Intertextuality References

In this post I will be explaining what Intertextuality is and how it is used in music videos. I will also look at various music videos in our genre and point out the use of intertextuality.

Intertexuality - this is when a media text refers to other media texts. References can shown through :

• Film
• Television
• Photography
• Fashion
• Art

Example of References

Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA 

In this music video, Miley Cyrus references a scene in Grease where John Travolta is singing "Sandy". She recreates the famous scene by wearing similar clothes and singing on swings.

The Killers - Read My Mind

In the music video for this song we see The Killers playing a Japanese arcade game called " Guitarfreaks". This is rather unique as they have opted to break the convention of performing on real instruments and play on toy ones.

Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow - Shame 

The music video for this song is a short parody of the movie "Brokeback Mountain". Many of the scenes from the film are recreated in the music video such as the bar scene below. Also they parody the cliff jump from the film by not jumping in.

Phil Collins - Against All Odds 

Soundtracks for films normally have their own music video as well with clips from the film. The music video from this song interlaced clips from the film "Against all Odds" with Phil Collins singing the song.

Oasis - The Masterplan

The art style of this music video is animated entirely on the art style of the painter L.S Lowry. He is famous for his "matchstick men" and Oasis have used this for their video.

Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart

The bike that Alicia Keys rides in the video for this song is a reference to the light bikes in Tron.

As we can see Intertextuality is frequently used in music videos, therefore we will have to decide what references we want to use in our music video.