Artist Research

Sparklehorse/Mark Linkous

Mark Linkous (September 9, 1962 – March 6, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as leader of Sparklehorse. He was also known for his collaborations with such notable artists as Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Daniel Johnston, Radiohead, Black Francis, Julian Casablancas, Nina Persson, David Lynch, Fennesz, Danger Mouse, and Sage Francis.

A member of the 1980s indie band the Dancing Hoods, Linkous moved with the group from his native Virginia to New York City and later Los Angeles in hopes of achieving mainstream success. By 1988, the band had failed to land a major record label deal, and they disbanded with Linkous returning to Virginia, where he began writing songs under various monikers.

By 1995, he created a project named Sparklehorse, of which he would remain the only permanent member. The band released a quartet of critically acclaimed albums on Capitol Records: Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, Good Morning Spider, It's a Wonderful Life, and on Astralwerks records: Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain. Linkous lived the last years of his life in Hayesville, North Carolina, where he established Static King Studio. He committed suicide in Knoxville, Tennessee on March 6, 2010.

In 1996, while supporting Radiohead on the first Sparklehorse tour, Linkous overdosed on alcohol, Valium and antidepressants and possibly other substances in his London hotel room. Rendered unconscious by the combination of drugs, he collapsed with his legs pinned beneath him, and remained in that position for almost fourteen hours.

Linkous committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart outside a friend's house in Knoxville at 1:20 pm on March 6, 2010. He was 47 years old. According to a spokesperson for the Police Department, the musician was staying with two friends. The friends said Linkous went upstairs for a short period and then told the two that he was going for a walk and exited through a back door. A witness saw him sit down in the alley near Irwin Street, pull out his rifle, and fire into his own chest. Linkous was declared dead at the scene; police did not find a suicide note, but told the press that he had been having personal problems. The musician's publicist confirmed the details of his death to a number of publications on the same day.

Song Analysis

Styles, Conventions and Techniques in Music Videos

Styles, Conventions and Techniques in Music Videos

In this piece, I will be talking about a number of styles, conventions and techniques within the industry of music videos. The production of a music video is an art in which there are multiple contributors to whether the music video is a successful product or not, as well as developing its own unique aesthetic.

Live Footage Some music videos consist of footage from live performances of said song. This promotes concerts and other live performances to the online fan-base of the artist/band.

     
This music video is for Twenty One Pilots' song Ode to Sleep. The video contains a series of live performances throughout their career, each has a larger crowd. This video also can be included in the narrative category because it tells the story of their career and how they grew in popularity.

Some music videos contain a recreation of a live performance, they use a recreation rather than a real concert because it allows for better, more professional looking cinematography. 

This music video is for Elbow's song: Grounds for Divorce. This video consists of a recreated live performance in a pub, as well as other pub activities.

From these 2 examples of music videos, we can see the difference in quality of actual live performances and staged recreations.

Narrative/Interpretive Some music videos can portray a narrative of some kind, some may interpret the lyrics of the song in some way, some may not. Interpretations of the lyrics may be approached literally or otherwise. Music videos that tell stories often don't primarily feature the artist, however there are exceptions.



For example, this music video for the Song Hell Yeah by Rag'n'Bone Man tells the story of a brother and sister who plan to kill their abusive father after he murders their mother. This video interprets the powerful emotions in the song itself to make an impactful piece of art. 








Surrealist/absurdist

Some videos are bizarre and unconventional, and sometimes have very little relevance to the lyrics. Videos like this can often be animated but some are also real footage.


For example, this video is for Queens of the Stone Age's song, I appear Missing. This video is animated in a very outlandish sort of grotesque way and portrays a vague narrative.

Impressionist
Impressionist music videos aim to match the emotional tone of the music rather than portraying the meaning of the lyrics literally. This produces a more artistic video. This idea is based off of the 19th century art movement 'impressionism' where artists record how the world makes them feel rather than the world itself. These videos contain elements such as soft lighting, flowing and intermingling colours and soft edges.
This video is for Foals' song Spanish Sahara, this is a slow, emotional song, and the video portrays exactly that. There is no obvious interpretation of the lyrics within the video, however the artistic shots and general mood portrayed matches the song.








Intertextual
Music videos can sometimes make references to other products; for example, soundtrack videos commonly have references to the films themselves if they're not footage straight from the movie itself.They can also allude to other media text, events, people, or any other cultural or historical reference. A pastiche is a light-hearted  imitation of another artist's style, and a parody 'pokes fun' a the original subject matter. Artists may may also use music videos as a way of paying respect to others influence, like saying thank you (homage).

This is a good example of intertextuality. This video is for the song Warriors by Imagine Dragons, the video is also an advert for the game League of Legends' championship series. This is an excellent example because, League of Legends being the most popular game, provides a lot of promotion for Imagine Dragons within the game's fan-base, and it also promotes the game within the band's fan-base. This video is also an example of digital animation used for a music video. Animation
As seen previously, music videos can also contain or primarily consist of animation, whether that's digital or stop-motion, animation allows for a more artistic, surreal experience.

This is another animated music video for Queens of the Stone Age. This one is for the song Go With the Flow. Queens of the Stone Age have numerous animated videos, this allows them to have more graphic, violent, extreme videos to suit the mood of their music.
Lip-Sync
A performance video might require the artist to mime the lyrics so they appear synced to the track. Lip syncing is also used in narrative based videos. sometimes the speed of the song is changed when filming for effects such as slow motion with normal paced audio.

For example, in this video, for the White Stripes' song Seven Nation Army, while it would primarily be categorized as a surrealist video with an interesting edit, lip syncing is used in the video. Keeping the video and the audio as two separate parts allows for the video to be as high quality as possible without needing sound recording equipment, and also keeping the audio as high quality as possible without having to record video too. 
Editing

Often, music videos are edited in an interesting, unique style, sometimes even challenging the conventions of classic continuity editing. As in all forms of video media, editing is an obligatory and important part of the production process, and can be done extremely artistically at times. MTV has awards for best editing in a music video. In 2003, Olivier Gajan won the award for his work on the video above: Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. 

A common, yet under-appreciated technique used in editing music videos is cutting to the beat of the music, this helps establish a rhythm to the video. 

This is a good example of this technique being used. This is another video for The White Stripes, this one is for the song Hardest Button to Button.

Visual effects are used in numerous ways; for one, to gain the attention of the viewers if the effects are cutting edge. Also, you could get more publicity and attract new audiences to your music if the video is especially impressive.

The video for Why'd you only call me when you're high by Arctic Monkeys is a good example to show use of post-production effects; throughout the video we see a number of different effects, the 2 most prominent are the texts that appear above the phone and the blurs that suggest that the protagonist is tripping.

An interesting visual effect used in some music videos is split screen. Split screen separates the screen into two different videos, this gives the video an interesting dynamic feel. 

Johnny Lloyd-Pilgrims is an example of split screen in a music video.

An effect used quite often in a lot of lower budget visual media and also less often in higher production-scale works is chroma-key or the use of a green screen or something to that effect. This is when a bright green surface or piece of clothing is worn or used in filming, and in the editing stage, they replace the green colour with what they want to be there.

An example of a green screen being used somewhat shoddily is Kanye West's music video for Bound 2, in which some poor visual effects are used. 

When used well, green screens can provide a surreal, larger than life feel to the video, however when it's done poorly and its obviously a green screen it makes the video seem tacky.

Cinematography

Cinematography is a cornerstone in what makes a music video an enjoyable experience. There are a plethora of techniques used in the filming that can create a truly mesmerizing viewing experience. One example of a technique used is camera movements, the use of pan shots, tracking shots, tilts shots can show movement. This gives the video a dynamic flow and creates excitement for the audience.

In the video for Sweatpants by Childish Gambino, the whole video is made to look as if it is one continuous shot, this is achieved by almost constant camera movement as it follows him around. This gives the video a unique, interesting aesthetic.

Another technique in cinematography is camera angles and shot types; by using different shots and angles, a filmmaker can portray a different tone or show more of the mise-en-scene.
 This shot from Tyler, The Creator's video for Tamale is a good example of a wide shot being used to capture everything within the set, this gives the video a clean, complete look.
 As mentioned previously, mise-en-scene is a key factor in determine the quality in which the mood is portrayed within a music video. mise-en-scene is basically what is seen in a shot. In high quality productions, everything in a shot contributes to the video in some way, whether that's to the mood or tone, or to the narrative, mise-en-scene is undoubtedly an important aspect of a video. 

For example, in the opening shot in the music video for Aftermath by muse, we can clearly see a number of details that give the viewer an idea of the setting of the video.