Examine how Radiohead uses strategies and structures to shape meaning

The music video for “Just” by Radiohead utilises a linear narrative structure which can therefore be examined using Todorov’s concept of narrative. The video can then be divided into a three act structure as the first third is the protagonist walking, in the second he lies down and is questioned rather aggressively by pedestrians and the third act is when the rest of the people join him in dying down. Although there are three acts, the video experiences equilibrium and disequilibrium but it refuses to have a new equilibrium that is comprehensible to the audience as the video cuts when the man explains why he’s lying down before he’s joined.

The video symbolises the complexity of life through the lack of ideological closure provided by Radiohead. As a narratologically open text, it affects the audience as it makes them feel frustrated as they don’t know what’s happened, furthering this ideological closure that makes an audience feel comfortable. The video does, however, have a linear storyline which is comprehensible and the curiosity drives the storyline but when an ending is not clearly given it’s likely to frustrate Radiohead’s audience as when the piece builds up as it suggests a denouement.

The narrative can be understood as being driven by the protagonist at the beginning as walking drives the story forward as a proairetic code. Along with this, others include the subtitles as they drive the narrative forward opening new nareems to continue the video. Also, the subtitles not being present in the section when they’re needed is known as the enigmatic code which causes the remainder of the video to frustrate the audience. The ground is displayed as a symbolic object but the audience never find out the symbolism of this which adds to the enigma of the video.

Moodboard

how do music videos speak to/ interpolate their audience?

Music videos aim to speak to their audiences and position them in a specific way. This is done through ideology, imagery, positioning and narrative.

Nirvana- Smells like teen spirit-

In this video, the audience are positioned in the crowd watching the live performance by the band. The singer often looks into the camera creating a relationship between himself and the audience. Additionally, it uses ideology to rebel against American high school culture through the cheerleaders being placed within the hellish yellow colour palette video. This positions the audience in the perspective of agreement with the audience regarding this ideology.

M83- Midnight City-

In this video, the audience are not positioned within the plot of the video. By doing this, there is a definite sense of mystery and you gain a sense of knowing without the characters awareness. This further conveys the mystery of the supernatural elements of the video. Additionally, not having a protagonist even for the audience to follow removes the audience from feeling involved further conveying the lack of realism. However, occasionally, the eyes from the children look into the camera in an accusatory way as if they’re being watched which is by the audience. The theme has grunge undertones due to the location of the video being in an abandoned seeming building which may relate to the style of the audience.

Our video-

In our music video, we will position our audience in an observational perspective, they will not be a part of the video but watch from the outside. The lifestyle of the characters is aimed to be regular and relatable but could be aspirational due to the imagery placing emphasis on the aesthetic of the video. Our narrative will have three chapters and a protagonist for the audience to follow around in regards to their journey throughout the video.

timeline

chosen song choice

In the end, we decided to use this song as we felt it held the most potential to create a successfully interesting and creative music video that held all the narrative devices and techniques that are required of us. This song holds an interesting beat that is split into sections, allowing of a creation of a narrative to be formed as well as having appropriate lyrics that we decided could be intertwined with the narrative to add a performance aspect to the piece. This song has a clear set of indie pop conventions to follow, which will add ease when filming to appeal to an audience, and this will also be useful in later evaluations of our piece. The overall recording is of a good quality, with an equally clear backing track, meaning the overall quality of our video will not be hindered by the sound. The only issue that may arise will be the repetitive nature of both the beat and the lyrics, however we hope to overcome this by only loosely matching the lyrics with the narrative, and instead focusing on the themes that arise from listening to this piece- specifically, the theme of a journey.

We have emailed West Coast Massive regarding the copyright permissions of using their music, and they have happily allowed us to do so.

Initial concept/ treatment

Our concept for the music video of “Paper Stars” is to display two siblings and their contrast between being young and teenage years and the differences made.

We intend on having 5 sections to our music video:

-      The girl when she was young

-      The boy when he was young

-      The girl at teenage years

-      The boy at teenage years

-      Live performance (lip syncing)

We will create a form of montage between these using various editing techniques. However the sections will be clearly distinguished through use of colour and location in addition to cutting to the beat often to aid fluidity.

What are the uses and implications of genre for producers and audiences?

Producers-

In regards to producers, genre gives them a marketing angle, for example, if someone ordinarily listens to pop music, they’re most likely looking for music in keeping in that genre as they know that they will like it. In addition, another use is that it provides the producers with a set of codes and conventions, guidelines in which they should keep to achieve success. A quote by Nicolas Abercrombie supports this; “Television producers set out to exploit genre conventions.” This implies there is a specific formula that producers follow to guarantee a successful profit. However, an implication of this is that due to having theses codes and conventions, creativity is stifled creating less innovative ideas as it would mean breaking out of their genre, possibly into a hybrid genre.

Audiences-

A main use of genre for an audience is the fact that it gives them something to identify themselves with, allowing them to feel integrated in the community of the genre in a tribal sense. This allows them to fit in and follow current music trends. Furthermore, it enables them to navigate similar content through the use of genre. It also aids the predictability of products due to the stifled creativity which is a downside to genre conventions. Denis McQuail says that genre is “a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers”. This suggests that artists create generic, mass produced music that lacks originality yet aids predictability.

As well as this, genre is also shifting and permeable. This occurs through innovation and experimentation, artists want originality to provide them with a unique selling point setting them aside from other music making less competition. This is also supported by Nicolas Abercrombie; “the boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable”. This happening widens audiences due to this new hybrid genre they create. Finally, it allows more variety of products in the music industry.