For our last class, we looked at a collection of music videos that were incredibly symbolic and rich in content. Though performance-based, I think music videos are a unique form of filmmaking that coupled with music achieve very clear results.
At their core, music videos are an isolation of music and video. They rely on the relationship between audio and visual but also in its separation. When you watch a music video, you have a fully-formed song guiding you through emotions and stories. You also have the visuals doing the same. Though audio and visuals may seem to be working in conjunction, they each have their own respective life.
What was interesting about Janelle Monae’s music video is the interpretation of her songs. The songs were already made. This meant that the music videos could be anything. For this reason, the visuals added to a video became a life of their own.
Specifically, Janelle Monae added color. Her music videos were incredibly colorful adding to the lyrics of her songs. They elicited further feelings from the listener/now-viewer.
