APROXIMACIN AL ANLISIS RETRICO DE UNA SELECCIN DE VIDEOS MUSICALES DESDE UN ENFOQUE CULTURAL Autores.

Karyn Charles Rybacki and Donald Jay Rybacki Northern Michigan University (Rev. Trans, 1995) (Trad. y seleccin de textos M. F.) La Valoracin Social Modelo examina los caminos que cada sociedad sigue para resolver sus conflictos entre las valoraciones a travs de la actividad retrica, siempre sintetizando o transformando las valoraciones incompatibles En el video de Bon Jovi paraBuscado muerto o vivo, la banda usa los mitos del viejo Oeste para simbolizar la tensin entre individualidad y comunidad que existe entre los artistas y sus fans. El rap de Enemigo Pblico, "En esta poca me voy a Arizona" concierne al ultraje del grupo al Estado que rechaz el festejo para el cumpleaos del Dr. Martn Luther King Narrativas de violencia y de no violencia estn yuxtapuestas visualmente en un camino que sugiere que la violencia blanca sobre los negros que ocurra durante los das del Movimiento por los Derechos Civiles puede ser reemplazada por la violencia negra sobre los blancos sin que nada cambie El modelo psicolgico de Jung se basa en el examen de las imgenes de los sueos y en arquetipos como reflejos de conflicto entre lo pblico y lo privado. El eurtmico video para "Dulces sueos" est repleto de smbolos del conflicto entre lo que la mujer puede proyectar como parte de su persona pblica como opuesta a la privada, sombra de lo que realmente es. El video de. Guns N' Roses para "Lluvia de Noviembre " est concebido como un sueo extenso que deviene en pesadilla, la alegre celebracin de una boda que se vuelve un sombro funeral marcando la muerte de la novia. Ambos videos hablan de los temores que los jvenes tienen sobre la vida , sus expectativas y confrontando las carencias y el rechazo o el eventual abandono cuando no son satisfechas. El Modelo Ideolgico de la Crtica Cultural usa un modo particular de ver el mundo como el feminismo o el marxismo como una lente a travs de la que es examinada la actividad retrica El modelo ideolgico del feminismo examina la igualdad o la desigualdad en las cuestiones de gnero, en tanto las crticas marxistas conciernen a cuestiones de los problemas de clase, discriminacin y hegemona. El video de The Divynls para la cancin "Me toco a m misma" est repleto de imgenes que desvalorizan a las mujeres. El video de Madonna para "Chica Material " ledo desde la perspectiva marxista sugiere que ella es por lo menos igual a cualquier hombre. Esta investigacin fue originalmente presentada en 1993 en la convencin nacional de la Speech Communication Association en Miami, Florida como parte de uno de los
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seminarios sobre videos musicales Los actos retricos de una sociedad, particularmente aquellos convalidados por los mass media populares, llevan el sello de su cultura. La msica ha sido siempre reconocida como una forma de la cultura popular con una cierta potencialidad para la comunicacin retrica (Denisoff, 1971; 1972 y Rybacki & Rybacki, 1991). Los dos autores de este ensayo son de una generacin descrita como criada con la radio. Nuestro sentido del mensaje en las audiciones musicales van ms a lo auditivo que a lo visual. Hace Once aos, la manera de experimentar la msica popular cambi y se convirti en video, unido a la generacin MTV. Antes que una no demasiado sutil va de estimulacin de la venta de las grabaciones, los videos musicales son ahora un tipo de comunicacin en s mismos y una poderosa fuente de ideas para la nueva generacin. Luego de su gnesis como un elemento promocional, los videos musicales han devenido en algo ms que un recurso del marketing de la industria de la msica. Pat Aufderheide (1986) sostiene que, pese a su afn comercial, los videos musicales merecen una seria consideracin: "Esto es particularmente importante porque est en la vanguardia de la transformacin del lenguaje de la publicidad -el vocabulario dominante de la cultura comercial- en una sociedad que depende de un enorme flujo de informacin para determinar la calidad de su vida poltica y pblica. El estudio de la forma de los videos musicales implica tambin preguntar sobre el modo emergente de la sociedad democrtica y capitalista que lo crea y lo recibe. "(p. 59) Importante para la dispersin de los videos musicales fue la red de MTV, un pequeo canal de cable amado por una faja demogrfica que va desde los 18 a los 34 aos.. MTV redise y libr el rock a la generacin de la TV que reubic el uso de la radio como el medio para el rock. Como David Szatmary (1991) sugiere, La generacin de MTV no tiene un recuerdo personal de Elvis, Los Beatles, Vietnam y busca su identidad musical diferenciada de la nuestra los nacidos en el baby boom. (Entre 1946 y 1955) "En la dcada de 1980, MTV diseo y libr el rock a la generacin de la TV " (p. 250). MTV juega un rol central modelando la cultura como indica D.S. Miller (citado en Abt, 1987) : "Mientras tanto, el formato de MTV cumple una funcin brdica, de convergencia frente a su audiencia un conjunto de posibles (competencia) subculturas jvenes y opciones de estilos de vida y al mismo tiempo comercia con esas subculturas y canales toda energa refleja o participativa de la audiencia en el acto del consumo. En este sentido, MTV funciona como un negociante en el proceso hegemnico amplificando y absorbiendo elementos de la cultura opositora, mientras tanto, legitima y naturaliza sus relaciones con las instituciones dominante de la sociedad de consumo (p. 103) La funcin brdicade MTV como parecido a un negociador produce que la visin de Aufderheide views como una respuesta a la bsqueda generacional de la identidad de aquellos criados con el video. Los videos musicales son expresiones autnticas de la sociedad industrial populista. Para la gente joven preocupada por
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encontrar un lugar en comunidades dotadas con paseo de compras pero con pocos centros comunitarios, en una economa cuyo mayor producto es la informacin, los videos musicales representan la bsqueda de la identidad y una comunidad improvisada. (p. 63) Caractersticas de los Videos musicales Para comprender totalmente cmo el modelo cultural facilita la crtica retrica de los videos musicales, es necesario primero explorar las caractersticas particulares del gnero. La msica, particularmente el rock, ha tenido siempre un elemento visual. La tapa del lbum con una foto de la banda esforzndose durante la grabacin, la preparacin de un concierto o de una publicidad promocional ayudaron a crear un imaginario visual del rock. El uso del video para estimular la venta del lbum y la presencia de MTV como una continua oferta de vistas simplemente sirvi para aumentar el potencial visual presente en el rock Los espectadores generalmente no miran los videos musicales como un comercio de un lbum o acto. Aufderheide (1986) describe la conexin del espectador del video. "Conectando la referencia con el efectivo o cuotas, los videos musicales atraviesan la mirada del consumidor como una serie de estados de nimo. Disparan nostalgia, lamento, ansiedad, confusin, terror, envidia, admiracin, piedad, excitacin--actitudes que provienen de la expresin primaria como la pasin, el xtasis y la rabia. El humor a menudo expresa una carencia, una incompletitud, una inestabilidad, una bsqueda por un lugar. En los videos musicales, aquellos sentimientos se lanzan en un vuelo caprichoso, extensas jornadas en lo arbitrario. (p. 63) Que estos videos musicales presenten estados de nimo compulsivos que puedan atrapar la atencin del espectador no es una cuestin de azar. Abt (1987) establece que "los directores de los videos se esfuerzan por hacer sus productos tan excitantes como la msica. En el problema de establecer y mantener un grupo de seguidores, los artistas utilizan un gran nmero de tcnicas para aparecer exticos, poderosos, duros, sexys, fros, nicos." (p. 103). Un video puede competir con otros videos. "Pueden ganar y captar la atencin del espectador entre los otros videos; ayudar, establecer , visualizar o mantener la imagen del artista; vender la imagen y los productos asociados; enviar uno o varios mensajes directos o indirectos." (p. 97). Los videos musicales pueden ser encuadrados en tres tipologas: de ejecucin, de narracin y de concepto. (Firth, 1988). Esos tipos describen la forma y el contenido seleccionado por el director o el artista para atraer espectadores y llevarles un mensaje directo o indirecto. Los videos de ejecuciones, los ms comunes, muestran a la estrella o al grupo cantando en un concierto rodeados del entusiasmo salvaje de los fans. El objetivo es dar un sentido a la experiencia del concierto. Gow sugiere que "la predominancia de la ejecucin como un sistema formal en los clips populares indica que el video musical se define principalmente como una comunicacin de imgenes de artistas cantando y tocando canciones." (pp. 48-49). Los videos de ejecucin, especialmente aquellos que muestran a la estrella o al grupo en el estudio, recuerdan al
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espectador que la grabacin es muy importante. "La ejecucin convence visualmente a los espectadores de que, innegablemente, la grabacin de la msica es un elemento muy significativo." (Gow, 1992, p. 45).Un video narrativo presenta una secuencia de hechos. Un video puede contra cualquier historia en una secuencia lineal de causa efecto. Las historias de amor, por ejemplo, son las ms comunes en los videos musicales. El patrn narrativo es un chico que encuentra una chica, el chico pierde la chica, el chico espera que la chica vuelva. La accin en la historia est dominada por los machos que hacen cosas y las hembras que reaccionan pasivamente o esperan que pase algo. (Schwichtenberg, 1992). Los videos conceptuales recuperan la forma potica, la metfora primera (Firth, 1988). El video conceptual puede ser un poema metafsico articulado a travs de elementos visuales y verbales. "Esos videos hacen un uso significante de los elementos visuales, utilizando la vista tanto como ante el odo, y adems. Expresando verdades discursivamente inexpresables. " (Lorch, 1988, p. 143). Los videos conceptuales no cuentan una historia de una forma lineal, sino ms bien provocan un estado de nimo, un sentimiento que es evocado en la experiencia del espectador (Firth, 1988). Los videos conceptuales contienen la posibilidad de una multiplicidad de sentidos. Esto es, deben ser vistos como una metfora o una secuencia metafrica que sern interpretadas por el espectador. Hasta aqu, las relaciones metafricas entre imgenes estructuradas de acuerdo a una rima y a un ritmo musicales y visuales juegan un sugestivo rol al requerir de nosotros, espectadores / oyentes, una multiplicidad de pensamientos en consonancia con nuestra experiencia algo que podemos sentir y describir. " (Schwichtenberg, 1992 p. 124). La mayora de los videos musicales puede actualmente tener elementos de ms de una categora. Goodwin (1992), al describir los videos de Madonna, sugiere que la narrativa esencial obliga a un video musical a mostrar su habilidad para hacer lucir a la estrella, "la estrella en el texto," como parecen hacer todos los videos de Madonna. Una historia existe solamente por su habilidad de crear, en el caso de Madonna de recrear a la persona de la estrella. Lo esencial de estos elementos puede tambin activar el ascenso de un tipo de msica como el rap en su captacin de una extensa audiencia. Aunque podemos interpretar provechosamente el mensaje potencial de los videos musicales usando estas tres categoras bsicas para el anlisis del contenido, existen ciertas limitaciones si seguimos en este sendero. "Los analistas de videos musicales narrativos han deseado vivamente congelar el momento y estudiar los de videos golpe a golpe, pero aqu el problema es aquello que genera, no un gran conocimiento, sino muy poco, porque la narrativa individual es altamente intertextual.." (Goodwin, 1992 p. 90).Como una esencia de la tcnica del video y del imaginario del film y la televisin, los videos musicales ofrecen una forma perceptiva nueva, proveyendo alusiones a, e incorporaciones de viejos conos del imaginario del film, permitindonos reconstituir las obras de la explosin de informacin del siglo XX. (Turner, 1986). La brevedad del video musical ha creado una nueva gramtica de la tcnica del video, particular de esta minscula forma.
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El inters y la excitacin se estimulan con rpidos cortes, fragmentos, disoluciones, superposiciones y otros efectos especiales que toman juntos a diferentes escenas y caracteres, hacen a los videos musicales visualmente y temticamente dinmicos." (Abt, 1987 pp. 97-98) Nacido de la amalgama de comercialismo, televisin, y cine, con el propsito de vender los lbumes de rock, los videos musicales frecuentemente emplean smbolos verbales y visuales preestablecidos para contar una historia o imponer un significado. Si los smbolos no existen, los videos musicales inventan uno propio y, dada la ubicuidad del medio, rpidamente lo encontramos vulgarizado. Cmo entonces comprender mejor las propiedades retricas que esta forma meditica tiene para la audiencia? Schwichtenberg (1992) sugiere que lo que los crticos podran considerar es cmo los videos musicales estn insertos en un complejo contexto cultural que incluye grabadora, industrias y diversas audiencias que atribuyen una gran variedad de significados a la msica y a las imgenes " (p. 117). Estas caractersticas sugieren que la aproximacin ms apropiada desde el punto de vista metodolgico para comprender cmo los videos musicales pueden funcionar como retrica es verlos como actos culturales, ubicados de forma intertextual en la propia experiencia de los espectadores. Definimos cultura, con una pequea ayuda de Bruce Gronbeck (1983), como un complejo conjunto de reglas determinadas colectivamente, valores, ideologas y hbitos que condicionan a los rtores y sus actos. Este complejo lleva a una sociedad a generar significados a travs de varias formas de mensajes para establecer las series de las verdades socialmente aceptadas. Hasta qu punto una forma de comunicacin como los videos musicales tiene un lugar en el proceso de creacin de la verdad es lo que la crtica retrica trata de descubrir a travs del criticismo. Las variadas aproximaciones culturales ofrecen a la crtica estructuras nicas de referencia para examinar qu es lo ms significativo en los elementos discursivos y no discursivos de los videos musicales. El objetivo de este ensayo es identificar cules caractersticas ofrece cada aproximacin a la crtica de los videos musicales. Proponemos aplicar tres perspectivas culturales diferentes a seis videos musicales, discutiendo su capacidad de anlisis para evaluar los elementos discursivos y no discursivos de los videos. La aproximacin planteada en este ensayo fue seleccionada luego de una revisin de ensayos crticos en las revistas sobre la comunicacin que emplean metodologas comnmente identificadas como social-cultural. Seleccionamos para su inclusin aquellas aproximaciones que parecieron ms aplicables, las que daban las caractersticas propias de los videos musicales que se discutieron anteriormente ene este ensayo. Se seleccionaron seis videos que representan las diversas categoras (ejecucin, narrativa y concepto) y una clase de artistas y estilos musicales. Este ensayo no pretende ser un estudio comprehensivo de cada video, sino ms bien demostrar la utilidad de elegir la aproximacin cultural para analizar cmo y porqu
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un video deviene un vehculo para la identidad cultural, una comunidad improvisada para la generacin MTV

Los valores sociales del modelo cultural. Hemos aplicado este modelo al anlisis dek video "Buscado, Muerto o vivo de Bon Jovi y En ese momento me encuentraba en Arizonade Public Enemy. Desarrollado por Janice Hocker Rushing y Thomas Frentz (Rushing & Frentz, 1978; Frentz & Rushing, 1978; and Rushing, 1983), Los valores sociales del modelo cultural generalizan sobre el sistema de valores de una cultura basndose en un examen del texto. Esta metodologa crtica comienza asumiendo que una cultura representa una conciencia colectiva de valores bsicos. Cuando los valores entran en conflicto, si ese conflicto es resuelto, los actos retricos presentan trasformacin de los valores o una sntesis. Los textos retricos operan como una dialctica donde los valores son examinados y completamente transformados o sintetizados por un afortunado acto retrico. Los crticos que usan el modelo de valor social examinan el texto retrico para descubrir cmo el valor que cambia toma su lugar. En particular los crticos buscan contestar preguntas como estas: 1. Qu valores existen en oposicin? (elementos situacionales que producen una tensin en los valores) 2 Cundo aflora una tensin de valores? (grupos, individuos, y el rol ms amplio de la sociedad cuestionando los valores establecidos) 3. Qu mensajes y media expresan el conflicto de valores? (locus de mensajes y medios ) 4. Se produce una reorientacin de los valores? (determinar si la reorientacin es una transformacin o una sntesis) 5. Quin es el agente de cambio? (identificacin de un agente rtor poderoso con una habilidad psicolgica para producir el cambio de valores. 6. Cul es el rol de la audiencia? (status de participante o espectador) Buscado: Vivo o Muertode Bon Jovi : El crtico busca determinar si un valor es transformado, un valor reemplaza a uno preexistente o uno establecido, o, si dos valores entran en competencia o los establecidos son sintetizados en un Nuevo valor individual o un valor establecido que rene las caractersticas de otros dos. En Buscado: Vivo o Muertode Bon Jovi, las imagines que inmediatamente vienen a la mente proceden del imponente video de presentacin de Camino a la Gloria,el ttulo de la cancin del film Young Guns II. Un disparo en color en el paisaje de roca roja en el valle de los monumentos de Arizona, donde se filmaron muchos de los grandes western de John Ford. La ejecucin de un solo de Jon Bon Jovi
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en un escenario de un parador de la carretera sobre una mesa, intercala fragmentos de escenas de pelculas y termina con un relmpago iluminando el horizonte y el escenario en llamas. Como recalcando esas imgenes tal vez, el Viejo video de Bon Jovi para la cancin Buscado: Vivo o Muertoes una dursima encarnacin del valor tensin en el mito del Oeste. Como anota Rushing (1983), el mito del viejo oeste es una historia del enfrentamiento entre la frontera salvaje y la necesidad del individuo de domesticarla, y la comunidad que requiere la cooperacin y la conformidad si quiere formular su influencia civilizadora Los hroes de los 50 y los de los antiguos western eran individualistas, quienes, como en la encarnacin de Gary Cooper de Marshall Will Cane, a menudo prefieren marchar al ocaso luego de salvar la comunidad de las depredaciones de la frontera cuando sus valores cooperativo-conformistas fueron dejados de lado. Buscado: vivo o muerto representa la esencia de dos estilos de video: ejecucin y narrativa, al realizar una narrativa sobre la ejecucin como una puesta en acto de los conflictos de valores simbolizados en el mito del viejo oeste. Andrew Goodwin (1992) sugiere las funciones de este video como seudo documental anotando que: Todos los videos de ejecucin que contienen elementos narrativos pueden ser ubicados en esa categora, aunque es muy frecuente la aparicin de una iconografa de la ejecucin, junto al desarrollo de una historia tanto como la cancin en s misma En BUSCADO: VIVO O MUERTO, Bon Jovi confronta ambos niveles cuando el estribillo Im a space (sic) cowboy parece una referencia tanto a la identidad ficcional (basada en el western) y una alusin metafrica a los msicos como gente real (que estn, por lo tanto, fuera de la ley) (p. 89). Goodwin se equivoca al citar los coros, pues "space cowboy" es un musical de John Denver y no de Jon Bon Jovi, pero acierta en su examen de la iconografa de la ejecucin aunque el guitarrista Richie Sambora ha adoptado un sombrero de cowboy y una chaqueta con flecos como su uniforme, antes de la grabacin de la cancin. Quisiramos tambin sugerir que el msico como motivo- fuera de la ley es solamente una de las lecturas posibles del conflicto de valores que esta cancin contiene, aunque los coros digan: la ruta, un lugar donde los rostros son fros, viajo toda la noche slo para volver a casa. Los fuera de la ley no se preocupan usualmente de por qu la gente los rechaza, y no pensamos de ellos que tengan casas a donde volver. El no concierto contribuye a enfatizar el tedio, el agotamiento, la tensin de la ruta, cuando seguimos a la banda en sus viajes por avin, mnibus, camioneta y limusina (Soy un cowboy, corro en un caballo de acero) y la tensin de la ruta, cuando seguimos a la banda en sus viajes por avin, mnibus, camioneta y limusina (Soy un cowboy, corro en un caballo de metal), y en su paso por las cafeteras, cuartos de hotel, vestidores ( A veces cuando ests solo, todo lo que haces es pensar). Golpe en blanco y negro, caracterizando una cancin que toma su ttulo de los posters que anuncia las recompenses sobre las cabezas de los criminales, el video simboliza el conflicto de valores de ejecutantes individualistas y tenebrosos y los fans
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que ven en ellos la acentuacin de la separacin. En un punto, los coros comentan esto directamente ( la gente que encuentro, va toda por caminos separados) y vemos un grupo de fans encontrar la foto del grupo y literalmente enarbolarla y marchar con ella con su memoria de la ocasin transformada en imagen. Goodwin (1992) indica que "los video clips musicales (incluyendo los clips de ejecucin) a menudo parecen establecer un sentido de comunidad entre un grupo de msicos...o entre msicos y sus fans(p. 107), lo que es verdad en este caso. Vemos a la banda participar un momento antes del escenario. Por nica vez cuando no estn en el escenario, no vemos ninguna indicacin de conducta negativa en el camino. Camino esas calles, con una carga de seis cuerdas a mi espalda. Toco para el pblico, no pude hacerlo antes. Estuve en cualquier lado, todava estoy de pie Vi un milln de caras y los sacud a todos. La ltima lnea es subrayada en el video por una impresionante imagen de separacin. Comenzando con un golpe por detrs del cantante que est buscando en la oscuridad, las luces de la casa se encienden de pronto y muestran un mar de rostros. Rushing (1983) anota que "la paradoja de estar solo y en una comunidad(p.16) fue algo con lo que el hroe de western tuvo que tratar. Si no era un individuo, no poda ser un hroe, y si no poda encontrar las necesidades de la comunidad, no tena permiso para investigar a todos. Como fuera, el grupo e rock encuentra a sus fans(comunidad) necesita proveer una experiencia (concierto) an el grupo no es de la comunidad (individualistas escabrosos). En los western clsicos un patrn de reafirmacin dialctica reforzaba el arquetipo mtico revitalizando ambos aspectos de la paradoja, tanto como la inevitable tensin entre ellos." (Rushing, 1983, p. 21). Bon Jovi se apropia de ambos, mito y estrategia retrica de esos western clsicos en Buscado: vivo o muerto. Public Enemy ,En ese tiempo yo me encontraba en Arizona: Chuck D lder de Public Enemy llama al rap Estacin de TV Amrica negra: La vida negra no abarca la totalidad del espectro de informacin que abarca cualquier otra" (Newsweek, 11 May 1992, p. 52). B-Real del Cypress Hill dijo: "Somos como periodistas Tomar una experiencia que abarca a uno de nosotros o a un amigo, y explicar lo que pasa y por qu " (Newsweek, 11 de mayo de 1992, p. 53). En todo caso. El rap versa sobre el racismo en Amrica y su mensaje tiene un lado rspido. Ahora haremos un lindo discurso sobre una sociedad armoniosa que es slo un programa social. Msicos y fans, negros y blancos, declarando un cisma masivo entre razas consumiendo el rift como entretenimiento, una visin del mundo y un ritmo que Usted tambin puede bailar (Leland, 1992, p. 47). El ritmo del Rap apela predominantemente a la audiencia blanca y representa una interesante sntesis de valores. El crtico musical de Newsweek John Leland (1992) dice acerca de la paradoja de este convocatoria: "Tpicamente, cuando cualquier gnero de
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msica quiere convocar a una audiencia, comienza lentamente el proceso...El rap fue diferente " (p. 49). El rap tuvo el curioso efecto de retomar lo que el rock pareca haber perdido despus en los sesenta, su cuota de rebelin. Segn Leland: "La volatilidad del rap, tanto en su bro creativo como en su capacidad de transgresin se siente como el regreso del rock and roll. La msica popular es ahora un reflejo de los cambios de la sociedad americana ms que ninguna otra forma de discusin pblica tal cual hace treinta aos " (p. 48). En los sesenta, la cuestin fue el hiato generacional entre los chicos del baby boom y sus padres. Hoy la cuestin es una fascinacin con la carrera. La cuestin racial ha reubicado al hiato generacional como una fuerza determinante no slo en lo que la msica dice y a quienes gusta sino cmo es promovida y qu significa para los diferentes oyentes " (Leland, 1992, p. 48). Un Segundo aspecto de la paradoja de esta sntesis de valores se encuentra en la viabilidad del rap, una forma de msica que funde comercializacin y rebelin contra la cultura hegemnica que produce el verdadero racismo. Se rebela contra. " Una nueva ortodoxia se ha instalado, racialmente cargada y financieramente muy provechosa. Las claves que maneja la cultura de la pop msica- cuestiones de identidad, comunidad, autenticidad, lenguaje, moda todo se filtra ahora a travs de la nocin de raza (Leland, 1992, p. 48). El tardo rapero Tupac Shakur, co protagonista junto a Janet Jackson en Poetic Justice, explica esto. "Ahora [cuando el rap se ha hecho ms popular] vemos que no es un movimiento Negro, es un movimiento joven. Viene de la pobreza, no de la raza" (Newsweek, 11 May 1992, p. 53). Este movimiento anti pobreza tiene irnicamente una base comercial. Los lbumes de rap producen altos ingresos a la industria de las grabadoras. A pesar de la denuncia que realiza el rap revolucionario acerca de la pobreza de la juventud urbana, la mayor parte de sus consumidores son adolescentes blancos suburbanos que buscan dar a su rebelin adolescente un barniz de terquedad del ghetto " (White, 1992, p. 88). MTV ha sido un factor primordial al hacer del rap un producto comerciable. Aunque inicialmente culpable de rechazar llevar al aire a artistas negros, MTV aprovech las potencialidades del rap para ser vendido a televidentes blancos. " En el rap, MTV encontr una msica para igualar el ritmo de la fragmentacin visual; y en MTV, el rap que haba sido largamente esquivado por las radios negras - finalmente encontr un hogar " (Leland, 1992, p. 48). Dos caractersticas del rap contribuyen a servir como fuente de cambio de valores. Primero, la audiencia del rap percibe una cierta autenticidad que no existe en otra msica rock (Leland, 1992 and Roberts, 1991). Public Enemy personifica el mito de los raperos como delincuentes. El lder Chuck D (aka Carlton Ridenhour) es egresado del college - y como otros miembros del grupo, proviene de una familia de clase media de Long Island (Thigpen, 1991). Sin embargo, Public Enemy perpeta el mito del de la rebelin del rap contra todos los sistemas que engendran racismo
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"Public Enemy . . . impuls esta estrategia ms lejos an. En sus imgenes, sonido y coros, la banda fue pura confrontacin. Utilizando el potencial del video, Public Enemy cre y vendi una banda completa en torno al concepto de guerreros raciales. El logo del grupo mostraba un joven Negro en la cruz de un rifle; cada cancin dramatizaba el conflicto racial." (Leland, 1992, p. 49) Aunque cuestionable desde el punto de vista de la realidad, la percepcin de los raperos como autnticos miembros de un grupo trasgresor, es real para muchos televidentes. La segunda caracterstica que contribuye a la capacidad del rap para estimular el cambio de valores, se encuentra en cmo estructura los tiempos del mensaje auditivo. En tanto tal vez sea el mayor conservador de todas las formas del rock, el rap se basa en el aqu y ahora. "El Rap es msica para el ahora, ritmo que nada tiene que ver con el futuro o el pasado. En el rap slo existe el presente, y de un presente tenso innegablemente. " (Thigpen, 1991, p. 98). Este mensaje nihilista se combina con un ritmo y un estilo musical que refuerzan la tensin. "El rap se destaca por su ritmo duro, no slo por el acento percusivo y su nfasis en los coros. La meloda en la cancin del rap si fue frecuentemente la enunciacin de los coros, que usualmente riman y abarcan realizaciones lingsticas inteligibles (Roberts, 1991 p. 142). Cuando en 1992 se conmemor como fiesta nacional el cumpleaos del Dr. Martn Luther King, Public Enemy mencion al Estado de Arizona denunciando el no cumplimiento de esa fiesta por parte del estado de Atizona. Chuck D. Describi el video como su interpretacin del rol del Dr. King como lder Negro diciendo que an deba estar vivo hubiera podido ser el Dr. Martin Luther Kin Farrakhan " (Quinn, 1992, p. 63), un hombre bien dispuesto hacia los actos violentos. Cuando el video fue emitido por MTV, Chuck D. dijo a los televidentes que no lo tomaran al pie de la letra. Ms bien, podan verlo como su fantasa de una represalia, creado para sacudir a los televidentes blancos realzando el significado de la fiesta nacional en honor al lder negro. "Por ese tiempo yo estaba en Arizona" inaugura una manera representativa de denunciar que el rap es TV para la comunidad negra. "S que Ud. escuch historias sobre m. Que soy racista. Que soy un soporte del KKK. Que estoy en contra de los derechos civiles. Todo porque me opongo al da de Martin Luther King. Pero me opuse al da feriado y me opondr a lo largo de mi gestin. Y en tanto haya oficiales que concuerden conmigo no habr fiesta nacional en este Estado." Luego de presentar en blanco y negro las escenas que recuerdan las marchas por los derechos civiles de los sesenta, siguen melodas con estos anuncios: Esta es la Hermana Souljah. Public Enemy, Seguriad del Primer Mundo y todas las fuerzas alineadas estn viajando para encabezar el esquema de supremaca blanca y destruir la celebracin nacional del cumpleaos del Dr. Martn Luther King. Public Enemy cree que los poderes que hay en los estados de New Hamphire y Arizona han encontrado un desacuerdo psicolgico dando tributo a un hombre Negro que trat de ensear a los blancos el significado de la civilizacin. Buena suerte, hermanos.
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Mustrenme qu ha sido de ustedes! El video yuxtapone noticias de los sesenta con presentando sintticamente las posturas sobre la accin negra: una es la recreacin de las actividades del Dr. King en los comienzos del movimiento por los derechos civiles y la otra es la de una unidad paramilitar. El material sobre King simula una serie de noticias impactantes y se emite en blanco y Negro. Para al generacin MTV, esto puede ser la primera experiencia de ver imgenes tan caras a los chicos del babe boom (Explosin demogrfica de los 50). El segmento sobre los paramilitares est en colores y muestra a los miembros de una unidad inyectando veneno a los caramelos, haciendo una bomba, y haciendo una prctica de tiro. El video hasta aqu ofrece dos narrativas la vieja historia de violencia dirigida contra los partidarios de la paz en la lucha por los derechos civiles y la historia nueva cuya moral es tomen uno nuestros lderes y nosotros tomaremos uno de los suyos. La recreacin de un noticiero y el material sobre el Dr. King permite a Public Enemy sintetizar esas dos narrativas y el sistema de valores que subyace en cada una. Al recrear los hechos, Chuck D. Tambin los manipula. El espectador rpidamente percibe que en la visin de Public Enemy, la violencia fue una parte sustancial de la lucha por los derechos civiles, claro que fue una violencia sobre todo blanca dirigida contra una pacfica asamblea de negros. En tanto el Dr. King del video llama a no realizar actos de violencia descubiertos, su semblante, la tensin de su torso y su cautela frente a los actos de violencia contra su movimiento resultan realmente duros. El pequeo trozo hablado de Chuck D. es la explicacin de por qu la fuerza de su acometida contra los lderes de Arizona. El proceso poltico no es viable para los negros. (Ninguna fiesta es la ma, ni el burro ni el elefante) Adems de la amenaza de violencia presente en el fragmento hablado, el rap enfatiza la impaciencia de la comunidad negra frente a la fiesta en honor a la memoria del Dr. King, formular los sueos no es disfrutarlos. Y ellos no pueden comprender por qu es un hombre. Qun canta al hermano King. No les gusta cuando decido hacerlo. Esperar, estoy esperando esa fecha, para el hombre para el que pido respeto porque su causa fue grande. Vamos, tengo la misin de llevar un poltico a honrar, o es un arma, en ese tiempo estaba en Arizona La sntesis de valores propuesta por este video puede no llamar la atencin de las generaciones pre MTV. Los alumnos de King y los viejos lderes negros castigaron a Public Enemy por traicionar el legado del Dr. King. (Quinn, 1992). El video, por otra parte, solamente sintetiza la no violencia del Dr. King's con la seudo violencia del rap callejero de Public Enemy. Si tomamos a Chuck D y su palabra de que esta es su fantasa sobre lo que quisiera hacer con los polticos que se resisten a honrar a un gran lder Negro, y si aceptamos como real el King recreado, un hombre desilusionado con los resultados de la no violencia convendremos que la imgenes de este video pueden verse como un nuevo
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sistema de valores. Estos valores sintetizados envan un mensaje claro: por ese tiempo, esa generacin continuar usando la seudo violencia (palabras e imgenes, una forma desvirtuada de violencia) ms que recurriendo a la actual actividad terrorista. Esto no es la no violencia del Dr. King, ni la violencia activa de una intifada negra Americana sino su sntesis, fsicamente no violenta, violencia verbal.

El modelo psicolgico de Jung. Adaptada para la crtica de pelculas, el anlisis jungiano puede ser usado para examinar el modo por el que una sucesin de imgenes involucra a una audiencia y produce en ella respuestas perceptivas, afectivas y cognitivas. El trabajo de Jung en psicoanlisis encar la psiquis humana como un sistema auto - regulado que intenta un equilibrio entre lo consciente y lo inconsciente, resolviendo el conflicto entre la psiquis de la persona pblica y la zona oscura privada. Las imgenes del mundo e los sueos representan la forma en que cada uno vive el conflicto entre la persona y el alma. (Rushing & Frentz, 1980).Davies et al (1982) usan las series de las imagines de sueos o arquetipos, propuestos por Jung, como un mtodo analtico para descubrir los arquetipos que se encuentran en la historia, caracteres, progresin de las escenas, efectos especiales, cinematografa, sonido y edicin. El objetivo del criticismo al usar el modelo psicolgico de Jung es obtener una comprensin de los temas ms frecuentes en la experiencia de los televidentes y descubrir el rol psicolgico que una experiencia tiene para ellos. Jung realiz un listado de los smbolos ms frecuentes de la zona oscura de la persona es utilizada para analizar el contenido del mensaje (Davies, et al, 1982): 1.Los smbolos de la madre u origen que representan la mujer, animales, oscuridad y lo primitivo. 2.Smbolos del espritu representado por fuentes o lugares que proveen una renovacin, energa y gua. 3.Los smbolos de la trascendencia que son representados por hroes, rituales de iniciacin, renacimiento e imgenes de luz. 4.Smbolos integrales son desplazados como configuraciones circulares, un mandato, piedras o tesoros La teora de los sueos de Jung encuentra esos smbolos normalmente en pares opuestos El anlisis crtico de los actos retricos aplica un abordaje parecido determina cmo las yuxtaposiciones de smbolos opuestos son indicadores en la bsqueda de un equilibrio entre el mundo exterior racional y el mundo interior irracional. Los actos retricos, como los videos musicales, ofrecen a la audiencia un intento de acuerdo con
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las exigencias de su mundo a travs de la capacidad de los videos para lograra un equilibrio entre la persona y la sombra El modelo psicolgico jungiano puede tener una aplicacin particular en la comprensin de los videos narrativos y conceptuales como una fuente de identidad cultural de la generacin MTV. Los videos musicales y los sueos tienen mucho en comn. La narrativa, las estructuras onricas del video contribuyen a que el televidente acumule una serie de imgenes culturales y cree una extensa cultura de la ensoacin. (Kinder, 1984). Desde la experiencia de los sueos individuales, Como los sueos, los videos musicales pueden estimular a los espectadores a recuperar imgenes especficas: "Si los videos musicales reflejan acontecimientos recientes de la cultura popular y reconocemos la posibilidad de que los mass media contribuyan significativamente a nuestro sueo cultural o paquete de imgenes, las similitudes entre los sueos y los videos puede ser culturalmente significativa. " (Abt, 1987 p. 99)Qu quiere decir significado cultural? Eso puede encontrar se en la semejanza entre los videos y los sueos en trminos de estructura y smbolos significantes. Uno de las caractersticas distintivas de los videos musicales como expresin social es su carcter imprevisible, dispuesto a sumergir al espectador en una comunicacin con s mismo, diseando un mundo alternativo donde al imagen es realidad. " (Aufderheide, 1986 pp. 57-58). Por su parte, los sueos sumergen al individuo en imgenes voltiles de la realidad Una fuerte conexin entre el mundo auditivo y visual de los videos musicales y el mundo e los sueos puede existir porque ambos requieren de la psiquis funciones similares. Como el sueo, el texto de los videos musicales tiene la capacidad de hacernos expulsar las emociones y los deseos reprimidos que nos ahogan. Esto es tambin un inmenso potencial tanto del sueo como el video para provocar reacciones psicolgicas disparando estmulos simblicos. En este sentido, tanto los videos musicales como los sueos moran en una zona gris entre las demandas de la sociedad y los deseos del individuo " (Harvey, 1990 p. 52). Ms all de los smbolos cambiantes del mundo de los sueos, existe un flujo aparentemente azaroso de smbolos en muchos videos musicales. Mucho ms que en los otros gneros de la narrativa visual los filmes, los episodios televisivos, por ejemplo, tienen comnmente cierres temticos y formales estereotipados. (Harvey, 1990). Los videos narrativos y, sobretodo, los conceptuales no respetan esta convencin. "Los sistemas simblicos establecidos son abandonados. Los fragmentos de mitos son introducidos para ser abandonados luego por una serie azarosa de contradicciones simblicas. Las reglas cambian constantemente, en un momento un hombre es un hombre, y enseguida es una guitarra y luego un pez. " (Harvey, 1990, p. 50) La fluidez, cualidad no lineal de los smbolos en los videos-como-un-momentode- Sueo, tiene particulares implicaciones sobre cmo el televidente utiliza los niveles verbales y visuales del mensaje al decodificar un video como una fuente de identidad cultural o comunidad. Un hecho retrico en un medio que funciona para resolver varios
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problemas para el espectador puede hacerlo solo despus que este ha decodificado el autntico mensaje. Como indica Lisa St. Clair Harvey: " La anarqua muchas veces triunfa en el texto de los videos musicales. Los retrocesos sociales son revertidos; la conducta excesiva es seguida por una an ms transgresora, sobre todo por la reimposicin de un tab cultural; una temporaria insana se convierte en un estado de locura semi permanente; tanto los objetos inanimados toman vida, como la gente gira dentro de una guitarra, relojes y robots como viviry moriro masculino y femenino aquy ahora devienen conceptos abiertos a la interpretacin" (p. 50) El impacto sobre el problema- solucin de las capacidades de la generacin MTV es que al vivir en el mundo de los videos musicales, vivir en un perpetuo estado de sueo, deviene una alternativa a la participacin activa en la cultura existente. La generacin MTV no cre una contracultura como la de los sesenta, sino una cultura contra fctica que no presenta conflictos ni intersecciones con la lnea central de la cultura. Existente. Aufderheide (1986) caracteriza esa cultura "Los videos musicales presentan un ready-made alternativo a la vida social. Sin comienzos ni finales -en las historias- los videos tienen una inestabilidad de pesadilla, o de horror. Pero puede no estar aqu la tragedia, que radica en la tensin entre un individuo y la sociedad. Tampoco es comedia, que provoca claramente la risa, inesperados quiebres de contexto, un solemne resbaln sobre una cscara de banana....la identidad puede cambiar con un paso de escena, un cambio de comps. La buena noticia es que Ud. Puede ser cualquier cosa en cualquier lugar. Lo que tambin es una mala noticia porque despierta el apetito por ms novedades, ms sueos. (p.66) Eurtmica, Dulces sueos. Hay aqu una cierta intertextualidad entre el estilo de peinado y la manera de vestirse de Annie Lennox y la de la guru del fitness Susan Powter que puede tener implicaciones jungianas en cuanto al smbolo femenino. La imagen y el estilo musical de Lennox en el principio con una mirada de smbolos cambiantes en Dulces sueos, hacen de este video una interesante coleccin de arquetipos jungianos. Lennox, que declara que su msica est influida por la msica soul de los sesenta, y cuyo compaero Dave Stewart efectivamente ha actualizado el sonido Motown. Dulces Sueos, de acuerdo con Szatmary (1991), " caracteriz el apasionado Motown influido por los cantos de Lennox sobre un golpe insistente de la batera electrnica " (p. 262). Por otra parte, nos se caracteriza por coros inspirados, 60 palabras repetidas durante 3: 10 en la versin del video, el elemento lrico de Dulces Sueostambin ofrece una simbologa bastante interesante desde la perspectiva jungiana. Con una narrativa igualmente voltil, e instrumentos usados descaradamente como apoyos que hara sonrojar a la peor banda, el video de presentacin de Dulces Sueoses puramente conceptual y altamente jungiano. La tensin representada existe entre la Madre de origen (la persona de Annie) y ella misma (su sombra). Lennox, pese
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al rumor de que se haba cortado el pelo, traje negro y corbata, a Lennox, eliminado ltigo o batuta, es abiertamente femenina, con sus ojos endurecidos y su labios de rojo brillante y la decisin de encontrar su camino por s misma. Primero la vemos en lo que parece una sala de conferencias. Las paredes estn adornadas con discos de oro (crculos) y Dave est en la mesa de la conferencia trabajando en lo que parece una primitiva computadora (tesoro tecnolgico) Sobre una pantalla de video (ms tesoros tecnolgicos) se proyectan imgenes de la tierra vistas desde el espacio (un crculo parcialmente tapado por las nubes) y calles llenas de gente; Annie mira un globo sobre la mesa de conferencias y canta: Sweet dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree. I travel the world and the seven seas. Everybody's looking for something. Dulces sueos fueron hechos de esto. Quin soy para no estar de acuerdo. Recorro el mundo y los siete mares. Todo el mundo busca algo. Este estribillo se repite cinco veces antes del comienzo de la cancin. Al comienzo, uno de los smbolos de completitud, una cmara giratoria toma a Annie desde arriba y en rojo (su tercer ojo), ambos se mueven fuera de la sala de conferencia e incorporan otros elementos de la madre de origen. A travs del tercer ojo de Annie vemos a la pareja flotando en un ro velado. (La cosecha) en un esquife eventualmente tropezando con una manada de vacas (animales) todo aparece cuando el video vuelve a la sala de conferencias. Cuando estaba fuera de la sala de conferencias, la ropa de Lennosx cambia rpidamente a un vestido rojo de noche y su compaero hace la mmica de tocar un cello. Slo para este brevsimo momento y en el final del video, cuando ella se prepara para ir a dormir, vestida de largo, cuando se ve una copia de un libro tituladoDulces Sueos en la mesita de luz., la vemos con lo que pensamos debe vestirse una mujer. El simbolismo jungiano se encuentra primariamente en las imgenes visuales de Dulces sueos. Por otra parte, un aspecto de los coros nos presenta un conflicto entre la sombra y la persona con ciertas implicancias feministas. El mundo de los negocios histricamente ha subvaluado a la mujer y la escena de la msica rock ha dado la bienvenida con las armas preparadas. Un crtico jungiano sugiere que la persona femenina de Lennox y que su sombra, ha pactado con el Diablo para lograr el xito. Some of them want to use you. Some of them want to get used by you. Some of them want to abuse you. Some of them want to be abused. Muchos de ellos quieren usarte. Muchos de ellos quieren empezar a ser usados por vos,
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Muchos de ellos quieren abusar de vos. Muchos de ellos quieren ser abusados. En su caso, el pacto le requiere suprimir ms que la explotacin de su sexualidad en su ropa, ser rpidamente conducida a los confines del mundo de los negocios. Los smbolos visuales de la sala de conferencia y del mundo exterior de la naturaleza no llegan al nivel del pacto..Fuera de ese mundo ella es libre para ser ella misma de tiempo en tiempo.. Mantn alta tu cabeza. Muvete. Una interpretacin jungiana estricta de las caractersticas fsicas puede hacerse de los ojos de Lennox, algo que fue bastante importante en su ltimo video, Diva. El hecho de que fueran metalizados, casi caricaturescos, ha sido mencionado, pero combinados con la palidez de su piel significa que los ojos de los espectadores son diseados por ellos. Los corpreos ojos de Annie no parpadean, un notable rendimiento. Son mundos azules punzantes, a la vez dominantes y perturbadores. Pero permiten vislumbrar brevemente, especialmente en el momento de acostarse, los ojos dela otra (persona) Annie. Desprovistos de maquillaje, tapan la confusin y no hay duda de que pertenecen a alguien que est en paz con su identidad. Dulces sueos, puede ser mirado como un arquetipo de un video conceptual. Sus smbolos visuales y sus estribillos enigmticos, la progresin no lineal de imgenes onricas. Decodificando esos smbolos pueden producir diferentes identidades, variando las experiencias textuales de acuerdo a lo que el espectador logre extraer de Dulces Sueos. Un espectador que est al tanto de los ltimos trabajos del negocio de la msica puede ver en Lennox y Stewart una forma de encarar el conflicto entre el deseo inconsciente de dar rienda suelta a su creatividad como artista y la supresin de la persona desde el comercialismo de la industria del rock Otro espectador, al ver el video por primera vez luego de su excarcelacin y sus apariciones televisivas con Susan Powter en numerosas entrevistas e informativos, puede interpretar a Lennox en trminos de Powter. Esto pudo producir un crecimiento del smbolo femenino. Muchos de nuestros estudiantes interpretan "Dulces Sueos" en el contexto del gran mundo de los negocios contra las necesidades de la persona. Leen este video pensando que la sala representa el trabajo, el imperativo social y parental de encontrar empleo luego de la graduacin. Los deseos y necesidades personales estn representados por el toque de cello, de afuera, y eso de tener un sueo dulce es secundario frente a la necesidad de conseguir un trabajo. Los estudiantes frecuentemente se ven a s mismos como enjaulados, animales atrapados en el mundo de los negocios. Nuestros estudiantes usualmente interpretan Dulces Sueoscomo un mal sueo sobre su fracaso en sus bsquedas de trabajo en un entorno econmico e inestable. Guns N' Roses, "Lluvia de Noviembre" : "Lluvia de Noviembre" fue anunciado por MTV en 1993 como el primero en una
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lista de los mejores 200 videos de todos los tiempos. El video es una metfora verbal y visual de las esperanzas y temores comunes en los adolescentes de fines del siglo XX. Es un pastiche de video de ejecucin, narrativo y conceptual. Como en un video de ejecucin entrevemos a Axl Rose y a Slash en un concierto. Aunque la llegada ms parece la ejecucin de una sinfona que un tpico concierto de Guns NRoses . En cuanto a video conceptual, ofrece un torbellino de imgenes religiosas y un contraste de smbolos, tanto de momentos felices (ceremonia de boda) como desgraciados (el funeral de la novia) en la existencia espiritual del protagonista (Axl Rose) La forma predominante de este video es la narrativa. La historia es una variacin pesadillesca sobre el -chico conoce a- una- chica, el chico pierde a la chica, una historia de amor en video. Imgenes de muerte que no tienen nada que ver con los videos de Guns NRoses; por otra parte, el video muestra la muerte del amado Axl menos que s mismo. La narrativa en realizada como una secuencia de sueo, sugiriendo muchas de las propiedades que Jung seala en el conflicto entre la persona y el inconsciente. Cuando comienza el video, vemos a Axl tomando droga, posiblemente pastillas para dormir y luego pasamos a su sueo. Suea con su boda, un hecho de gran alegra, tal como la meloda lo sugiere: Cuando miro en sus ojos, puedo ver un amor moderado. Querida, cuando te abrazo, no sabes que siento lo mismo. Mientras tanto, cae la lluvia, y la alegra se vuelve dolor. Agentes e fuerza desconocidas deciden la muerte de la novia. En las escenas finales vemos a la novia en su atad, vestida otra vez con su traje de novia frente a la pena de Axl. Las imgenes visuales de Lluvia de Noviembre abundan en arquetipos jungianos que simbolizan el conflicto de identidad experimentado pro los espectadores adolescentes a quienes va dirigido tanto el video como el lbum de Guns NRoses. Visualmente, los smbolos ms frecuentes evocan el espritu y la trascendencia. Vemos velas, un crucifijo, dos iglesias (vemos slo un instante a la ms grande y opulenta) y un cura (primero vestido para una boda y luego para un funeral) La iglesia pequea, chata y austera es acompaada con el llanto del viento. En una fuente de renovacin de energa porque simboliza la necesidad que para los adultos tiene cada adolescente de salir a buscar solo su propio camino. La cancin explica este deseo: Necesits un tiempo para vos. Necesits algn tiempo solo. Oh. s, sabs que necesits algn tiempo solo. La iglesia pequea se transforma en el sueo en un espacio magnfico para la ceremonia de la boda, transformado en un smbolo trascendente de un ritual religioso, el intercambio de anillos y besos. Cuando el video vuelve atrs y oscila entre el concierto y la boda y la boda del sueo, presenta un contraste entre luz y oscuridad. La boda es luz (la novia usa un vestido blanco, las velas son blancas y producen una gran luz, el cura usa ropa blanca, surgen destellos de un gran crucifijo claro. Las escenas intercaladas del concierto del sueo son oscuras- la iluminacin es baja, los cantantes del coro tienen ropas negras, los asistentes al concierto parecen lucir ropas oscuras. Los smbolos oscuros sobrepasan a la
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luz en el entierro de la novia hacia el final del video. En tanto ella sigue vestida de blanco, su atad es Negro. En el ltimo uso simblico del color, el rojo del ramo de rosas artificiales es lavado por la lluvia que cae. El conflicto entre la persona y el inconsciente que surge de Lluvia de Noviembre tiene que ver con las expectativas vitales de los adolescentes y el temor de que fuerzas extraas puedan interferir con su realizacin. Esto est simbolizado por las imgenes de luz y la felicidad del amor en la eremonia de la bod (Puedo descansar mi cabeza slo sabiendo que eres ma, slo ma) Los smbolos visuales y verbales tambin tienen un poderoso sentido de completitud, visualmente representado por el intercambio de los anillos en la boda y la repeticin del estribillo (No pienses que necesitas a cualquiera, no pienses que necesits a alguien). El tema inconsciente dominante en este video es la prdida. En el final de la historia. Axl pierde a su novia y est solo. Al comienzo la cancin esboza la posibilidad de que un prspero y popular msico estrella de rock pueda ser inmune a las penas que frecuentemente afligen a los adolescentes de hoy: nada es para siempre y sabemos que los corazones pueden cambiar y es duro agarrar una vela en la fra lluvia de noviembre. Nos enfrentamos a un tiempo largo tratando slo de perodo tratando apenas de curar el dolor. Sabiendo que nadie viene, sabiendo que nadie va, Nadie realmente lo hara, Djalo irse hoy. Aunque remoto en virtud de su celebridad, Axl Rose es una figura con la que los espectadores pueden identificarse. Desde una perspectiva jungiana, el atractivo de este video es cmo puede llegar a reconocer el espectador el lazo con los reprimidos temores del fracaso, el rechazo y el abandono. El mundo onrico del video ofrece al espectador formas temporarias de enfrentar sus temores. Y para cuya no disposicin a enfrentarlos, existe la posibilidad de pensar que es solo un sueo; el durmiente puede despertar. La posibilidad de despertar tambin representa las culturas paralelas entre el mundos de los adolescentes y el de los adultos. Aunque el mundo adulto puede ocasionar temores parecidos de fracaso, rechazo y abandono, no es adulto darles cabida, especialmente en el caso de los hombres jvenes. En el mundo del sueo de Lluvia de noviembre, los temores inconscientes puede fusionarse con la necesidad de la persona de vivir en el mundo. Las experiencias del espectador son las mismas alegras y penas pblicas de Axl. En muchos aspectos, Lluvia de noviembreenva un mensaje al espectador para separarlo tanto de las penas como de las alegras de su vida. (nada es para siempre, tampoco la fra lluvia de noviembre) . La identidad puede cambiar en un latido en un momento sos feliz y en el prximo todo est perdido. Las emociones pasan, no se pueden agarrar. Aunque la pena sea grande, como vemos que le pasa a Axl en final del video, slo es seguro el mundo del sueo.

Modelos ideolgicos El modelo feminista.

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La aproximacin ideolgica del criticismo focaliza el sistema de creencias en torno del cual se establecen las categoras de verdad utilizadas para juzgar los actos retricos sobre una base cultural La crtica ideolgica ve la verdad como determinada por su visin del mundo. Esa categora de verdad es aplicada a los actos retricos para determinar la forma en que un acto determinado crea o cambia la hegemona poltica y social de acuerdo a los principios de una ideologa en particular. Feminismo y marxismo son modelos predominantes de criticismo; los crticos feministas encaran las cuestiones de gnero y los marxistas trabajan sobre una amplia gama de problemas socio econmicos. En tanto ideologa poltica, el feminismo busc la igualdad para las mujeres en todos los aspectos de la cultura (Foss, 1989; Humm, 1986; and Steeves, 1987). La crtica feminista examina los actos retricos para determinar la forma en que la sociedad subvalora a las mujeres. Dos axiomas subyacen en el feminismo: la experiencia del mundo es diferentes para los hombres y las mujeres y el lenguaje se utiliza para construir la desigualdad de gnero. Los crticos feministas aplican esos dos axiomas para determinar cmo y por qu un acto retrico particular refleja el gnero en una cultura dada. Un acto retrico es analizado sobre la base de preguntas acerca de la experiencia de gnero en el uso del lenguaje: 1. Qu orientacin de gnero masculina, femenina o andrgina- est representada en el acto retrico? 2. Qu ideales de conductas y creencias masculina o femenina sugiere este acto retrico? 3. Qu evidencia de desvalorizacin de un gnero puede encontrarse en ese acto retrico? Hay smbolos visuales o verbales que desvaloricen a las mujeres? 4.Lo culturalmente valioso es presentado como femenino o masculino? The Divynls, " Me toco a m misma" A menos que sea completamente apcrifa, la historia oculta cmo esta cancin fue escrita como algo que pudo o no calentar el corazn de la ideologa crtica feminista. De acuerdo a la cantante principal Christina Amphlett, ella y un amigo estaban en un restauran y se dieron cuenta de que la gente de la mesa vecina escuchaba su conversacin. Su respuesta fue expresar su fuerte deseo de conocer a su compaero en sentido bblico. Su pasin fue tan fuerte que ella llegara a tomar el asunto entre sus mano cuando el no estaba cerca. ( no quiero a nadie, cuando pienso en ti me toco a m misma).Esta conducta, si es actualmente seguida, fue ciertamente asertiva, de una posible agresividad pasiva. La cancin estn tambin llenas de Yo quiero Conductas que la gente ha enseado a seguir a travs de un intenso entrenamiento.. Por otra parte, la cancin sugiere duramente la inseguridad de la mujer sobre su propia identidad en ausencia de su amante o sin su atencin. I close my eyes, and see you before me.
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Think I would die, if you were to ignore me. A fool could see, just how much I adore you. I get down on my knees, I'd do anything for you. (Cierro mis ojos y te veo antes que yo Pienso que podra morir si me ignoras Un tonto vera cunto te adoro Me arrodill, no hice nada para vos). El mensaje ambiguo de los coros y la dama que canta tienen una aparente particularidad en la trayectoria de The Divynls'.Me refiero a una grabacin hecah en Nueva York durante la que la cantante principal noque a uno de los guitarristas y lo mand fuera del escenario, el crtico musical Jon Pareles (27 June 1991) escribi agudamente: "Muchas bandas de rock no te admitiran en su mundo. Una es The Divynls . . . "Me toco a m misma" encabeza el quinto album "Divynls" (Virgin) presenta a la cantante Christina Amphlett como una mujer esclavizada por un amante voluble... Pero cuando ella hablaba desde lo alto de sus tacos, su voz y su lenguaje corporal insistan en que nadie, ningn chico es un juguete... La voz de Ms. Amphlett es gutural un poco entre un sollozo y un gruido, voice is a raw-throated rasp, somewhere entre a sob and a snarl, un poco desafiante." (p. C:14) La consternacin de Pareles ante la diferencia entre lo que l pens que iba a ver y lo que encontr es en parte el productod el problema que numerosos grupos, entre los que se encuentra el nunca nombrado Es esto vida o es Memorex, en concierto. Su sorpresa es tambin un producto de las expectativas creadas por el video de The Divyinls En rpida sucesin este casi narrativo, video conceptual abre con tres imgenes: Un mstil realmente flico de la guitarra de un msico tocando una msica dura, una oscura toma de un hombre hermoso arrastrando a una mujer envuelta en una mortaja hacia la puerta, otras dos mujeres que pueden ser modelos o chicas de compaa sonren seductoramente. Corte y tres imgenes de Christina Amphlett cantando las primeras lneas de la cancin. I love myself, I want you to love me. When I feel down, I want you above me. I search myself, I want you to find me. I forget myself, I want you to remind me. (Me quiero a m. Quiero amarme Cuando me siento abajo, quiero encontrarme Me busco a m misma quiero que me encuentres Me olvid a m misma, quiero que me vuelvas a pensar). En la primera imagen visual, ella est vestida con una microfalda negra de cuero, con una cola peluda saliendo de atrs. Combinada con una duro adems para sacarse el corpio y una toma desde lo alto, el espectador ve en grandes proporciones cmo Christina Amphlett mira largamente a la cmara y luego largamente al espejo. En la
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segunda imagen, est en la cama, cubierta solo por la mortaja y con sus manos sobre el estmago y entre sus muslos. Finalmente, la vemos reclinada sobre un divn con hot pants, botas hasta las rodillas, golpeando sugestivamente, la sensual curva de los brazos el silln. La crtica feminista que puede haber aplaudido el motivo de la cantante, si no su mtodo de tratar con los patrones de los chusmas del restauran, habr cambiado rpidamente de pensamiento en los primeros 30 segundos de este video. No solamente son mujeres las que se ven dependientes de los hombres, ellos las han caracterizado como pasivas. Las dos modelos o chicas acompaantes se ven de tiempo en tiempo desde el principio con otra mujer atractiva que tiene la actitud de esperar a alguien, a alguien masculino, para hacerlo. Aunque el video es ms conceptual que narrativo, es posible que esas otras mujeressean apariciones que encarnan la inseguridad de la cantante acerca de la fidelidad de su amante. Si esas otras mujeres fueran reales, el video tendra el sentimiento de un espionaje desde el cuarto contiguo. En todo caso, la visin de las mujeres comunica ciertamente el sentimeinto de inferioridad y desvalorizacin. La ropa y la ejecucin de Christina Amphlett la hacen aparecer exactamente como Pareles sugiri en su nota, un juguete de los muchachos. En tanto el espectador puede ver que los msicos que aparecen por momentos no le prestan ninguna atencin, como tampoco a los muebles. Su estilo de ejecucin, cuando ella est tocando partes de s misma, se caracteriza por parecerse a Elvis Presley. En una escena particularmente memorable de domesticidad, llega a ironizar ms con movimientos de caderas que de sus muecas. Su minifalda de cuero con la cola peluda atrs parece una mezcla de un conejo Energizer y una conejita Playboy con esteroides. Hacia el final del video Me toco a m misma tiene un mal sabor, no porque trate de la masturbacin femenina, sino ms bien porque su mensaje respecto de las relaciones entre hombre y mujer tiene decididamente un tono sadomasoquista.

Se ven muchos msicos varones en el video, primero los guitarristas y hacia el final del video, "I Touch Myself" tiene un has an unsavory air about it, not because it deals con female masturbation but rather because su message about male-female relationships has a decidely sado-masochistic tone. There are many male msicos seen
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throughout the video, primarily guitar players, who openly display their instruments. None acknowledge Christina Amphlett's existance, much less her desires. Since she can't seem to get a man to satisfy her passion, she is reduced to singing into a lily, a flower con a prominent pistil, as if it were a microphone, grasping and stroking the upright of a banister, and repeating "I touch myself" over and over as the cancin concludes. Feminists and non-feminists alike have long decried the "she wanted it, so I gave it to her" mythology of rape. The message about male-female relationships conveyed by "I Touch Myself" is equally toxic: "she wanted it, so I didn't give it to her." While Christina Amphlett may be a tough cookie on and off stage, The Divynls video for "I Touch Myself" casts her in the kind of woman-as-victim role que the predominantly jovener viewers of MTV, male and female alike, should be educated to reject. Since her physical presence on screen brings to mind one word, zaftig, and since her portrayal of women as sluts-in-heat plays to many joven men's fantasies, it is unfortunately likely que this is uno video que made a lot of high school boys' "must see" or worse still "must tape" list.The Marxist model Marxist critics view sociedad as a complex network of grupos who are divided by the struggle for hegemony. Such divisions are fostered by economic factors, gender, race, ethnic or national origin, and political ideals. Social experience is one of struggle, as cada grupos tries to achieve dominance through control of cultural systems, including communication media. The Marxist ideological model views mass media as the most important subject for critical anlisis, because mass media is the principal means of social control in contemporary sociedad.Marxist criticism has as su goal the identification of those retrica acts que legitimize the hegemonic views of the dominant social grupos. Marxist critics employ critical questions que examine the hegemonic orientation of a retrica act: 1. In what social, political, or economic context does a retrica act exist? 2. How does a given retrica act articulate, reflect, or legitimize the ideology of the dominant social grupo? 3. How do the visual and verbal symbols provide evidence of the subjugation or exploitation of subordinate grupos? 4. How does a given retrica act attempt to incorporate subordinate classes or grupos in the hegemonic ideology of the dominant social grupo? 5. How does the retrica act perpetuate the hegemonic ideology of the dominant grupo? Madonna, "Material Girl"
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Madonna's rise from merely being a popular act in dance clubs to super-star female power in the recording industry is a case estudio of sexual hegemony in American sociedad. Madonna's attempted metamorphosis into the embodiment of female power and the message que attempt sends to her fans can be best understood through a Marxist interpretation of "Material Girl." The video offers a narrative con several intertextual levels.First, there is Madonna's creation of herself in the image of A Star is Born. "Material Girl" is a story about star-making in Hollywood, and Goodwin (1992) interprets the video as a "star-text" for her "The Material Girl in the visual narrative (and additional dialogue) is the character played by the character whom Madonna portrays. The persona toman on by Madonna in this clip is que of an actress who sings the cancin "Material Girl,:" but who is, in fact, not uno herself . . . It is Madonna's star identity que has been constructed as que of Material Girl, and this clip was precisely designed to help establish it . . . it served the function of shifting Madonna's image from que of discobimbo to "authentic" star." (p. 100) Second, there is the intertextuality of "Material Girl" as a parody of Marilyn Monroe's performance of the cancin "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blonds. The intertextual image is not necessarily of Monroe, but of the Hollywood archetype of the sexy blonde who uses her looks to get what she wants. As John Fisk (1987) notes: "The meanings of Material Girl depend upon su allusion to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and upon su intertextuality con all texts que contribute to and draw upon the meaning of "the blonde" in our culture. Intertextual knowledge preorients the reader to exploit television's polysemy by activating the text in certain caminos, que is, by making some meanings rather than others." (p. 108) Finally, there is the intertextuality of Madonna's oeuvres toman as a whole. "Madonna's popular history as an assertive, talented woman in the male-dominated music industry contributes to how we watch and experience her videos musicales. She is exercising her control over the image she projects musically and visually" (Schwichtenberg, 1992 p. 125). Madonna has created a female persona que dominates rather than is dominated by the male hierarchy. The sexuality of the blond icon is her capital for purchasing dominance over the male hierarchy. "Sex sells in the mainstream and Madonna's sexual self-presentation may be a constant feature particularly amenable to dominant patriarchal discourses" (Schwichtenberg, 1992 p. 129). Agregan esos tres elements una imagen deMadonna triunfante sobre la hegemona del sexo masculine dominantee que parece subyacer en la cultura Americana y en sus producciones culturales populares? La lectura marxista revela que madonna puede no ser el modelos sexual capitalista como quiere mostrarse a s misma sino que est en un pied e igualdad con cualquier hombre, Chica material tiene mensajes en su simbologa visual y verbal que estn en tensin con los otroas. Al comienzo, se presenta vwerbal y
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visualmente como un video que despliega una estructura narrativa. Vemos la escena de Hollywood en que mogul desea a la chica. Un lameculos de Hollywood y el mogul tienen este dilogo: Mogul: Ella es fantstica. Pienso que podra ser una estrella Toady: Podra, podra ser grande, podra ser una gran estrella. Mogul: Es una estrella. Toady: La estrella ms grande en el universo tal como lo conocemos, en cuyos sets estamos, el director encontr muchas clases de cosas, est caliente, est arriba, est yendo a hacer muchas cosas. Est yendo a cambiar el color de su se, fue una gran idea para una azul(triste?) Mogul: No toques nada Toady: El toca algo, muri. Lo juro, es historia. Mogul: Deseo encontrarla.. Toady: Lo hars, en cualquier momento, en cualquier lugar. en cualquier estado. Lo hars. Mogul: Ahora. Esto es seguido por una escena en que la actriz est hablando por telfono: Madonna: S. l est loco por m. Slo me dio un collar.. No s. Pienso que son diamantes verdaderos. S, piensa que puede impresionarme dndome regalos espectaculares. Es lindo, lo quers? Vemos al mogul escuchando detrs de la puerta con otro paquete de regalo.

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APROXIMATION CULTURAL AL ANALYSIS RETRICO DE ONE SELECCION DE MUSIC VIDEOS Karyn Charles Rybacki and Donald Jay Rybacki Northern Michigan University ABSTRACT Los music videos has one from being a means of selling more performances to a rethoric form worthy of study in his own right. Los Videos typically taken one de three forms: performance, narrative, and conceptual. While that forms can provide de bases para el analysis del contenido de los music videos, the authors of this paper argue that one of a number of cultural approaches to criticism can offer greater insight. It does so by providing breve analysis de six music videos using one variedad of cultural aproximation. The Social Values Model examines the ways that each society follows for resolve his conflicts between basic values through erthorical activity , either synthesizing or transforming incompatible values. In Bon Jovi's video for "Wanted: Dead or Alive" the band uses the mythos of the Old West to symbolize the tension between individuality and community that exists between artists and their fans. Public Enemy's rap, "By the Time I Get to Arizona" concerns the group's outrage at
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that state's unwillingness to make Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday a state holiday. Narratives of violence and non-violence are juxtaposed visually in a way that suggests that the white violence against blacks that occurred during the days of the Civil Rights Movement may be replaced con black violence against whites unless things change. The Jungian Psychological Model is based on examining dream images and archetypes as they reflect the struggle between one's public and private selves. The Eurhythmics video for "Sweet Dreams" is replete con symbols of the conflict between what women must project as part of their public persona as opposed to what their private, shadow self really is. Guns N' Roses video for "November Rain" is staged as an extended dream which turns into a nightmare, the joyous celebration of a wedding that turns into a somber funeral marking the bride's death. Both of that videos speak to the fears that young people have about living up to expectations and confronting failure, rejection, and even abandonment when they do not. Ideological Models of criticism use a particular world view such as feminism or Marxism as a lens through which rethorical activity is examined. The Feminist Ideological Model of criticism examines issues of gender equality or inequality, while Marxist critics are concerned con issues of class struggle, dominance, and hegemony. The Divynls video for the song "I Touch Myself" is replete con images that devalue women. Madonna's video for "Material Girl" read from a Marxist perspective suggests she is at least the equal of any man. This research was originally presented at the 1993 Speech Communication Association national convention in Miami, Florida as part of an all-day seminar on music videos.

The rethorical acts of a society, particularly those conveyed by popular or mass media, are the social record of his culture. Music has long been recognized as a form of popular culture con a certain potency for communicating rethorically (Denisoff, 1971; 1972 and Rybacki & Rybacki, 1991). The two authors of this essay are of a generation described as "raised on the radio." Our sense of message in music takes us in an aural more often than a visual direction. Eleven years ago, the manner in which popular music was experienced changed as video became a staple for the "MTV-generation." At first a not-so-subtle way of stimulating record sales, music videos are now a communication genre in their own right and a potent source of ideas for a new
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generation. Beyond his genesis as a promotional tool, music videos has become more than an adjunct of marketing for the music industry. Pat Aufderheide (1986) recommends that despite his commercialism, music videos merits serious consideration: "it is particularly important because it is in the vanguard of reshaping the language of advertising--the dominant vocabulary of commercial culture--in a society that depends on an open flow of information to determine the quality of his political and public life. Consideration of music videos's form also implies questions about the emerging shape of the democratic and capitalist society that creates and receives it."(p. 59) Important to the dissemination of music videos has been the rise of MTV, a narrow-cast cable channel aimed at the 18-34 year old demographic segment of music consumers. MTV redesigned and delivered rock to a TV generation that replaced the use of the radio as the medium for rock. As David Szatmary (1991) suggests, the MTV generation has no personal recollection of Elvis, the Beatles, Vietnam and seeks his own musical identity apart from us baby boomers. "In the 1980s, MTV designed and delivered rock to the TV generation" (p. 250). MTV plays a central role in the shaping of culture as D.S. Miller (cited in Abt, 1987) indicates: "While the MTV formt performs a "bardic" function of converging before his audience an array of possible (competing) youth subcultures and lifestyle options, at the same time it negotiates that subcultures and channels any reflective or participatory energy on the part of the audience into the act of consumerism. In this sense MTV functions as a negotiator in the hegemonic process by amplifying and absorbing elements of oppositional culture, while ultimately legitimizing and naturalizing their relationship to the dominant institutions of a consumer society." (p. 103) MTV's "bardic function" as such a negotiator produces what Aufderheide views as a response to the generational search for identity of those "raised on the video." "Music videos are authentic expressions of a populist industrial society. For young people struggling to find a place in communities dotted con shopping malls but con few community centers, in an economy whose major product is information, music videos play to the search for identity and an
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improvised community." (p. 63) Characteristics of Music videos Ultimately we will advocate using cultural models for el analysis retrico of music videos. To fully understand how a cultural model facilitates rethorical criticism of music videos, it is first necessary to explore the unithat features of the genre. Music, particularly rock, has always had a visual element. The album cover, the "look" a band strived for in performance, concert staging, and promotional publicity have all helped create a visual imagery for rock (Goodwin, 1992). The use of video to stimulate album sales and the birth of MTV as a continuous outlet for viewing simply served to enhance the visual potential prthisnt in rock. Viewers typically do not regard the music videos as a commercial for an album or act. Aufderheide (1986) describes the connection of viewer to video. "Connary a reference to cash or commodities, music videos cross the consumer's gaze as a series of mood states. They trigger nostalgia, regret, anxiety, confusion, dread, envy, admiration, pity, titillation--attitudes at one remove from the primal expression such as passion, ecstasy, and rage. The moods often express a lack, an incompletion, an instability, a searching for location. In music videos, those feelings are carried on flights of whimsy, extended journeys into the arbitrary." (p. 63) That music videos prthisnt compelling mood states that may claim the attention of the viewer is not a matter of happenstance. Abt (1987) states that "directors of videos strive to make their products as exciting as the music. In the struggle to establish and maintain a following, artists utilize any number of technithats in order to appear exotic, powerful, tough, sexy, cool, unithat" (p. 103). Further, Abt indicates a video must compete con other videos. "They must gain and hold the viewer's attention amidst other videos; help establish, visualize, or maintain the artist's image; sell that image and the products associated con it; and perhaps, carry one or several direct or indirect messages . . ." (p. 97). Music videos may be further characterized by three broad typologies: performance, narrative, and conceptual (Firth, 1988). That types describe the form and content selected by the director or artist to attract viewers and to convey a direct or indirect message. Performance videos, the most common type (Firth 1988) feature the star or group singing in concert to wildly enthusiastic fans. The goal is to convey a sense of the in-concert experience. Gow (1992) suggests "the predominance of
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performance as a forml system in the popular clips indicates that music videos defines itself chiefly by communicating images of artists singing and playing songs" (pp. 48-49). Performance videos, especially those that display the star or group in the studio, remind the viewer that the soundtrack is still important. "Performance oriented visuals cue viewers that, indeed, the recording of the music is the most significant element" (Gow, 1992, p. 45). A narrative video prthisnts a sethatnce of events. A video may tell any kind of story in linear, cause-effect sethatncing. Love stories, however, are the most common narrative mode in music videos. The narrative pattern is one of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen (Schwichtenberg, 1992). Conceptual videos rely on poetic form, primarily metaphor (Firth, 1988). The conceptual video can be metaphysical poetry articulated through visual and verbal elements. "That videos make significant use of the visual element, prthisnting to the eye as well as the ear, and in doing so, conveying truths inexpressible discursively" (Lorch, 1988, p. 143). Conceptual videos do not tell a story in linear fashion, but rather create a mood, a feeling to be evoked in the experience of viewing (Firth, 1988). Conceptual videos contain the possibility for multiple meanings as the metaphor or metaphoric sethatnce is interpreted by the viewer. "Thus the metaphorical relations between images structured according to musical and visual rhymes and rhythms play a suggestive role in soliciting multiple meanings from us, the viewers/listeners, that resonate con our experience--something we can feel and describe" (Schwichtenberg, 1992 p. 124). A given music videos may actually have elements of more than one category. Goodwin (1992), in describing Madonna's videos, suggests that the essential narrative component of a music videos is found in his ability to frame the star, "star-in-text," as all Madonna's videos seem to do. A story exists solely for his ability to create, or in Madonna's case recreate, the star's persona. This blending of elements can also enable a type of music such as rap to have cross-over appeal to a wider audience. Although we may profitably interpret the message potential of music videos using that three categories as a basis for content analysis, certain limitations exist if we remain on that path. "Analysts of music videos narrative have been all too eager to freeze the moment and study videos shot by shot, but here the problem is that this generates not too much but too little knowledge, because
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the individual narrative is highly intertextual" (Goodwin, 1992 p. 90). As a blend of video technithat and imagery from film and television, music videos offers us a new perceptual agenda by providing allusions to and incorporations of old iconic imagery from film, allowing us to reconstitute the pieces of the 20th century information explosion (Turner, 1986). The brevity of the music video has created a new grammar of video technithat particular to this miniscule video form. "Visual technithats commonly employed in music videos exaggerate . . . Interest and excitement is stimulated by rapid cutting, intercutting, dissolves, superimpositions, and other special effects, that taken together con different scenes and characters, make music videos visually and thematically dynamic." (Abt, 1987 pp. 97-98) Born of an amalgam of commercialism, television, and film, for the purpose of selling rock albums, music videos frethatntly employ well-established verbal and visual symbols in telling a story or making a point. If no such symbols exist, music videos coin their own which, given the ubiquity of the medium, quickly find their way into the vernacular. How then to best understand the rethorical properties that such a media form has for the audience? Schwichtenberg (1992) suggests that what critics should consider "is how music videos are woven into a complex cultural context that includes performers, industries, and diverse audiences who attribute a wide variedad of meanings to the music and visuals" (p. 117). That characteristics suggest that the most methodologically appropriate approach to understanding how music videos might function as rhetoric is to view them as cultural acts, intertextually located in the viewer's own experience. We define culture, con a little help from Bruce Gronbeck (1983), as a complex of collectively determined sets of rules, values, ideologies, and habhis that constrain rhetors and their acts. This complex leads a society to generate meaning through various message forms to establish a series of societal truths. The extent to which any form of communication such as a music videos plays a part in the process of truth-making is what the rethorical critic attempts to discover through criticism. Culturally based criticism of music videos The various cultural aproximation to criticism offer units frames of reference for examining what is most significant in the discursive and non-discursive
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elements of a music videos. The goal of this essay is to identify which features from each approach seem to lend themselves to music videos criticism. We proposed to apply three different cultural perspectives to six music videos, discussing their instability for evaluating discursive and non-discursive elements of the videos. The cultural aproximation offered in this essay were selected after reviewing critical essays in the speech communication journals that employed methodologies commonly identified as "social-cultural." We selected for inclusion those aproximation that seemed most applicable, given the characteristics unithat to music videos discussed earlier in this essay. Six videos were selected to represent the range of video categories (performance, narrative, and concept) and a range of artists and music stilos. This essay is not intended to be a comprehensive study of each video, but rather to demonstrate the utility of selected cultural aproximation in analyzing how and why a video becomes a vehicle for cultural identity, an "improvised community" for the MTV-generation. Our survey of cultural aproximation and video selections include: 1.The Social Values Model applied to Bon Jovi, "Wanted: Dead or Alive" and Public enemy, "By the Time I get to Arizona;" 2. The Jungian Psychological Method applied to Eurythmics, "Sweet Dreams" and Guns N' Roses, "November Rain;" 3.Ideological Criticism, feminist ideology applied to Divynls, "I Touch Myself" and Marxist ideology applied to Madonna, "Material Girl." The social values cultural model Developed by Janice Hocker Rushing and Thomas Frentz (Rushing & Frentz, 1978; Frentz & Rushing, 1978; and Rushing, 1983), the social values cultural model generalizes about the value systems of a culture based on an examination of text. This critical methodology begins con the assumption that a culture represents a collective consciousness of basic values. When values come into conflict, if the conflict is to be resolved, rethorical acts offer value
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transformation or value synthesis. Rethorical texts operate as a dialectic in which the values are examined and either transformed or synthesized by a successful rethorical act. Critics using the social values model examine the rethorical text to discover how the value change takes place. In particular critics seek to answer such questions as: 1.What values exist in opposition? (situational elements that produce value tension) 2.When does value tension surface? (groups, individuals, and the larger society's role in questioning the prevailing value standard) 3.What messages and media express the value conflict? (locus of messages and media) 4.Does value reorientation occur? (determination if reorientation is a transformation or synthesis) 5.Who is the change agent? (identification of a rhetor or empowered agent con psychological ability to produce value change) 6.What is the role of the audience? (bystander or participant status) Ultimately the critic seeks to determine if a value is transformed, con one value replacing a pre-existing value or value standard, or if two competing values or value standards are synthesized into a new single value or value standard in which the characteristics of the two are united. Bon Jovi, "Wanted: Dead or Alive" When one thinks of the western myth and Bon Jovi, the images that immediately come to mind are from the breathtaking video presentation of "Blaze of Glory," the title song for the film Joven Guns II. Shot in color in the red rock country of Arizona's Monument Valley where so many classic John Ford westerns were filmed, Jon Bon Jovi's solo performance in the remains of a drive-in theater on the top of a mesa intercuts scenes from the film and ends con lightning illuminating the horizon and the theater in flames. As riveting as that images may be, Bon Jovi's earlier video for the song "Wanted: Dead or Alive" is an even stronger embodiment of the value tension of the western myth. As Rushing (1983) notes, the myth of the old west is a story of the clash
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between the savage frontier, and the individuality needed to tame it, and community which requires cooperation and conformity if it is to bring his civilizing influence to bear. The heroes of 1950s and earlier westerns were individualists, who, as in Gary Cooper's portrayal of Marshall Will Cane, often rode off into the sunset after saving the community from the depredations of the frontier when his cooperative-conformist values failed it. "Wanted: Dead or Alive" represents a blend of the performance and narrative estilos of video, becoming a narrative about performance as an enactment of the value conflictos symbolized in the myth of the old west. Andrew Goodwin (1992) suggests this video functions as pseudo documentary, noting that "Even performance videos that contain narrative elements may be placed in this category, since it is so often the act's performance iconography that is made into a story, rather than the song itself. Bon Jovi's WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE conflates both levels, in that the refrain "I'm a space (sic) cowboy" seems to reference both a fictional identity (based on the western) and a metaphorical allusion to the musics as real people (who are, by implication, outlaws)"(p. 89). Goodwin is in error in his citation of lyrics, "space cowboy" is the musical property of John Denver not Jon Bon Jovi, but is correct in his discussion of performance iconography since guitarist Richie Sambora had adopted a cowboy hat and fringed jacket as his wardrobe trademark long before this song was recorded. We would also suggest that the music-as-outlaw motif is only one possible reading of the value opposition contained in the song, since the lyrics tell of: The road, a place where the faces are so cold, I travel all night just to get back home. Outlaws are not usually concerned about how people react to them, and we do not think of them as typically having homes to get back to. The non-concert footage emphasizes the boredom, exhaustion, loneliness and tension of the road, as we follow the band as it travels by airplane, bus, van, and limousine (I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride), and as it was in truck stop coffee shops, hotel rooms, and dressing rooms (Sometimes when you're alone, all you do is think). Shot in black-and-white, featuring a song that appropriates his title from posters that advertised the bounties on the heads of desperadoes, the video symbolizes the value opposition of rugged individualist performers and the fans that come to see them by emphasizing their separation. At one point, the lyrics
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comment on this directly (The people I meet, all go their separate ways) as we see a group of fans get their picture taken con the group and literally get up and walk away, their memory of the occasion prthisrved on film. Goodwin (1992) indicates that "music videos clips (including performance clips) often seem to be concerned con establishing a sense of community within a group of musics . . . or between musics and their fans" (p. 107), which is true here. We see the band share a moment before going on stage. For the only time when they are not on stage, we see no indication of any negatives of the road in their demeanor. I walk that streets, a loaded six string on my back. I play for keeps, 'cause I might not make it back. I've been everywhere, I' m still standing tall. I've seen a million face, and I've rocked them all. The last line is framed by the most arresting visual imagery of separation in the video. Beginning con a shot from behind the lead singer looking out into darkness, the house lights suddenly come up to reveal a sea of faces. Rushing (1983) noted that "the paradox of being alone and in a community" (p.16) was something the western hroe had to deal con. If he was not an individual he could not be a hroe, and if he did not meet the needs of the community he would not pass muster either. Likewise, the rock group meets his fans' (community) needs by providing an experience (concert), yet the group is not of the community (rugged individualists). In the classic westerns, "a pattern of dialectical reaffirmation strengthens the mythic archetype by revitalizing both aspects of the paradox, as well as the inevitable tension between them" (Rushing, 1983, p. 21). Bon Jovi appropriates both the mythos and rethorical strategy of that classic westerns in "Wanted: Dead or Alive." Public Enemy, "By the Time I Get to Arizona" Rappers make certain communication claims about their music. Chuck D leader of Public Enemy calls rap "Black America's TV station. Black life doesn't get the total spectrum of information through anything else" (Newsweek, 11 May 1992, p. 52). B-Real of Cypress Hill says, "We're journalists . . . I'll take an experience that involves one of us or a friend, and I'll explain what happened and why" (Newsweek, 11 May 1992, p. 53). Ultimately, rap is about racism in America and su messages have a sharp edge. "While pols cling to nice talk
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about a harmonious society that's just a social program away, musics and fans, black and white, are declaring the massive schism between the races-consuming the rift as entertainment, a world view and a beat you can dance to" (Leland, 1992, p. 47). Rap's cross-over appeal to predominantly white audiences represents an interesting value synthesis. Newsweek music critic John Leland (1992) points out the paradox in this appeal. "Typically, when any genre music wants to 'cross over' to a broader audience, it becomes softened in the process . . . Rap was different" (p. 49). Rap has had the curious effect of recapturing something that rock seems to have lost since the sixties, his rebellion quotient. As Leland views it: "The volatility of rap, both in his creative brio and his ability to alienate feels like rock and roll all over again. Popular music is now reflecting deep changes in American society better than any other form of public discussion--just as it did 30 years ago" (p. 48). In the sixties, the issue was the generation gap between baby boomers and their parents. Today, the issue "is a fascination con race. Race has replaced the generation gap as the determining force not just in what music says and sounds like but it how it is promoted, and what it means to different listeners" (Leland, 1992, p. 48). A second aspect of the paradox of this value synthesis is found in the viability of rap, a form of music that melds commercialism and rebellion against the cultural hegemony that produces the very racism it rebels against. "A new orthodoxy has set in, racially charged and financially very profitable. The key strands of pop-music culture--questions of identity, community, authenticity, language, fashion--all now filter through notions of race" (Leland, 1992, p. 48). The late rapper Tupac Shakur, Janet Jackson's co-star in Poetic Justice, explained this. "Now [con rap becoming more popular among whites] we see it isn't a black movement, it's a youth movement. It comes from poverty, not from race" (Newsweek, 11 May 1992, p. 53). This anti-poverty movement has an ironically commercial basis. Rap albums bring significant profit margins to the recording industry. "For all the claims that revolutionary rap speaks for oppressed inner-city youth, his main consumers are affluent white suburban teenagers seeking to cloak their adolescent rebellion in a veneer of ghetto toughness" (White, 1992, p. 88). MTV has been a prime factor
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in making rap a saleable product. Although initially guilty of failing to give air time to black artists, MTV has fueled the profitability of rap by bringing it to white viewers. "In rap, MTV has found a music to equal his visual jump-cutting rhythms; and in MTV, rap--which has long been shunned by black radio--has finally found a home" (Leland, 1992, p. 48). Two characteristics of rap's appeal to the viewer contribute to his ability to serve as a source of value change. First, the rap audience perceives a certain authenticity to rap music that does not exist in other rock music (Leland, 1992 and Roberts, 1991). Public Enemy personifies the myth of rappers as "gangsters." Leader Chuck D (aka Carlton Ridenhour) is college-educated, and like the other members of the group, from a middle-class Long Island family (Thigpen, 1991). Nevertheless, Public Enemy perpetuates the rap myth of rebellion against all systems that engender racism. "Public Enemy . . . carried this strategy the farthest. In his imagery, sound and lyrics, the band was pure confrontation. Tapping the potential of video, Public Enemy created and marketed an entire band around the concept of racial warriors. The group's logo showed a black youth in the cross hairs of a rifle sight; each song dramatized racial conflict." (Leland, 1992, p. 49) Although existentially questionable, the perception of rappers as authentic members of a disenfranchised group is real for many viewers. The second characteristic that contributes to rap's ability to stimulate value change is found in how it frames a timely message aurally. While it may be the most time-bound of all rock forms, rap is about the here-and-now. "Rap is music for the emphatic now, rhythm without a past or future. In rap there is only the prthisnt, and the prthisnt is tense indeed" (Thigpen, 1991, p. 98). This nihilistic message is conveyed con a rhythm and musical style that reinforces the tension. "Rap is noted for his strong rhythm, often only a percussive beat, and his emphasis on lyrics. The melody in a rap song frethatntly follows the performer's enunciation of lyrics, which usually rhyme and involve clever linguistic plays on meaning and sound" (Roberts, 1991 p. 142). As the 1992 observance of the Federal holiday commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday approached, Public Enemy took the State of Arizona to task for his failure to make the day a State holiday as well. Chuck D described the video as his reinterpretation of Dr. King's role as a black leader, claiming that were
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he still alive, "he might have been Martin Luther King Farrakhan" (Quinn, 1992, p. 63), a man more sympathetic to violent acts in the absence of his dream's fulfillment. On the day the video first aired on MTV, Chuck D cautioned viewers not to take it literally. Rather, they should view it as his fantasy about reprisal, created to jar white viewers into realizing the significance of a national holiday honoring a black leader. "By the Time I Get to Arizona" opens in a manner representative of the claim that rap is TV for the black community. A smarmy looking and sounding white politician offers his views: "I know that you have heard all kinds of stories about me. That I am a racist. That I am a supporter of the KKK. That I am against civil rights. All because I oppose the Martin Luther King holiday. But I am opposed to the holiday, and I will stay opposed to it as long as I am in office. And as long as there are city officials that agree con me, there will be no holiday in this state." Dissolve to black-and-white scenes reminiscent of the civil rights marches of the sixties, as the following announcement airs: "This is Sister Souljah. Public Enemy, Security of the First World, and all aligned forces are traveling west to head off a white supremacy scheme to destroy the national celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. Public Enemy believes that the powers that be in the states of New Hampshire and Arizona have found psychological discomfort in paying tribute to a black man who tried to teach white people the meaning of civilization. Good luck brothers! Show 'em what you got." The video juxtaposes simulated news footage from the sixties con two synthetic visions of black action: one a recreation of Dr. King's activities during the early days of the civil rights movement, and the other of an elite paramilitary unit. The recreated King material like the simulated news footage is shot in black and white. For the MTV generation, this may be their first sustained experience of viewing images so memorable to baby boomers. The paramilitary footage is shot in color, and shows members of the unit injecting candy con poison, making a car bomb, and taking target practice. The video thus offers two narratives--the old story of violence directed against peaceful demonstrators of the by-gone civil rights era and the new story whose moral is, take out one of our leaders and we'll take out one of yours. The recreation of news footage and the Dr. King material allows Public Enemy
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more latitude in synthesizing that two narratives and the value system that underlies each. By recreating events, Chuck D is able to manipulate them. The viewer quickly realizes that in Public Enemy's vision, violence was very much a part of the early civil rights movement, although it was primarily white violence directed against peacefully assembled blacks. While the recreated Dr. King engages in no overt acts of violence in the video, his countenance, the tension in his torso, and his obvious wariness as acts of violence against his movement escalate are very strong in that videos. The verbal track offers Chuck D's explanation of why he is taking it on himself to force the issue con Arizona's leaders. The political process is not viable for blacks. (Neither party is mine, not the jack ass or the elephant.) Although the threat of violence is present in the verbal message, the rap emphasizes the black community's growing impatience con the failure to at least honor Dr. King's memory, if not to bring his dream to fruition. "And they can't understand why he's a man, who's singin' brother King They don't like it when I decide to mike it Wait, I'm waitin' for the date, for the man who demands respect 'cause he was great Come on, I'm on a mission to get a politician to honor, or he's a goner, by the time I get to Arizona" The value synthesis offered by this video may not appeal to pre-MTV generations. King scholars and older black leaders castigated Public Enemy for doing a disservice to Dr. King's legacy (Quinn, 1992). The video, however, only synthesizes Dr. King's non-violence con the pseudo-violence of Public Enemy's gangster rap person. If we take Chuck D at his word, that this is his fantasy about what he would do to politicians who resist honoring even one great black leader, and if we also accept as real the recreated King, a man becoming disillusioned con the results of non-violent resistance, the synthesis of non-violence and pseudo-violence conveyed in the video's imagery may succeed as new value system. This synthesized value sends a clear message: For the time being, this generation will continue to use pseudo-violence (words and images, a de-escalated form of violence) rather than resorting to actual terrorist activity. This is neither the non-violence of Dr. King nor the active violence of a black American intifadah but their synthesis, non-physically violent, verbal violence. What Murdock, Bradac, and Bowers (1984) referred to as a "thromise." The Jungian psychological model
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Adapted for the criticism of film (Davies, Farrell, & Matthews, 1982), Jungian analysis can be used to examine the way a succession of images involve an audience and draw perceptual, affective and cognitive responses from them. Jung's work in psycho-analysis viewed the human psyche as a self-regulating system that tries to achieve balance between the conscious and the unconscious, resolving the struggle between the psyche's public persona and private shadow. The images of the dream world depict the struggle each person experiences between the persona and shadow sides of self (Rushing & Frentz, 1980). Davies et al (1982) use Jung's series of dream images, or archetypes, as an analytical method for studying the verbal and visual whole of a film. In their method, each element of the film is analyzed to discover the archetypes found in story, characters, progression of scenes, special effects, cinematography, sound, and editing. The goal of criticism using the Jungian psychological model is to provide an understanding of the archetypal themes the viewing audience experiences and to discover the psychic role such an experience might play for them. Jung's list of the most frequently recurring symbols from the shadow side of self is used to analyze message content (Davies, et al, 1982): 1.Mother or origin symbols that represent the female, animals, darkness, and the primeval. 2.Spirit symbols represent sources or places that provide renewal, energy, and guidance. 3.Transcendence symbols represent hroees, rebirth, initiation rituals, and images of light. 4.Wholeness symbols are displayed as circle configurations, a mandala, stones, or treasure. Jung's theory of dreams finds that symbols commonly occurring as paired opposites. Critical analysis of rethorical acts applies the same approach--determine how juxtapositions of opposing symbols are indicative of the search for balance between the rational outer world and the irrational inner world. Rethorical acts, such as music videos, offer the audience a means of coping con exigencies in their world through the video's ability to strike a balance between the persona and shadow. The Jungian psychological model may have particular applicability for
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understanding narrative and conceptual videos as a source of cultural identity for the MTV generation. Music videos and dreams have much in common. The narrative, dream-like structures of video contribute to the viewer's personal stock of cultural imagery and also create a culture-wide "dreampool" (Kinder, 1984). From dreams individuals experience a selection of images that become a kind of cultural imprinting. Like dreams, music videos can stimulate viewers to retrieve specific images every time the song is heard. "If music videos reflects recent currents in popular culture and if we acknowledge the possibility that mass media are significant contributors to our cultural dream or image pool, the similarities between dreams and videos may surely be culturally significant." (Abt, 1987 p. 99) What that cultural significance is may be found in the similarity between music videos and dreams in terms of their structure and significant symbols. "One of music video's distinctive features as a social expression is his open-ended quality, aiming to engulf the viewer in his communication con itself, his fashioning of an alternative world where image is reality" (Aufderheide, 1986 pp. 57-58). Likewise, dreams engulf the individual in a world con flexible patterns and fleeting images of reality. A strong connection between the aural-visual world of music videos and the dream world may exist because both perform similar functions for the psyche. Like a dream, the text of a music videos has the ability to expel one's congested and repressed emotions and desires. There is also "the immense potential of both dreams and video for triggering physiological reactions to symbolic stimuli. In this sense, both music videos and dreams dwell in the dicey cease-fire zone between the demands of society and the desires of the individual" (Harvey, 1990 p. 52). Further, the shifting symbols of the dream world exist in the seemingly random flow of symbols in some music videos. Most other genre of visual narratives--film and episodic television, for example, typically have some thematic or structural closure that marks the narrative boundaries (Harvey, 1990). Narrative and especially conceptual music videos are not bound by this convention. "Symbolic systems are established--then, abandoned. Fragments of myth are introduced, then invalidated by subsistent and seemingly random symbolic contradictions. The rules change constantly; one minute a man is a man, the next minute he is a guitar, the next minute he is a fish." (Harvey, 1990, p. 50) The fluid, non-linear quality of symbols in music-video-as-dream-state has some
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particular implications for how the viewer uses the verbal and visual levels of message in decoding a video as a source of cultural identity or community. A rethorical act in the medium that functions to solve some problem for the viewer may do so only after the viewer has decoded a very mixed message. As Lisa St. Clair Harvey indicates: "Anarchy often triumphs in the text of music videos. Social reversals remain reversed; excessive behavior is followed by yet more excessive behavior rather than by the re-imposition of cultural taboo; temporary insanity hardens into a state of semi-permanent lunacy, as inanimate objects take on life, people turn into guitars and clocks and robots, and definitions of "living" and "dead" of "male" and "female," "here" and "now" become up for grabs and open to interpretation." (p. 50) The impact on the problem-solving abilities of the MTV generation is that living in the world of music videos, like living in a perpetual dream state, becomes an alternative to active participation in the extant culture. The MTV generation creates not the counter-culture of the sixties, but a counterfeit culture that neither conflictos nor intersects con the mainstream culture. Aufderheide (1986) characterizes this culture. "Music videos offer a ready-made alternative to social life. Con no beginnings or endings--no history--there may be nightmarish instability, even horror. But there can be no tragedy, which is rooted in the tension between an individual and society. Likewise, there is no comedy, which provokes laughter con sharp, unexpected shifts of context, making solemnity slip on a banana peel . . . identity can change con a switch of scene, a change in the beat. The good news is: you can be anything, anywhere. That is also the bad news--which whets the appetite for more "news," more dreams." (p.66) Eurhythmics, "Sweet Dreams" There is a certain intertextuality between Annie Lennox's hair style and mannish dress con that of fitness guru Susan Powter that may have Jungian implications for the female symbol. Lennox's image and musical style, along con the myriad of shifting symbols in "Sweet Dreams," make the video an interesting collection of Jungian archetypes. Lennox, who claims her music is influenced by sixties soul music, and her partner Dave Stewart have in fact updated the Motown sound. "Sweet Dreams,"
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according to Szatmary (1991), "featured the sultry, Motown-influenced vocals of Lennox over the insistent beat of a drum machine" (p. 262). Although it does not feature inspired lyrics, 60 words repeated enough times to fill 3:10 in the video version, the lyrical element of "Sweet Dreams" also offers some interesting symbology when viewed from the Jungian perspective. Con such a sparse narrative, and instruments used so blatantly as props that even the worst air band would blush, the video presentation of "Sweet Dreams" is purely conceptual and highly Jungian. The tension depicted exists between the Mother of origin (Annie's persona) and wholeness (her shadow). Lennox, despite her buzz haircut, black suit and tie, and black riding crop or baton, is overtly feminine con her heavily made-up eyes and bright red lipstick, and in the way she carries herself. We first see her in what looks like a conference room. The walls are lined con gold grabaciones (circles) and Dave his at the conference table working what appears to be a primitive computer (technological treasure). As pictures of the earth seen from space (a circle partially obscured by clouds) and crowded streets are projected on a video screen (more technological treasure), Annie eyes a globe on the conference table and sings: Sweet dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree. I travel the world and the seven seas. Everybody's looking for something. That lyrics repeat five more times before the song is over. On the first, one the symbols of wholeness, a circular red spot on Annie's forehead (her third eye), enables both of them to move outside the conference room and encounter additional elements of the Mother of origin. Through Annie's third eye we see the pair floating down a fog-shrouded river (the primeval) in a skiff and eventually encountering a herd of cows (animals), some of which appear when the video returns to the wholeness of the onference room. While they are outside the conference room, Lennox's costume changes brevely to a floor length red evening gown as she and her partner mimic playing cellos. Only for this fleeting moment and at the video's end, as she prepares to go to sleep clad in a night gown, a copy of a book entitled "Sweet Dreams" on her night stand, do we see her wearing what we think of as a woman's garb. Jungian symbolism is found primarily in the visual images of "Sweet Dreams." However, one aspect of the lyrics offers us an impression of the struggle between shadow and persona con some feminist implications. The business
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world has historically undervalued women and the rock music scene has welcomed women con less than open arms. A Jungian critic would suggest that Lennox's female persona has had to make a pact con the devil of her shadow's desire for success. Some of them want to use you. Some of them want to get used by you. Some of them want to abuse you. Some of them want to be abused. In her case, the pact requires her to suppress rather than exploit her sexuality in her dress, at least while she is within the confines of the business world. The visual symbols of conference room and the outside world of nature underscore this pact. Outside that world she is free to be herself from time to time. Hold your head up. Movin' on. Keep your head up. Movin' on. A stronger Jungian interpretation of physical features can be made about Lennox's eyes, something that was also an important element in her latest video, "Diva." The fact that they are heavily, almost cartoonishly, made-up has already been mentioned, but this, combined con her pale skin tone, means that the viewer's eyes are drawn to them. Corporate (shadow) Annie's eyes don't blink, a remarkable performance. They are piercing blue orbs, simultaneously commanding and disturbing. But there are breve glimpses, especially at bedtime, of the other (persona) Annie's eyes. Devoid of make-up, their lids flutter and there no doubt they belong to someone at peace con her identity. "Sweet Dreams" may be regarded as an archetypal conceptual video. His visual symbols and enigmatic lyrics typify the fluid, non-linear progression of images in the dream state. Decoding that symbols may produce different identities, depending on the varying textual experiences the viewer brings to bear on "Sweet Dreams." A viewer, cognizant of the inner workings of the music business, may see Lennox and Stewart as caught in the struggle between the shadow's desire for creativity as an artist and the persona's suppression by the rock industry's commercialism. Another viewer, seeing the video for the first time years after his release and familiar con Susan Powter's numerous talk-show appearances
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and infomercials, may interpret Lennox's persona in terms of Powter's. This might produce a powerful female symbol. Some of our students interpret "Sweet Dreams" in the context of a larger business-world versus personal-needs struggle. They read the video's meaning as the board room represents a job, the social and parental imperative to find employment upon graduation. The personal needs and desires represented by playing the cello, being outside, and even having time to have a "sweet dream" are secondary to the need to get a job. Students frequently see themselves as the cattle, animals herded into the business world. Our students usually interpret "Sweet Dreams" as a bad dream about their fear of not finding jobs in a shaky economic environment. Guns N' Roses, "November Rain" "November Rain" was picked by MTV to top their 1993 list of the 200 "best" videos of all time. The video is a visual and verbal metaphor for the hopes and fears common to teenagers in the later days of the twentieth century. The video is a pastiche of performance, narrative, and concept video. As a performance video, we glimpse Axl Rose and Slash portraying their concert personas, although the venue resembles a symphony performance more than a typical Guns N' Roses concert. As a concept video, it offers a swirl of religious imagery and a contrast of symbols of both the highest (a wedding ceremony) and lowest (the bride's funeral) moments in the main character's (Axl Rose) spiritual existence. Narrative is the predominant form of this video overall. The story is a nightmarish variation on the generic boy-meets-girl, boy loses-girl video love story. Images of death are not uncommon in Guns N' Roses videos; however, this video features the death of Axl's beloved rather than his own. The narrative is cast as a dream sequence, suggesting many of the properties of Jung's dream world struggle between persona and shadow. As the video opens, we see Axl taking a drug, possibly a sleeping pill, and then falling into a dream state. He dreams of his wedding, an event of great joy as the opening lyric suggests: When I look into your eyes, I can see a love restrained. Darlin' when I hold you, don't you know I feel the same. As the dream unfolds, rain falls and joy turns to sorrow. Unknow agents or forces bring about the bride's death. In the final scenes we see the bride lying in her coffin, again wearing her wedding dress, as Axl grieves. "November Rain"'s visual images abound con Jungian archetypes that
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symbolize the struggle for belonging and identity experienced by teenage viewers most apt to be drawn to a Guns N' Roses video or album. Visually, the most frequently occuring symbols are spirit and transcendence symbols. We see candles, a crucifix, two churches (the larger, more opulent one seen only on the inside), and a priest (first vested for the wedding and then for the funeral). The small, plain, stark church is set on some windswept vista. It is a source of renewal and energy because it symbolizes the need every teenager has--for adults to get out of their way and let them alone. The lyric explicitly states this desire: Do you need some time on your own Do you need some time all alone Everybody needs some time on their own Oh I know you know you need some time all alone This small church is transformed in the dreamstate into a magnificent, spacious setting for the wedding ceremony, itself a transcendence symbol of religious ritual, the exchange of rings and the kiss. As the video shifts back and forth between the dream concert and the dream wedding, it offers a contrast of light and dark. The wedding is light--the bride wears a white dress, the candles are white and throw out a great light, the priest wears white vestments, a large pale crucifix flashes by. The intercut scenes of the dream concert are dark--the lighting is dim, the back-up singers wear black dresses, the concert-goers all seem to be wearing dark clothing. Dark symbols overcome the light as the video ends con the bride's funeral. While she continues to be dressed in her white wedding gown, her coffin is black, the priest is vested in black, and the groom and mourners are all in black. In the last symbolic use of color, the red of a bouses of fabric roses is washed out by the falling rain. The struggle between persona and shadow emerging from "November Rain" is that of teen expectations about life and teen fears about external forces that may interfere con realizing those expectations. Teen expectations are symbolized by the light images of happiness in love and the wedding ceremony (I can rest my head just knowin' that you were mine, all mine). The verbal and visual symbols also feature a powerful sense of wholeness, visually represented by the exchange of wedding rings and verbally by the most frequently repeated lyric. (Don't you think that you need somebody, don't you think that you need someone.) The dominant shadow theme in this video is one of loss. At the end of the story,
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Axl loses his bride and is left alone. Earlier the lyric has forecast the possibility that even a wealthy, popular rock star might not be immune to the sorrow that frequently afflicts today's teens: Nothin' last forever, and we both know hearts can change and it's hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain. We've been through this such a long long time, just trying to cure the pain, oh yeah. Knowin' no one's comin', knowin' no one's going, no one really should. Let it go today, walkin' away. Although remote by virtue of his celebrity, Axl Rose is a figure con whom the viewer can identify, because even "Rockers end up walkin' in the cold November rain." From the Jungian perspective, the appeal of this video is in how it may function to allow the viewer to deal con repressed fears of failure, rejection, and abandonment. The dream world of the video gives temporary form to the worst fears the viewer might have so that they might be faced. And for those unwilling to face them, there is also the possibility that this is just a dream; the sleeper may awake. The possibility of awakening also represents the parallel cultures of the worlds of teens and adults. While the adult world may foster the same fears of failure, rejection, and abandonment, it is not "adult" to give voice to them, especially for joven males. In the dream world of "November Rain" the shadow's fears can merge con the persona's need to live in the world. The viewer experiences Axel's very public joy and sorrow. In some respects, "November Rain" sends a message to the viewer to detach yourself from both the joys and sorrows of life. (Nothing last[s] forever, even cold November rain.) Identity can indeed change in a heart beat--one moment you are happy, the next overwhelmed by loss. All emotions pass, so do not get too caught up in them. Since the pain is too great, as we see in Axl's persona by the video's end, the only safe world is the dream world, so dream on. Ideological models Ideological aproximation to criticism focus on a belief system which in turn sets the standard of truth used to judge rethorical acts on a cultural basis. The ideological critic sees truth as determined by his or her world view. That standard of truth is applied to rethorical acts to determine the extent to which a given act creates or challenges political and social hegemony according to the tenets of the particular ideology the critic espouses. Feminism and Marxism are
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predominant models of media criticism; feminist critics focus on gender issues and Marxist critics focus on broader social-economic issues. The feminist model As a political ideology feminism seeks equality for women in all aspects of culture (Foss, 1989; Humm, 1986; and Steeves, 1987). Feminist criticism examines rethorical acts to determine the extent to which society undervalues women. Two ideological assumptions underlie feminism: men and women experience the world in different ways and language use creates gender inequality. Feminist critics apply that two assumptions in determining how and why a particular rethorical act reflects gender in a given culture. A rethorical act is analyzed on the basis of questions about gender experience and language use: 1.What gender orientation--male, female, or androgynous--is represented in the rethorical act? 2.What cultural ideals of masculine and feminine behaviors and beliefs does the rethorical act suggest? 3.What evidence can be found in the rethorical act that one gender is devalued? Do verbal and visual symbols devalue women? 4. Is that which is culturally valuable presented as masculine or feminine? The Divynls, "I Touch Myself" Unless it is largely apocraphal, the story behind how this song came to be written is one that might, or might not, warm the heart of a feminist ideological critic. According to lead singer Christina Amphlett, she and a male friend were in a restaurant and noticed that the people at the next table were eavesdropping on their conversation. Her response was to discuss her strong desire to know her companion in the biblical sense. Her passion was so strong that she would literally take matters into her own hands when he was not around (I don't want anybody else, when I think about you I touch myself). This behavior, if it actually happened, was certainly assertive, possibly passive aggressive. The lyrics are also repleat con the kind of "I want" statements that people are taught to make in assertiveness training. However, the lyrics are also strongly suggestive of a woman insecure about her own identity in the absence of her paramour's attention. I close my eyes, and see you before me. Think I would die, if you were to ignore me.
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A fool could see, just how much I adore you. I get down on my knees, I'd do anything for you. The mixed message of the lyrics and the lady who sings them are particularly apparent in The Divynls' live performances. Commenting on a New York performance where at one point the lead singer knocked one of the guitarists off the stage, music critic Jon Pareles (27 June 1991) bluntly stated: "Some rock bands shouldn't be taken at their word. One is The Divynls . . . "I Touch Myself" along con most of the songs on their fifth ablum "Divynls" (Virgin) presents the singer Christina Amphlett as a woman in thrall to her fickle lover . . . But as she stalked around on her big heels, her voice and her body language insisted she was nobody's boy toy . . . Ms. Amphlett's voice is a raw-throated rasp, somewhere between a sob and a snarl, bruised by defiant." (p. C:14) Pareles's dismay over the difference between what he thought he was going to see and what he got is in part a product of the problem that any number of groups, about whom it was never asked "Is it live or is it Memorex," encounter in concert. His surprise is also a product of the expectations created by The Divynls' video as well. In quick succession this quasi-narrative, conceptual video opens con three images: the very phallic neck of the guitar of a music laying down a hard driving beat, a darkly handsome man carrying a woman wrapped in a sheet through a doorway, two other women who might be models or party girls smiling seductively. Cut to three images of Christina Amphlett as she sings the opening lines of the song. I love myself, I want you to love me. When I feel down, I want you above me. I search myself, I want you to find me. I forget myself, I want you to remind me. In the first visual image, she is wearing a low cut black velvet micro miniskirt con a bit of fluff along the hem in back. Combined con an industrial strength push-up bra and a high camera angle, the viewer looks at cleavage of Mansfieldian proportion as Christina Amphlett looks longingly into the camera and into a mirror. In the second, she is in bed covered only by a sheet as her hand slides down over her stakech and between her thighs. Finally, we see her reclining on a divan in a black leather hot pants outfit con knee high leather boots, suggestively stroking the sensuous curve of the furniture's armrest. The feminist critic who might have applauded the singer's motive, if not her method, for dealing con eavesdropping restaurant patrons, will have had a rapid
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change of mind after the first 30 seconds of this video. Not only are women seen as dependent on men, they are also characterized as passive. The two models or party girls seen earlier reappear from time to time along con other attractive women who seem to strike a pose and wait for someone, some male someone, to act. Since the video is more conceptual than narrative, it is possible that that "other women" are apparitions that embody the singer's insecurity about her true love's faithfulness. If that other women are real, the video has the feel of peaking inside a bordello. In either case, the view of women it communicates is certainly debasing and devaluing. Christina Amphlett's costuming and performance make her appear to be exactly what Pareles suggested she is not, a boy toy. Her costumes shows a lot of thigh and heaving bosom. While the viewer may notice, the musics who pop up from time to time pay no more attention to her than to the furniture. Her performance style, when she isn't touching parts of herself, features the most hip action since Elvis Presley. In one particularly memorable scene of domesticity, she is doing the ironing con more hip action than wrist action. Her black velvet mini con the fluff in back makes her look like a cross between the Energizer bunny and a Playboy bunny on steroids. Despite the fact that she seems like she would be willing to keep going and going, the men in the video do not seem to notice or if they do they do not care. By the end of the video, "I Touch Myself" has an unsavory air about it, not because it deals con female masturbation but rather because his message about male-female relationships has a decidely sado-masochistic tone. There are many male musics seen throughout the video, primarily guitar players, who openly display their instruments. None acknowledge Christina Amphlett's existance, much less her desires. Since she can't seem to get a man to satisfy her passion, she is reduced to singing into a lily, a flower con a prominent pistil, as if it were a microphone, grasping and stroking the upright of a banister, and repeating "I touch myself" over and over as the song concludes. Feminists and non-feminists alike have long decried the "she wanted it, so I gave it to her" mythology of rape. The message about male-female relationships conveyed by "I Touch Myself" is equally toxic: "she wanted it, so I didn't give it to her." While Christina Amphlett may be a tough cookie on and off stage, The Divynls video for "I Touch Myself" casts her in the kind of woman-as-victim
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role that the predominantly youth viewers of MTV, male and female alike, should be educated to reject. Since her physical presence on screen brings to mind one word, zaftig, and since her portrayal of women as sluts-in-heat plays to many young men's fantasies, it is unfortonetely likely that this is one video that made a lot of high school boys' "must see" or worse still "must tape" list. The Marxist model Marxist critics view society as a complex network of groups who are divided by the struggle for hegemony. Such divisions are fostered by economic factors, gender, race, ethnic or national origin, and political ideals. Social experience is one of struggle, as each groups tries to achieve dominance through control of cultural systems, including communication media. The Marxist ideological model views mass media as the most important subject for critical analysis, because mass media is the principal means of social control in contemporary society. Marxist criticism has as his goal the identification of those rethorical acts that legitimize the hegemonic views of the dominant social groups. Marxist critics employ critical questions that examine the hegemonic orientation of a rethorical act: 1. In what social, political, or economic context does a rethorical act exist? 2. How does a given rethorical act articulate, reflect, or legitimize the ideology of the dominant social group? 3. How do the visual and verbal symbols provide evidence of the subjugation or exploitation of subordinate groups? 4. How does a given rethorical act attempt to incorporate subordinate classes or groups in the hegemonic ideology of the dominant social group? 5. How does the rethorical act perpetuate the hegemonic ideology of the dominant group? Madonna, "Material Girl" Madonna's rise from merely being a popular act in dance clubs to super-star female power in the recording industry is a case study of sexual hegemony in American society. Madonna's attempted metamorphosis into the embodiment of female power and the message that attempt sends to her fans can be best
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understood through a Marxist interpretation of "Material Girl." The video offers a narrative con several intertextual levels. First, there is Madonna's creation of herself in the image of A Star is Born. "Material Girl" is a story about star-making in Hollywood, and Goodwin (1992) interprets the video as a "star-text" for her. "The Material Girl in the visual narrative (and additional dialogue) is the character played by the character whom Madonna portrays. The persona taken on by Madonna in this clip is that of an actress who sings the song "Material Girl,:" but who is, in fact, not one herself . . . It is Madonna's star identity that has been constructed as that of Material Girl, and this clip was precisely designed to help establish it . . . it served the function of shifting Madonna's image from that of disco-bimbo to "authentic" star." (p. 100) Second, there is the intertextuality of "Material Girl" as a parody of Marilyn Monroe's performance of the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blonds. The intertextual image is not necessarily of Monroe, but of the Hollywood archetype of the sexy blonde who uses her looks to get what she wants. As John Fisk (1987) notes: "The meanings of Material Girl depend upon his allusion to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and upon his intertextuality con all texts that contribute to and draw upon the meaning of "the blonde" in our culture. Intertextual knowledge preorients the reader to exploit television's polysemy by activating the text in certain ways, that is, by making some meanings rather than others." (p. 108) Finally, there is the intertextuality of Madonna's oeuvres taken as a whole. "Madonna's popular history as an assertive, talented woman in the maledominated music industry contributes to how we watch and experience her music videos. She is exercising her control over the image she projects musically and visually" (Schwichtenberg, 1992 p. 125). Madonna has created a female persona that dominates rather than is dominated by the male hierarchy. The sexuality of the blond icon is her capital for purchasing dominance over the male hierarchy. "Sex sells in the mainstream and Madonna's sexual self-presentation may be a constant
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feature particularly amenable to dominant patriarchal discourses" (Schwichtenberg, 1992 p. 129). Do that three elements add up to an image of Madonna triumphant over the hegemony of male-sexual-dominance that seems to permeate American culture and his popular culture productions? A Marxist reading of "Material Girl" reveals that Madonna may not be the triumphant sexual capitalist she portrays herself to be, but she is at least the equal of any man. "Material Girl" has separate messages in his visual and verbal symbology that exist in tension con each other. At first the verbal and visual align as the video's narrative structure unfolds. We see the Hollywood scene of the mogul who wants the girl. A Hollywood toady and the mogul have this exchange: Mogul: She's fantastic, I think she could be a star. Toady: She could be, she could be great, she could be a major star. Mogul: She is a star. Toady: The biggest star in the universe right now as we speak. Those were the sets, the director's got all kinds of thing, director's hot, he's hip, he's here, he's going to be doing all kinds of things. He's going to change the color of her set, got a great idea for a blue one. Mogul: Don't touch anything. Toady: He touches one things he's gone, I swear, he's history. Mogul: I want to meet her. Toady: You got it, any time, name the place, name any where in any state you got it. Mogul: Now. This is followed by a scene in which the "actress" is talking on the phone: Madonna: Yeah, he's still after me. Just gave me a necklace. I don't know, I think it's real diamonds. Yeah, he thinks he can impress me by giving me expensive gifts. It's nice though, you want it? We see the mogul lurking outside her door con another lavishly wrapped, sm

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