Music Video in Its Contexts: Popular Music and Post-Modernism in the 1980s

Author(s): Will Straw

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Popular Music, Vol. 7, No. 3, Music Video and Film (Oct., 1988), pp. 247-266
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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PopularMusic (1988) Volume7/3

Music video in itscontexts:

popularmusicand
post-modernism in the1980s
WILL STRAW

Writingon musicvideo has had two distinctivemomentsin itsbriefhistory.The first

wave of treatmentstended to come fromthe culturesurroundingrock music and
from those who were primarilyinterestedin music video as something which
produced effectson thatmusic. Here, two claimswere mostcommon,and generally
expressed in the termsand the contextsof rock journalism:
(1) thatmusic video had made 'image' moreimportantthantheexperienceofmusic
itself,witheffectswhich were to be feared(forexample, thepotentialdifficulties
forartistswithpoor 'images', theriskthattheatricality and spectaclewould take
precedence over 'musical'
intrinsically values, etc.);
(2) thatmusic video would resultin a diminishingofthe interpretative libertyofthe
individual music listener,who would now have visual or narrativeinterpreta-
tions of song lyricsimposed on him/her,in what would amount to a semantic
and affectiveimpoverishmentof the popular music experience.
In retrospect,these fearsseem to have been rootedless in a specificconcernabout
possible new relationshipsbetween sound and image, than in a long-standing
caution about the relationship between rock music as a culture of presumed
resistanceand televisionas theembodimentofmainstreamshow business. Itmaybe
argued, however, that while the debate over celebrity,authenticityand artifice
prominent within Anglo-Americanrock culture in the early 1980s was in part
provoked by issues surroundingmusic video, itwas by no means confinedto such
issues. In particular,the complex of notions and practiceswhich nourished the
British'New Pop' of 1981-83, and which were centralto these debates, involved
re-readingsofpopular music's historyand relationshipto otherculturalformswhich
went farbeyond a response to music video exclusively.'
The morerecentwave ofwritingon musicvideo has come bothfromthosewith
more elaboratetheoreticalinterests,and frompeople whose pointofdepartureis an
interestin television.The particularappeal ofmusicvideo hereis theextentto which
it appears to magnifythe characteristicfunctioningof televisionin general, itself
now regardedas the mediummosttypicalofpost-modernculture.One findswithin
much ofthiswritingthearticulationoftwo themeswithlong and notorioushistories
withinsociologies ofthe media: on the one hand, a view oftelevisionas embodying
the very structure of knowledge and perception in the latter part of the
twentieth-century; on the other,a view ofyouthcultureas eitherthe most debased
or most resistantof culturalforms.

247

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248 WillStraw
What followsis organisedaround these two sets ofconcerns:theone havingto
do withmusicvideo's relationshipto rockmusic,and theothertreatingmusicvideo
withincharacterisationsof post-modernculture.

Music video and the New Pop mainstream

The dominanttendencyin discussions of music video's impacton rockmusic is to
exaggeratethatimpact,and to examine it in isolationfromother,perhaps equally
significanttransformations withinAnglo-Americanrockmusic and rock culturein
the early 1980s. Music video was one of a numberof innovationsproducingmajor
structuralchanges in the music-relatedindustries during that period, but it is
unlikelythatit was the most importantof these, nor thatmany of themwould not
have occurredwithoutit.
The mostimportantofthesetransformations was theconstitutionofa new pop
music mainstream in north America in the years 1982-83. This mainstream
representedthe convergenceofa numberofdevelopments(each involvinga partial
resolutionof problemswhich the recordingindustryhad recognisedsince the late
1970s): the rebirthofTop Forty,singles-basedradio, and withit significantshiftsin
the relativeinfluenceof different music audience groups; an increase in the rate of
turnoverof successful records and artistcareer spans; the recoveryof the record
a
industryafter four-yearslump; and thebeginningofmusicvideo programmingon
a national scale.
Together,these developmentsdisplaced, ifonly fora time,what was widely
regardedas a permanentstructuralcrisiswithinthe recordingindustry.By the late
1970s,itwas apparentthattheobjectivesofradiobroadcastersand recordcompanies
were in conflictin importantways: advertisersurged radio stations to pursue
audiences (those in theirlate twentiesand older) who were not activelyengaged in
the purchasingofrecords,thoughtheiroverallpatternsofconsumptionmade them
attractive.2 By the early1980s,radio stationswere dominatedby Adult Contempor-
ary(lightpop and soul) and countrymusicformats,neitherofwhichhad significant
reachamong thosemostinvolvedin buyingrecords.Atthesame time,those stations
directedat the core of record-buyers(those in theirlate teens and early twenties)
were increasinglyplayingmusic which was not contemporaryor in the charts(the
'classic' album-rockof the previous decade), and thereforenot contributingto a
significantextentto the innovationor turnoverofperformers, stylesand individual
records.
The new mainstreamof 1982-83 had its roots in two developments on the
marginsofthese overalltrends.On thetheone hand, certainradio stationsin highly
competitivemarkets(most notably KROQ-FM in San Diego) found it feasible to
targetaudiences encompassing disproportionatenumbers of teens and females,
ratherthancompetefora smallsegmentofthetraditionally moreattractiveaudience
ofyoungmale adults. A combinationoftheprinciplesofTop Fortyradio (relianceon
local personalities,a 'heavy' rotationof music, and constantinnovation)with the
specificmusical stylesof Britishpost-punkmusic (rangingfromthe electropop of
The Human League to the various revivalismsof The StrayCats, Dexy's Midnight
Runnersand so on) proved extremelysuccessful.Whilethisaudience was attractive
to advertisersonlyin a highlycompetitiveand fragmentedmarket,itwas extremely
usefulto recordcompanies inasmuchas itresponded quicklyand enthusiasticallyto

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 Musicvideoin itscontexts 249
musical innovationand became a significantforcein recordsales duringthisperiod
(Billboard21 February1981).
The other development, of course, was the emergence of music television.
MTV and similar networks were at one level simply the latest in a series of
encountersbetween televisionand popular music, encounterswhich had usually
proved unsuccessful. Historically,the audience group most active in buying new
records (males in theirlate teens and early twenties)is under-representedwithin
television audiences. While, in absolute terms,that audience was stillof limited
appeal to televisionadvertisers,the traditionalimpossibilityof reachingit at all via
televisionand the precisionwithwhich music televisionnetworkscould now target
itensured some level ofprogrammesuccess. (MTV had as itsoriginaltargetaudience
the 12-34 age demographic,which overlapped significantly with that forAlbum-
Oriented Rock radio and included a similarlyhigh proportionof males (Billboard14
March 1981).)
The emergentmainstreamof 1982-84had as itsprincipaldemographicbases a
radio audience (that of teenage girls) long regarded as insignificantwithin radio
broadcasting,and a medium (television)which was forthe firsttimeable to attract
the traditionalcore audience forrock music. This re-enfranchisement of younger
teenagers, and especially adolescent girls, as radio listeners and record-buyers
should be seen as a crucialfactorin the emergenceof certainkinds of paramusical
practicesaround the new musical mainstream.3An intensification ofthe discourses
of celebrityaround pop music, and the proliferation of fanmagazines, pin-ups and
other forms of merchandise all signalled the renewed involvement of young
adolescents withinpopular music culture.
At the same time, Anglo-Americanpopular music underwent a process of
generic stabilisation.Certain formalcharacteristicscame to be found in almost all
successfulexamples of thatmusic, and a mainstreamwithmore stylisticcoherence
thanany, perhaps, since themid-late1960s,could be seen to have arrived.The most
importantof these characteristics was no doubt the restriction
of almost all musical
practice to the format of the 3-5 minute pop song, but the use of dance-related
rhythmsand some combinationofblack and whiterockidioms were almostequally
common. Whereas in the early 1980s the pop/rock charts had consisted of
heterogeneous,eclecticgroupingsofstylesand forms,4 by 1983-84theyhad come to
manifestan almost unprecedented degree of homogeneity.
The most commonway in which these developmentshave been understoodis
as a narrativeofrecuperation:thenew mainstreamis seen to have enacted,formajor
record companies, the long-desired co-optation of the critical gestures and
innovationsofpunk, itsintegrationwithinthemechanismsofcelebrityturnoverand
pop-chart homogeneity.5The appeal of this narrativelies in its fidelityto the
dominant conceptions of rock culture'spolitics:conceptionspositinga dialecticor
strugglebetween marginand mainstream,resistanceand complicity.
What this account most obviously overlooksis how littlethis emergenceof a
new mainstreamhad to do with the lifecycleof punk/newwave, and how much
to do with certainstructuralchanges withinthe productionof rock music and the
mechanisms throughwhich it is disseminatedand promoted. While the increased
popularity of Britishacts within the new American mainstreamis a significant
phenomenon within the recent historyof the music industry,it itselfmay most
profitablybe viewed in termsof the on-goingnegotiationof a relationshipbetween
whiterockmusicand black-baseddance musics. The historicallysignificant tensions

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250 WillStraw

and processes ofincorporationwithinAmericanpopular musicoverthelast decade,

I would argue, are those between an album-based,predominantlywhiterockmusic
and the idioms and institutionalfunctioningof dance music. It is this relationship
which is crucialto an historicalunderstandingof the period in which music video
came to assume importance,and to an accountofchanges withinthe music-related
industries.
The mostimportantofthesechangeswere (a) an increasein therateofturnover
ofthevelocityofrockmusicand rock
ofacts and records,and generalintensification
culture;(b) the resurgenceof the 45 rpmsingleand the individualsong as the basic
units withinthe marketingof rock music; and (c) a new functionof celebrityand
performeridentity within rock culture. Within each of these changes, the
introductionof music video was only one of a numberof determinantfactors.

Velocity
By thelate 1970s,therateofproductchange withinthemusic-relatedindustrieshad
slowed down considerably.The elapsed timebetween albums by major artistswas
long, resulting in regular complaints about the shortage of new product. The
markersof change and developmentwithinindividual careerswere infrequent,as
the timespent on the chartsby each successfulrecordstretchedinto 1-2 years,and
sales of several hundred thousand copies became necessaryto justifyrapidlyrising
production costs. The time between recording was frequentlytaken up with
lengthy,time-consumingtours,themselvesnecessarycomponentsin thesuccessful
promotionof an album (Billboard21 May and 18 June 1977). For the album-rock
mainstream, neither AOR radio, increasinglyreliant on playlists with a high
proportionof 'classic' tracks,nor Top Forty,which played singles subsequent to
theirrelease on albums, constitutedeffectivechannels forinnovation.
This slowing down of musical change was not limitedto certainmeasurable
processes (recording,touring,etc.). Affectedas well was theextentto which,forthe
radio listeneror record-buyer,monitoringthe turnoverof music was useful and
significantfor the markingof culturalor social distinction.As I have suggested
elsewhere, the album-rockcultureof the 1970s was one dependent upon a specific
relationshipto the passage of time: one in which records and songs fromthe
previous 10 yearsaccumulatedas acceptablemusicalresourcesin thepresent,rather
than functioningas 'oldies' with specificreferenceto a highlycalibratedsuccession
of historicalmoments (Straw 1984, pp. 104-23).
In periods oflittleor slow innovation,the stratification ofaudiences according
to the extentoftheirfamiliarity with new products obviouslylimited.The decline
is
ofthevelocityofinnovation in the late 1970saccompaniedtheageing ofthecorerock
audience and its movement out of the age-rangein which itis most involved in the
purchasingof recorded music and in what mightbe called emblematicuses of rock
music and information about it.6
But this argumentapplies only to album-rockas it developed throughoutthe
1970s. Alongside thismainstream,the disco music marketwas developing a much
heightenedvelocity,based on a markedlydifferent set ofinstitutionalrelationships
and audience positions.Whereas thepromotionalitineraryforalbum-rockinvolved
the cautious passage fromrecordcompanies to radio formatconsultantsand from
these to radio stations, that for disco involved immediate forms of feedback:
more-or-lessinstantaneousreportingfromrecord pools and retailstores to radio

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 Musicvideoin itscontexts 251
stations. The mechanisms forthe promotionof disco by record labels involved a
series of quick decisions as to the allocation of resources, each based on rapid
informationfromthose monitoringresponse in clubs or within the retail sector
(Billboard21 October 1978).
The objective of major record companies in the late 1970s was frequently
expressed as thatof marryingthe high rateofturnoverand low productioncosts of
disco recordswiththe careerstabilityand longevityofwhitealbum rock(Billboard10
March 1979; 14 July1977). This would require a musical fieldin which feedback
mechanisms(between airplayand retailsales, forexample) were quick,but in which
performeridentitieswere distinctand marketable(which was considerednot to be
the case with disco performers).This distinctivenesswas seen as necessary if the
disco's commodityvalue within the sales of albums and non-currentcatalogue
product were to be enhanced.
When MTV was launched in 1981in theUSA, ithad as one ofitsprincipalgoals
the breakingofrecordswhichwere unable to make theplaylistsofalbum-rockradio
stations,and itexpectedto serveas a testinggroundforrecordsbeforetheirpossible
adoption by radio stationplaylists(Billboard14 March 1981). It was one ofa number
of conduits which record companies would use, not only foralternativeformsof
promotion,but forwhat ultimatelyproved to be more efficientand inexpensive
forms.Dance clubs and a varietyof new recordformatsand merchandisingtools
(mini-LPs, specially-priced12 in singles, sampler albums, etc.) were among these
(Billboard22 November 1981; 10 July1982).
One ofMTV's most significantinnovationswas the institutionalisation within
North America of an equivalent to national networkradio. It was not so much the
reach of MTV which was importantin thisrespectas the simultaneityofthatreach,
and subsequent directmeasurableimpacton sales. While the aggregateaudience of
the major FM rockstationsin the USA was likelygreaterthan thatforMTV, playlist
adoption of a new recordby these stationswas likelyto be staggeredand uneven,
while exposure on MTV was immediatelynationwide. Both MTV and dance clubs
preceded radio in theiradoption ofnew recordsforplaylists;the difference between
them,obviously,lay in the factthatdance clubs were forthe most partinnerurban
phenomena, while MTV reached suburban and small-townareas. The impact of
MTV should be seen as resulting,not simply fromthe specificrepertorywhich
dominateditsplaylistsat thebeginning,but fromtheextentto which,in conjunction
with a resurgentTop Fortyradio, it increased the velocityof innovation.

Format
This increased velocitywas accompanied by the resurgenceof the single 45 rpm
recordas a commodityformand as a promotionaldevice withinrockmusic. As Top
Forty,CHR or Hot Hits radio formatsand the dance club circuitbecame important
elementsin the sequence throughwhich a recordwas promoted,the selectionof a
single froman album as the focusofpromotionacquired an importancewhichithad
nothad since theearly1970s.Therewas even a returnin manycases (usuallythoseof
so-called 'New Music' groups) to the release of singles beforealbums; an album
mightnow, as ithad in the 1960s,follow,ratherthanprecede, a stringof successful
singles.
In thisrespect,perhaps themostsignificantdevelopmentin whichmusicvideo
participated was the institutionof the single-song as the crucial factorin the

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252 WillStraw

marketingof an album. Inasmuch as one cut mustbe selectedforthe productionof

an initial videoclip, this song becomes the pivot around which promotional
strategiesare organised. Even when several songs froman album are selected for
single and videoclip release, these releases occur in succession and are based on
calculationsas to the speed ofresponse ofparticularaudience groups. This remains
the case despite the slowing down of turnoveron the major charts which has
occurredsince 1985. Increasingly,as specialised radio formatsand charts(such as
those for so-called Black, Dance and Adult Contemporarymusics) have become
integratedwithinthe functioningof the mainstream,theirdistinctivenessis based
on the rapidityand intensitywhichwhichtheirparticularconstituenciesrespond to
innovationratherthan on a set of substantivetastes which theymanifest.
The videoclip is thus just one among a numberof permutationsof the basic
single-songunitwhich circulatewithinthe fieldof rockmusic today; dance mixes,
instrumentalversions,and excerptsused as partofmotion-picture soundtracksare
other examples. As such, it is part of a more general tendency towards the
dismantlingofthelinkbetweensong, albumand performer-identity, a linkand form
of coherence which was crucialto the meaning of rock/popmusic in the 1970s.

andtheconstruction
identity
Performer ofcelebrity
As suggested earlier,responses to music video in the rock press itselfmost often
took the formof a warning that secondary aspects of music (performerimage,
visualisationof song content)will come to dominate over primaryelements (the
elusive 'music itself').The rise ofwhat mightbe called a new 'pin-up culture'as part
ofthereconstitutedmainstreamof1982-84seemed to confirmthis,inasmuchas rock
music became surrounded,to a much more significantextentthanin severalyears,
with the accoutrementsof celebrity.The renewed participationof adolescents
withintheaudiences forHollywood filmsand themechanismsoffashionturnoveris
a furtherindex oftherevitalisationofcommodityproductiondirectedat thisgroup.
This should, however,be seen as partofa moregeneralprocess involvingthe
proliferationand intensification of discoursearound rockmusic. Musical stylesand
periodswithinthehistoryofpop maybe distinguishedaccordingto thequantityand
formsof informationwhich surroundthe playingand consumptionof music. This
informationmay be as minimalas the identificationof an artistwhose record is
played on the radio; it may extend to complex and on-goingformsof gossip and
biography,or to the contextualisationof songs withinperformer'scareersby radio
announcers playing those songs. In periods marked by a high rate of turnover,
informationabout the position of recordsrelativeto each otheraccordingto some
measure of popularity generally is widely disseminated and monitored, and
published sales chartsand othermeans formonitoringrelativesuccess and marking
change attracta high level of public interest.(A simple, but extremelyimportant
factorin MTV's impacton sales, one whichwas partofitsstrategyfromitsinception,
was the decision to label songs at theirbeginningand end. The failureofradio disc
jockies to identifyrecordswas seen as limitingthe sales potentialof countryand
adult contemporaryrecords. Music video programs,on MTV, Much Music and
elsewhere have adopted as well, with few exceptions,the countdown format.)
These formsof discourse and informationcertainlycirculated around the
artistsactive in the post-1982mainstream.The role of music video in givinga high
definitionto the individual images of these performerswas not negligible,but

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 Musicvideoin itscontexts 253

'image', in this context,was simplypart of the overall semioticrichnessand high

level ofcontextualisationwithwhichpopular musicin thisperiodbecame endowed.
The paradox of popular music in the mid-1980swas this: while there had
apparentlybeen no time in recentmemorywhen the institutionsof celebrityand
glamour seemed so crucialto it, the individual performer'sidentitywas much less
importantas a guarantee of successfulrecordsthan at any timein the last decade.7
The careerpatternsofCultureClub, The Human League and ABC demonstratethis:
initialsuccessfulrecordswere followedby clear failures.The explanationthatthis
was due to over-saturationand burnout, and that this was now part of the
permanent condition of celebrity in North American societies, missed the
underlyingstructuralreason for this phenomena: that the record industrynow
functionedon thebasis ofsongs and theirturnoverratherthanthroughan interestin
artistsand theirunfoldingbiographies or careers.
In the white rock music mainstreamof the 1970s, the individual career and
biographyprovided thedominantgridthroughwhichnew recordswere interpreted
and marketed. In the mainstreamof the mid-1980s,it was ratherthe case that
performeridentityand the discoursesofcelebrityconstitutedthetrappingsthrough
which songs acquired the distinctivenessnecessaryto theirsuccess in the turnover
ofthepop charts.Starperformer figuresremainedat thecentreofpopular music,but
these succeeded each otherin rapid sequence, and thissuccession was a functionof
the success of individual records ratherthan of a sustained interestin the artists
themselves. The acknowledged advantage forrecordcompanies of thiswas thatit
meant successful starswere usually in the early (and less remunerative)stages of
theircontracts,and thattheirpotentialforsuccess could be testedby the marketing
of a single,a video or a mini-albumbeforeinvestmentin an album was forthcoming
(Billboard8 October 1983). With some differences,this representedthe successful
integrationof white pop withinthe institutionalprocesses characteristicof dance
music: a reduction of risk in initial stages, a professionalisationof craftroles
production, song-writing),an increased tendency to license product of foreign
origin,and short-termstrategiesforsuccess.
Bound up with these shiftswere what mightbe called a disjunctionbetween
performer celebrity- and thecontextswithinwhichthatcelebritycirculated(those of
gossip columns,fanmagazines, and so on)- and themusicalrecordingsthemselves.
It is importantto note that, despite the proliferationof biographical and other
informationabout the performersdominatingthis new mainstream,thereis very
littlesense thatthisinformation was invokedin theinterpretation
or understanding
ofthemusicitself.The importanceofperformer biographyand personalvisionin the
rock criticismof the 1970s (when it explicitlyadopted many of the concerns of
auteuristfilmcriticism)has givenway to a much greaterseparationofthe discourses
of celebrityfromthose of interpretation.In the new mainstream,the performer
functionseitheras the point of continuitybetween ratherdisparate musical and
para-musicalpractices(as was the case, forexample, with Culture Club) or as the
point of coherence of a number of strategic operations upon the field of
popular/musicalculture(as with Madonna). There is littleof the two-waypassage
between a performer'sworldview and the meaning of his or her recordingswhich
existed a decade previously.8
The dominant formthroughwhich popular music was heard or understood
withinthismainstreamwas thatofthesong, and itsplace withina sequence ofsongs
in dance clubs, on Top Fortyradio, or on music television.The frequentclaim that

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 ..i
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HumanLeague:Theindividualperformers'
identities as a guaranteeofsuccessf
werelessimportant
at any timein thelast decade

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 Music videoin its contexts 255

music video enacts a dispersionoftheauthorialvoice or performer identityneeds to

be qualified by the recognitionthat, even in 1987, this voice or identityare not
significantpoints of departure in the experience of mainstreammusic video or
popular music. Madonna's 'Open Your Heart' video exemplifiesthisat a numberof
levels. Clearly, it highlightsthe dilemma, familiarfrom film theory but more
pronounced in pop songs (which almost always employ first-person narration),of
the disjunctionbetween a verbalnarrationwhich is first-personand the specularisa-
tionofthatnarratorwithina particularfictionalspace. This should be read, however,
less in terms of a problematisationor splittingof the enunciative voice, than as
typical of an operation which displaces and reconstitutesthat voice (however
phantasmatically)as the point of origin of the strategieswhich the video has
deployed. These strategiesthemselvescome to be judged accordingto thecriteriaof
ingenuityratherthan those of truthor affectiveinvestment.

Music television and the post-modern

The remarkswhich followare concernedwith the statusof music televisionwithin
characterisationsof post-modernculture. They are organised around a series of
hypotheses which together argue against the ways in which notions of the
schizophrenicor fragmentary texthave come to functionwithinthose characterisa-
tions. In particular,I want to suggest thatdiscussions of music video in termsof a
politics of the signifierfrequentlyconflatea number of premises within recent
culturaltheoryin ways which mightbe considered misleading.
In a numberofrecenttreatmentsofmusicvideo, one findsa confusionbetween
two readings of the apparentlyself-consciousor self-referential quality of music
television: a view of the post-modern 'hyper-real',as a cultural terrainwhich
functionsprimarilyin terms of fluctuatingintensities,and a view based in the
post-structuralistvalorisationof the signifieras negativityand difference(as in the
'open' or 'writerly'textof Barthesor Sollers).
JohnFiske's descriptionof music televisionis in many ways representativeof
this tendency. MTV's 'foregroundingof the signifierover the signified'is seen to
accomplishboth theloss ofsubjectidentityin the materialplay ofthe signifierwhich
was so essentialto theprojectof TelQuel,and, at thesame time,thestagingofdesire
in a fetishisationof the signifierso valorised withinpost-modernpolitics.9
What is elided are the very differentsenses of the term 'signifier'being
deployed here: on the one hand, the post-structuralist sense of signifieras simple
absence, productiveof desire; on the other,a reductionofthe signifierto its plastic,
sensorybase (colour,sound, etc.). Withinthelatterreduction,thissensorybase then
becomes installedas the fieldof a primarypleasure. This elision is one in which the
apparently post-modernimmersionin sensory intensitiesis said to manifestthe
utopian impulse located, by a whole traditionof writing,withinthe experienceof
mass culture.At the same time,however, inasmuch as thisexacts a suppression of
'meaning', an investmentin thesignifieritself,itis able to claimforitselftheposition
of negative commitmentvis-a-vishegemonicmeanings so essentialto the dissident
modernistproject. One experiencesthe disruptivemetonymyof the passage from
signifierto signifier,while restingawhile at each one to enjoy the play of cultural
reference.
Against this sense of the post-moderntext,as characterisedby the dispersed
fragment,I would suggestthatmusicvideo, and othercontemporaryculturalforms,

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256 Will Straw

assume thistraumaas theirpoint of departure.The operationsof rockcultureover

the last decade have been directed,less at a disruptionor opening up of hegemonic
forms- followingupon the eclecticismofthe 1970s,what would these be? - than at
elaboratingceremonialformsof groundingor containment.The importanceof this
grounding is what distinguishesthese textsand culturalformsfromthe collagist
practices of modernism. The following characteristics,it will be argued, are
distinctiveof various textualpracticeswhich one mightwant to call post-modern.

The resettling
ofculturalformswithintraditional
boundaries

Thomas Lawson has shown how the various technologically-basedutopian

scenarios withinthe NorthAmericanartworld duringthe late 1960s and 1970s ran
aground: particularly,those which assumed that the effectof video, computer
storagesystemsand so on would be an absolute destructionofboundaries between
artisticforms(and between these and an extra-textualreality(Lawson 1986, pp.
97-106)). The unexpectedeventhas, in fact,been theresurgenceoverthelastdecade
of a wide range of classical formatsand boundaries withinartisticpractice. The
recoheringofthevarious multi-mediaprojectsoftheearly1970swithina revitalised
conception of opera (Ashley and Gena 1985, pp. 42-51) and the so-called 'new
narrative'withinthe cinema are examples of this resurgenceof traditionaltextual
formatsand limits.
The shiftingstatus of video is illuminatingin this respect. Video's only
specificityas a medium, as Scarpettahas argued, lies in its abilityto record and
present sounds and images simultaneously. Under the imperatives of artistic
modernism and their valorisation of medium-specificpractices, video's most
appropriateuse seemed to be as partofsiteinstallationart(Scarpetta1985). Butwhat
has occurredover thelast tenyearshas been therise-to-dominance ofthe 'tape', the
transportableand self-containedvideo text,as the principalformwithinvideo art.
The passage of discretetextualformsacross a varietyof channels has become more
common - and a distinctively contemporaryformof nomadic operation- than the
breakingdown of boundaries between those channels.
In rock/popmusic,theresurgenceofthesinglein thelasthalf-decadeis another
manifestationof thiswider tendency.What was significant,in the years following
punk, was not simply a rise in the relativecommercialimportanceof the single
recordvis-a-visthelong-playingrecord(in retrospect,short-lived),but the degree to
which the individual song became the privileged limit within which artistic
strategieswere deployed. Virtuosity,and the overcomingof the limitsof the pop
song, so centralto rock'spoliticsin the 1970s,have givenway to a situationin which
themostimportantavant-garde strategiesare thosewhichinvolvea re-ordering ofthe
pop song from within.10
There are clearlya varietyofreasons forthis,and one should not overlookthe
extentto which the 'classical' formatswhich are being revived have in most cases
been themostefficient commodityformswithineach domain. At thesame time,this
tendency was rooted, in many instances, in a theoretical/political position that
insistedon thevalue ofworkingwithinand upon theset ofculturaltermsand codes
already available and accessible (evident in the theoretically-informed practiceof
pop starssuch as ScrittiPolitti).The musicvideo is typicalofthese trends,bothin its
formalisingof the word 'video' as a noun designatinga discretepackage or format

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 Music videoin its contexts 257

and throughits
(ratherthan, forexample, a process of recordingor transmitting),
participationin the returnof the single, as discussed above.

Thecombination withformalhomogeneity
ofstylisticheterogeneity
The questions to which contemporaryaestheticstrategieshave responded have to
do with which elements (codes, materials,etc.) will be broughtinto play within
certainprescribedformallimits.Post-moderntexts- such as, arguably,musicvideos
- are not simply'standardised' returnsto commercialstraightjackets, nor dispersed
and fragmentary'collages'. They represent a specific relationshipbetween the
coherenceofcertainformalstructuresand theheterogeneityofthevarious elements
refiguredwithinthose structures.Across a series of music videos shown on music
television,or recordsoccupyingthepop charts,a consistencyofrhythmand certain
formallimits (verse-chorus structuresand lengths) is likely to co-existwith the
invocation or re-workingof a varietyof historicalstylesand imageries.
The historyof rock music since punk may be seen as an attemptto findnew
ways of grounding and reconstructingthat music, and the recourse to certain
rhythmicpatternsis a key aspect of thisattempt.The widespread turnto funkand
dance rhythmsaftertheinitialmomentofpunk had a numberofdifferent meanings
- it functioned,among otherthings,as a populist gesture- but it involved, as well,
the search forformaldiscipline or grounding.Importantsections of the European
post-punk avant-gardehave moved froma collagistuse of 'found' and electronic
sounds to recordswhose interestis in the way such materialsare integratedwithin
the coherentrhythmicstructuresof dance music."
What has resulted is a proliferationof textualpracticesin which highlyrigid
formalstructuresco-existwith a radical pluralismor eclecticismof integratedand
appropriated elements. In the case of a post-punk avant-garde,the widespread
retentionof rhythmicpatternsand particularpopulist formats(the 12 in dance
single) must be seen in termsof a particularhistoricalsituation- marked by the
banalityofbreakingdown thosepatternsas a political/aesthetic project- whichis not
reducibleto a strategiccontextualismor a complicitywith commercialimperatives.
The currenttendencyto conceive post-moderntextsin spatial terms,as sites forthe
encounterof codes and fragments,misses what mightbe called the 'gravitational'
functionof underlyingstructures.

Thepalimpsestic texts12
qualityofpost-modern
If this relationshipof disciplinarystructureto those 'random' elements which are
assembled withinit characterisesa numberof post-modernculturalpractices,then
the notionthatthese practicesimplyinvolve the play of surfacesneeds re-thinking.
Music videos have 'depth', but itis nottheopacityofearlierforms,in whichmeaning
is limitlessbecause grounded in an infinity(thatof human experienceor history).
Rather,the depth of these practicesis thatofthe relationshipbetween levels: a level
offormalstructurewhich limitsthe play ofquoted fragments,and the level ofthose
fragmentsthemselves and theirassemblage.
The most useful way of conceiving this relationship is in terms of the
'palimpsestic'text:thatis, the textwhichis writtenoveranother.The latterneed not
necessarilybe anothersingle text(thoughit sometimeswill be: BillyBragg's 'Don't
Walk Away', Ren&eprovidesan example);moreoften,in popular musicofthe1980s,

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258 Will Straw

itwillbe certainformalor genericpatterns.Despite thesense thatmuch ofthemusic

ofthe 1980sis revivalist,thenumberofexamples ofmainstreammusicwhichsimply
involve pastiches of earlierstylesis ratherlimited.Most involvethe embellishment
or transformation ofhistoricalforms,such thatone witnessesthe tendencyofthose
formsto actas gravitationalforces,limitingthedispersionofintertextual citation.(In
quite differentways, the music of Talking Heads and Kid Creole provide useful
examples of this.)
In the case of music video, thisrelationshipoflevels is even morecrucial.The
relationship of song to visuals is obviously not simply one of narrative or
visualisation (if it was, the importantquestions would remain those of fidelityor
success), but ratherone between the basic demands of form(some elaborationof
proposed themes,a movementtowardsclosure)and theheterogeneityofcodes and
visual materialsheld in play by thatform.The video forThe Pretenders''Don't Get
Me Wrong' is a useful example. Its homage to The Avengers television show is
organised so as to make the guest appearance of PatrickMacNee an agent of
narrativeclosure,while theintermittent returnsto live performancefootageprovide
an element of the repetitionbasic to the structureof popular song.
Whereas in modernistcollage, intertextual citationfunctionsmost oftenas an
of of
agent disruption, aperture, or of what Scarpettacalls 'the eruptionof the real'
(Scarpetta 1983, p. 29), the recourse to certain privileged structuresin post-
modernisttextsis oftenbound up withthe search forclosure. These instruments-
basic song structures,classical narrativepatterns,etc. - become, however, highly
ceremonialised ratherthan naively revived, and the crucial question in analysis
becomes thatofwhat mightbe called the'modalisation'oftheiruse (i.e., theattitude
of irony,hommage, etc. implicitin the strategythroughwhich theyare deployed).
This may be observed in the various generic exercises withinthe contemporary
American cinema (AfterHours, Blood Simple,etc.), and in the re-workingsof
vaudeville and cabaretwhich have emerged out of performanceart.

Textualformas 'grid'
The two preceding sections sought to argue against the characterisationof music
video as simplydecentredand fragmentary, againsttheclaimthatthesequalitiesare
definitiveof the post-moderntext.In particular,an opposition between closed or
of
'organic'and open and 'collagist'textsseems oflittleuse in isolatingthespecificity
music video or similarculturalforms.As LaurentJennyhas argued, theformulation
of moderniststrategiesin literatureand otherculturalformshas seen closure as a
property of the individual text and aperture ('openness') as a quality of the
surrounding social or historical context which must be in some way evoked
textually.Withinthepost-moderntext,on thecontrary,thespace ofclosureis thatof
the surroundingculturalcontext,now reduced to the existingrepertoryofhistorical
stylesand pre-textswhich provide, in a sense, the text'shorizon. The textitselfis
open inasmuch as it is dependent upon the surroundingcircleof referenceto be
complete (Jenny1978, p. 179).
The music video, then, like a varietyof texts designated as post-modern,
involvesa particularplay ofelementswithintwo forcesactingtobringabout closure:
on the one hand, the underlying structure,with its tendency to ground the
assemblage of quoted elements,and, on the other,the immediateculturalhorizon
fromwhichtheseelementsare taken.The Pretendersvideo, withitsreferenceto The

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 Music videoin itscontexts 259

r*$

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21*'c~ ~lxx~

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HyndeofThePretenders:
Chrissie Thevideofor'Don'tGetMe Wrong' toa particular
payshomage
instance
ofBritish
cultural
history

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260 Will Straw

Avengers,unfoldsin thespace betweenthegroundofa conventionalsong structure

and the horizon of the limitedrange of iconographiesfromwhich it draws.
For the performer/character, this space is neither the determined one of
dictated narrativeor enunciative positions, nor that of the absolute freedom of
schizophrenicnomadism:rather,itmightbe conceivedin thesense ofwhat Douglas
Davis has called the 'grid' structureof certaincontemporaryculturalforms.The
performer-figures in most music videos occupy positions between those of the
fully-diegetised character in narrativeor poetic scenarios and that of the extra-
diegeticmusician/singer who stands apartfromthese scenarios.What is commonis
the constructionof a matrix- which may be narrative,situationalor both - within
which the ambiguityof performer/character identitiesis leftintact.
The video forTalkingHeads' 'Wild Life'is botha typicaland a literalexample of
this:itspremiseis theestablishmentofa matrix(a speaking/singing positionin front
of a microphone)which is occupied by a succession of performers/characters. The
grid structure is meaningfulonly in a context of diminished faith in both the
suspension of disbelief in narrative worlds and the avant-gardist imperative to
unmask the fictionality of such worlds. It is produced by the banalityof wishing to
break down barriersbetween spectacle and audience and the impossibilityof
remaining innocently embedded within that spectacle: rather, the spectacle
constructs a space for a certain limited play, and that play may involve the
assumption of created or borrowed identities.13

ofrockmusicon its own history

The re-centring
The processes discussed thus farwithina varietyof artisticforms- the returnof
classical formats,therecourseto certainformsas 'grounds' and thefunctioningofan
intertextual'horizon' - have implicationsforthe relationshipofthese formsto their
histories.The overwhelmingtendencyin writingon music televisionis to see its
appropriationof historicalstylesand codes as a process of decontextualisation,as
part of the diminishingof a sense of historicaltimewithinan endless present.
Thereis much thatis pertinentin thiscritique,but itfrequently
underestimates
theextentto which theplay ofhistoricalreferencewithinmusicvideos is rootedin a
particularlogic. The preoccupationwith a historicalpast is reducible neitherto a
generalised psychosocial condition ('nostalgia'), nor to a frivolousintroversion
withinrockculture.Ithas muchto do withshiftsin thepoliticsofthatculture,and in
particularits re-negotiationof a relationshipwith its own history.
It needs to be rememberedthata significantcomponentof rock'spoliticsafter
the late 1960s was the attemptat a flightfromany sense that one's significant
background and traditionwas that of rock/popmusic itself.The two dominant
trendsin white rockmusic of the 1970s involved roads out of thattradition:either
upward, intoa realmofpure or 'serious' music (thetraditionofprogressiverock),or
downward, in the name of popular, pre-rocktraditions(as in the revivalsof blues,
countryand other formsin the early 1970s). The sense of a specificityto youth
culture, or of a traditionthat ran through rock music and included its most
commerciallypopular forms,virtuallydisappeared.
When these notionsreturn,itis primarily as partoftheattemptto reconstructa
rocktraditionfollowingthewithdrawalofthegestureofpunk. In GreatBritain,this
involved,in itsearlystages,a quest forprivilegedimages ofrebellionand stylein the
historyofyouthculture,and a settlingon a limitedrepertoryofthese (around Mod,

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 Music videoin itscontexts 261

TalkingHeads: The videofor "WildLife'constructs

a matrixoccupiedby a succession
of
performers/characters

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262 WillStraw

ska and rockabillymusics). In NorthAmerica,this projecthas had less coherence

and urgency about it, but its most distinctivecomponent is the redefiningof
authenticityas, among other things,the connoisseuristconsumptionof debased
formsofpopular culture(hence, theinitialfixationon those aspects of 1960s culture
least associated withrebellionand artisticcredibility,
as in the music of the B-52sor
Devo).
Both of these tendencies involve a recentringof rock music withinits own
history,and the acknowledgement that it is on the terrainof popular, even
commercial,culturethatrockmusic must function.The revivalof Top Fortyradio
and of dance furtherthis tendency; there is the explicit sense that the crucial
genealogicalcontinuitiesare thosewhichrunthroughthehistoryofthepop-musical
mainstream,ratherthan being found outside of this. The interestin otherformsis
primarilyin termsofways in whichthesemightbe recentredwithinthatmainstream
(as in Sade's reworkingof the torchtraditionupon the terrainof lightpop), rather
than in parallel genealogies which mightbe inhabited.
The renegotiated relationship with rock's own history brings with it a
preoccupationwith traumas specificto thathistory:in particular,a preoccupation
withan originarymoment- most oftenfiguredas the late 1950s or the early1960s-
and with privilegedpostures of rebellionor style (which may draw on pre-rock
forms,as in Stan Ridgeway's film-noirish 'Drive, She Said'). The substance of these
momentsand these posturesis likelyto change, but theyare at any given moment
indexes of the stateofthisnegotiatedsense ofhistory,and notjust the random and
meaningless juxtapositionof archivalfragments.
There is, nevertheless,in rock video's relationshipto history,evidence of a
predicamentcommon to a varietyof culturalforms:the focus on specifichistorical
moments,less fortheirintrinsicinterest,than forthe sense theyofferof a moment
whose historicitysaturates its style. That is, in the absence of a style which
innocentlyand fullycan be said to express the present,the attractivenessof styles
which seem to embody thehistoricalfullnessofthepast increase. At the same time,
itis the plentitudeofthisembodiment,ratherthanspecificqualitiesofthehistorical
moment,whichthreatento become theimportantcriteria.The appeal ofsemiotically
rich historicalstyles is evident in videos like those for Sade's various singles or
UB-40's 'Red, Red Wine', but thatappeal lies more in the absolute coherencewith
which these styles saturate the world of these video clips than in the historical
resonance of the momentinvoked.14

The politicsof pop

Withinwritingon rockvideo, the clearestinvocationof the heritageof subcultural
theorymay be foundin discussions of 'Recontextualisation',a termwitha complex
history.Its sense has undergoneat least one significantshift,and thatshiftis at the
heartof problemsin conceivinga politicsof popular music and popular culture.In
the originalwork of the Birminghamschool, 'recontextualisation'designated the
endowing of culturalartefactswith subversiveor oppositonal force.This concep-
tualisationwas one which grounded the transformedsense of an artefactin some
propertyof that artefactand its history:it was because working class men had
figuredstereotypically as beast-likebrutesthatthe stylisticoperationsof skinhead
cultureinvolved play with brutishimagery.
In the subsequent work ofboth Iain Chambersand Dick Hebdige, one findsa

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 Music videoin itscontexts 263

rO

:-::Eno
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~ ::e::; : ~-~

thetorch
Sade:Reworking tradition
upontheterrain
ofpop

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264 Will Straw

coherentre-workingof these issues and politics,and in particularthe development

of a new sense of 'recontextualisation'which has been highlyinfluentialwithinthe
ideologies of post-punk culture. 'Recontextualisation'now describes an activity
which is subversive,less because of the specificsigns involved and shiftsin their
meanings,thanbecause the veryactivityofrecontextualisation opens up a realmof
freedomwithin(and dependent upon) practicesofconsumption.In politicalterms,
the intrinsicaspects of artefactsthemselveshave thus become less importantthan
the simple gesture of mixing(or recontextualising)them.
In recentwritingon rockvideo, these politicspersistin claims thatthe eclectic
assembling of random fragmentswithin videos involves a disengagement from
hegemonic notions of stable identitystructures.15 These politics, and the claims
made forthem, proved resonant during a particularmomentin the aftermathof
punk, when the project of producing disruptions of specific encodings of the
dominant order gave way to the transcendantand extravagantdemonstrationof
individual subjectivity(as with the New Romanticsor elements of hip-hop). In
retrospect,the fragmentation of subculturaltheorymaybe seen to have emergedat
thispoint:one tendencyinsistingon theoppositionaland disruptivetransformation
of hegemonic codes, reading youth culture backwards through a history of
rebelliousmoments;the otherrenewinglinks with the traditionsand literatureof
dandyism and rooting these in a newly-theorisedexperience of metropolitan
culture.
Thereare two senses in whichthelegitimacyofa politicsofrecontextualisation
seem diminishedat thepresenttime.Firstly,ifthemeaningofthepoliticsofcultural
bricolage is rooted in the very act of recontextualisation,ratherthan in specific
substantiveor pragmaticaspects, thentheprimarycriteriaby whichtheseacts come
to be judged are those of ingenuityand connoisseurship.The argumentmay be
advanced thatthese qualitiesare distributedaccordingto thedifferential possession
ofculturalcapital,and therefore along thelines ofexistingsocial structures,withone
of two possible implications:eitherthattheyreinforceexistingsocial divisions, or
thatcultivationofthese practicesbecomes a usefulstrategyforsocial mobility.(The
firstofthese seems to have held truein whiterockculturein theUSA; thesecond is a
traditionalfeatureof Britishyouth culture.)
Secondly, the disruptivequality of appropriationand bricolage, perhaps a
genuinelysubversiveelementwithinpost-punkyouthculture,has given way to a
tribalistpluralism. By now any number of historicalstyles exists for use in the
present,but thatuse is organised across a multiplicity of coherentimages or texts,
modelled on privilegedstylesand stancesfromtheculturalpast (ratherthanthrough
the mixingup ofthese on the terrainofthe individualbody, musical text,or video).
The realm of freedombecomes that of the libertyto choose models fromamong
these. The dominant tendency in recent culturalformsand practices (including
dressing) is thereforetowards a serialityof coherentidentitiesand away fromthe
disruptivetensions seen by many as centralto the politicsof popular music.

Acknowledgement
This articlefirstappeared in WorkingPapers in Communications,McGill Univer-
sity,Montreal.

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 Music videoin its contexts 265

Endnotes
1 For a discussion of the New Pop see Andrew
Goodwin 'Fromanarchyto Chromakey:music,
video, media' in OneTwoThreeFour: A Rock'n'
Roll Quarterly,No. 5 (Spring), 1987, pp. 16-32.
The best elaborationofNew Pop's place within
post-punkculturemay be foundin the various
articles by Simon Reynolds published in the
Britishfanzine Monitor.
2 The low correlationbetween record-purchasing
and other economically significantconsump-
tion practices may be seen as the crucial
structuralproblemforthe music-relatedindus-
tries.
3 Bothofthese were groups whose consumption
of music had continued to decline throughout
the 1970s. See Billboard,19 May 1984.
4 See forone diagnosis of the eclecticismof this
period and in particularthe success of novelty
and medley records,see Billboard,27 February
1982.
5 A central incident in the lore of post-punk
culture is the alleged 'invention' by American
record companies of New Wave in the late
1970s as a palatable and marketablevariantof
punk most successfullyaccomplishedwithThe
Knack. The Britishinvasion of the early 1980s,
fromthisperspective,came to be seen as a more
sustained and devious formof co-optation.
6 That is, uses whose principalfunctionor effect
derives fromthe way in which possession of
music or informationabout it confers status
within peer groups.
7 This is discussed in Billboard,7 January1984.
8 The narrativesof repentance and rebirthsur-
rounding recent records by Iggy Pop or Boy
George frame readings of these records only
inasmuch as theygeneratecuriosityor interest
in the potentialsuccess of the comebackenter-
prise notbecause theyare seen to have intimate
inter-textual connectionswith them.
9 See John Fiske, 'MTV: Post-structuralpost-
modern',Journal ofCommunication Inquiry,10 (1,
Winter),1986,pp. 74-9. See BriankleG. Chang
in the same issue (pp. 70-3), particularlythe
discussion of Lacanian notions of desire.
10 Dub and scratchmixesare thebest examples of
these but thereare othervariationsas well: the
reversing of the relationship between fore-
ground and background which occurs within
the records of The Jesus and Mary Chain for
example.
11 The various spin-offsfromThrobbingGristle
and the transformations in themusicofCabaret
Voltaireprovide examples of this.
12 In this section I draw heavily on the work of
Gerard Genette and in particular his book
Palimpsestes(Paris, 1983).
13 I borrow these ideas from Douglas Davis,
'Post-performancism',Artforum, XX (2, Octo-
ber), 1981, pp. 31-9, though my use of them
may deviate in certain ways fromDavis' in-
tended applications.
14 For an interestingdiscussion ofthesequestions
in relationto cinema, see ChristianZimmer,Le
retourde la fiction,(Paris, 1984).
15 See the articlesin the special issue ofJournal of
Communication Inquirydevoted to MTV, 10 (1,
Winter),1986.

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