History of Music Videos

Subculture (target audience)

A  youth subculture is a youth-based subculture that include distinctive styles, behaviours and interests.For our Music Video we decided to target teens, typically between the ages 15-24 that are fans of Chris Brown or generally enjoy his music, this target audience is reflected through his work that appear to such social groups that not only enjoy his music but also are attracted to his style (clothing line) and creative side (artistry).

 Since Chris Brown debuted during his teenage years which made him appeal more to teenage girls due to his age and moderate or PG lyrics, this made him a 'heartthrob' or 'superstar' to young girls (even to a minority of  males that aspire to be just like him) after the infamous Rihanna incident of 2009 he lost many female fans which also caused a negative breakdown in his career.later on he grew from this after releasing his F.A.M.E album which contained more mature and explicit lyrics furthering the range of his target audience to 16+ this showed a growth in not only his appearance but music style too. Moreover, his artistry and dancing attracts people outside of his target audience.

 Besides his music Brown is also very well known for his fashion sense which later resulted in him launching his own clothing line ' Black Pyramid' in 2012 which is a street wear brand, they were inspired by his artwork. Brown is also known for his iconic monster teeth painting which is seen as a trademark for his artwork. 

Laura Mulvey and the male gaze theory

The theory suggests that the male gaze denies human identity, downgrading women to the status of objects to be admired only for physical appearance, the theory also suggests women can more often only view themselves from a males point of view. typically in mainstream films the female character often doesn't have importance herself, rather the female only exists in relation to the male.
Mulvey argues, for women the result of media being presented from a mans point of view, and through the male gaze, women tend to views themselves and other women in similar ways as a man would, therefore resulting in a objectification of women.

Mulvey states that the role of a female character in a narrative has two functions:

- As an erotic object for the characters within the narrative to view
- As an erotic object for the audience watching to view.

Gender roles in film

 The characters that look at others are typically seen as the active roles, which are mostly played by males. The characters that are to be looked at are passive (typically females), they are under the control of the male gaze and only exist for visual pleasure Females often slow the pace of the narrative, they act as inspiration for men to act. Males on the other hand, push the narrative forward and make things happen and are sen as active.

 Mulvey also discussed the term "Scopophilia" which literally means 'Love of Watching', this is because we see it in a darkened room and observe activities of people on the screen who are that they being watched, (the term also derives from Freud's study of the psyche).

Lastly, Mulvey argues that we live in a patriarchal society in which men set the majority of rules and construct and represent the ideal visions, roles and male dominance over woman.

Adorno - his idea of art as a capitalist product

Adorno argued that a capitalism fed people with the products of a 'culture industry' - the opposite of 'true' art - to keep them passively satisfied and politically unmoved. He also put emphasis on the idea of culture to fit the status quo. Popular culture was seen as the reason for peoples passive fulfilment and lack of interest in dissolving the capitalist network.

 Adorno suggested that 'culture industries' heave out a devalued mass of unpretentious, nostalgic products which have replaced the more tough and critical art forms which might lead people to actually question social life. Popular media and music products are characterised by standardisation.

Andrew Goodwin 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'

Andrew Goodwin published a book called 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' which consists of his research around the topic area of music videos, in this book he came up with a number of 'codes and conventions' which consist of a range of elements that many music videos all have in common.

Goodwin's theory identifies these key features:
- Genre characteristics e.g. stage performances in rock music videos, dance routines for girl/boy groups,women or throwing 'signs' in rap music videos

- Similarities between visuals and lyrics, this is used to often illustrate or could even amplify or contradict the lyrics giving us a visual representation to further feed our imagination and curiosity.
- There is a relationship between music and visuals which also contradict and expand on the lyrics that are being sung, once again providing us a visual representation of what is being said through the lyrics.

- The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist in order to therefore show off who the artist is, and practically make them known by their face, people tend to forget the names of artist but rather remember their face.

- The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work i.e. a visual style that shows of what theme the artist is going for that all link together through their attire, props or scenarios/locations.

Theorists- Richard Dyer's 'Star Theory'

Richard Dyer's can be split into three areas:
- The star as a commodity
- The star as a construction
- The star as an ideology

Stars are produced to create a profit off by selling merchandise related to them such as t-shirts, posters, albums etc...
Record labels have a habit to produce similar stars as they know certain trends in the music industry that sell well and generate a lot of money. This could also be the reason why we have so many similar boy bands e.g. One Direction and The Wanted.

The star can be constructed from the work they produce examples being music videos,magazines, advertising etc... you could say it's similar to having a public/celeb like image that 'stars' put on in order to sell their products meaning they don't really behave like that in their personal life, a perfect example for this would be Miley Cyrus, has gotten a lot of press for riding on a wrecking ball, naked, in one of her music videos from 2015, she obviously wouldn't do this in the comfort of her home meaning the person Miley Cyrus and the star are marketed as two different people.

Stars will also represent different social groups and views and will therefore create certain ideologies. As a result, fans of the star would often copy their style and share the same views. For example many fans of Beyonce would share her view of women and how they should be empowering and independent (to not controlled by men).

Dyer explains that there is a paradox of 'the star', which come in two key forms:
- The star must be ordinary and extraordinary; the star needs to be ordinary in order to relate to their audience and emphasise that they're humans too but to also possess some sort of extraordinary persona or talent, making the public idolise them.a celebrity example of this would be Adele, she possesses an ordinary persona of an ordinary women from London with her cockney accent however she has an amazing voice which people automatically idolise, giving her the image of a 'paradox of the star.'

Lastly... - The star must be both present and absent: this explains that the star must be present in our lives through materialistic values e.g. merchandise and social media, but also absent in the fact that they are not actually there or are out of reach, despite this fans of (for example) Justin Bieber, would tend to buy merchandise of him, support him through social media and buying his albums even though he isn't actual present or in front of them,

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