JP: Music Video Theory

     Meshuggah is an extreme metal band who has pioneered an emerging sub-genre known as ‘djent’ stemming from death metal and math rock. As part of their promotional campaign for the album ‘obZen’ they created a music video for the most popular song on the album; ‘Bleed’. The style and genre of the promotion is very similar to bands within the death metal and extreme metal scenes due to the bands links and origin meaning there is a shock factor involved with lyrical themes and images. This music video was the first of the band’s to be narrative driven as they have released very few others and they have been predominantly performance videos such as the video for “Demiurge” which is entirely performance based. The ‘Bleed’ video takes a completely artistic standpoint, not featuring the band at all and being quite abstract in its presentation and lyrical interpretation, making it seem less for commercial gain and more for the beauty of visual art.

     Goodwin’s critical framework can be applied to the music video to show the encoding of formulaic conventions. The video demonstrates genre characteristics of extreme metal with the inclusion of gore and mental/physical torture as well as a focus on the characters and the ideas/concepts rather than the band. There is an amplified relationship to the lyrics and music, as the majority of the cuts happen on beat and on the lyric “Heed - it commands, heed my will” the ‘protagonist’ of sorts is chained at the neck by another character (however the lyrics are not always directly linked to the visuals). Also, there are multiple ECUs of the protagonist’s eye and at one point CUs of the female character which conform to Goodwin’s idea of the notion of looking. However, going against his critical framework, there are no close-ups of the performers as they do not appear in the video.

     Semiotics can be applied to the album cover for ‘obZen’ as the subject of the cover is placed in the centre third and fills most of the cover making the reader’s eye be attracted to it as such directing focus to them. The subject itself is naked and bloodied connoting murder and brutality as is conventional of themes in the extreme metal genre. Furthermore, the subject has 3 arms and with the third is using non-verbal language to create the universal ‘silence’ sign (which has been altered slightly by the band to portray their image), this combines the common signals in modern society that most people understand with the abstract, fantasy that the band are offering through their music. The reading path has also been manipulated with the eye being drawn first to the image/subject for the shock factor that is generic of extreme metal and then to the largely printed band name and finally the album title.

     Dyer’s critical framework can be applied to the album’s promotional campaign as despite the band placing the music in front of image, they are still developing their own image as a result of those artistic actions. His theory of stars and stardom (referring to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience) is made up of a variety of factors that both apply and do not apply to Meshuggah due to their overall depiction as an abstract group through metaphorical reason rather than being seen in a voyeuristic/fetishistic way like many mainstream pop artists are. The band conform to some of the star qualities observed by Dyer such as rebellion, an anti-authoritarian attitude, originality, creativity/talent, aggression/anger, a disregard for social values and success against all odds. Furthermore, looking at their cover on Rolling Stone magazine, they also conform to Dyer’s paradoxes as they are shown as ordinary and present by all band members wearing clothes typical of the sub-culture of metalheads (that of which the fans are a part of and indulge in) and having a first person address, breaking the fourth wall and staring directly and the reader. However, they are also shown as extraordinary and absent being labelled ‘Meshuggah’ with the tag line “THE RETURN OF MESHUGGAH” which connotes them to be a highly respected, driving force in the genre and in a place much higher than the target audience within the industry.

     In conclusion, music videos are not simply a tool for promoting an artist as they can be used for artistic merit and to extend the image of band past other subsidiary media without necessarily even showing or promoting the image of the artist/band past their music/work. However, whilst they are not simply a tool for promoting they are in part so as they contribute in a fairly large way to promotional campaigns launched by artists for albums and other work.