Music Video (Madonna)

In today's music videos the audience is faced with the confronting image of rampant commercialism mixed with mediocre production values. Madonna has used "media savvy" (manipulation) to carefully construct her own image to become a superstar, where her celebrity status has virtually reduced her music, dancing and acting to irrelevancy (Tetzlaff, 1993:241). She has used her sexuality to empower herself showing a natural flair for independence and power. Madonna's "Ray of Light" is an unparalleled example where Madonna merely, ". The commercial aspect of music has led to the development of engineered groups (auditioned for particular roles) lowering the relevancy of modern music. Madonna's music in this era (80's) was seen as "pop" - juvenile, formulaic and artificial, whilst it was described as "shallow, kitschy pop entertainment" (Brown et al, 1993:18). Madonna knows of the aura of power that is inherently held by music stars proclaiming, "Power is a great aphrodisiac, and I'm a very powerful person" and "I want to conquer the world" (US, 1991:1). The Spice Girls have taken advantage of the standard feature of large-screen high-definition video, offering "live" close-ups of the performers, so the audience can enjoy intimacies of the kind they are accustomed to seeing on television; on stage they are the "pin-up girls come to life - wriggling and writhing in their revealing outfits, puckering their lips, looking sultry and so on (Skow, 1985:24). The only meaning Madonna is trying to convey in her music videos is that each person can control their sexuality and social identity, and that these things aren't pre-determined. Can we take these groups seriously when they sing about love? More importantly, does their dancing imply deeper love for their "loved ones"? The perfectly choreographed "moves" in clips such as the Backstreet Boy's "I'll Never Break Your Heart" look professional, but some band members act like they are going "through the motions". However, she has rarely wandered from the normal promotional responsibilities of a contemporary artist, so is her power more of a mass media creation? Madonna's phenomenal popularity simply can't be accounted for by her music, her personality, or even her sexuality; People (magazine) asks, "But is she really beautiful?" and answers, "Of course she's beautiful. Madonna is an extremely socially conscious performer who has noticed this and has addressed the most traditionally hidden part of music culture by allowing fans to adopt her persona (as seen in her music videos). Nevertheless, they are rarely interacting with the concert audience, using an indirect address by treating them as passive receivers, where they should use the traditional method of direct address which includes a much stronger performer-audience relationship than the one present in their music videos (Stockbridge, 1990:103). In fact, fun is central to conceptualising the link between the body and pleasure whilst dancing as it is used to present the body as escaping mundane social routine to signify a sense of fun (McDonald, 1997:287). However, rock music, which is perceived as authentic, serious and innovative "art" rarely use music videos to portray the true meanings of their songs, using parodies as seen in Pulp's "Party Hard" (Brown et al, 1993:18).