R&P Post 10: Researching the Relationship Between Visuals and Lyrics

Hiya! Welcome to my blog once again! In this post you will read about my research into the relationship between visuals and lyrics in music videos.

The Relationship Between Visuals and Lyrics:



The music video above is of the song 'Friday' by Rebecca Black. The music video for this song is incredibly simplistic and all of the lyrics are represented literally through the visuals on-screen.

For example:



Above is part of the beginning of the music video which shows Black waking up at 7 AM, just as the lyrics say "7 AM, waking up in the morning". This is just one example of the lyrics being taken completely literally. After this, she soon sings "Gotta get down to the bus stop" and the visuals next show a bus stop sign with Black waiting underneath:



The strong and obvious relationship between the visuals and lyrics in this music video is amplified and the reason behind this is to make the song itself catchier for its audience, enabling them to easily sing along to it. However, overall this music video is too straightforward and strongly lacks in creativity. Whilst this might be suitable for its target audience- young girls, presumably aged between 11 and 14- the matching of the lyrics and the visuals makes it a boring and predictable video to watch.

Macklemore- 'Otherside':



1:06-1:17- link to lyrics
1:14-1:18- lyrics say "Room spinning/Thinking he might have just sipped a little too much of that cough syrup"- and on-screen we see a bottle lying on the table.
3:05-3:21: shows Macklemore running away

Here we have the song 'Otherside' by Macklemore featuring Ryan Lewis. This is an example of a music video that succeeds in linking the lyrics to the visuals through what the audience can see on-screen but it also has a narrative to it which makes it more interesting. The song itself is about Macklemore's past drug addiction and in the video we see explicit shots of people using drugs which clearly links the lyrics to the visuals. For example:

These shots in the music video clearly demonstrate a link between the lyrics and visuals on-screen.










However, as well as this, the video also has its own narrative and in some shots we see Macklemore with a woman and in context of the video, she seems to be a friend of his and seems to have come to comfort him over the death of a friend of his (the video opens with recent news of a rapper's death being broadcast on radio). For example:



The GIF above shows an example of this and in this part of the video the woman seems to be trying to sympathise and comfort Macklemore's character.

As well as this, the narrative part of the music video is emphasised by the shots of Macklemore on the river, rowing in a small boat. The setting of these shots is very different to the shots of people using drugs as it shows scenes of nature and tranquility, rather than the danger and affects of doing drugs. You can see some of these shots just below:

Towards the end of the video, we see Macklemore running away down to the river and he jumps in the boat and rows out onto the river:



In this part of the video it seems that, as part of the narrative, Macklemore is trying to run away from his problems and escape to nature and peacefulness. This takes the audience away from the meaning of the lyrics and shows the story behind the video, making it more interesting for the audience to watch. 

'Oceans' by Seafret:



Above we have another music video which creates a narrative that connects with the lyrics. In this video, a young girl is being bullied but at the same time appears to have superpowers. In the beginning of the video, we see her come home to an empty house, with a note left by her mum saying that she will be home late due to work. The audience receives the impression that the girl feels saddened and disappointed to read this through her downcast facial expressions and the fact that she seems to be reminiscing moments of her childhood, by finding what appears to be a superhero cape and wearing it. You can see a picture of this costume just below:

This costume is quite child-like and represents the girl as an outsider from the rest of society and her peers, which is then reinforced by the bullying that is later shown in the video. This representation of the girl being lonely relates to the song lyric "It feels like there's oceans/ Between you and me" because it shows how separate the girl has become from her peers.

However, the main way in which the meaning of this lyric is represented is through the relationship between the girl in the video and her mother. When she arrives home to an empty house, calling out for her mother, expecting her to be there when she is not, it seems that they are quite detached and distant from one another, suggesting that their relationship is rather weak. But by the end of the video when the girl arrives back home again, she runs to hug with her mother in a very touching and heart-warming reunion, implying that although they may be distant from one another at times, they both mean a lot to one another:



Overall, this music video manages to create a strong narrative that does succeed in connecting with the primary meaning of the lyrics (in particular: "It feels like there's oceans/Between you and me") of the relationship between two people being distant and detached. However, it creates a different, perhaps more unique, interpretation of the lyrics by making the video about a difficult relationship between a mother and daughter, rather than about the romantic relationship in a couple, which is what most people would expect in today's society, particularly in the music industry as many songs are about love and romantic relationships. Thus, this music video is more unique in its narrative whilst it still manages to provide a link between the lyrics and the visuals on-screen.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found my research interesting! Come along again soon for an update on our target audience!