T.M. Music Video Theory

“Music videos are simply a tool for promoting an artist”. With reference to a promotional campaign, how far do you agree with this statement?

Explosions" is a song by English recording artist Ellie Goulding from her second studio album, Halcyon (2012). Written by Goulding and John Fortis, it was released as a promotional single on iTunes Ireland on 3 August 2012 and on iTunes UK on 1 October 2012, but was removed shortly thereafter on both occasions. In late January 2013, it was announced that the track would be released as the official third single from the album. The official music video premiered on 30 January 2013 and consists of exclusive live footage of Goulding from The Halcyon Days Tour.

Goodwin discussed the relationship between lyrics and visuals. When applied to the music video Explosions we can see that the relationship is illustrative as the words equal the visuals due to the video showing the artists tour, therefore a metanarrative is created. Furthermore a visual motif is used within the video through Ellie Gouldings’ side of her head being shaved, which is presented during close-ups of the artists, contributing to the artists’ overall star image. Finally a voyeurism form is adopted through the camera constantly lingering on the artist; this is again because of the exclusive live footage of Ellie Gouldings’ tour the video is revealing. However the music video could be seen as unconventional in that some of the video presents the traveling of the tour, for example on the train, which could be regarded as irrelevant to the lyrics of the song.

Deconstructing the signifiers constructed in the digipak enables audiences to evaluate the text in terms of representations and ideologies. With reference to Explosions, the album cover connotes a first person mode of address, because to the suggestion that the music video will focus on the artist due to being the focus point on the digipak, also the image conveys the artist as present as the artist is looking into the camera in order to connect with the audience. However the cover also constructs the artist as ordinary through her simple choice of clothing and lack of extravagant make-up or jewelry, accompanied by a plain black and white wash.

Regarding Dyer’s recognition of star quality, Ellie Goulding possesses a number of these values. For example youthfulness, creativity/talent and success against the odds. These qualities are what contribute to the construction of a particular stars persona. In addition the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and open.  Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.  1. The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer, regarding Ellie Goulding’s explosions video; this is shown through her ordinary behaviour from traveling on a train, to then being extraordinary where she is suddenly performing on stage in front of thousands of fans. However Dyers suggestion that stars are semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer is contradicted during the Explosions video due to the reveal of how ordinary and normal Ellie Goulding is portrayed as.

In conclusion Ellie Goulding’s ‘Explosion’ music video on the most part is not a tool for promotion, this is because the majority of the video is geared towards expressing how ordinary her character in real life is, on the other hand this could arguable a strategy of promotion as she may intend to sell herself to her consumers as a unique star in that she is not effected by stardom. Nonetheless I believe that the main intentions of music videos are to advertise the artist and promote the music, but artists can adopt a ‘soft porn’ or ‘art’ theme into their music videos at the same time, this is not the case with the simplicity of ‘Explosions’ though, as the video is just footage from her Halcyon Days Tour.