Music Video Theorists

Adorno

Adorno believed that music videos were created to give the public false needs. Adorno believes capitalists are behind this. False needs are things that we think about that don't matter and they act as distractions from real problems. Adorno believes that these false needs are created to help cover up things happening with the government. He also says that these false needs are created and satisfied in one go.

Hebdige

Hebdige is on the other spectrum to Adorno. Hebdige says that people interpret music videos differently. This is based on the type of person and their background will help them to interpret the music video in a certain way. Hebdige's main point is that this can lead to subcultures like punk and more niche artists away from the mainstream music.

Negus  

Negus' theory is based off of two ideologies. Negus believes that there are two different types of artist. These ideologies are ideologies of creativity and one is organic and the other is synthetic. Organic is when an artist focuses on albums and they sustain their status in the industry as they are a long term solution. Because there is the focus on albums the artists image enhances. Synthetic is short term and it mainly features 1,2,3 hit wonders. The image of the artist is constructed by the company. An example of organic would be Michael Jackson and an example of synthetic would be One Direction.  

Dyer

Dyer focuses on the idea of artists being stars. He believes that stars have common features. Dyers definition of a star is an image and not a real person. He says that the image is constructed through advertising and other media outlets. Dyer believes stars are commodities and that they are based on two paradoxes. The first paradox is that stars are ordinary and extra ordinary. These means that the stars can be see doing normal things like shopping but their talent makes them stand out from the crowd. The second paradox is that stars are present and absent. This is based on that the consumer gets to see so much into the stars life through TV, radio and magazines that they know them when in fact they dont.