Redundancy covers what are typically understood or expected elements and/or ideas that form part of music videos. Redundant features of music videos are typically genre-related ideas, so for example elements of a performance would be redundant or expected in a rock-genre music video. Another common, redundant element of music videos is the subjection of women in R&B or rap music videos, or features of a band's visual style.
Entropy is the unexpected; it's unpredictability in what the music video will throw at its viewing audience. Entropy covers unusual things, and sometimes can convey a skewed message or idea, whereas a strong degree of redundancy is necessary to put across a practical communication. Entropic videos often break typical genre video conventions and are often disjunct to their music and lyrics.
I will now analyse an example of entropy in music videos, then an example of redundancy respectively.
The following video is 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins from their 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
There is a predominant sense of nostalgia and youth in this video, and all scenes are reminiscent of a 90's teenage social group. Lyrics (as per many Smashing Pumpkins songs) are obscure but they reveal details of suburban life and typical feelings of teenagers.
Editing is slow paced in many places and there are plenty of long takes in this video, typical of the slow rock genre, a redundant feature of the type of alternative rock the band takes on. The redundancy is essential in provoking feelings or portraying ideas that aren't vague; the video gives a clear narrative and idea that doesn't leave audiences guessing at possible meanings, but gives them a strong sense of an idea that they can interpret the video's meaning from themselves.
Redundant features of the video that stem from the theme of youth include the typical party scene and the teenage group is often shown driving a car.
Entropy is present in the video. Billy Corgan, the lead singer of the band, is shown in the back of a moving car alone. It is usual for alternative rock groups to show the entire band when performing; in this instance Corgan is shown without a band behind him, and the performing band does not appear for the rest of the video (however a band is shown playing in the house party scene). The camera angles used in the video are entropic in that they are used to show different perspectives, viewpoints and rather than show groups of the people the video is about. These cameras are often attached to random objects: for example the inside of the tyre, the centre of the car interior, the shower head and the toilet rolls that are thrown over the neighbourhood's trees.
The following video is Vinternoll2 by Swedish alternative rock band Kent, released in 2002.
When the lyrics to Kent's Vinternoll2 are translated from their native Swedish, they allude to winter and the rock group's music video is redundant in that it is performance-based and introduces snow after the first minute.
Loneliness is a theme that runs in the lyrics; the introduction of the video sets an appropriately lonely scene in a dark forest, which is effective yet redundant. The close ups of the band and their instruments is common with this genre of music, and is often a demand of the record label as per Goodwin's theory; Kent were, at the time of the video, signed to BMG Sweden/RCA. A regular and redundant convention the video employs is showing the frontman of the band when he is singing verse and through the instrumental ending the band is shown more prominently.
The only entropic elements of the video are in the editing; some images are shown, reversed, and shown again in quick succession whilst the soundtrack continues asynchronously. This effect is also used again when frontman Joackim Berg sings the lyric "igen, igen, igen" (again, again, again) and the shot of him singing is repeated three times (this effect also relates lyrics to visuals, another one of Goodwin's theory conventions).
Overall the video is typical and follows its genre conventions and is therefore a fairly redundant music video.
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