Music/Video: Histories, Aesthetics, Media

329 Pages·2017·4.009 MB·English

by  Gina Arnold (editor), Daniel Cookney (editor), Kirsty Fairclough (editor), Michael N. Goddard (editor)

‘Music video has been a key cultural driver and remains beloved by
audiences all over the globe, but there’s much we don’t understand about
its history and poetics. This book is required reading for aficionados of the
genre, scholars engaged with popular culture, and anyone thinking about
audiovisual media in our historical moment. Full of startling connections
and deep insights, the essays in Music/Video show how rich the genre has
been – and how much we can learn from it’.
CAROL VERNALLIS, Affiliated Researcher,
Stanford University, USA
‘Music video may well be a promotional device for the music industry,
reproducing hegemonic representations of identity, but as this collection of
engaging essays shows, alternative visions proliferate in the multiple spaces
between high art, low culture and viral video. Bookended by a historical
view on the music video aesthetic, and an assessment of contemporary
digital and online music video, the collection offers welcome examples of
female self-representation that attempt to reach beyond objectification, as
well as of experimental approaches to the art of music video’.
HILLEGONDA C. RIETVELD, Professor of Sonic Culture,
London South Bank University, UK

Music/Video
Histories, Aesthetics, Media

Music/Video
Histories, Aesthetics, Media
EDITED BY
GINA ARNOLD,

DANIEL COOKNEY,
KIRSTY FAIRCLOUGH, AND

MICHAEL GODDARD
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
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First published 2017
© Gina Arnold, Daniel Cookney, Kirsty Fairclough, and Michael Goddard, 2017
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Arnold, Gina editor.
Title: Music/video : histories, aesthetics, media / edited by: Gina Arnold,
Daniel Cookney, Kirsty Fairclough-Isaacs, Michael Goddard, and Benjamin Halligan.
Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017003348 (print) | LCCN 2017021641 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781501313929 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781501313936 (ePUB) |
ISBN 9781501313912 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Music videos–History and criticism.
Classification: LCC PN1992.8.M87 (ebook) |
LCC PN1992.8.M87 M885 2017 (print) | DDC 780.26/7–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017003348
ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-1390-5
PB: 978-1-5013-1391-2
ePub: 978-1-5013-1393-6
ePDF: 978-1-5013-1392-9
Cover design: Louise Dugdale and Daniel Cookney
Cover image © Photo taken by Paula Harrowing. Used with permission by FKA Twigs
Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
CONTENTS
List of Figures x
Acknowledgements xii
Notes on Contributors xiii
Introduction: The Persistence of the Music Video Form from
MTV to Twenty-First-Century Social Media Gina Arnold,
Daniel Cookney, Kirsty Fairclough, and Michael Goddard 1
SECTION ONE Music Video Histories in, outside, and
beyond MTV
15
Introduction 17
1 The Pleasures of (Music) Video Sunil Manghani 21
2 From Broadway to Phineas and Ferb: The Rise of
Music(al Comedy) Videos Michael Saffle 41
3 ‘The Message’ Is the Medium: Aesthetics, Ideology, and
the Hip Hop Music Video Greg de Cuir Jr 53
4 The Boy Kept Swinging: David Bowie, Music Video,
and the Star Image Julie Lobalzo Wright 67
5 The Perfect Kiss: New Order and the Music Video
Andrew Burke 79
SECTION TWO Gender, Embodiment, and Sexual
Representation
91
Introduction 93
viii CONTENTS
6 Liquidities for the Essex Man: The Monetarist Eroticism
of British Yacht Pop Benjamin Halligan 97
7 Completing the Mystery of Her Flesh: Love, Eroticism,
and Identity in Björk’s Videos Vera Brozzoni 109
8 Soundtrack Self: FKA twigs, Music Video, and Celebrity
Feminism Kirsty Fairclough 121
9 Anal Terrorism in Nicki Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’ Fabrício
Silveira 133
SECTION THREE The Art of the Music Video
141
Introduction 143
10 Moving the Music: Dance, Action, and Embodied Identity
Sarie Mairs Slee 147
11 Audiovision and Gesamtkunstwerk: The Aesthetics of
First- and Second-Generation Industrial Music Video
Michael Goddard 163
12 One. World: Self-Effacement of H. P. Baxxter in the Video
Work of Scooter Paul Hegarty 181
13 Blackened Puppets: Chris Cunningham’s Weird Anatomies
Dean Lockwood 195
SECTION FOUR Digital Media and Mutations
209
Introduction 211
14 Timeline Philosophy: Technological Hedonism and Formal
Aspects of Films and Music Videos José Cláudio Siqueira
Castanheira 215
15 The Boxed Aesthetic and Metanarratives of Stardom:
Analysing Music Videos on DVD Compilations Jaap
Kooijman 231
CONTENTS ix
16 Why Psy? Music Videos and the Global Market Gina
Arnold 245
17 Vimeo Killed the Video Star: Burial and the User-Generated
Music Video Daniel Cookney 255
Notes 268
Videography 281
Works Cited 284
Index 304