The post-television music video. A methodological proposal and aesthetic analysis

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2016-1098

Keywords:

Music video, post-television, contemporary audiovisual aesthetics, average shot length, audiovisual communication

Abstract

Currently, music videos are disseminated through internet platforms that enable users to enjoy greater interactivity, accessibility and active choice. As a result, it seems necessary to resume the analysis of the contemporary “post-television” music video as an audiovisual text, by focusing on the main variables that have been examined in other studies of the music video: lyrics, moving images, framing of the frontman, etc. Methods: Forty music videos belonging two categories were analysed for this study, following a methodological proposal based on segmentation and average shot length (ASL), relations between soundtrack and visuals, and between music and lyrics and the video’s genre and close-ups of the frontman. Results and conclusions: The study of the sample of contemporary videos has allowed us to identify the basic features of the post-television video: the performative genre is the predominant type in the first group of music videos (the most-viewed videos according to YouTube), while the concept-based type is predominant in the second group (the most-creative videos, according to the Internet Music Video Database). These two genres are associated to certain ASL, as well as to forms of correspondence between music and moving images (kinetic and content correspondence), and between lyrics and visuals (through amplification).

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Author Biographies

Ana Sedeño Valdellós, University of Málaga

PhD in Audiovisual Communication. Professor at the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising of the University of Malaga (Spain).

Her main subject of research is music’s relation to contemporary audiovisual media and audiovisual practices from historical and educational perspectives, with special emphasis on artistic phenomena such as video-jockey, mapping and video-dance.

Author of several books related to the aforementioned subjects, including Lenguaje del videoclip (“The language of the music video”), La música contemporánea en el cine (“Contemporary music in film”), Análisis del cine Contemporáneo: Estrategias estéticas, narrativas y de puesta en escena (“Analysis of contemporary cinema: aesthetic, narrative and production strategies”) and Historia del videoarte en España (“History of video art in Spain”). Author of articles published in journals such as Comunicar, Latina de Comunicación Social, Historia y Comunicación Social, Área Abierta (Spain)and Razón y Palabra (Mexico).

Jennifer Rodríguez López, University of Huelva

PhD in Education and Audiovisual Communication, and MA in Historical and Natural Heritage and BA in Humanities from the University of Huelva (Andalusia, Spain).

Her doctoral thesis deals with the music videos produced by Andy Warhol, and proposes a template to analyse this format.

Former university heritage technician at the University of Huelva and participant in a project on media literacy, financed by the Government of Andalucía.

Member of the HUM-648 research group.

Author of several articles on the music video format, in relation to various areas such as media literacy, video games, and gender stereotypes, and about Andy Warhol.

Santiago Roger Acuña, Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí

PhD in Educational Technology from the University of Salamanca (Spain). Full-time Professor Researcher at the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí. Member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (level 1).

His research and publications focus mainly on the study of digital technologies for collaborative learning and communication.

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Published

2016-03-31

How to Cite

Sedeño Valdellós, A., Rodríguez López, J. ., & Roger Acuña, S. (2016). The post-television music video. A methodological proposal and aesthetic analysis. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, (71), 332–348. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2016-1098

Issue

No. 71 (2016)

Section

Miscellaneous
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