CCR
Music videos are a dynamic art form that blend visual storytelling, cultural commentary, and branding into a singular creative expression. My music video Bad Guy employs a narrative-based format to explore the psychological complexities of domestic violence through the story of Anna and Vincent.
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My song bad guy is an electric pop, and I chose to use narrative-based format. To illustrate the story, co-starring with Vincent as the male lead in my is an example of cross-media promotion. This could attract his fans as well, potentially reaching a larger audience group. This kind of emotional resonance is difficult to achieve through abstract or purely visual expression. Through narration, I believe that a complete story can make it easier for the audience to empathize with emotions and can gain a deeper understanding of the psychological changes of Anna. From doubt, anger, sadness, to resistance, she felt her pain and awakening more strongly. The narrative structure concretizes the social issue of domestic violence into a concrete story, making it easier for the audience to understand and reflect on. I added an interval without music, filled with dialogues, which was inspired by “Last Friday Night” by Katy Perry. This dialogue was to serve as a turning point of Anna and Vincent’s relationship, although Vincent has already been cheating.
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In terms of mise en scene, my outfit choice was to represent the characters’ trait. Anna wears a white dress, white usually symbolizes purity and innocence, representing her innocent state in this relationship. She had originally had beautiful expectations for her relationship, but encountered betrayal and violent harm, and her white clothing reinforced her image as a victim. On the contrary, the coldness of the man's black outfit reinforces his negative character image. Furthermore, according to Barthes’ Semiotic codes, I used symbolic and semantic codes to show the control, violence, and hypocrisy in intimate relationships. Red is a semantic code here. In the first chorus, in Anna’s dream, she is wearing a red dress and a crown, appears confident and in control in the scene, indicating that she is the powerful party in her dream, in sharp contrast to her potentially disadvantaged position in reality, reflecting her inner desire for power and control. However, in the second chorus, the blood-stained roses hit Anna’s body; these flowers are gifts from Vincent to apologize. But this gift that lacks emotional value and sincerity. This is a metaphor, because after a while, the Vincent’s fist will hit her body like just like the flowers. Therefore, the use of color and semiotics establishes a consistent and recognizable aesthetics and the visual branding.
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In my production, visual elements also play a crucial role in establishing the theme as well. For instance, the Dior Sauvage perfume serves as a recurring and significant prop. Its association with masculinity and an unrestrained nature not only ties into the narrative of Vincent’s actions in the MV but also becomes a visual anchor across the digipak and social media content. The social media posts are crafted to tell parts of the MV's story. The first post sets the tone of trauma and betrayal, which directly relates to the narrative in the MV. Later posts hint at the new album and character changes, such as "Live for yourself", which is in line with Anna’s transformation and revenge in the MV. The black - and - white filter on the back cover of the digipak for the couple's figure decoration reflects the cooling of emotions between the couple and also echoing their costumes in the music video. The digipak mentions details of the song and MV, making it clear that they are part of the same narrative, thus building a brand around the story and concept of abusive relationships’struggle and revenge. Meanwhile, The hand - written red font used in the MV title, poster and digipak gives the impression that Anna is personally writing her story with struggle. Furthermore, it echoes the color of roses and the intense emotions of violence, anger, and pain that permeate the story, creating a visual motif that ties various visual components together
The pun of the title 'bad guy' makes the MV plot a mirror of gender power. Vincent's bad 'is explicit - violence, deception and gaslighting, which conforms to the typical definition of' bad men 'in society. After being abused for a long time, Anna chose to fight back with painkillers, as Naproxen’s side effect is dizziness. This transforms her from a victim to an active "perpetrator". Her 'badness' is implicit as she is challenging the traditional image of a ‘victim’. My research into Battered Woman’s Syndrome (Walker, 1979) grounded my MV’s narrative in psychological realism, particularly the cycle of abuse and covert resistance, it outlines a cyclical three-phase pattern of domestic abuse. First, it is the tension-building phase, which is represented by the perfume discovery. Second phase is acute violence, which is the physical violence stage, and followed by the honeymoon period represented by the roses. In the scene where Anna is hit by the roses, I used close shots to capture the details of her gripping her skirt, showing her determination not to compromise anymore. In Anna dream when she is dancing on the table, I also used an opposition composition of big and small, high and low, movement and stillness of Anna and Vincent to show the power dynamics as Anna is the stronger party in her dream. While my MV both incorporates this psychological framework through its narrative structure, but also subverts its passive victim assumptions by portraying covert resistance through her actions of revenge and camera arrangements.
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Through my research, my MV engages in a dynamic way with Andrew Goodwin's music video theory by both aligning with and challenging his convention. Godwin argues that music videos often reject complex storytelling and prioritize commercial simplicity. My dual timeline of dream&reality and ambiguous ending demand deeper engagement and pursue to explore complex social issues. In addition, I challenged fixed star imagery by presenting Anna as both vulnerable victim and active agent through the two costumes of white dress and red crown. However, Goodwin notes music videos often prioritize artist persona which although I had two characters in the video, I chose to portray the female character as the protagonist. This music video challenges conventions by employing a dual narrative structure that interweaves dreams and reality to portray the nuanced emotional complexity of women caught between oppression and liberation. While the ending clearly shows Anna breaking the doll that symbolizes Vincent, it maintains ambiguity about her actual actions in reality.The work subverts conventional victim narratives - Anna is neither entirely passive nor engaged in overt resistance. Unlike the collective gender struggle depicted in "Thelma & Louise". Instead, it presents a more individual complexity, she endures abuse while simultaneously carrying out subtle acts of rebellion. This approach deliberately avoids simplistic gender binaries. Instead, emphasis is placed on depicting the complex psychological state of individual women who possess both vulnerability and strength in difficult situations.
In terms of marketing strategies, designing a 4-panel digipak can encourage fans to purchase, photo cards were also included to further boost sales. This is what I learned from K-Pop marketing strategies. Fans mainly obtain photo cards by purchasing albums and merchandise. Due to the random nature of the cards, multiple purchases are required for collecting the entire series or for specific photo cards. They promote communication and interaction among fans, such as exchanging or “carpooling” photocards. Additionally, I used platforms from both western and China to showcase my product, maximizing my product's visibility and engagement, appealing to both international and Chinese audiences. Even though Instagram is banned in China, I also released my album and MV on NetEase Cloud Music, as this is the NetEase Cloud is a mainstream music platform in China, targeting young adults as well. In NetEase Cloud music, with over 67 percent of active users under 30 years, young people were the main user group of NetEase Cloud Music in China, as of March 2022. The music streaming app reported t have over 86 million active users.
As an artwork, bad guy demonstrates the power of music videos to fuse aesthetic innovation with social critique for domestic violence and female’s personal development. My project’s deliberate branding from the recurring motif semiotics, transforms its narrative into a recognizable visual language, while its cross-media promotion that bridges art and commerce.
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Citation and bibliography
Battered Woman's Syndrome
The Economic and Social Review
https://www.esr.ie › article › download