James Blake and his just-plain-weird take on music

Born in the London Borough of Enfield on September 26, 1988 - James Blake already had music running through the blood in his veins. His father was James Litherland, a guitarist and singer who played Rock music with a variety of bands in his life. With a musical influence during development - you might assume that it would make an impression.

It did.



James is said  to have showed showed a strong interest and aptitude in music from a young age. This interest followed James Blake into Goldsmith's University, where he acquired a degree in 'Popular Music'. 

As with most musicians, you can't usually rely on having just studied the subject and its wide array of content in order to be successful - you need creativity and talent. James Blake has that in abundance. 

Although with James Blake you are still straying into the more unknown areas of popular music - he is one of the few of his kind (some sort of post-dubstep movement) to have made it fairly mainstream. Many of his songs have hit millions of views - which is very impressive in the cluttered music industry - even in a world where PSY's Gangnam Style has caught over two billion views. 

Getting back on topic, there is a reason for Blake's acquired fame. He's incredibly innovative in how he creates his music. He takes bits and pieces from the dubstep genre and puts it back together to form his own unique recipe. In one article about the musician he is described as "not the guy that created barbeque sauce. He’s the guy that took barbeque sauce, researched all the ingredients, and mixed them in different ratios to make something new that tastes nothing like barbeque sauce." As the article goes on to suggest - this is an interesting way to create music and can conjure terrific results - but also sometimes it just "definitely does not taste as good'. 

For example, Blakes "I Never Learnt To Share" has a beautifully tortured build up which is even pretty catchy as we contemplate the lyrics and what they could mean, but for some, the song could be described as two which are put together which are nothing alike. The second half of the song suddenly switches to a fast paced anarchic digital mix and match. Some have described this as jarring in comparison to the emotional steady rise that featured before. 

For me, songs such as 'The Wilhelm Scream' and 'Limit To Your Love' are perfect as they contain the right amount of everything in perfect proportions. What makes me love a James Blake song are when it strikes an emotional cord and you can tell how connected James is to what he is singing. That is the reason why I chose to use a James Blake track for my media product rather than a more mainstream choice. Edgy while connected and never cliché. 

Ideas for elements in a music video 1.) Narratives ii

Last week in a media studies lesson we went over some narrative theorists and their ideas. I decided to look into how music videos might relate to these theories.

Todorov's theory suggests that all narratives follow a three part structure:

- Starting with equilibrium, where all is balanced and fine.

- Progressing with a conflict which disrupts the equilibrium.

- And then a resolution to the conflict, whereby equilibrium is restored - albeit a different equilibrium to the one it started with.

There are many music videos which might follow this structure. Using Rihanna's We Found Love as an  example.

Rihanna's video starts with happiness with her boyfriend as they are shown to love each other and get along very well. The conflict starts when the two start using drugs - although the effects seem good at first, the two begin to argue and the relationship starts obviously straining. At the end of the video, Rihanna leaves the man in the room as she takes her clothes with her - showing that she is closing the door on her life of drugs and so there is somewhat a resolution.



Despite this example, I'd have to argue that most music videos do not follow this structure of events. There just aren't that many examples you can think of which have a clear equilibrium - then conflict - then new equilibrium structure.

Most videos either use a different structure of events or do not use any at all. Katy Perry's Roar starts with the conflict already being presented as Katy Perry and what looks like a tour guide find themselves trapped in a jungle after their plane crashes - where they must survive the harsh conditions. Things get from bad to worse as the tour guide is killed, and Katy is alone. She ends up adapting to the conditions and becoming some form of a ruler over the jungle and its creatures - establishing an equilibrium.




Barthes is another theorist on narratives, and some of his ideas can also be applied to music videos. He believed that there are 5 codes that enable an audience to make sense of a narrative:

- Action - A narrative device in which a resolution is produced through action e.g a shootout. This can even be shown in Katy Perry's Roar, as the resolution is reached after the tense 'roar-off' between Katy Perry and the tiger. It can also be found in PSY's 'GENTLEMAN'. Although the video is so over-the-top to take any real idealistic values from it, the conflict appears to be Psy's attitude towards women - he loves to annoy them by pranking them and so he can't seem to build a connection with them - that is until one woman stands up against him and starts pranking him back (e.g. knocking his chair over as he is about to sit on it) - this action seems to spark something as it seems that Psy just wanted a woman who he could have a laugh with - and equilibrium is established as the two seem to have formed a couple.




- Enigma - A narrative device that teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be solved. Works to delay the story's ending pleasurably - It may be fair to say that there aren't all that many music videos which use enigmas - as there simply isn't enough time to present robust and/or exciting enigmas to audiences - as well as the fact that you're limited to the music and lyrics for the audio of the video - eliminating most possible uses of dialogue.

- Symbolic - (Connotation) - There are actually many music videos which use symbolic meanings. Music videos are often too short to deliberately spell out an ideology. Ideologies are also sometimes very hard to put in a straightforward manner and require symbolic meanings for interpretation. An example of symbolic meaning in music videos would be the controversial Miley Cyrus Wrecking Ball music video. In the video, Miley's lack of clothing could have other purposes than to try to make Miley Cyrus sexually appealing. Some might argue that her lack of clothes is symbolism for Miley expressing her true, raw feelings in the video. They might also argue that the wrecking ball crashing into the building connotes how she feels - as if everything is crumbling.

- Semic - (Denotation) - These are the raw codes of the music video. The mise-en-scene, costumes, settings and everything that is actually in the music video. These are analysed for meanings and symbolic meanings to make connotations. This would be the wrecking ball crashing into the building - while the connotation is what this really means.

- Cultural - A narrative device which the audience recognizes as they're part of the culture. For example in Rihanna's "We Found Love", the addiction to drugs and their foul effects would be recognized by audiences perhaps of a more western culture as they can relate to the narrative.

Diegesis is a theory which applies to narrative events as well as sounds. A diegetic narrative event is something that happens on screen or which is shown to audiences, while non-diegetic events are things that take place off screen - before the film began or between scenes or even simultaneously in another room, which are assumed to have happened. This really can apply to music videos. In videos such as Frankmusik's 'Confusion Girl' we can assume that the male and the female formed a relationship before the video begun. This gives you an advantage because typical music videos are around 4 minutes and you won't always be able to fit in all elements for a narrative - meaning you have to find ways to allow audiences to assume what has happened.