The Creation of Meaning in Music Videos

This study aims to analyze the system of meaning production in music videos. The analysis is conducted from two distinct perspectives: one aims to demonstrate that music videos constitute a language with specific signs that combine the processes of meaning production also found in cinematic language, and the other seeks to identify the stages of the enunciation (production) of this language. The principles of analysis are based on the works of Hjelmslev, Greimas, and Metz. Composed of words, music, writing, and more specifically images, music videos could be considered “mini-films.” That said, it remains to be demonstrated what the points of divergence and convergence are between the language of music videos and other systems of representation (visual languages) such as cinema, sculpture, gestures, architecture, caricature, etc., with the aim of explaining the status of music videos in relation to other languages that, in turn, use the image as a primary element. Music videos, which resemble films in their components, differ from them in the equal emphasis placed on both music and visuals. Furthermore, music videos are produced to promote songs or artists. The images serve as a medium for the music, and the songs are interpreted through the images. Since music videos are produced to promote songs, their enunciation always presupposes a pre-enunciation. This leads us to assert that music videos have a dual enunciation: that of the song and that of the music video. The song thus presents itself as an utterance that prepares the utterance of the music video. Thus, the act of uttering music videos is a sort of transposition from a system of meaning based on auditory signs to another that is established on audiovisual signs. In other words, images—whose substance consists of form, color, and surface—are associated with the music and lyrics at the level of the form of expression. The song’s lyrics, in this case, constitute the content plane in the Hjelmslevian sense. As for the strategies used in music videos (shot composition, camera movement, technological techniques, etc.), music videos employ all the elements of cinematic language. However, since music videos are mini-films lasting no more than 10 minutes, they must employ more eye-catching techniques to draw the viewer’s attention to the song; these include distortion, the deliberate fragmentation of the image, the singer’s makeup in a ridiculous style, or the presentation of objects in unreal dimensions or colors.