More to the Music

Music videos have never been a very big thing for me. Occasionally I will watch one if it is interesting or popular but other than that not much. As we analyze different genres of music videos they have become more interesting and the artistic value behind music videos has become more clear. A term that we learned that was interesting to me was digesis. The definition of digesis is that things not explicitly presented in the film can be inferred by the audience. Essentially, a video can have a deeper meaning under the one that is explicitly presented. Another new term was mise-en-scene, which is everything that is put into a scene. This means that if a video is paused at any given time everything in the scene will contribute to the story. Every single shot in a video can be interpreted to contribute to the meaning behind the story.

Highway 20 Ride by Zac Brown Band

In the first week of presenting a video that stood out to me was Hero of War by Rise Against. Everything including the mise-en-scene, focus, and digesis contributed to the deeper meaning of humanity and war. Hero of War also demonstrated meaningful symbols such as a dark playground as a loss of innocence or not showing the face of a character showing objectification. LaLaLa by Naughty Boy was also very interesting because of the parallel to The Wizard of Oz, at first the story had a very simple meaning but as the story went on it turned into something deeper. Highyway 20 Ride by Zac Brown Band was also a very good video. Even the auteur, had a story behind it. The story was of an absentee father and his relationship with his son. The director had an absent father so was able to relate. The father was often seen alone, in the shadows of a car as the bright background goes by. Scientist by Coldplay demonstrated a flashback and did a good job of explaining the meaning and value of time. The video was interesting to me because at first you would think that the boy survived the conflict however different shots of him portray him as being in a dreamlike state implying that he is either dead or unconscious.