JS: Are Music Videos Commercials, Art or Porn?

• The main purpose of creating music videos is for financial benefits, as they can be profitable and boost a musician’s star image.
•  Music auteur Adam Levite said ‘Once the industry becomes involved, labels, artists and such, then everything can get pushed towards sameness and mediocrity unless you fight really hard.’ This opinion suggests that most music videos in modern times are made purely to make capital.
•  However, another auteur Cruz once stated ‘Just as music is a visionary soul, so should its visual expression be’. This view represents somebody who believes that all music videos should be artistic and innovative, rather than commercial. 
• This essay will debate whether music videos are commercial, porn or art.



Adam Levite believes music videos in the modern day are made
for commercial purposes and as a result are boring and repetitive 



• Some people believe that music videos are porn. This involves music videos sexualising the male or female protagonist in the video, representing them as objects for consumption. 
• Laura Mulvey wrote an essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ which introduced the concept of the ‘male gaze’. This is where the audience are forced to view the text in the perspective of a heterosexual man.
•  The text would for example feature close ups and extreme close ups of a woman, such as her eyes or lips, as seen in Rihanna’s music video for her single ‘Where Have You Been?’
•  This denies the woman agency and also presents her as an object
• This theory can also be reversed for the female gaze, where the audience are forced to assume the role of a heterosexual woman.
•  Furthermore, a theory devised by Erving Goffman et al focuses on the representation of women in popular culture, which includes music videos.
•  This outlines that women have an artificial look in the videos e.g. they are slim, long legged and airbrushed.
•  Function ranking is also a part of the theory, where women tend to be in a more decorated role than men. Other parts of the theory include dismemberment, commodification, the feminine touch, relative size and ritualization of subordination.



An example of soft porn in Rihanna's single 'Where Have You Been?', which encourages repeatability



• A multitude of modern music videos are made for commercial purposes.
•  Andrew Goodwin in 1992 highlighted the main features of music videos, with one being the need of having many close-ups of the artists, to boost the musicians’ star image. 
• In addition, the inclusion of visual motifs, such as a band’s unique logo in the video is also a frequent feature, which again is used for commercial gains
• Another reason why videos are considered to be commercial is because of the use of narrative fuzz, instead of a clearly presented narrative. Having narrative fuzz encourages repeatability of the video. 
• Repeatability is also enhanced through cutting to the band performing the song in the video, as this adds to the entertainment provided by music videos; while again, the band’s star image will also increase.



Close-up of Muse's Matt Bellamy from their new single 'Madness', this is
commercial and boosts the band's star image as a result of the camera work



It has also been argued that music videos can be artistic. Matt Hanson once quoted ‘music video is a perfectly formed, contemporary moving image form’ which suggests he believes that they are creative, complex and clever. Hanson went on to say that music videos ‘provide a place where visual and narrative experiments can be distilled into a populist short form’ which further suggests that you can be as innovative as you like when you are a music video director. Art is an expression of creativity and many music auteurs such as Jonathan Glazer and Jamie Thraves present their videos in such a way. Many of their videos are emotive and are inventive as they experiment with new film-making techniques, such as in Glazer’s music video of Radiohead’s single ‘Street-Spirit (Fade Out)’. This video created repeatability due to the mystery it made within it. The video also reflected the style of Radiohead, who are an artistic and enigmatic band too.

Artistic camera techniques in Radiohead's single 'Street-Spirit
(Fade Out)' create enigma and intrigues the consumer watching the video

In conclusion, music videos are mainly commercial in the modern era. Only one in ten acts put out by the industry actually makes any money, so the importance of commercialism is more significant than ever, especially at a time where music piracy is high and people are spending less because of economic insecurity. Some music videos still feature soft porn to boost sales, while the number of artistic videos made is in decline, despite many music auteurs such as Spike Jonze having successful directing careers due to his involvement in making artistic music videos.