Representation Theory

Sven Carlsson is a Media Theorist that created a theory in 1999 stating that binary oppositions (a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning) drive the narrative of a music video forward - for example, a music video which is in Black and White. There are two categories which a music video can fall into and they are Performance and Conceptual. However, I am only going to talk about the Performance category in more detail as it is of more importance than Conceptual because it represents the ares in more detail.

Performance 

The performance category can be split into three different types which are; Commercial Exhibitionist, Television Bard and Electronic Shaman. I will explain what each of these different types are in more detail and will also give some examples of videos which represent each area.

Commercial Exhibitionist

Commercial Exhibitionist is when an artist is presenting themselves as a brand where they are selling their appearance, face, clothes style and lifestyle as well as their musical talent. The artist is essentially made into a selling item and is used to engage fans as they will often aspire to be like the certain artist. Here is a presentation to explain in more detail what commercial exhibitionist with some examples;

Televised Bard

Televised Bard is when an artist will represent themselves as part of a story or as a story teller. They will often create a narrative in their music video and will use on screen images instead of personal images. Here is a presentation to explain in more detail what televised bard is and also some music videos as examples;

Electronic Shaman

Electronic Shaman is the name for productions which are generally big budget where the artist has immortal powers or adopts the alter ego of another iconic character, personality or superhero. These music video will often involve a lot of editing or will include many different effects. Here is a presentation to explain in more detail what Electronic Shaman is and I will also include some music video examples to help explain what it is;