Blinding Lights (The Weeknd): formal techniques and branded content in MTV’s Video of the Year

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n32a9

Keywords:

Music video, television, branded content, textual analysis, record industry

Abstract

This research aims to provide a textual analysis of the Blinding Lights music video by The Weeknd, winner of Video of the Year 2020 at the MTV Video Music Awards. We have chosen this video clip as a representative model of this format in the contemporary context. Our initial hypothesis is that MTV awarded this music video because it prolongs classical and exemplary formal and narrative techniques, even conventional ones, despite the format's openness to formal experimentation. We intend through textual analysis to discover the key elements of its formal construction. The application of a textual analysis on a single audiovisual work is a common application in music video studies. Textual analysis allows us to identify frequent techniques that appear in video clip formats such as the variety of frames with a functional purpose, abundant camera movements, lack of raccord between shots, a weak narrative or the circular ordering of events, among others. In addition, Blinding Lights is a paradigmatic music video production due to its obvious commercial purpose, as part of a branded content strategy for Mercedes-Benz.

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Author Biographies

  • José Patricio Pérez-Rufí, University of Malaga, Spain

    Professor of the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising in the Department of Communication Sciences, at the Faculty of Communications Sciences of the University of Málaga since 2009. He holds a PhD in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Seville (Spain), a degree in Audiovisual Communication and a degree in Journalism from the University of Seville. He teaches lessons in Audio-visual Market Structure and Graphic Design. He has published several monographs in publishers such as Síntesis, T&B or Quiasmo and papers published in well-recognized journals. He is member of the research group COMMUNICAV Procesos de creación, producción y postproducción audiovisual y multimedia (SEJ585).

     

  • Antonio Castro-Higueras, University of Malaga, Spain

    Doctor in Communications and expert in creative industries. He is a professor at the Faculty of Communications Sciences of the University of Malaga where he has been teaching since 2007. He has taught communications at Universidad Isabel I, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja and in the master's degrees in Communications Design Labs of the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) and an MBA in Television Media at the University of Salamanca. His professional career outside higher education spans positions as National Technical Deputy Director of the Localia TV television network, Technical Director of the Grupo Prisa production company, Plural Entertainment (‘Cuarto Milenio’, ‘Hermano Mayor’, ‘Las Mañanas de Cuatro’, etc.) and producer of news programs for TVE2.

     

References

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Published

14-06-2021

Issue

Section

Miscellaneous of Research articles and essays

How to Cite

Pérez-Rufí, J. P. ., & Castro-Higueras, A. (2021). Blinding Lights (The Weeknd): formal techniques and branded content in MTV’s Video of the Year. Doxa Comunicación. Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication Studies and Social Sciences, 32, 187-205. https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n32a9
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