Monday, 12 October 2015

Narrative Theory 5: Michael Shore

Michael Shore (1984)
Believes all music videos are recycled styles. Meaning through some way or another the same concepts are used and no video is completely unique at it will show some recycled styles. He uses the phrase 'information overload' to describe them and they're 'style scavengers' mostly all music videos use the same ideas. The idea of decadence in which music videos show of excessive indulgence. He talks about how music videos have an 'anaesthetisation of violence through chic' through being shown violence on-screen people are no longer shocked by it, for a lot of people it may be what they thrive off seeing in a video. Not many people watch violence on screen with outrage, generally it is consumed as entertainment. A lot of videos include speed, girls, wealth and power portraying adolescent male fantasies these lead into soft-core pornography with the recycled clichéd imagery. This argument can be brought into modern day society as there are many people who believe within the media women are sexualised and material is seen as too provocative for audience viewing. With the internet and new ways of consuming media nothing is very hidden from the public, and it is fairly easy for minors to access material they shouldn't be watching. A lot of the time people would argue it is not even hidden and is open for anyone to view, like how women are shown in music videos. The sexual objectification can be dangerous not only to girls themselves but give this ideology to younger boys as well who may then see this as an acceptable way to treat girls.
Satisfaction, Benny Benassi.
Women are continuously shown in this video as sexual objects
the use of slow motion, provocative behaviour and revealing
outfits could be argued to conform to Shore's theory as it could be seen
as a adolescent male fantasy of women. 
 
The fact the women are using power-tools which we stereotypically see men as using, shows how males using power tools aren't seen as 'sexy' however in this video females are breaking stereotypes by using them but it is used for sexualisation purposes.
A good example of 'anaesthetisation of violence through chic' is Bob Dylan's Beyond Here Lies Nothin' music video in which a woman and a man have an violent fight. We assume he had been keeping her prisoner and she escapes, the fight is quite explicit in terms of violence. At the end of the video the two end up kissing which for many was quite a controversial ending however throughout the video the use of sound amplifies the sheer scale of the violence. Some watching would feel uncomfortable at times but we still watch it and accept it as 'normal' because as an audience of fictional television, films and music videos we're used to seeing violence therefore have developed an acceptance when it is shown in videos like this.

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