Chapter 1
The Psychology of Music
Film Music
The Popular Music
Popular Music as Film Music
Rock Promos
MTV
In order to investigate how music and video showcase each other, I will have a brief look at ‘music’ as the motive for the video and how it affects the image. Common elements of music are: melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, timbre, dynamics, and texture. From a scientific point of view, these elements have physiological impact on the nervous system, arousing involuntary responses by stimulating human senses. This process involves the transfer or circulation of energy, which causes the state of emotional experience.
‘For many psychologists, “musical emotion” is due to physiological responses to pitch, rhythm, tempo, timbre, and so on. This approach might be seen as a scientific extension of the traditional sensualist aesthetic. Today, researchers in this area regard pleasure in terms of arousal of the autonomic nervous system, and measurable via heart rate, EEG readings of brain waves and respiration.’ (Gorbman, 2003:42)
However, there is a more empirical point of view in explaining the musical experience. It is mostly concerned with observation and evidence in areas such as music therapy, music in industry and music education. As John Booth Davies (1978: 19) remarks in The Psychology of Music, The psychological study of music involves the examination of the relationship between the rules of music and the laws of perception and cognition. Also, the cultural aspects are known as the cause of musically created emotion. This means that the musical experience partly derives from the memory, as the effect of repetition. One person’s response to music is not identical to another’s. This is the quality that makes the musical experience so elusive. One person interprets a musical sound while the other might comprehend the sound as “noise”. Both “music” and “noise” stimulate the nervous system through a similar physiologic process. For example, instrumental rock with all of its sound distortions would not be recognized as musical a hundred years ago, but today it has many admirers. This shows that the interpretation of music depends on the person’s background and memory.
In summary, musical emotion is aroused due to both physiological and psychological processes. The physiological process transfers the musical energy to the body and the brain subsequently digests the energy - psychologically - through a system of internal logic. As a result, abstract qualities such as love or despair are perceivable from the music. As Kathryn Kalinak (2003) remarks, music is capable of producing meaning outside of itself, it arouses an emotional or intellectual response.
Film music (the music played during a film) was the very first association of music with the moving image. Music, for all of its conventions, became the essential companion of the moving image, even during the silent film era. Silent films were never really silent; a soloist or an entire orchestra played along with the film. The smaller theaters were not to be left behind; their owners used gramophone records instead. The reason why the music is necessary is its spatial dimension that compensates the flatness of the screen. For the most part in the silent film era music was used to augment the narrative. Also, it was compensating for the lack of dialog and conveyed mood. In 1927 the first sound film The Jazz Singer emerged, interestingly enough it was a musical.
The arrival of sound revolutionized the film industry and refined the relationship between music and image. The use of music in films dramatically enhances its expressive potentials. Although the film music does not issue from the actual scene, it is a layer added to the scene ambience, the viewer conventionally accepts it as an inherent element of the film. The rhythm of music complements the rhythm of editing and movements on the screen. In addition, music gives form and structure to fragmentary sequences of shots; it fastens them together. More importantly, the emotive effect of film music is the major part of its mission.
One of the most important technical tasks about music in relation to image is synchronization. Synchronization means that noises correspond to movements. It causes the music and the image to be perceived simultaneously. Synchronization forges an immediate and necessary relationship between something one sees and something one hears (Chion, 1994:5). As a result, the emotional value of the music applies to the concurrent images and the music settles on them.
The age of commodification of music has changed our perception of “music”; the definition of music has fundamentally changed during the recent century as the result of the digital reproduction of music. Popular music is a phenomenon of contemporary music. However, it has always been diminished because of its dependency on commerce. On the other side of the commercial production of popular music stands the subjective consumption of the youth. However unrefined and unworthy it might be gauged, youth crave it, for it arouses the strongest emotional responds in them. They listen to it and experience it with pleasure. ’Things that strike a sophisticated person as trash may open new vistas for the unsophisticated’. (Riesman, 1990:6) Within the market of popular music, as in any other market, there is a crucial relationship between the supply and the demand, between the music and the need for music. As a result, popular music always targets the young culture as the major consumer group and tries to appeal to them. In fact, popular music attempts to respond to the rebellious characteristic of modern youth, and the investigation of its effects is rooted in sociology, not musicology (Frith, 1990).
Popular music (rock and pop) consists of the combination of lyrics, music and singer. Rhythm is the fundamental element of popular music and makes it physiologically effective, it is also an inherent aspect in human body: heartbeat, breath and pulse. Moreover, it evokes a visceral reaction; it makes people want to reproduce the rhythm with their movements, it makes them ‘dance’. Rhythm gives structure to the song, and intensifies the melody. On the other hand, the lyrics comment on the song by provoking a specific emotional response. Lyrics use the power of language and enhance it through verse and repetition. They are articulated through the human expression of the singer, which lends a theatrical air to the music.
The structure of popular music is typically sectional. The main elements of this structure are verse and chorus. The introduction is a section that comes at the beginning of the piece. It usually builds up suspense for the listener so when the downbeat emerges, it is more of an emotional surprise. The chorus often sharply contrasts the verse melodically, rhythmically, and harmonically, and assumes a higher level of dynamics and activity, often with added instrumentation. The bridge is an interlude that connects the two parts of the song, building a harmonic connection between them. It is musically and lyrically different from both the verse and chorus. Typically this comes after the second repetition of the verse. The bridge may then replace the 3rd verse or precede it. In the latter case, it delays an expected chorus. The chorus after the bridge is usually the last and is often repeated in order to stress that it is final (Wikipedia, 2008).
In the 1950s, a strong relationship between popular music and film started to build. At the time, rock music was the dominant genre of popular music. In fact, Rock 'n' Roll was the first style of music that was directly aimed towards young people. The youth were also the majority of the film audience. The rising potential of the teen market was becoming apparent to both record companies and film production companies. Meanwhile, many film composers turned to popular music instead of the traditional style of composing film scores. In the beginning, the idea of using popular music for the film soundtrack was supporting commercial purposes: the film was selling the soundtrack album, and the soundtrack was selling the film.
Apart from the commercial connections, popular music is mainly used as the soundtrack in films to attain a specific narrative effect; it works as a guide to show what a character may be feeling. It also suggests what the viewer should be feeling about the scene. It creates ambience and mood, carries the story forward, and magnifies the actions. Undoubtedly, the audience’s familiarity with the song accelerates the emotive impact. (Garwood, 2003:107)
‘Music’s (the soundtrack’s) useful denotative and expressive values are easily comprehended by listeners. Its spatial, rhythmic and temporal values give it a special and complex status in the narrative film experience.’ (Gorbman, 2003: 39)
Rock music companioned with films prepares the way for the inevitable emergence of music video.
At the same time as the development of popular music based soundtracks, record companies discovered the potential of promo films as an alternative to touring for their rock bands. Now bands had the option of making a promotional film to introduce themselves to their fans around the world. As Ann Kaplan (1987) states in her book Rocking Around The Clock, the rock video idea was originally an advertising idea; the reason they were given the name “promos” is because they were considered as promotional tools for the record companies. These films featured the band performing in either a studio or live setting.
The fact that rock music has always been close to the world of fashion, as Jim Farber said in Rolling Stones in 1991, shows the importance of visualization in popular music. We can see styles of clothing, make-up and hair whether live, or in films, or on television. The use of visuals has always been an integral part of the music business, and the memory of a song is always partly visual as well.
‘Pop and Rock music have never really been free from visual input. Whether it was Bill Haley rocking around the clock, Little Richard tutting his frutti, or Elvis gyrating his hips, the music business has never been shy about selling itself... music video is just the latest in the music biz's parade of visual aids. Undoubtedly, it is also one of the most efficient.’ (Reiss, 2000:11)
The following examples are considered as influential works in the development of music videos.
The Beatles’ A Hard Day's Night, made in 1964 and directed by Richard Lester, was one of the first promotional films. The film employed editing that followed the beats of the song. Also, hand-held cinematography, fast movements of visuals and fast cuts were applied to the film. Subsequently, its innovative form had an effective role in the development of the modern music video.
The Beatles’ A Hard Day's Night: 1964, This vidoe is one of the very first example of rock promos.
Another video worth mentioning is for Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues. This video is the opening scene of a documentary called Don't Look Back by D.A. Pennebaker in 1965 about Dylan's tour in UK. It was listed as the seventh on the Rolling Stones list of ‘100 Top Music Videos’ (rockonthenet.com). The video has neither musical performance nor singing scenes. Standing in a backstreet, Dylan is holding up bunch of cue cards indicating phrases from the lyrics. He flips the cards as the song plays, communicating the lyrics through cue cards, without even singing along. The video has a humorous reference to the silent film era. The cue cards present the lyrics as they used to present dialogs in silent films. Some of the words are deliberately spelled wrong and the handwriting suggests the verbal expression of the words. The video has an abstract form, hardly suggesting other information than the written lyrics.
Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues: 1965, The opening scene of Don't Look Back .
In 1974, Bruce Gowers made a video for Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which is known as the arrival of the modern pop music video. The band decided to make a video as a compromise with the fact that the song was so textured that it was almost impossible to play live. In this instance, the band made the video for it’s functionality, however, following its debut on TV it brought the band such big success that it moved the song to number one in the charts and kept it there for eleven weeks. The video took credit for this success and paved the way for the future’s exploitations of the new medium. As Steve Reiss (2000:17), says ‘Any one who was paying attention now knew that, under the right circumstances, video could not just support a song. It could make it a hit.
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody: 1974, This video had a major role in the song’s success.
“Music videos” were primarily presented through the institution called “Music Television”. MTV premiered in 1981 with the purpose of playing music videos 24 hours a day. Creating a cable television channel specifically for these videos established the conventional form of music videos. Ironically, the first music video shown on MTV was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles.
MTV was accused of devaluing the importance of music, of disregarding its responsibility as "Music Television" to uphold better critical standards for the chosen music videos. Further debate about MTV requires the study of pop culture sociology and it is out of the scope of this dissertation. However, regarding the influence of MTV as the pioneer institution, the discussions in this dissertation are not in the context of MTV or any similar media channels. Principally, I seek to study the music video from the aesthetic perspective rather than study its sociology.
‘It would be foolish to argue that there are more good videos than bad ones. There aren’t. Be that as it may, no art form has ever been defined by its ratio of bad to good work. Painting is not. Classical music is not. Literature, theater, and photography are not. So why should music video be judged by that standard?’ (Reiss, 2000:23)