Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey is a British film theorist.  She is a professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London.
In 1975 Mulvey published an essay in the influential journal screen entitled 'visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.'

Mulvey's theory is a logical argument from two assertions:

1. Cinema reflects society
2. Society is patriarchal

Patriarchy is a social system in which:

• Males hold power.
• Males predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property.
• Males dominate in the domain of the family, fathers or father-figures hold authority over women and children.
• It implies the institutions of male domination and entails female subordination.
• Many patriarchal societies are also patrilineal, meaning that property and title are inherited by the male lineage.

In her work Mulvey argues that we do live in a patriarchal society and therefore cinema, television and other media cultures reflect a patriarchal society.

The Male Gaze:

Her argument is based on the fact that the 'gaze' of the camera is the male 'gaze'.  

The male gaze is active and the female is passive.  The audience is made to identify with the male gaze, because the camera films from the male's point of view.  This means there are 3 levels of the cinematic gaze - camera, character and spectator - that objectify the female character.  

An example of this is in Transformers, in which there is an eye-line match of Shia LeBoeuf and Megan Fox.

       


Suture:

The audience is constructed in a way that they are compelled to 'gaze' from a male point of view.  Women are forced to look at the text as though they were a male member of the audience.

Agency:

In the cinema the male protagonist has agency - he is active, powerful and moves the plot forward.  The female character is passive and powerless - she is passive and powerless - she is the object of desire for the protagonist.

Women who have Agency are Katniss Everdeen from 'The Hunger Games' and Tris from 'Divergent'.

 

How the theory works in music videos:

Laura Mulvey's theory is particularly relevant when considering music videos as many feature women as objects of erotic desire. Examples include, Britney Spears ' Hit me baby one more time' and Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball'.


        

Rihanna's video to 'Shut up and drive' is also a great example.  The video includes Rihanna and a few other girls 'fixing' cars, however they are dressed in very little clothing as well as heels.  Throughout the video, we see her and other workers walking about the garage pulling different poses to show off their bodies to the camera.

For the second half of the music video, Rihanna still does not give any agency.  Instead it is the males who play the main characters, racing expensive looking cars, whilst Rihanna pulls more poses with the rest of the women in the video.

Promotional - Power point on 'Creating a brand'

Potential Tracks

Tracks that could be potentially used for the music video are:


The Blue Dawns - This grey old town

Jet Black Alleycat - Poison

Marian Hill - One time


We decided that we needed a range of different songs so that we can come up with different ideas for the video.

Looking for an artist

When looking for an artist there are many things to consider. For example:

Copyright -

It would be best to use the music of an uncopyrighted artist as they wouldn't have a problem with their music being used in a music video project.  However with big artists such as 5 seconds of summer and The 1975, they may have a problem with their songs being used for something they can't really control.


Where to find music -

Websites such as Sound cloud or Youtube are good websites to find unsigned artists.  There are many places where people post their music to get it out into the world, the hard part is just choosing what is good to use.

Ideal track -

An ideal track would be a song which has easy lyrics that are able to be learnt quickly.  This would mean that lipsyncing would be a lot easier and will also look better.  Also, a track which has good contents would be good to use as a good music video can be produced, such as a song which has a kind of story in the lyrics, therefore a story can be incorporated into the video.

Genres to avoid -

Rap - This genre contains some extreme language, sexual reference and also the lyrics can be hard to lipsynced.

Country - This would be hard to do as you need a certain songs need an accent.  As we are not from a place that has a country accent, the song would not be lip-synced right and just wouldn't look right.

Dubstep/dance music - this would not be a good genre to use as there are often very few words in their songs.  This wouldn't work as the work needs to include lip-syncing.

Key music video features

There are 3 key features that are found in most music videos:

• Illustration - This is when videos use images to illustrate the meaning of the lyrics or the genre.

             

• Amplification - This is when images are constantly shown throughout the video and are drummed into our vision. 

             

• Disjuncture - This is when the meaning of the song is not reflected by the music video.

             

In some music videos we only get the gist of the meaning of the song and tend to make up our own idea of what is being told.

Goodwin says that music videos should ignore common narrative as it is important in their role of advertising.

Music videos should have coherent repeat ability.  Narrative and performance should work together as it makes it easier for the audience to watch over and over without losing interest.

The artist who is both the narrator and the participant helps to increase the authenticity, but the lip sync and other actions will still be the heart of the music video.  The audience need to believe this is real.

Music videos are always made to be memorable too.  The more memorable and weird the video is, then more people are likely to watch it.  Examples of this are Ok Go's 'Here it goes again' and Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way'. 

The Ok Go video was able to get 1 million views on Youtube after just six days of it being posted.  This is because it is extremely different to other music videos, as not many people are on treadmills throughout their video.

                             

An example of of a well known song and music video is Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

It is really important in the music industry because it had an impact in sales as after the video was released the song went to number 1.  It is also regarded as a Work of Art in its own right.
I agree that this video is an art form as ti was very well edited for its time, plus the mise en scene and lighting was very creative.

                           




The 1975

Illustration:

The 1975's video for 'Robbers' is an excellent example of illustration.  It uses the same themes that the song portrays such as drugs and love.  Through the video we see the lead member (Matty Healy) of the band taking drugs and also has a girl with him throughout.  This follows the story that is being told in the lyrics.


           


Disjuncture:

The 1975 also have a music video that shows disjuncture, 'Settle Down'.  In the video we see  Healy walking around the streets in which he grew up, as well as a story line involving two younger boys.  This has nothing to do with the actual lyrics of the song.  It was later found that the video was showing a dream he had had when he was younger and he thought that 'Settle Down' was excellent to show it.


           

Andrew Goodwin - Features of a music video

Andrew Goodwin in 'Dancing in the distraction factory' (1992) has identified the following features of music videos:

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

Metallica - Enter Sandman: This music video includes the band playing their instruments throughout the video.




N Sync - It's Gonna Be Me: Whereas with boybands, the majority of the music video includes choreographed dance routines.  This is able to reflect the genre.

• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

The 1975 - Robbers: This is a good example, as the whole video shows the lyrics.  The lyrics include lines about guns, drugs and his relationship with a girl, and all of these things are found in the video.  It is almost like we are watching the song.

• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-up of the artists and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).  

5 Seconds of Summer - She looks so perfect: This video includes a lot of close ups and also many things that are associated with the band.  These are things like their clothes, accessories and objects that are in the background, such as the Australian poster on the wall.

•  There is frequent reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

Iggy Azalea - Fancy: This video shows Iggy looking at a screen, choosing her outfit for the video.  Also the outfit includes a short skirt which is showing off her body.

• Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze - 'Visual pleasure and narrative cinema'

- Women viewed as objects of male erotic desire

-Men active/women passive

-Women do not have agency - they do not move the plot forward

• There is often inter textual reference.

All Time Low - I feel like dancing: This music video has many different references to other artists such as Katy Perry and Justin Bieber.