Michał Pick

The article discusses the relations between sound and moving image in music videos. The author, referring to the concepts of researchers such as Jurij Łotman, Carol Vernallis, Urszula Jarecka, Mirosław Przylipiak, and others, draws attention to the special type of synthesis which occurs between sound and vision in music videos. Supporting his considerations with the analysis of representative video clips, the author proves that the mutual relation of sound and image is an important element of the narration present in music videos. Sound (in the form of a song) is the core element of music videos, but their polymedia nature allows to emphasize correlation and synthesis of individual layers comprising its structure. The higher-order communication quality created in this way results from the integration of semantically different-code elements, which can be seen in the analytical part.

Music video as a specific genre of audiovisual arts, deriving directly from tradition of film, television and music programs, became massive promotion and visual communication tool for artists at the turn of 70’s/80’s. Mentioned many times in articles about music videos, its dependence on other art fields, such as film, musical, theater arts, plastic arts etc., only strengthens us in belief that music video is an enormous hybrid form, being heir to aforementioned forms. At this intertextual base, music video has developed its own language. Cognizance and description of its components, understanding of connection rules and the essence of its individual elements is the main aim of this article. By pointing to coexistence and correlations of components such as rhythm, tempo, tone, editing etc., the text also emphasizes similarity of the music video language to the language of literature and other arts which use the same tools.

Abstrakt
Tematem artykułu jest relacja dźwięku i ruchomego obrazu w wideoklipach muzycznych. Autor powołując się na koncepcje badaczy takich jak Jurij Łotman, Carol Vernallis, Urszula Jarecka, Mirosław Przylipiak i in., zwraca uwagę na szczególny rodzaj syntezy zachodzący pomiędzy fonią i wizją w przypadku wideoklipów. Popierając swoje rozważania analizą reprezentatywnych teledysków (m.in. The Chemical Brothers – Star Guitar, Daft Punk – Around the World, Fatboy Slim – Weapon of Choice) autor dowodzi, że wzajemna relacja dźwięku i ruchomego obrazu to istotny, realizowany na różne sposoby, element narracji audiowizualnego tekstu kultury. Szczególny przypadek polimedialnych muzycznych wideo, dla których dźwięk (w postaci piosenki) jest formą pierwotną, pozwala podkreślić korelacje i harmonijną syntezę warstwy słowno-obrazowej i dźwiękowej. Powstała w ten sposób komunikacyjna jakość wyższego rzędu jest wynikiem integracji różnkodowych semantycznie elementów, co widać w części analitycznej.
Abstract
The article is about relations of sound and moving image in music videos. Author, referring to the concepts of researchers such as Jurij Łotman, Carol Vernallis, Urszula Jarecka, Mirosław Przylipiak and others, draws attention to the special type of synthesis that occurs between sound and vision in music videos. Supporting his considerations with the analysis of representative video clips, author proves that the mutual relation of sound and image is an important element of music videos narration. Sound (in the form of a song) is the basic form for music videos but their polymedia nature allows to emphasize correlation and synthesis of individual layers of it’s structure. The higher-order communication quality created in this way is the result of the integration of semantically different-code elements, which can be seen in the analytical part.

Music video as a specific genre of audiovisual arts, deriving directly from tradition of film, television and music programs, became massive promotion and visual communication tool for artists at the turn of 70’s/80’s. Mentioned many times in articles about music videos, its dependence on other art fields, such as film, musical, theater arts, plastic arts etc., only strengthens us in belief that music video is an enormous hybrid form, being heir to aforementioned forms. At this intertextual base, music video has developed its own language. Cognizance and description of its components, understanding of connection rules and the essence of its individual elements is the main aim of this article. By pointing to coexistence and correlations of components such as rhythm, tempo, tone, editing etc., the text also emphasizes similarity of the music video language to the language of literature and other arts which use the same tools.

Niniejszy artykuł poświęcony jest dwóm ostatnim teledyskom Davida Bowiego. Są to odpowiednio wideoklipy do utworów Blackstar i Lazarus. Utwory te zostały wybrane na single promujące ostatnie, jak się miało okazać, wydawnictwo Bowiego. Przyglądam się im z semantycznego punktu widzenia, próbując nakreślić ich znaczenie, rozwikłać skomplikowaną symbolikę, proponując ich możliwą interpretację. Moje rozważania opieram o wiedzę pozyskaną z materiałów, z których pochodzą cytaty wyszczególnione w tekście.