Friday, December 6, 2013

Music Video Creates Feelings Without Dialogue

Music videos have a unique way of telling stories. I have found that not all music videos are of women dressed in skimpy outfits and dancing or of singers showing off what they have. There are some videos that actually have artistic merit to them. I was lucky to come across a music video that not only reflects the mood of the songs, but also tells a story of it's own. The video that I found just came out today and it is for the song "Instant Crush" by Daft Punk featuring the voice of Julien Casablancas, the lead singer of The Strokes.  Here's the video directed by Warren Fu:



This music video involves Julien Casablancas singing on a small stage and two wax figures in a museum. One wax figure is dressed up as an 18th century soldier and he has a strong resemblance to Casablancas. The other figure is a beautiful milk maid who catches the attention of the soldier. The video tells the story of the two inanimate objects growing affection for each other. They do not speak throughout the video but they still have a strong connection. They are eventually separated, but in the end they are reunited during a fire in a warehouse. The fire subsequently melts their wax bodies, but they are together.

This video is very touching even though the story is about a love between two inanimate objects. The way the shots are frames gives the appearance of longing between the characters. There are many close-up shots of their faces and you can tell that they have the same feelings for each other, even though their faces don't actually move. Overall I really thought this video was well done.

2 comments:

willimek said...

Music and Emotions

The most difficult problem in answering the question of how music creates emotions is likely to be the fact that assignments of musical elements and emotions can never be defined clearly. The solution of this problem is the Theory of Musical Equilibration. It says that music can't convey any emotion at all, but merely volitional processes, the music listener identifies with. Then in the process of identifying the volitional processes are colored with emotions. The same happens when we watch an exciting film and identify with the volitional processes of our favorite figures. Here, too, just the process of identification generates emotions.

An example: If you perceive a major chord, you normally identify with the will "Yes, I want to...". The experience of listening to a minor chord can be compared to the message conveyed when someone says, "No more." If someone were to say these words slowly and quietly, they would create the impression of being sad, whereas if they were to scream it quickly and loudly, they would be come across as furious. This distinction also applies for the emotional character of a minor chord: if a minor harmony is repeated faster and at greater volume, its sad nature appears to have suddenly turned into fury.

Because this detour of emotions via volitional processes was not detected, also all music psychological and neurological experiments, to answer the question of the origin of the emotions in the music, failed.

But how music can convey volitional processes? These volitional processes have something to do with the phenomena which early music theorists called "lead", "leading tone" or "striving effects". If we reverse this musical phenomena in imagination into its opposite (not the sound wants to change - but the listener identifies with a will not to change the sound) we have found the contents of will, the music listener identifies with. In practice, everything becomes a bit more complicated, so that even more sophisticated volitional processes can be represented musically.

Further information is available via the free download of the e-book "Music and Emotion - Research on the Theory of Musical Equilibration:

www.willimekmusic.de/music-and-emotions.pdf

or on the online journal EUNOMIOS:

www.eunomios.org

Enjoy reading

Bernd Willimek, music theorist

willimek said...

Music and Emotions

The most difficult problem in answering the question of how music creates emotions is likely to be the fact that assignments of musical elements and emotions can never be defined clearly. The solution of this problem is the Theory of Musical Equilibration. It says that music can't convey any emotion at all, but merely volitional processes, the music listener identifies with. Then in the process of identifying the volitional processes are colored with emotions. The same happens when we watch an exciting film and identify with the volitional processes of our favorite figures. Here, too, just the process of identification generates emotions.

An example: If you perceive a major chord, you normally identify with the will "Yes, I want to...". The experience of listening to a minor chord can be compared to the message conveyed when someone says, "No more." If someone were to say these words slowly and quietly, they would create the impression of being sad, whereas if they were to scream it quickly and loudly, they would be come across as furious. This distinction also applies for the emotional character of a minor chord: if a minor harmony is repeated faster and at greater volume, its sad nature appears to have suddenly turned into fury.

Because this detour of emotions via volitional processes was not detected, also all music psychological and neurological experiments, to answer the question of the origin of the emotions in the music, failed.

But how music can convey volitional processes? These volitional processes have something to do with the phenomena which early music theorists called "lead", "leading tone" or "striving effects". If we reverse this musical phenomena in imagination into its opposite (not the sound wants to change - but the listener identifies with a will not to change the sound) we have found the contents of will, the music listener identifies with. In practice, everything becomes a bit more complicated, so that even more sophisticated volitional processes can be represented musically.

Further information is available via the free download of the e-book "Music and Emotion - Research on the Theory of Musical Equilibration:

www.willimekmusic.de/music-and-emotions.pdf

or on the online journal EUNOMIOS:

www.eunomios.org

Enjoy reading

Bernd Willimek, music theorist