Thursday, 9 July 2015

Matching Visuals to Sounds vs Matching Visuals to Lyrics

The importance of matching visuals to sounds perhaps is the most essential thing in a music video since if you were to have an upbeat song matched with dark visuals it may seem unusual an a little confusing. Unless the director is trying to draw juxtapositions, it very rarely comes out effectively. However, matching visuals to lyrics is arguably more important despite it not being necessarily the first thing the audience would notice when initially listening to the track. But I think it should equally be given the chance to have the same importance as sounds which inevitably takes over most of the time.

An example of matching visuals to sounds is in Years & Years' 'King' video whereby approximately in the middle of the music video all the bass and drum drops out, leaving just the lyrics and keyboard as the lead singer falls into water, leaving him engulfed by blue and bubbles. Compared to the rest of the video where there are contemporary dancers clinging on to the lead singer, this seems very 'mild' and in this way the visuals effectively match the sounds by becoming less 'manic' in this part of the video as the sounds/music becomes less 'manic'. Equally at this point the lyrics state 'let go' as the lead singer it 'let go' into the water below. Similarly, the chorus lyrics of 'I was a King under your control' is matched to the visuals through the band being 'controlled' by the dancers who cling to them thus, I think it is just as important to match visuals to lyrics as it is to match sounds to visuals. The Years & Years 'King' video is a narrative/concept/performance based video.




The lyrics similarly match the visuals in Catfish and Bottlemen's 'Cocoon' music video whereby as a narrative based video, the main story line revolves around a mental institution and a small love story which restricted by their situation, thus the two are forced apart and metaphorically 'cocooned' by the workers at the mental institution who prevent them from being together. Also, during the last chorus, the music gets louder as it reaches the climax of the story (when the main boy and girl get together). In this way, this emphasises the importance of matching sounds to visuals.



Perhaps a more iconic music video, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen demonstrates the importance of matching sounds to visuals. At the beginning of the music video there is a choir-like and classical sound to the music which is reflected in the visuals through the band being in a similar position to how a choir would sounds however, through the use of ‘dramatic’ lighting you can only just see the outline of their faces which could also be representative of the bands ‘rock’ roots. Thus, as the song gets more ‘rocky’ it switches from this more classical shot to performance, with mostly green/red lighting, compared to the black and white ‘choir boy’ section which vastly contrasts. Another example of matching visuals to sounds in this music video is when there are more voices in the song, more faces appear in shot, reflecting the sound quite directly. Equally, the lyric ‘I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy’ matches the ‘choir boy’ aspect of the shot and also reflects perhaps the innocence of both the lyric and the shot as the shot is quite innocent through the basic lighting and basic black and white colouring. However, the fact that it is black and white could also add to the fact that they are a 'rock' band and therefore having just the outlines of their faces makes the band have a very memorable image rather than just imitating the 'choir boy' aspect the band collectively need to create an image which will stay in people's minds.


The importance of matching visuals to lyrics could be less important in Duke Dermont’s ‘I Got U’ music video which is a narrative based music video whereby the concept of the video revolves around a virtual world which is created and the main boys goes on ‘an adventure’ through various places on a mini holiday, whilst still being in the comfort of his living room. The majority of the video is shot in a point-of-view shot, reflecting his virtual ‘reality’.

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