Music, Image, Sound, and Screen

Image result for hans zimmer and christopher nolan
Christopher Nolan andHans Zimmer

The coexistence of music and visual media became a common occurrence as video-sharing websites (i.e, Youtube) and streaming services (i.e, Netflix) came into being over the last decade or so. As a result, we tend to perceive the two elements altogether as a single entity and rarely question the nature of their compatibility – for instance, how is the process of collaboration between directors and composers? What are some of the translative techniques used to accurately compose a piece of music for a movie scene?

Ever since the revolutionary integration of synchronized sound into film in the early 1920s, films became an increasingly popular medium through which artists tell their stories. The collaborations between composers and film directors have led to the creation of countless unforgettable cinematic moments. Today, the phenomenal partnership between Christopher Nolan (director) and Hans Zimmer (composer) gave birth to several award winning films such as Inception (2017), Interstellar (2014), and Dunkirk (2017).

In an interview with IndieWire, Hans Zimmer confessed that the memorable theme of Interstellar was composed without referring to the plot of the movie: “Chris said to me, in his casual way. ‘So, Hans, if I wrote one page of something, didn’t tell you what it was about, just give you one page, would you give me one day of work?'” Having had Zimmer’s agreement, Nolan sent him a one-page typewritten letter of a short story: A father leaving his child to take on an important job. Zimmer then quickly wrote the main theme with a simple yet moving chord progression: VI – V – vi. Moreover, the melody consists of four intervals that decrease in size as the harmony develops, representing the expectation of the son and daughter toward their father’s return. Specifically, in the Years of Messages scene, the main theme creeps in while Cooper (the father) is reading years of unread messages from his son and daughter. Tom (the son) eventually gave up on sending the messages because Cooper never responded. As he explained to Cooper in his last message about his loss of faith toward Cooper’s promised return, the significance of the music became prominent: not only did it bring out the son and daughter’s feeling of disappointment toward his father by resolving into the minor chord at the end of each harmonic cycle, but it also served to highlight the stark contrast between the silence that surrounds Cooper in space and the grand music gesture that continued to build until the end of the scene. As a result, the music was able to represent the character’s emotions whenever it came on, heightening the emotional impact of the music as the story develops. As one analyst wrote: “[R]ather than simply being associated with a certain character or group of characters, Zimmer’s themes tend to emphasize the emotions a particular character or group is feeling at various points in the film”. Furthermore, the cyclic quality of the theme captivates the audience by its minimalistic approach, leaving room for the monologue and plot to sink in; as Zimmer himself put it: “Rather than doing a lot… I’m hypnotizing you.

Lastly, Zimmer’s music provides a level of spaciousness that is unparalleled in many other genres in music; it often fills up the frequency ranges with constant doublings of instrumental phrases and the use of synthesized sounds to provide a much fuller low end. As a result, his music sounds full and rich all on its own, yet the collaboration between the music and the film makes it that much more special – hence the power of film music to emote, inspire, and persuade.

Interstellar poster

The Power of the Music Video

Thinking logically, a music video can do one of three things: enhance, detract from, or do nothing for the music. A successful music video will enhance the music they accompany in a way that increases audience engagement, interest, and attraction to the production. There are multiple ways in which this can be done, and methods will vary across genres of music and what the producer(s) want to highlight. Since the possibilities are endless, for this post I’ve chosen to narrow in on what can make a music video successful specifically in the pop/indie genre.

Of course, whether a music video is “any good” or not is subjective and based on the opinion of the viewers, but one good way to see how the general audience is responding is by viewing the like to dislike ratio of the video as well as the comments (where the anonymity of posting behind a screenname guarantees for brutally honest and raw opinions). Based off of my own opinion and the YouTube audience (33K+ likes to 417 dislikes as of 4/17/19), I think it’s safe to say that the music video to Saw You in a Dream by The Japanese house is doing something right. But what, exactly?

“It isn’t the same, but it is enough”

One main difference between attending a live performance and listening to a recording is when replaying recordings, the human connection that exists in a live performance is somewhat lost or missing. Although it isn’t the same, music videos can create visual and mental connections with the audience in addition to the auditory connections that people make when hearing music.

The music video for Saw You in a Dream by The Japanese House creates a visual representation of the song’s atmosphere as the context of the video is dreamy and unreal. In the absence of the human connection that comes with a live performance, this provides the audience with more to grasp onto, deepening their relationship with the music. This creation of atmosphere is important because often times what makes a live performance so special is the ambiance of the performance: being surrounded with the energy of the audience and the mood created by the hall, performers, staging, and effects. Obviously you aren’t going to get that same experience from listening to a recording or even through watching a video and audio pairing, but when well thought out and produced, music videos can achieve a similar effect by giving the audience a taste of the song’s atmospheric character.

A main way in which the Saw You in a Dream music video creates this dreamy and unreal atmosphere is by switching between the incorporation of dark and cool scenes (dreamy) and warm hazy scenes (not grounded in reality). Additionally, the video incorporate elements from real life but use them to create scenes that would be more likely to be spotted in dreams than in real life.

Pictured above is a lone girl riding a two-person bicycle through a room draped with sheets towards a mural and past a potted cactus with a light coming out of it that casts a hazy glow over the room. These elements are all things that exist in real life, but abstract combination of them together in addition to the warm and fuzzy lighting creates the feeling of a dream world.

Additionally, there are multiple elements of the video that reinforce the music’s lyrics, which helps enhance the audience’s connection with the music (in the absence of the human connection a live performance can provide). For instance, during the lyrics “keep my eyes closed” people reach their hands over the eyes of other people, and during “then I awoke and it was so sad” a bright light shines down in the dark atmosphere and the people arise with the main character holding her hand over heart.

Scene during the lyrics “then I awoke and it was so sad.”

This connects and ties together the audience’s senses of sight and comprehension with their sense of sound, creating a more involved experience. Certain video effects used throughout the video also link visuals to melodic sounds in the song. In the opening, instrumentals slide up from E to B and C#, then back to B. During the melodic ascent, the video fades in from black then zooms into the scene, and as the melody settles back a step down to B, the camera pans upwards to show the surrounding scene. This combination of audio reinforced by camera movement draws the audience into the music video’s dream world atmosphere.

Now that you’ve heard from me… what is the general audience saying?

As previously mentioned, the audience reception (judging by the YouTube likes and comments) is pretty positive. After much scrolling through the top comments, I actually didn’t find any negative ones (this is surprising for YouTube but less surprising when looking at the 33K+ likes to 417 dislikes ratio on the video). Well liked comments like these also show that the music video is effective in bringing the audience into the song’s atmosphere.

These comments, specifically the second one pictured show how the audience becomes so drawn into the production and all its elements that they relate to it on a personal level , even sharing their own experiences.

There are also a variety of comments such as these which bring up another topic – the role of technology (specifically electronic devices) in gaining exposure for smaller/less well known artists:

Gabby’s comment suggests that she discovered this song by hearing it in an H&M. She could have asked someone working there for the name of the song, but what also could have happened is she liked what she heard and decided to look up the lyrics to see what the song was. This illustrates how technology has made things so convenient for us as well as how it can help promote less well-known artists by making it easier for them to be discovered – for example if people hear something they like they easily look up the lyrics on google or a song identification website. Or if the music is used in a video they were watching it will be likely linked in the video description for them to click on for further exploration. This is an example of technology working at its prime to assist both the creator and consumer: convenient for the audience/listeners and helpful for the artist(s).

Evanescence and the Gothic Aesthetic

Evanescence is one of the bands that created the foundation for what is now referred to as “gothic rock.” Coincidentally, it’s also one of the only bands that can make me feel like I’m still 13 years old and no one will ever understand me. I’m not the only person that feels this way, though. The Youtube comments on the music video for “Bring Me To Life” mirror similar sentiments, with one user, Marco Alcocer, commenting “it’s not a phase mom.” Evanescence, through their music and their visual aesthetic, resonated with angsty teens on an incredibly widespread level.

Evanescence first became popular in the early 2000s; largely because their songs sounded unlike pretty much all of the other popular music at the time. Their debut album, “Fallen,” came out in 2003, which, to set the scene for the music landscape, was a year in which the Billboard Top 100 was dominated by upbeat songs like “Crazy in Love,” by Beyonce and “Hey Ya!” by OutKast. None of the tracks on “Fallen,” however, sounded like either of those songs.

The most popular song off the album, “Bring Me To Life,” was even described in terms of its relationship to popular music as the “anti-Britney” by the New York Times. Yes, the music was angsty, but what solidified this song as the goth legend it is today was the way the music was combined with visual elements in the music video. Basically, Evanescence used traditional symbols of the gothic style in the music video, which then reinforced the meaning of the lyrics by giving them a historically recognized aesthetic backing.

Bring Me To Life (Official Music Video)

The examples of gothic style that Evanescence used here are plentiful, but for the sake of this post, I’ll just examine a few.

The most easily identifiable gothic element in this video is the color palette. For the duration of the video, there are three main colors: black, white, and dark purple/blue. Notably, there are also flashes of red throughout the whole video, which is a quintessential color in the gothic palette. In fact, typing “gothic color palette” into Google yields the following image.

While the colors may not inherently mean anything, they symbolize a kind of inescapable darkness (especially to anyone who’s ever taken a high school English class) that corresponds to the lyrics of the song. One line in particular, ” call my name and save me from the dark,” exemplifies this idea that the singer is in a dark mental space, so it’s very effective visually that her external surroundings are dark as well.

Another, harder to spot gothic element is the inclusion of the grotesque. Many visuals in the gothic style include grotesque or spectral figures. In the music video, it goes by quickly, but there is a scene that includes clown-like, masked figures.

Screen capture from 1:49 in the “Bring Me To Life” music video

According to Justin Bienvenue, urban gothic (which is the setting of the music video since it takes place in a city during post-industrial society), “is known to put people in horror situations…for an overall dark feel and eerie look.” In this case, it does exactly that. The inclusion of these figures in the music video adds to the overarching feeling that something is not right or is strange in the life/mind of the singer. The fact that they’re masked and not just regular clowns makes it especially creepy, which contributes to the aesthetic of the video overall. Additionally, the speed at which they flash by in the video begs the question of whether they were actually there or creates a “what was that?” effect, which adds to the eeriness of their presence.

Lasting Impressions

In recent years, this song has adopted a new visual medium: the meme. If you didn’t know that this song spurred a popular meme, one scan through the “Bring Me To Life” Youtube comments would fill you in. Youtube user Turnabout Robin commented, “This has become a meme song as of late.” User KR Gaming adds, “I remember listening to this song as a child without thinking of memes…damn.”

The memes in question are similar in format to these:

The move from the music video to memes indicates that the feelings that this song evoked are something that a lot of people look back on with a humorous sort of nostalgia. Basically, we can identify that at one point all of this angst spoke to us, but now we realize that, as much as we hate to admit it, our moms were right, and it was just a phase. As Youtube user The Perfect Gaming Zone put it, “Music is the closest thing we have to a time machine…”

Our Favorite Brothers are BACK

Jonas Brothers pose for the cover of their single, Sucker.

The Jonas Brothers took to world by storm when we were children in the late 2000’s, and now they are back to rock our world once again. On February 28, 2019, they announced their reunion, and on March 1, 2019, the Jonas Brothers released their single, “Sucker” after a six year hiatus. We thought 2013 was the last time we would see our favorite brothers, but after a few sudden Instagram and twitter posts, we prepared ourselves for their return. They quickly hit the top charts, reaching #1 on the Hot 100 Billboard. Not only was their song a banger, their music video was unique and unexpected, pulling us closer to our computer screens.

The elegance of the castle and the costumes contrasts with the pop, upbeat feel of the song. But I feel like there is a connection. In the ages where elaborate dinners and large ball gowns were in, there was an emphasis on showing off and giving importance to women. Their spouses are the center of their attention, the brothers singing these endearing lyrics to them for the whole video. Sucker seems to have been inspired by the fact that the three Jonas Brothers have grown up, and now have wives/fiancees. A popular comment from the video was about the brothers including their significant others, someone writing, “lol I love they added their significant others!” The inclusion of their beautiful, powerful spouses adds emphasis to the meaning of the lyrics “I’m a sucker for you”. Each of the spouses personality was shown through choreography, outfits, and even hair styles, adding to the personal effect that they wished to convey.

The video has a mix of old and new, antique and modern. The castle with the long driveway, the butlers, the elaborate dresses and the large dinner party with dozens of guests is a flash of the past, but they twist it to include a more modern vibe, with smaller details such as the colors and contemporary lyrics to add a 21st century feel. The outfits were bright and flashy, symbolizing their stunning return, but also shows how fashion has developed over the centuries, from monotone colors to bright pinks and sequins, but also referencing current fashion trends sported by other celebrities. For example, Kevin Jonas is seen wearing a psychedelic patterned shirt, a reference to one that Beyonce wore on a day out

This music video was everything good and new, and everything we could have hoped for. The technology used was mostly cameras and lighting, using aerial cameras to capture the mansion and its gardens in its entirety. Another effect of this music video was to be confused about the time period: is this a flashback or just a really ornate costume party? Surprisingly, most of the reactions and comments were positive, people stating, “who else is watching this video continuously cause its just awesome.” Everyone was so excited about their return, there was little room for negativity. Most people were just so shocked that they were back together that every other comment was “omg” or “I love them”. Audience reaction was exactly what the Jonas Brothers were hoping for, the video already at 106 million views.

“Sucker” by the Jonas Brothers. 106 million views.

Celine Dion “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”

There are so many different types of music videos out there. My favorites are the very extra and drawn-out ones that tell a story with the song and add to its meaning. That’s why I will be analyzing Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” 

“It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” was the leadoff song on possibly her most successful album and in my opinion, it is her most iconic music video, and one of the most iconic music videos of all time. The video and song are quite long-roughly 6 minutes in length. It starts with a 50 second instrumental introduction. In these 50 seconds, although she hasn’t started singing, we get set up with the overall feel of the video. The music, camera work, etc. come together to give us the feel of what is going on. Musically, we hear both haunting and passionate music as the melody comes in fragments. We already get the sense that something bad is about to happen from that. Not only from the music but from the lightning storm outside. Not to mention the shifting camera work, the scary dark, gothic mansion, the paintings, statues, old knick-knacks, candles and moonlight. And of course, something bad does happen. The person who Celine is singing about in the video dies in a motorcycle accident after a tree falls in his path and catches fire. So, lots of drama. This music video is way over- the-top. It was actually one of the most expensive ones to make. The man who wrote the song, Jim Steinman, is also a man driven to extremes.

“At restaurants, he routinely orders a half-dozen appetizers and a comparable number of entrees and desserts. He creates pop songs that are bigger than everything else on the radio — longer, louder, lusher, with exquisitely layered background vocals, crashing cymbals and emphatic titles…”

Now you can see that why the video is so excessive and extravagant. Check out this pic of Steinman: 

The sound in this long instrumental opening is very well planned out. For instance, the motorcycle crashes and the music plays along with it with a sudden strike, along with crashing thunder sound effects. And visually, the sights play along with it too with the explosion of light and fire. The camera is constantly shifting scenes and points of view too which gives us a sense of chaos.

In the rest video, Celine Dion’s character frantically runs alone in the scary mansion while the wind is blowing crazily inside from the open windows. She’s haunted by her dead lover’s ghost image, which she sees in mirrors and picture frames replaying their lives together. It ends with her holding a photo of them, followed by a shot of the storm being over and the sky clearing up, leaving us with a feeling of release.

Even Celine’s live performances of this song are quite a scene. 

As you can see, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” is very melodramatic and gets us all feeling some type of way. And I think the commenters agree:

 Taylor Harris says “Gosh. I used to belt the hell out of this song when my parents went to work all summer. I sang as if I was longing for love and needed it back. I was 13 and never had a boyfriend…but when I sang this song I sang it as if I had lost one.” Another commenter saying “throwback to when music videos had ACTUAL storylines.” Another person agrees saying “I got chills listening to it and watching the storyline in the video.”

I think these comments show exactly what this music video is going for. It is trying to evoke emotional responses and it does a good job with this in its dramatic, overindulgent fashion. People are reacting to the sounds and images exactly how the director and Celine wanted them too. It’s interesting how much effect a music video can have on a song. A good video can enhance and give deeper meaning to a song through its visual cues, while a bad video can completely ruin a song. Music videos are amazing because we can get another insight into what the artist had in mind with their song. It create this multi-sensory experience. It adds in a new element of feeling. In a lot of ways, it is the song visualized.