The Male Gaze Theory was created by feminist, Laura Mulvey. The theory happens when the camera puts the audience in the perspective of a straight man. For example, it may do a tilt up a woman's legs. Also, it shows the man as the stronger, more powerful figure out of the two genders. This shows that women see themselves through the eyes of men, because they want to appeal to them.
For example;
Masculinity
Why are most men presented as masculine?
1. Sexuality
If men are not seen as masculine then they are presented and seen as feminine. This would make them seem homosexual, due to stereotypes. However, if a man is overtly sexual it gives them their 'masculinity back'. They use androgyny symbols to achieve this.
2. Age
It is also seen that the older you get, the more masculine you are. This could be because you are seen as a man when you look older, where as a boy if not. For example, Brad Pitt would be thought as more masculine than Justin Bieber, in a lot of cases. This could be because they are presented to have more experience.
When we have played people our song, they have said that they sound a lot like 'The Beatles'. Therefore I have chosen to analyse 'Come Together' by 'The Beatles'.
(Referring to George Harrison)
Here come old flattop, he come grooving up slowly - Typical looking 'Beatle' He got joo-joo eyeball, he one holy roller He got hair down to his knee Got to be a joker he just do what he please (They are referring to Ringo Starr) He wear no shoeshine, he got toe-jam football He got monkey finger, he shoot coca-cola - He sniffed cocaine He say "I know you, you know me" - They are all the same in the band, like looking in a reflection One thing I can tell you is you got to be free Come together right now over me (Referring to John Lennon) He bag production, he got walrus gumboot He got Ono sideboard, he one spinal cracker - Referring to Yoko Ono, his partner He got feet down below his knee - He is very mature Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease Come together right now over me
(Right! Come, oh, come, come, come.)
(Referring to Paul McCartney) He roller-coaster, he got early warning He got muddy water, he one mojo filter He say "One and one and one is three" - Got to be good-looking cos he's so hard to see - He is the supposedly the good looking one Come together right now over me - All members join together to make 'The Beatles'.
Oh Come together Yeah come together Yeah come together Yeah come together Yeah come together Yeah come together Yeah come together Yeah oh Come together Yeah come together
I should ink my skin with your name - Loves the girl so much, he should get her name on his skin. And take my passport out again -Will travel to wherever she goes And just replace it See I could do without a tan On my left hand,Where my fourth finger meets my knuckle - Wants to marry her he loves her that much And I should run you a hot bath And fill it up with bubbles 'Cause maybe you're loveable And maybe you're my snowflake And your eyes turn from green to grayIn the winter I'll hold you in a cold place - He will keep her warn And you should never cut your hair - She is perfect just the way she is 'Cause I love the way you flick it off your shoulder And you will never know - Can't express his true feelings for her, they are that strong. Just how beautiful you are to me But maybe I'm just in love When you wake me up And would you ever feel guilty if you did the same to me?Could you make me a cup of tea to open my eyes in the right way? - She shows him right from wrong And I know you love Shrek ‘Cause we've watched it 12 times But maybe you're hoping for a fairy tale too - She wants the perfect relationship, like Fiona wanted Prince Charming in 'Shrek'. And if your DVD breaks today You should've got a VCR Because I've never owned a Blue ray, true say
And now I always been shit at computer games And your brother always beats meAnd if I lost, I’d go across and chuck all the controllers at the TV - He'd get angry if he lost And then you’d laugh at me And be asking meIf I'm gonna be home next week - She misses him, wants to be with him all the time And then you'd lie with me 'til I fall asleep And flutter eye lash on my cheek between the sheets
And you will never know Just how beautiful you are to me But maybe I'm just in love When you wake me up
And I think you hate the smell of smoke You always try to get me to stop But you drink as much as me And I get drunk a lot So I'll take you to the beach And walk along the sand - Romantic walk along the beach And I'll make you a heart pendant With a pebble held in my hand And I'll carve it like a necklaceSo the heart falls where your chest is - He'll show his love through personal gifts, a heart necklace made just for her And now a piece of me is a piece of the beach And it falls just where it needs to be And rests peacefully So you just need to breatheTo feel my heart against yours now, against yours now - He will always be with her now, in her heart ‘Cause maybe I'm just in love when you wake me up Or maybe I'm just in love when you wake me upMaybe I fell in love when you woke me up - The girl is perfect, the girl of his dreams.
As well as analysing the indie-rock genre videos, I have decided to analyse a pop video, to show the comparisons and contrasts.
Pop Genre
Pop comes from the term 'Popular music' and came around in the 1950s deriving from Rock And Roll. An influencial Pop artist is Michael Jackson, who made many of the pop music that we hear today. For example Smooth Criminal and Thriller.
Conventions
The artists are dressed in fashionable clothing
Artists are happy
The target audience is generally teenagers
The songs are usually about love
They are songs that people can dance to
Artists can be expressed in a sexual/seductive way to make people watch their videos.
Hit Me Baby One More Time
Throughout the video, Britney Spears is always in the centre frame. This is because she is the main actor in the video, due to it being her song. All the women in this video have been influenced by the 'Male Gaze Theory'. This is when women are dressed according to how men want to see them. All the midriffs are on show in this video and they are all wearing short skirts to show their legs. I belive this is done so that men watch the video as well, as the Pop genre tends to be linked with the young female genre.
The lighting in this video is very simple, as it is very light all the way through. This is because it is an upbeat happy song, therefore the lighting can't be too dark.
Indie Rock first came around in the 1980's in the UK and America. 'Indie Rock' is used to describe many different types of music genres, when the band/artist has a 'do it yourself attitude. 'Indie' = 'Independent'. It has ranged from Primal Scream in the 1980's to Fall Out Boy in modern times.
The typical instruments involved are guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and vocals.
Indie Rock from the 21st century
Noah And The Whale L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.ON video analysis
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N is a song by the Indie-folk band, Noah
And The Whale, and is the lead single from their third album 'Last Night On
Earth'. It was released on the
21st January 2011 and reached number 14 in the UK top charts. The
front man to Noah And The Whale, Charlie Finks, also directed the video.
The chorus is;
From the hard time living to the sleepless nights
And the black and blue body from the weekend fights He'd say. "L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. You've got more than money and sense, my friend You've got heart and you're going your own way"
The basic meaning of this song, in my opinion, is that no matter how tough peoples lives get, life goes on, they have to get over it.
The music video
at first seems as though it is disjuncture. However, looking closer into the
lyrics and the video, I think it is illustration because it focus' on 'Lisa'
working in a nightclub. Which is what is sung at the beginning of the song. It
is a mix of performance and narrative as it shows 'Lisa' working /dancing and
then the band singing and at one point performing in the nightclub.I think that the whole song is showing the
night club that Lisa is working in and 'Noah And The Whale' band members, are
at this nightclub. However, I feel that 'Lisa's' job is very boring and hence
'Life Goes On'.
I think the
target audience for this video is the younger generation, those aged between 15-25.
This is a mass market area so it is harder to appeal to everybody in those age
groups, however, I feel that 'L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.ON' does a very good job. It does
this by having costumes of the band and actors in the video in fashionable
clothing. Also, the only woman in the video is wearing a red dress. Clothes
with a red colour usually have a connotation of a sex appeal. This links with
the 'Male Gaze Theory'. I also think that it appeals well because those aged
15-25 are just trying to get their foot in the door of employment, therefore
they may not be in a job that they enjoy, like the female character in the
video, but 'Life Goes On'.
There is some
technical lighting involved in the video, when two of the band members are
sitting in front of the female character. The lighting involved is that when
the audience needs to look at the female character, for example, the lighting
is on her and the band members are in dark. However, the 'bar' and 'music'
signs are always lit up. This could be because of the songs mix of narrative
and performance.
There is a mid
shot of Charlie Finks just with his acoustic guitar. This is to amplify that
they are a folk band and what genre the song is.
At the start of
the song, the audience sees the woman behind the glass, to suggest she is
trapped in her job, she cannot escape. However, we see her in front of the
glass, to show the true meaning that 'Life Goes On', that even though she felt
trapped, she got out.
Arctic Monkeys R U Mine video analysis
R U MINE is song released by the Indie-rock band Arctic Monkeys on the 27th February 2012 and was on their 5th album AM. It reached number 22 on the UK top charts and 2nd on the UK Indie Chart.
I’m a puppet on a string Tracy island, time-traveling diamond Could a shaped heartaches Come to find ya fall in some velvet morning Years too late She’s a silver lining lone ranger riding Through an open space In my mind when she’s not right there beside me
This song is basically about a girl that the singer is crazy about, and the love he feels pains him. He can't stop thinking about her.
This video is disjuncture; the video has nothing to do with what the lyrics are saying. This could be because it is a typical thing to sing about, love, so they didn't want to make a typical video. They wanted to make a video that people would remember. Also, they are referring back to their ‘indie’ roots as they give off a ‘do it yourself’ attitude, and ‘indie’ stands for ‘independent’.
I think the target audience for this video is the same for all the videos I will be analysing, 15-25. I think this because young people like that they are different from the ‘mainstream’ bands that are at the top of the charts.‘Arctic Monkeys’ target their young audience by what Alex Turner and the other people in the video are wearing. They look cool and therefore people will be interested as they would respect them. Also, it seems as though the people in the car drove to a gathering/party, therefore they seem as though they are having a good time, which is what the audience likes to see.
The Kooks She Moves In Her Own Way video analysis
She Moves In Her Own Way is a song by The Kooks. It was released on June the 26th 2007 and was featured on their debut album Inside In/Inside Out. The music video was filmed in Tijuana, Mexico and features the whole band.
The video doesn't contain any type of story, I see it as a tour video, where it is showing the fun they have 'on the road'. Therefore, it is a disjuncture video. I believe the target audience for this video, is those again of the ages of 15-25, typically because those are the ages that the Indie genre typically appeals to. This video achieves appealing to the younger generation by making it seem like it is a home video. Therefore viewers would feel that they could too be in a band like 'The Kooks'.
So at my show on Monday I was told that someday You'd be on your way to better things It's not about your make-up Or how you try to shape up To these tiresome paper dreams Paper dreams honey
In this verse, it is basically saying that he doesn't like the women who plaster on make-up or are fake to live up to the women in the magazines. In the chorus however, he is saying that he likes this girl because she does things her own way and doesn't follow the crowd.
The editing used in this video is fast paced, although there is no visual effects in it. Fast pacing is used to match the upbeat song. Also, the editing would be fast because not a lot of action is happening in the actual video, therefore the editing would have to be fast. The video is also very light throughout. This is all because the song is happy.
There is a lot of performance included throughout the video, using different techniques with guitars and singing etc. Although, performance isn't used all the time, as that can be quite boring for a whole song.
After looking on unsigned.com we came across an
indie/rock/pop band called The 99’s. The song that we decided to use is called
(What A Night) To Be Alive.
The 99’s are a male trio made up of Jimmy Loughlin on bass,
Johnny West on guitar and Adam Quigley on drums. They originally come from
Saddleworth in Manchester where they made their self-titled debut album back in
2010. They promoted this album by playing numerous gigs in London and the
North-West where it was very successful so they decided to make a follow up
album in 2011 called Run Of The Mill. This was released in the summer of 2012.For
this album they brought in a fourth member, Jay Moran, who helped them to
create a fuller sound for their tracks. He soon left in the autumn of 2011. In
the October of 2011 The 99’s were asked to appear and perform two songs on
Hollyoaks which was played out to over 10 million viewers.
We decided to use this track because we liked how the song
had a feel good vibe to it and we believe the song can fit many different technical
conventions that we can put into our video. Also, due to the song being a mix
of the three genres, Indie, Rock and Pop,it will suit different audiences. The link to the song - http://www.unsigned.com/the99s (What A Night) To Be Alive
Well I know you went out
On the town and you danced and you act like a clown Till the morn, early dawn You were up until the beat come down Oh what a night to be alive Oh what a night to be alive Woooooah So get out, sing and shout I got high as a ceiling only on the feeling of love Now you’re gone But you left me believing, I was only dreaming of love Give me time for one more It’s on me and we’ll talk about the things we could be And then three to the four And now we’re all face down on the floor Oh what a night to be alive Oh what a night to be alive Woooooah So get out, sing and shout I got high as a ceiling only on the feeling of love Now you’re gone But you left me believing, I was only dreaming of love Oh what a night to be alive Oh what a night to be alive Woooooah So get out, sing and shout I got high as a ceiling only on the feeling of love Now you’re gone But you left me believing, I was only dreaming of love I was only dreaming of love I was only dreaming of love I was only dreaming of
Lyric Breakdown
Deconstruction Of The Track
'(What A Night) To Be Alive' is 3 minutes 26 seconds long. The introduction, which lasts for 22 seconds, starts off with just the drums and bass. (There is also, what sounds to be, some clapping involved to). This is done so that the basic rhythm and beat it set, so the listeners know what the song is going to be like and how it is going to sound. At 7 seconds the piano comes in playing a basic 4 beats to the bar rhythm of the same note. This sound is heard all the way through the song to give it some form of continuation from the start. At 14 seconds the rest of the instruments, guitar and symbols join in. From then on the notes and sound that the instruments are playing are around about the same. However, in the chorus the beat changes to three beats in a bar, but it soon goes back to four when the verse hits again. At 22 seconds the singing starts. I believe that this song is upbeat so that it makes it sound happy and make the listeners feel happy as well.
I will be working with Darwin Gray for my A2 media task. I decided to work with Darwin because I know that we will work well together and listen to and respect each others ideas.
