Conventions of music videos

• PARAMORE

• -Misery business

Semiotics (Ferdinand de Saussure)Saussure says that language does not reflect reality, meaning is constructed from language. We make meaning through the creation and interpretation of signs. The representations are constructed through these signs. The signs in question can be words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts, objects etc. Another way of looking at it is like SIGNIFIER + SIGNIFIED = SIGN. The signifier is the object, the signified is the message that the writer is trying to get across. All together, this makes the sign.

Visual Pleasure and The Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey)Laura studied Hollywood cinema and argued that female characters were represented as passive objects of male sexual desire. The male gaze is composed of the males being the 'bears of the look' which is usually aimed at physically desirable, sexually submissive female characters. She then argues that spectators watch the film through the eyes of the male. Cinema offers voyeuristic pleasures, men getting enjoyment from watching women. From this, women supposedly connote 'to-be-looked-at-ness' or me look and women are looked at.

Stereotypes (Dyer)Media representations often use stereotypes as a cultural shorthand. Dyer argues stereotypes are a way of reinforcing differences between people, and representing these differences as natural. For example, stereotypes about men and women reinforce the idea that they are very different.

Simulacra (Jean Baudrillard)Baudrillard argues that society has become so reliant on representations that they can no longer distinguish between what is represented on TV and what people are like in real life. He says that there is no distinction between reality and representation, only the simulacrum. A Simulacrum is a copy of something that now has more reality then the original object. In this case, the representations have more reality than real life. He then says that media representations are simulations of realities that do not exist. He then calls them 'Hyper reality' or 'Hyper realistic'. This is where the lines between what is real and what is fiction are blended together so much that it is not clear where one ends and the other begins. An example of this is The Only Way Is Essex.

• There are a lot of symbols used in this music video. These symbols may contain meaning of the song which links back to the lyrics of the song, creating a link between the graphical theme in the video and the lyrics to the song. Doing this creates a clearer understanding to the lyrics through visual aspects for the audience.

• For example, in the music video, the bully has a lot of symbolic features to connote her as a character. She is see wearing big black boots which show authority and she is more powerful than everyone else. This also makes her look dangerous and everyone knows she is trouble. Another example would be her red lipstick symbolising danger or evil within the person. This leads the audience to believe the character to be aggressive and not to be trusted. This ties in well with the blue dress she is wearing which could represent cold; and how cruel she is on the inside. All of these symbols make the character out to be a bad person and is one of the key characters in the video as she stands out from the crowed.

• In one of the scenes, a girl is seen wearing a pink sweater of which has her hair cut off by the bully. The pink sweater could connote innocence and peace within the character of which the bully disrupts with cutting her hair and upsetting her.

• Hayley Williams hair is a bright colour of which makes her stand out from her backgrounds. This is a symbolic trait to the artist and helps her to advertise herself because she is well known for hair wacky hair colours.

Semiotics (Ferdinand de Saussure)

Visual Pleasure and The Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey)

• There isn’t much of a male gaze used in this video apart from the bully. The main male gaze would commonly be centred around the artist; but Hayley Williams is fully clothed and no camera angles are used to flaunt her. The main camera angles used on the artist are close ups of which would be a common convention of music videos.

• Male gaze is used in the opening with the cheerleaders that are pushed over. They wear a costume of which is revealing the stomach to the audience. This costume is not realistic and would not be seen in real life. This validates that the use of the costume if for the male gaze of the audience.

• The camera uses close ups and mid shots on the bullies face and body to convey the facial expression of the character in their situation and to show off the female lips for the male gaze.

• In one of the scenes, the camera does a jump jut of a pan up the females body starting from the bottom and moving it’s way up to show all of the females body.

Stereotypes (Dyer)• The media like to make representations and

stereotypes of people in their music videos, and like to create stereotypes so the characters personalities can be recognised elsewhere. In this case, the video is set in a high school The different characters used in the music video are stereotypically found in hyper-reality scenarios. High schools are commonly seen to have; a bully, a “geek”, and a couple. These are all displayed within the video.

• Women such as the bully are stereotypically seen as promiscuous and is shown through the mise-en-scene of the character. (The revealing dress and red lipstick).

Simulacra (Jean Baudrillard)

• Linking with stereotypes, the different characters within the video are represented with their own uses of mise-en-scene to display their characteristics. If we were to imagine a “female geek” in terms of reality terms; sweaters, looking smart, and very happy.

• A couple in love are typically seen as always together and in love. Often conveyed always looking into one another's eyes (heavily in love).

• The bully is usually seen as “slutty” and think they’re better than everyone else.

Hayley has bright coloured hair to stand out from her background and to be recognised. Hayley is seen as quite popular for her bright colo9ured hair and is recognised by it. The bright colours can represent being wild and wacky like her music. Doing this foreshadows her personality in a way which helps her to sell her music.

The background to this video has the words “Riot!” all over the walls. This is the name of one of her albums of which she was promoting at that time. This is a way of advertising her new album within the music video that is used.,

• Central to film industry practices is the construction of a ‘narrative image’ for each film. ‘An idea of the film is widely circulated and promoted, and idea which can be called the “narrative image” of the film, the cinema’s anticipatory reply to the question, “What is the film like?”’ John Ellis (1981)

• - For every genre there is an image and the image is circulated and it prompts questions. For example if we were to think of a thriller film, we would think of a dark forest.

In the misery business video, questions are left to be asked by the audience such as: Why is the bully a bully? What happens to her after Hayley steps in? Are the couple ok? Who over-all wins?

The video is set in a school so the audience would expect to see what the different types of people there are in a high School such as: have; a bully, a “geek”, and a couple all displayed within the video. Doing this would make the audience automatically think these things when thinking of a high school in America.

‘The attraction of genre to the industry is closely linked to its presumed appeal to viewers. Filmgoers generally like to have a broad idea of what to expect from any individual picture. Genres are constituted not just by bodies of films but also by the established expectations of viewers.’ King (2002)

- The genre is established by the views. The audience expects certain codes and conventions within a film which are associated with the genre, and will expect them to be present in the production.

The genre to this song is rock. With would lead the audience in expecting certain conventions that would represent the rock genre. This being said, close ups of the artist are expected along with the use of black and white with black clothing. This is accomplished with loads of close ups on the band and Hayley Williams. Along with this, the background to the bands stage is black and white as it makes them stand out and is a form of self advertisement. When Hayley comes out of the toilets near the end of the music video, she is seen wearing black. This is all very closely linked with the rock genre for music videos and the people whom listen to the rock genre.

Propp's Theory:

Propp identified a theory about characters and actions as narrative functions. According to Propp, characters have a narrative function; they provide a structure for the text. Propp studied 100 texts to construct his theory and found there are 7 main elements to all narrative characters. These are: •The Hero – a character that seeks something•The Villain – who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest•The Donor – who provides an object with magical properties•The Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message•The False Hero – who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims•The Helper – who aids the hero•The Princess – acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots•Her Father – who acts to reward the hero for his effort

In this case, the victim is the “geeky girl”, the villain is the bully and the hero is Hayley Williams. In most cases of which narratives include the main members to play fictional characters, the lead singer is the hero. This is because they’re the main attraction to the band and will be seen as most powerful.

"Worked from the 1960’s onwards on narratives. Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potential opposing forces are in balance.This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events, problems are solved so that order can be restored."Todorov basically believed that all films were made up of 5 main points. All of the points occur in one specific order: equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgement, solving and the second equilibrium. Each of these stages were a key part to every films plot in order to advance the story. The second equilibrium in never the same as the first. equilibrium: The "normal" for the character.disequilibrium: When there is a "problem" in the equilibrium. This means something to disrupt the everyday life.acknowledgement: The 2 people in the equilibrium acknowledge that something has been disrupted and they do something about it.solving the equilibrium: They find a end solution.

In this music video:Equilibrium: There is a typical high school of which contains a range of different people.Disequilibrium: There is a bully in the school that does what she wants.Acknowledgment: Hayley Williams is singing about the bully in her lyrics and recognises that she is doing wrong.Solution: Hayley Williams stands up against the bully and wins.

In order for the audience to make sense of the story 5 different codes are used by the audience. These are action (suggest a further narrative action), enigma (makes the audience ask questions of which they continue viewing to find the answers), semic (signify meaning of the story), symbolic (meanings or conflicts in the text) and cultural (elements that refer to things that are common knowledge)

•The Hermeneutic Code (HER)- which he says is ‘the voice of the truth’. It’s the way the story avoids giving too much away e.g. avoiding revealing the truth or facts. Enables mystery to be created towards the audience.•The Enigma/Proairetic Code (ACT)- this code is how the tension is built up in the narrative, audience are left to guess what has happened.•The Semantic Code (SEM)- this code suggests a particular additional meaning by way of connotation which the story suggests.•The Symbolic Code- similar to the semantic code however is at a much wider level, looking deeper into the meanings of the texts.•The Cultural Code- this code looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge..

The Hermeneutic Code (HER): In this case, a huge factor would be that the audience don’t know any of the background to the characters. More-over, we don’t know why the bully is a bully. This is a question left in the music video to make the audience question the answer.The Enigma/Proairetic Code (ACT): As the video continues, more is revealed of what the bully is capable of doing. Saying this, the longer the video progresses, the worse her actions are. This builds up a suspense to the point Hayley has to step in and tone it down again. The Semantic Code (SEM)+ The Symbolic Code: They lyrics sing about a girl that treated a guy badly and did what she wanted, by the end of it, Hayley stands up to the girl. This could suggest that bullying is wrong and that you can’t treat men in tat way.The Cultural Code: The music video is very stereotypical to American schools and would make the rest of the world view American schools in this way. The use of mixed race people are used in the music video to make the video more ethically equal.

Levi-Strauss believed that in order for the story to advance, some elements of that story much work off some opposites. Examples of these are Man vs Female, Good vs Evil, Dark vs Light or Man vs Machine. These "binary opposites" are sometimes the main basis of the plot.

The bully could represent modern day teenagers and her breaking the rules shows rebellion. This could display the damage between different types of people within the society and Hayley Williams steps in to stop. She may represent authority and creating order in chaos situations. In this specific 2 shot, it shows the bully against Hayley. The colours back and black are contrasted with one another which could represent the different between different social groups within schools and the lower groups finally standing up.

‘the Western, like any myth, stands between individual human consciousness and society. If a myth is popular, it must somehow appeal to or reinforce the individual who view it by communicating a symbolic meaning to them. The meaning must…reflect the particular social institutions and attitudes that have created and continue to nourish the myth. Thus a myth must tell its viewers about themselves and their society’ Will Wright (1975)

- The myth is always trying to tell us something about ourselves and society, it reflects back to us and we then can relate to it.

My impression from this video is that the music video is trying to show us that bullying is not ok. This is done through creating a bully character and showing examples of different types of bullying. Hayley Williams stands up against her which shows the need to stand up against bullies and that everyone is equal. If bullying is occurring, stand up against them or stand up for someone else.