Steve Archer's Key Elements

Steve Archer, another media theorist considered that there needs to be a strong relationship between narrative and performance in music promos. Music videos will often cut between narrative and a performance of the song by the artist/band.
The performance within the video could be the artist performing the song or a choreographed dance.

In Steve Archer's theory, he came up with some key elements of music videos.

• Lyrics- Establish a general feeling or mood of the song. Key lines may play a part in the visuals but a music video will rarely illustrate the lyrics wholesale.

• Music- uses the tempo of the track to drive the editing and may emphasise particular sounds from the track, such as a guitar, keyboard or drum solo.

• Genre- Some videos transcend genres but others are more easily categorised. If you watch a particuklar genre of music video or music channel that only tends to play a particular genre, then you are more likely to pick up distinct features which enable them to be categorised into that genre. The features may be, themes, performance, mise-en-scene, editing styles etc..

• Camerwork- How the camera is used (camera movement, angle and shot distance) and how images are sequenced have significant impact on the meaning that is portrayed. Camera movement for example may accompany the performers movement but it can also be constantly circling the band/performer as they are performing on stage. Close-up shots create a sense of intimacy for the audience and also emphasises the commodity on sale; essentially emphasising on the artist's face and her voice.

• Editing- Most common editing is fast-cut montage, but some videos use slow pace shot transitions to establlish the right mood to the viewer. Often enhancing the editing are digital effects, when orginal images are played around with to offer a different kind of effect or pleasure for the audience. Editing is important in a music video as it allows the producers/encoders to manipulate the film in order to portray the right effect and mood to their decoders.

• Intertextuality- Music videos, often described as 'post-modern' which is sometimes used to mean intertextuality. Intertextuality is when a text draws upon or references an existing text. In music promos we frequently see existing texts being drawn upon in order to spark recognition in the audience. However not all of the audience will spot the reference but this does not mean their pleasure of the text is detracted, but there might be greater pleasure from thise who recognise the reference and feel flattered by it. Music videos tend to use refences from the world of cinema or television. For example, Madonna's music video 'Material Girl' drew on the song sequence from 'Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend'.

• Narrative and Performance- Often music videos will cut between narrative and a performance of the song. A music video allows the audience a much more varied access to the performer than just a stage performance can. Narrative in songs suggests storylines or offer complex fragments in a non-linear order, leaving the viewer the desire to see it again.