Synaesthesia is the psychological process in which your mind produces a visual image from a collection of sounds. The concept of synaesthesia is one of the most important aspects of understanding music video as the director builds on a song or pieces of music’s visual associations to connect with their target audience. Synaesthesia works by designing itself around the layering of the sound and the visual aspects allied with the song, this does not necessarily mean analysing the lyrics that accompany the music as they rarely have a lucid meaning that can be simply read off, but often you have to take into consideration the mood that the artist introduces.
The lyrics however, do have an important role to play in creating a sense of subject matter as key words or phrases that are in the chorus, which is repeated throughout the song, are likely to be more important than those in the verse which are usually just heard once.
Some argue that synaesthesia takes away the freedom of the fans to imagine the song how they like, and that creating a video for a song imposes a visual narrative on the audience that would not be there otherwise, as once you have seen the video to a song, it is extremely hard to associate it with any other visual images other than its official video. This links in again with what John Friske says about ‘MTV foregrounds the signifier over the signified’ essentially meaning that what you see is more important than what you hear.
The theory of behind ‘Grain of voice’ by Roland Barthes applies to this section particularly as Barthes sees the voice as a unique expressive tool that as fore-mentioned is completely unique which allows
the singer to create associations for themselves or even a sort of trademark. This could all work alongside their ‘star image’, there are many distinct voices within the music industry, for example, Michael Jackson, Thom Yorke – Radiohead and E – Eels; these are all artists that stand out purely by using their vocal abilities as an expressive tool.
The musical arrangement of a song; instrumentation, mix and effects (including samples) generally all work in parallel with the lyrics and the grain of voice to create a certain experience the artist wanted you to feel. One example of lyrics not matching the Instrumentation, however, is the song ‘It’s a motherf**ker’ – Eels, as the music is very pretty and soothing but the lyrics as imaginable use the heavy repetition of the word ‘Motherf**ker’ which is a very ugly word, however it is almost as if this has been deliberately to contrast something so beautiful with something so ugly. In terms of music creating a visual image, an example could be crashing drums or loud piano would make you visualize a storm or perhaps thunder, while soft synthesizers would create a much more relaxing image, possibly the a calm sea. This works due to the fact that we all share a bank of random cultural images and references (intertextuality) this is a sense of a shored culture without which these references would make no sense. This intertextuality acts as a sort of catalyst that triggers a form of nostalgia. The sounds within popular music can lead to the appearance of mini-narratives; often triggered by things such as people, places, certain feelings or specific situations. These are related to the audience through lyrics and instrumentation, forming the basis for all music video creativity.
The lyrics however, do have an important role to play in creating a sense of subject matter as key words or phrases that are in the chorus, which is repeated throughout the song, are likely to be more important than those in the verse which are usually just heard once.
Some argue that synaesthesia takes away the freedom of the fans to imagine the song how they like, and that creating a video for a song imposes a visual narrative on the audience that would not be there otherwise, as once you have seen the video to a song, it is extremely hard to associate it with any other visual images other than its official video. This links in again with what John Friske says about ‘MTV foregrounds the signifier over the signified’ essentially meaning that what you see is more important than what you hear.
The theory of behind ‘Grain of voice’ by Roland Barthes applies to this section particularly as Barthes sees the voice as a unique expressive tool that as fore-mentioned is completely unique which allows
the singer to create associations for themselves or even a sort of trademark. This could all work alongside their ‘star image’, there are many distinct voices within the music industry, for example, Michael Jackson, Thom Yorke – Radiohead and E – Eels; these are all artists that stand out purely by using their vocal abilities as an expressive tool.The musical arrangement of a song; instrumentation, mix and effects (including samples) generally all work in parallel with the lyrics and the grain of voice to create a certain experience the artist wanted you to feel. One example of lyrics not matching the Instrumentation, however, is the song ‘It’s a motherf**ker’ – Eels, as the music is very pretty and soothing but the lyrics as imaginable use the heavy repetition of the word ‘Motherf**ker’ which is a very ugly word, however it is almost as if this has been deliberately to contrast something so beautiful with something so ugly. In terms of music creating a visual image, an example could be crashing drums or loud piano would make you visualize a storm or perhaps thunder, while soft synthesizers would create a much more relaxing image, possibly the a calm sea. This works due to the fact that we all share a bank of random cultural images and references (intertextuality) this is a sense of a shored culture without which these references would make no sense. This intertextuality acts as a sort of catalyst that triggers a form of nostalgia. The sounds within popular music can lead to the appearance of mini-narratives; often triggered by things such as people, places, certain feelings or specific situations. These are related to the audience through lyrics and instrumentation, forming the basis for all music video creativity.
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