Music video discussions among academics have often focussed on which medium has more power in music videos:

the music or the image. Vernallis however argues that there is no room for any one medium to gain the upper-hand over the others. The other media in music video will always try to re-establish the balance in order to let the whole music video do its work. The hybrid media form is a star vehicle tool, promotional tool and an attention grabber in general. An important notion here is that the song existed before the music video was made, therefore many videos do adhere to the songs structure. As a music video is made up of more media at one time it becomes a new form and the singular modalities can never be considered a separate force. When the three media work together the music video as a whole will peak in its representational power. The first part of the essay will concern itself with the larger structures and what reasons there are for choosing for a particular form. The second part will discuss how musical parameters are translated to imagery. The main musical parameter considered is one of the most prominent in hip-hop and r n b: rhythm. Finally I will try to identify a key moment in one of the video to see what happens when all the elements of music, lyrics and image fall in place. Often these moments are constructed through processes that go against the grain, creating instability and breaking conventional modes established in earlier parts of the video. Recent studies have claimed that music videos do not contain a narrative in the feature film definition of the concept. The music industrys practices call for limited song duration and the consequent video does not have the time and space to create a narrative, all it mostly does is suggest a story (Vernallis, 2007: 119-20). Even if the video would succeed in creating a narrative the viewer would get too concerned with the unfolding plot than paying attention to the song which the video serves.

Instead Amy Winehouses Tears dry on their own directed by David LaChapelle is what Vernallis calls a catalogue (2007: 122). As Vernallis mentions this is not a narrative, but only a series of events (2007: 122). The reason that this form suits music video so well is that the performer or rather star can be in shot as often as called for. Other elements such as settings, background figures, colours and props can be introduced just by moving them into frame. Also the catalogue can serve the musical parameters well as repetition, variation and other elements can be inserted on cue. Most importantly in the case of Tears Dry on their Own the rhythm of the music can be matched through a catalogue. The camera constantly follows Amy Winehouse creating an invisible, but audible force that drives the video. Both Ching-a-ling and Can I have it like that have structures that are as generic and similar as that of rocks performance videos. As hip-hop generally use sample and computer generated instrument sounds, the need for showcasing bands is absent and could possibly even be confusing. Again this form lends itself to an overwhelming star or performer exposure. Other elements can be fully exploited to emphasise large-scale and smaller musical elements. As many pop music structures consist of large sectional divisions, often the repetition and variation of verse, chorus, bridge and instrumental parts, most music videos will match these divisions with repetition of settings, props, figures and dance. It is a way of guiding the viewers attention through the video and the music. Most sectional relationships will be established in the first half of the video, when these relationships are broken at a later stage, they will often establish an emphasis on the musical part. Ching-a-ling establishes this connection between the chorus and the visual equivalent by relating the lyrics theme of money to metallic features in the visual parts. The first chorus also functions as the introduction of the video and does

not follow the former mentioned form at large, but does hint at the money theme of the lyrics. Here the dancers use sunglasses as props so to reflect the light of the shiny gold, crystal, diamonds or anything else that resembles tangible currency. Missy also bids you to see her Money maker and Missy Elliott is not reluctant to proudly parody her body, and as her body is her money maker it might shine in the same fashion. The other two chorus sections are represented by respectively the golden coin background with the dancers camouflaged in gold and by the silvery snow falling down. As well as the shot that reveals Missy and her background dancers with silver face paint and silver metallic baseball bats, which also has a connection with the lyrics in the following verse. Images in music videos will try to mimic sounds characteristics. A scientific term that describes this process is called synaesthesia. A clear way to describe this concept is to be able to see music or hear colours (Dickinson, 2007: 14). In Tears Dry on their Own the rhythmic propulsive movement of the song is simply incorporated by the music videos formal structure: Amy Winehouse walking through a street in Los Angeles. The temporal character of sound is reflected by the way day turns to night as well as in the smaller details such as the sped up passing of sunlight in her hotel room. Although there is nothing much in the camera movement and horizontal movement within frame in Can I Have it Like That there are some obvious elements in the video that are strongly connected to the unusual dragging and slow rhythm section of the song. Many of the shots are in slow motion emphasising the aforementioned characteristics of the rhythm. Even more so much of the activity within frame seems to be concerned with accentuating the rhythmic elements. Firstly the dancers and animation figures imitate the slow rhythm section in their dance routine. Most modern hip-hop dancing is rather frantic, but here this isnt the case. I

would also argue that the source of the beat is in this case not represented as a given fact from the pre-existing soundtrack, but being propelled by the explosion at the start of the video. Just like a shockwave that pushes forward. The Ching-a-Ling song structure makes it hard to define a high point in the both the song itself and its video. The videos forward movement depends on the adding of details and/or complete new lay-outs. The verses quiet parts, consisting of not more than some percussion and Missy Elliotts lyrics are emphasised by several visual techniques. Firstly the setting is comprised of nothing more than a white backdrop and the dark costumed dancers. Secondly the movement of the figures are on the spot which is in sync with the bass drum that does not seem to go anywhere, up and down maybe, but not forward. Only when other sounds are added in the second part of the verse, horizontal movements appear to be fore grounded. These sounds do possess a propulsion character and consequently graphics and choreography seem to adapt these features. This becomes apparent when in the third verse the synthesised sounds do not return in the mix and thus the horizontal movement and lively graphics do not appear. All seems to be in favour of the argument that all authority needs to be assigned to the music. Fact is though that we perceive most strongly with our sight and some important parts in the video that need emphasising give the image more prominence. In some cases, as mentioned in the explosion sequence in Can I Have it Like That, the image seems to be the cause of the sound. This is more often true of sounds that do not seem to have a source that produces the sound. In Missy Elliotts video her fondness of reversed vocals, the Japanese dance group U-min, specialised in slow motion dancing, appear to be the source of these sounds. In her video the unnatural sound of Missys reversed voice seems to have some feature film relations,

much like diegetic sounds in slow motion sequences of The Matrix (Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, 1999). The slow movement of U-min produces that sound. A key moment in Tears Dry on their Own is established by various elements working together as well as moving away from the established structure of the videos sectional divisions. This moment occurs at the start of the third chorus. The third chorus is preceded by a bridge. The bridge moves away from the songs instrumental structure: the texture thickens and as that happens where are presented with a long shot of Amy amidst the extras. The crescendo in the video is established by the drum section building up to a climax and by the background vocalists stepping up in their pitches while they gain more ground in the mix. For the first time in the video, when the third chorus starts, the image starts with Amy alone in her hotel room. This is significant because the previous choruses started with shots of Amy Winehouse walking the street. Musically too the third chorus abandons its structure. The delivery of the first line in the chorus is different: it has a higher pitch and the line He walks away gets dragged out. There is also a high pitched piano added to the mix. All these elements combined adds to the heightened emotional aspects of the of the song. It is in general true that the songs soundtrack is the driving force of the music video, because of the simple fact it existed before the hybrid music video form was constructed. Although the larger structures are indeed informed by the music, I believe that the strongest moments of music videos are created when there is a twoway traffic in the synaesthestic qualities of sound and image. The connections between music and images are so strong that these need to be considered before any cultural representations can be analysed. In this case the formal parameters of both music and image deserve equal attention.