Redundancy and Entropy: Further Research

Following my initial research into music videos and their levels of redundancy and entropy, I extended my own research, looking at other types and genres of music video and see how their redundant and entropic aspects match up.

Pulp - Common People

Pulp's "Common People" is so redundant that it might also be understood as entropic, taking the literal to the point where it in itself is surreal. It interacts with the lyrics in a very illustrative way - the mention of "I" in the lyrics corresponds with Jarvis Cocker pointing, then framing his eye with his hand, and as the lyrics jump to the description of events at a supermarket, Cocker then appears in a huge trolley in a techincolour supermarket. And indeed, once moving on to the chorus, Cocker is then situated in a street, gliding past the "common people" as the camera pans. However, this interpretation of the literal is far from expected and, despite the over-the-top redundancy, it is clear that the approach is unexpected and anything but boring, re-working it to the extent where it can even be considered entropic. There are, of course, also entropic parts in their own right: women lip-syncing to Jarvis' voice, causing them to appear like they are singing with a male voice, and the aforementioned giant trolley.

The Parlotones - Push Me to the Floor

This video is highly entropic. Approaching the house at a canted angle and in through the door, it's clear that the mise-en-scene and characterisation is hardly normal and the cinematography often seems to be mirroring this. The objects in the house are twisted and strange - even the newspapers reporting on bizarre articles - and the costumes are often, particularly in the woman's case, odd and certainly not a normal fashion. The acting appears to be deliberately ironic and over the top in order to help convey the almost comical violence of the situations. When linked up the the lyrics, however, the video still makes sense. With lines such as "Your worth is worth nothing when it's at someone else's cost", it's clear that it has a basis in selfish relationships, the theme of the video. There are also other very clear links between video and lyrics, particularly with the line "Push me to the floor", the title of the song, which is visually enforced by Kahn, the main artist and male actor in the video, being thrown to the floor at various points in the video.

30 Seconds to Mars - From Yesterday

Whilst From Yesterday clearly uses a large amount of entropy, some of that which is utilised could be debated as being dependant on the cultural viewpoint, and seems to play up on the representation of ancient Chinese culture from the viewpoint of an outsider, so, what may be considered redundant to them, would be strange and confusing - thus entropic - to a modern western viewer, the main target audience of the video.The video is made most entropic through contrasts; it begins, after a "prologue" scene, in a very modernistic pure white room, with the band kitted out in white. Whilst this choice of mise-en-scene could be considered slightly abnormal, the behaviour of the band is relatively redundant, and seems to simply be depicting the band as backstage and bored, with drumming on the wall and vacant sitting, being instructed on where to go by a woman in black, business-like. However, this scene quickly jumps to that of the ancient China the viewer was first introduced to. Similarly, in the crowd of royals, the cameras fall briefly on one man clearly not belonging to that era or country, stood in a suit and bow-tie amongst the others in bright Chinese costume.