My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise

"You Made Me Realise"

What did you say you'd find

Then come, come, come, get the hell inside

You can close your eyes

Well, you might as well commit suicide

Wait for me 'cause I waited for you

No, that's not what you should do

Don't hate me 'cause I don't hate you

Insane eyes

You made me realise

Something in you died

Well, no, no, no, no fault of mine

Something in you died

Well, no, no, no, no fault of mine

Make the hell out of what you can see

Maybe then you'll not hang beside me

Don't ask me 'cause I cannot see

Insane eyes

You made me realise

What did you say you'd find

Then come, come, come, get the hell inside

You can close your eyes

Well, you might as well commit suicide

Wait for me 'cause I waited for you

No, that's not what you should do

Don't hate me 'cause I don't know you

Insane eyes

You made me realise

Analysis 

This song seems to be directed at someone, I personally believe it is about a break-up due to the person being insane in a sense. This is suggested through lines "you can close your eyes" followed by "well you might as well commit suicide". The first line seems like quite interrogative and suggest shock at her being able to close her eyes and ignore things. The juxtaposing of these two lines conveys a feeling of, if you can close you're eyes and ignore the situation you might as well be die as nothing will ever be solved. 

This idea of a relationship/break-up is reinforced through the lines "something in you died" and "well, no, no, no, no fault of mine". This suggests that the person who he is leaving is no longer fully how she used to be however it isn't his fault. This topic of love and sadness is often used within this genre of music and almost creates an attitude of anger when matched with the heavy guitars and music. This anger is reflected through the high intensity drums and heavily distorted guitar riffs. The lyrics themselves are sang quite softly which contrast greatly with the rest of the music, however, this pushes forward this sadness while the music itself carries a sense of anger. 
This is also reinforced through the repeated use of words with very negative connotations such as, "Hell", "suicide", "insane" and "died". The use of these relate to sadness and anger mentioned above. 

Conventions of form and genre.

Form

The conventional elements that are expected within music videos in general. These dont differ between genre.

• Narrative
• Performance
• Music
• Different locations
• Costume changes

Genre

The conventions that are expected which differ between genres. For example, different costumes will be expected within a metal video and a rap video. 

Media Language

This is how media texts are communicated to us.

This is done through technical elements, codes and conventions, signs and symbols and things such as choice of fonts and even layout. 

• Every medium has its own language - or combination of language - that it uses to communicate meaning. Television, for example, uses verbal and written language as well as the languages of moving images and sound.

We call these 'languages' because they use familiar codes and conventions that are generally understood. 

• Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. Each form of communication - whether newspaper, TV game shows or horror movies. These all have their own creative language: scary music heightens fear, camera close-ups convey intimacy, big headlines signal significance. 
• Understanding the grammar, syntax and metaphor system of media language, especially the language of sounds and visuals which can reach beyond the rational to our deepest emotional core, increases our appreciation and enjoyment of media experiences as well as helps us to be less susceptible to manipulation.

Semiotics

Charles Sanders Peirce (1931) 

"we think only in signs"

Signs we take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects, but such things have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning.

"Nothing is a sign unless is it interpreted as a sign"

Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as a 'significant' something - referring to or standing for something other than itself. We interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems of conventions. it is this meaningful use of signs which is at the heart of the concerns of semiotics. 

Icon/iconic: a mode in which the signifier is perceived as a resembling or imitating the signified (recognisably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its qualities: e.g. a portrait, a cartoon, a cale-model, onomatopoeia, metaphors etc... 

Index/indexical: a mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or casually) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural signs' (smoke, thunder etc), medical symptoms (pain, a rash), measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer). 

Symbols/symbolic: a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g. language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letter, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences, national flags etc...).

Roland Barthes (1977)

Death of the audience

There is no meaning unless the audience create the meaning. No matter what meaning the author wanted to create, if nobody interprets it like that then it therefore does not have that meaning at all. 

He noted, Saussure's model of the sign focused on denotation at the expense of connotation and it left to subsequent theorists to offer an account of this important dimension of meaning.

He argued that in photography connotation can be (analytically) distinguished from denotation.

Ferdinand de Saussure (1974) 

He was a linguist who offered a 'dyadic' or two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign a being composed of:

• A signifier (denotation) - The form which the sign takes
• The signified (connotation) - The concept it represents

John Fiske (1982)

He states that denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it is photographed. Link to Barthes editing at stage of production. 
The connotations of a thing reflects the ideologies and beliefs of the person that created the product.

Paradigms and Syntagms 

Roman Jakobson (1956) + Claude Levi-Strauss 
The meaning arises from the differences between signifiers; these differences are of two kinds: syntagmatic (concerning positioning) and paradigmatic (concerning substitution).
In film and television, paradigms include ways of changing shot (such as cut, fade, dissolve and wipe). The medium or genre are also paradigms, and particularly media texts derive meaning from the ways in which the medium and genre used differs from the alternatives.

In relations to My Bloody Valentine - Soon
Media language is used with My Bloody Valentine - Soon. The denotation of this video is a band simply performing a song with multiple instruments in an empty white room. However the editing and effects used create a connoted link to the bands genre and abnormal ideologies. This visual noise relates strongly to the noise and unconventional style of which this song and band create. 
However, this meaning itself conforms to Roland Barthes theory as that is only the meaning as I personally have created the meaning. I have perceived this video to have that meaning, but the band themselves might have had different reasons and a different meaning behind it. This meaning that the band and creator of the video tried to create can not be the meaning if the audience dont see it as that.
The video itself is delays creating a distorted, noisy look. This could be reflecting the guitar effects that create the Shoegaze sound especially with My Bloody Valentine due to Kevin Shields huge use of effects to create the bands very unconventional sound and style which is reflected within the video.

 















Kevin Shields effects 





























The use of Fender Jaguars and Fender Jazzmasters within the bands performance within the video are very iconic semiotics of the genre. These are recognisably the instruments of choice for this genre and have become icon of it and also iconic of the band itself due to them pioneering the genre. Although, the instruments in genreal could arguably be an indexical reference to music in general and especially of this alternative rock genre. 

Hypodermic Needle theory

 States that the media acts like a hypodermic needle and injects you're brain with information.

This theory implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on it's audiences. The mass media in 1940's and 1950's were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change. 

Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including: 

• The fast rise and popularisation of radio and television
• The emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising. 

The theory suggest that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by 'shooting' or 'injecting' them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.

This theory suggests a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver.

The hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message. 

It expresses the view that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message.

People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot media material "shot" at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information.

The theory assumes what we see or hear we believe and consume. The theory assumes we are brainwashed in to believing the media messages. 

No individual differences!

In 1930's a radio broadcast of 'War of the worlds' was performed like a real news broadcast to heighten the effect of the story, people listening thought is was real and assumed mars had come to invade the world. (as played in the short video)

This demonstrates a passive audience and how an audience believes what they hear in the news and how this can quickly lead to misinterpretation. 

This theory is however very dated due to us as modern media consumers we don't believe everything that we hear in media. As a society we have developed and are less likely to believe everything and we are not simply passive audiences anymore. 

We are also more aware of different conventions within media texts and across media platforms and can reject messages if we deem them insignificant. 

In relation the My Bloody Valentine - Soon...

• This video does not conform to this theory due to its lack of narrative as there is no story and therefore no message being injected into the audience. This theory is also very outdated and does not relate to the very unconventional music, and also music video from My Bloody Valentine in the 1980's and 1990's. 
• Due to the band being of an unconventional style of music that fights popular norm this theory does not conform to the music video. This therefore means that the video is not aimed at a mass audience and therefore suggests that this video is not trying to forcefully influence a mass audience. However, the video/bands ideologies could be strongly influencing their target niche audience.