added through a Photo Editing Software.

The inspiration for this album cover was from Coldplay's Viva la Vida album cover.

Again like the John Johnson album cover, the artists are not pictured. However, an iconic image is used in Coldplay's Viva la Vida album cover. The painting called Libery Leading the People or La Liberté guidant le peuple painted by the French artist Eugène Delacroix, July 1830, was to commemorate the July Revolution that had just brought Louis-Philippe to the French throne and was used instead. This painting has a deeper, important meaning, therfore I decided to use the same idea. The image that I have used symbolises the Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil saying but instead of the usual monkies that are normally used, I found one with skeletons in it. I felt that this was a more suitable image because it could suggest the darkness of the music within the album.

The font on the Coldplay album is written like it has been painted or graffittied on top of the painting. The font that I have chosen is like it has been written in splattered blood. Again, I feel that this adds to the horror and sinister atmosphere of the album cover, which is a convention of Indie music that is slowly swaying to the Rock genre.

The name of the artists themself are not featured on the album cover of Coldplay's album and I have decided to do this too. The main reason for this is because of the typical convention of Indie music not being or selling because of the artist but because of the music and what it's deeper meaning is about.

Analysing Madonna's Music Videos

Madonna - Like a Prayer

Narrative

• First Narrative: Madonna is the main character in this mucis video and it starts with her entering a church and feeling the greater prescence of God. Once Madonna is in the Church, the religious icon as a statue that is assumed to be Jesus comes to life and "blesses her". His prescence affects her. Even though there is an obvious closeness between the "Jesus" statue and Madonna, he only kisses her on the forehead instead of the lips which makes it less intimate between them and more like he is blessing her.

• Second Narrative: Near the middle of the music video, Madonna witnesses an attack on a woman by a mob of men. The mob runs away at the sound of the sirens and  a young black male tries to help the mugged female. He is assumed by the police that he is the criminal and taken away from the police. This shows the stereotype of automatically thinking that the young male is the criminal when he wasn't just because of his race and skin colour. Also, because the Jesus statue in the music video was also of the same skin colour as the "criminal", it illustrates the two extremes as the Jesus statue is at the top of the hierarchy, whereas the "criminal" is at the bottom.

Reception

• It can be said that this music video is very controversial because of having a black Jesus rather than the usually seen white Jesus. This plays with the history between the white and black races as white people are normally seen higher in the hierarchy than black people are.

• Also, Madonna's sexualisation of the Christian religion and it's symbol of the Cross is again very contoversial. Some viewers of this music video felt that Madonna was disrespecting their faith by wearing such revealing clothes where straps were falling and then wearing the cross around her neck where it was nearly falling between her chest.

Lyrical Content

• The main themes of this particular song include Religion, Love, Tranquility and Peacefulness. This is portrayed though the lyrical content, in particular...

"When you call my name

it's like a little prayer.

I'm done on my knees

I wanna take you there."

These lyrics are taken from the main chorus and shows Madonna comparing Love with Religious Experience. Because she was wearing the revealing clothes, people saw this meaning as an insult to the Christian faith as she is insinuating love at an intimacy level rather than a religious level.

Madonna - Vogue

Concept

• The main concept of this video is about glamour for fashion. This is the english translation of the french word "Vogue" which is the title of this song.

• The glamour of the music video was inspired by Horst P. Horst. Horst P. Horst was a famous photographer who photographed many famous icons in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Some of his famous works included "Lily in a Turban", which was also featured in the music video when Madonna looks like she is being pampered with her hair wrapped in a towel.

Performance

• The dancing performance in the music video was very harsh moves. These moves were as if the people are striking many poses.

Lyrical Content

• The main message of this song is that whoever you are, you are naturally beautiful whatever anyone says or thinks. This is shown through the lyrical content, in particular.....

"It makes no difference

if you're black or white

or if you're a boy or girl

...You're a superstar!"

Colour Temperature

• The whole music video was filmed in black and white. This could be because its showing that you don't need all the colour and the fancy effects to make someone's beauty show. Also, filming it in black and white suggests that the video is something classic from the Golden Age of Hollywood. In the Golden Ages of Hollywood, televisions did not have colour but Hollywood was still seen as the most glamorous place to be part of.

Costumes

• Madonna has a lot of costume changes throughout the music video. Some include a lacy revealing top, a fitted man suit, classical evening dress and corsets. All these costumes exagerated Madonna's body and curves and her beauty. Also all the other extras in the music video were well dressed and sophisticated, again to fit the theme of natural beauty.

Props

• The Showbiz feathers that open and close the music video adds to the Hollywood theme of the video because these Showbiz feathers carry connotations of Hollywood Theatre.

• Pieces of artwork is included in a tracking shot at the very beginning of the video. These different pieces of artwork suggests that the viewers of this video are naturally beautiful like the artwork they see in front of them that were made with such care and thought.

• One part of the music video is where a suited male is leaning on a Greek column to "strike a pose" as the lyrics say. This suggests a classical tone to the music video which adds to the glamour of the video.

Audience's Theories

Hypordermic Syringe Theory

This theory is all about the media affecting the audiece directly as to what their opinions and beliefs are about particular subjects. It has the metophoric image of the "Hypodermic Syringe" pumping the ideas into the audiences mind and body. Sometimes the media does not have a direct influence to the audience but a subtle one meaning that the audience may not know that the media has influenced them in such a way. An example of the Hypodermic Syringe Theory in place is the 9/11 Twin Tower Crash in America and how that was portrayed in the news. After all the media coverage on this story, a lot of people's opinions on those who follow the Islam belief have become negative and stereotypical.

Two Step Flow Theory
 

The Two Step Flow Theory is about where the audiences choose their media intake through what the "opinion leaders" pick and choose. The "Opinion Leaders" are those people who are very opinionated about their surroundings and their views influence those who are arround them just like followers. It can also be seen as a cycle as the Opinion Leader consumes the media, passes their opinion onto their "followers" which then feed back to the media again and the cycle starts again. An example of this is when a famous influencial icon in the media such as Simon Cowell gives their view on  a particular issue, his view may change how other people see the same issue and may reinforce Simon's view.

Uses and Gratification Theory

This theory states that audiences are not passive and are able to be active and pick their own media to consume and to provide their own opinions about that particular issue. These theories can be split into Diversion, Personal Relationships, Surveillance and Personal Identity. Diversion is escaping reality through fiction or the media. Personal Relationship is making that bond with people in the media or characters. Surviellance is talking about the political and social issues that can be local or worldwide. And Personal Identity is about having that personal connection with something that makes the person who you are today.