Blog 5-6-7

           Reading chapters five through seven of Kevin Williams book I Want My MTV, delves into the relationship of the audio and visual. MTV was a cultural zeitgeist in its heyday. An innovative channel that offered unconventional programming to the 80s generation, a channel that was groundbreaking in the medium of film, and influencing people on a macro level.

            Chapter five focuses on how music videos have become a distinct form of art thanks to MTV perfecting the medium through style. MTV’s style is traced from a variety of sources, mainly from advertising: “MTV’s style is derived from its strong textual and institutional ties to advertising. Seen as an advertising medium, Music Television presents (or advertises) images of bourgeois, patriarchal, consumer capitalism (e.g. mythical landscapes, fast cars, fetishized women).” (Ch. 5, 4). And their storytelling style is derived from the Cyberpunk genre: “[George Slusser] first notes that Cyberpunk, like MTV, rejects traditional narrative: Images have been condensed and sharpened, creating an optical surface, a matrix of images, a glitterspace. These images, both visual and literary, are, he suggests, no longer capable of connecting to form the figurative space of mythos or story.” (Ch. 5, 5). Because MTV is characterized with fast passed editing, large budgets to afford higher quality sets, and bombarding the audience with a blitzkrieg of images, forcing them to absorb as much stimuli as they can handle to form the message, the style influenced and was quickly copied by Hollywood to use for their films, specifically action scenes and movie trailers.

            For example, here’s British comedian Stephen Fry deconstructing a typical movie trailer with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

            And to show how the style influenced Hollywood, here’s a scene from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World:

            Despite MTV innovating filmmaking and contributing to culture through its visual style and aesthetics; its visuals, however, seem to have dominated the visual-audio relationship. In chapter six, Williams laments at society’s increasing dependence on images and visuals for information:

“As the shift from orality to literacy created new ways of “seeing” and organizing knowledge and understanding, so a shift from literacy to imagery would also imply radical epistemic change: Postman suggests that spoken and written statements encourage scrutiny and rational contemplation, and that they engage the subject in rational argumentation and logical debate. Postman suggests further that imagery simply appeals to consciousness. Rhetorically speaking, he continues, images are faster than arguments; judgment becomes based on look (is it appealing or not?) and not on logic (does it make sense?), on aesthetics (does it catch my eye?) and not on rational argumentation (given this, then what?).” (Ch. 6, 5).   

            Visuals have taken precedence in our, insisting on “Seeing is believing” to know truth. People, however, tend to forget that audio and sound is just as crucial in the relationship:

“The sound is there and cannot be ignored or considered as secondary, especially when television is so often listened to as background as well as watched. Also sound and music cannot be reduced to apparatus, industry or economy, even though these are important domains of critical inquiry…Indeed, MTV wants to be understood with both ears and eyes open.” (Ch. 6, 9).

            Instead, Williams opposes the idea that ‘seeing is believing’ by supporting the claim that audio is just as crucial as visual through radio: “This is why one may claim that radio drama is a more imagistic than television drama—one has to imagine what is happening. Thus, an image is an appearance of sight, so long as we remember that appearances and sight may be understood metaphorically, and not necessarily as related to the sense of vision.” (Ch. 6, 15). Thus making the argument that ‘hearing is believing’: “Sounds, unlike visuals that are clear, distinct and stable, are more like experience, memory, and feeling.” (Ch. 6, 16).

            Chapter seven converges on the two spectrums, specifying that both of them serve an equal function to create a performance, an experience to the viewer:

“However, while the sounds establish the depth of the viewing experience, the sounds and sights of the aural and visual presentation interpenetrate to create a third communicative dimension… Both intellectual receptivity (i.e. my ability to read the narrative, interpret the video, and make sense of it), and pathic receptivity (i.e., affective and emotive experience) are informed musically and visually as the visuals dance the music. I am witness to a specific aesthetic , a musical visuality.” (Ch. 7, 21).  

            MTV has honed a style that is distinct and influential by making audio a visual medium. However, sometimes there’s an imbalance and the visual dominates the relationship. If one were to achieve a balance of the two, they’d create a performance that will live forever in the viewer.