Laura Mulvey’s Theory

Because filmmakers are predominantly male, the presence of women in films is often solely for the purposes of display (rather than for narrative purposes).


The purpose of this displace is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators, which presumes a ‘male gaze’ one that is a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display, who is effectively objectified and passive.

Steve Archer’s Theory

There needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos.


Music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band.


A carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor.

Sven E Carlsson’s Theory

Music Video artist as a “modern mythic embodiment”

the music video artist is seen as embodying one, or a combination of “modern mythic characters or forces” of which there are three general. The music video artist is representing different aspects of the free floating disparate universe of music video. There are two groups of music video:

performance clip - when a video shows an artist mostly dancing and singing

conceptual clip - when the clip has something else during it's duration often with artistic ambitions
In one type of performance, the performer is not a performer anymore; he or she is a materialization of the 

commercial exhibitionist. He or she is a monger of their own body image, selling everything to be in the spotlight – selling voice, face, lifestyle records, etc. the exhibitionist wants success and tries to evoke the charisma of stardom and sexuality.

Televised bard - a singing storyteller who uses actual on screen images instead of inner, personal images.

Electronic shaman - sometimes the shaman is invisible and it is only his or her voice that anchor the visuals. They often shift between multiple shapes. E.g. at one moment the electronic shaman animates dead objects, seconds later her or she is shifting through time etc.

Music video is a form of audio-visual communication in which the meaning is created via carriers of information such as: music, lyrics and moving images.

Music - Sometimes the musical elements shape the moving pictures.
- Moments like footsteps are often synchronized with the beat, so that people in the music video seem to walk in sync to the music. Melodic phrases can also be visualized by tilting the camera vertically to match the musical phrase’s up and down travel on the scales.

Lyrics- lyrics and images interact creating meaning.
- New meaning is added to the banal lyrics through metaphorical language
- The greater the leap between the content of the lyrics and the imagery in this metaphorical joining, the more difficult it becomes for viewers to understand and interpret the context.
- The environment is made to mirror the feelings of the lead characters

The image - the visual form is close to the musical form. - By manipulating colour, motive setting, story footage, clothing, etc the music video director creates a couple of ideas which are repeated and varied.
- The concept is to rearrange visual motifs so that the work forms a whole.
There are three forms of visual tradition in music videos they are: performance clip, narrative clips and art clip.

Performance clip - if a music video contains mostly filmed performance then it is a performance clip, which shows the vocalist in one or more settings. There are three types; song performance, dance performance, instrumental performance.

Narrative clip - a short silent movie to a musical background, a visual story that is easy to follow.

Art Clip - if a music video contains no perceptible visual narrative and contains no lip-synchronized singing then it is a pure art clip. While the music video uses popular music the artistic video uses more experimental music, such as electro-acoustic
- The connections between the music genre and the visual genre of music are weak. There are, however, some connections: dance music video clips are sometimes art clips. The editing technique in soft ballads is mostly mixing. The hard rock music genre usually features standard clips consisting of concert shots and inserted narrative shots.

John Stewart’s Theory

1. The music video has the aesthetics of a TV commercial, with lots of close-ups and lighting being used to focus on the star’s face.
2. He sees visual reference in music video as coming from a range of sources, although the three most frequent are perhaps cinema, fashion and art photography.
3. Stewart’s description of the music video as ‘incorportating, raiding and reconstructing’ is essentially the essence of Intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar, to generate both nostalgic associations and new meanings.
4. The video allows more access to the performer than a stage performance can. The mise-en-scene, in particular, can be used to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle.