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Music video has been the medium for some of the most innovative and challenging work of the last 25 years, with academic comment heralding it as one of the most significant examples of postmodernist art (Wolfe 1983, Lynch 1984, Kaplan 1987). ... It would appear that music genres are the biggest indicators of the aesthetic qualities present in music; the eighties saw ‘Stadium Rock’ outfits such as Europe (“The Final Countdown”) and Bon Jovi (“Livin’ on a prayer”) creating videos heavily dominated by the performance footage and the lavish stage shows that encompassed the performers (large arenas dominated by expensive pyrotechnics and huge props). Contemporary dance music is no exception to this ever-increasing rule, as established practices and techniques become the standard amongst videos of the genre. This paper sets out to examine, through a specific look at two texts, Darude’s “Sandstorm” (2000) and Puretone’s “Addicted to Bass” (2002), what the trends and conventions within Dance Music video are, and more importantly, why they are consistently used throughout the genre. It will focus on the genre itself, as well as the mechanisms within the record industry that ensure that videos become predisposed to creating a message that links to both genre and the place of the artist.
Dance music within itself is riddled with sub-genres and movements that underpin different aesthetic qualities of the music, which result in certain visual conventions for these sub-genres. The electro-clash movement borrowed musically many themes from the synth pop and new romantic music, this ‘eighties revival’ mirrored by the aesthetic qualities present in videos such as Fischerspooner’s “Emerge” (2002) and Dave Clarke’s “What was her name” (2003), which saw models recreating the same sexual androgyny that characterised new wave stars such as Phil Oakey, Marc Almond and Adam Ant. The UK garage scene also marked the change from dance floor orientated music to more hip-hop influenced ‘crew’ music, where the mc became more of a predominant figure, with grimier and more gangster rap influenced video visuals which glamorised crime and violence (the video for da Click’s “Good Rhymes”(1999) contrasting with Oxide and Neutrino’s video for “Up middle finger” (2001)). With such a vast variety of sub-genres present within dance music, it would be impossible to document the trends within each of these. The focus has been selected on popular accessible dance music, “Sandstorm” and “Addicted to Bass” both reflect unexceptional examples of popular music as both texts and videos, keeping in line with the ‘typical’ sample that has been used within music video study in the past (Bjornberg 1994 p69-70), as opposed to the focus on more critically lauded and ‘socially important’ work (Berland 1986, Tetzlaff 1986). ... php), and the videos featured prominently on MTV and other music channels. Although conventions exist that relate to all artists within a genre, it is often the most popular and prominent texts that continue to maintain these practices. ... The work of Theodore Adorno (1941) commented on how pop music involved consistent repetition and the same structure, of verse chorus, verse chorus etc. The advent of dance music saw artists explore repetition to greater ends, focusing on readily repeated beats with the addition slowly over time of differing musical arrangements, usually after eight or 16 bars, which can be accredited as Musematic repetition, defined by Middleton (1990 p269) as “the repetition of musemes”, with Musemes being characterised as “the basic unit of musical expression” (Tagg 1979 p71). ... The video involves a man, who isn’t the performer, being pursued by two others, one male and one female both brandishing a gun of some sort. ... Briefcases don’t have any cultural significance within dance music and any possible connotations for it’s meaning - such as it containing the secrets of artist Darude’s production genius or an asset of some immeasurable wealth - would be purely speculative. The chase then has direct relevance to the song or the culture itself, so its meaning is difficult at first to attain, and can only seem clearer once the video for “Addicted to bass” is also examined. ... The lyrics represent an addiction, with the metaphor of music being used to characterize this; there are constant references to musical terms such as reverb, rhythm and treble. ... What is more likely then is that bass isn’t a metaphor at all, but simply an expression of the singer’s love for music, an ‘addiction’ she shares with everybody else (“Theres something thats connected us down throughout the years/no need to feel so lonely, everyones addicted to bass”).
Approximate Word count = 3717
Approximate Pages = 14.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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