Conventions
Lyrical Interpretation - The lyrics of a song are usually either explicit, meaning they are clearly expressed, easily understood and there is no doubt as to what they mean. The lyrics to a song will be exactly what you see in the music video. An example of a song like this is, Taylor Swift - Love Story. On the other hand, the lyrics can be implicit, meaning they are not fully explained but are merely implied. The use of implicit lyrics allow the audience to interpret what they mean. Songs that require us to interpret the lyrics usually have a hidden meaning and can as a result mean several different things at once. An artist may choose to hide the true meaning behind their lyrics because it will allow the audience to create their own meaning and interpret it in anyway that they want, this is effective because the audience can bend the meaning of a song to suit them. An example of this is the song 'Human' by The Killers, the lyrics to this song are very odd, and are hard to make sense of and so the audience are able to interpret them in their own way.
The Killers - Human
Extending or consolidating meaning - This is the idea that a song itself holds a certain idea behind the lyrics, this can be expressed through the music video. Therefore, a music video can extend the way we interpret the lyrics and add a new layer of meaning altogether or the video will consolidate and reinforce the meaning behind the lyrical content, it will combine the idea of the lyrics and the video into one whole coherent idea. An artist may choose to create an extended meaning in a music video because it may make the the song appear more artistic, consolidating the idea in the video is also effective because if the audience have any doubts as to what the song means they can be reassured by watching the video. An example of a music video that extends the meaning of the lyrics, is 'Back to Black' By Amy Winehouse, the lyrics make you assume that the song is about a break up between a man and a women but when watching the video the hidden message behind it becomes clear.
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
Allusion - This can happen in any media piece, it can simply mean to refer to someone or something else throughout your piece of work. Allusions are apparent in almost every creative work, whether this be film, TV, poetry or in a book. In a music video an artist could just call something to mind without having to mention it, it could be considered an indirect reference to another piece of work that the audience may or may not pick up on. An artist may allude to another in their own piece of work to show respect or admiration for their fan base to see, this is very similar to paying homage. One example of an artist which alludes to another's piece of work is the Queens of the Stone Age track 'Go With The Flow', I think this is an implicit allusion to the comic 'Sin City' as it follows the unique colours and genuinely looks like a comic book.
Queens Of The Stone Age - Go With The Flow
Links to other artists - This is where an artist will simply make links to other artists through their own work either positively or negatively. This could involve the mentioned artists featuring in the video or their name in the lyrics, this will result in the two artists reinforcing each others image and perhaps gaining each others fan base, this is why many artists make links to other artists in their videos and collaborate because they each gain from it. Two well known artists that often make links and references to each others work is Eminem and Dr Dre, each have featured numerous times in each others videos and often mention each other in their lyrics. By doing this they are gaining a larger fan base, and the audience will always link Eminem and Dr Dre together. Eminem gains the popularity of Dr Dre and Dr Dre gains Eminem's popularity which is an obvious positive outcome. An example video of this is 'The Real Slim Shady', Dr Dre doesn't sing in the video, he is referred to in the lyrics and appears in the video for a very short while. Also, this video also makes negative links to other artists such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
Eminem - The Real Slim Shady
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