What You See is What You Get 

The post-postmodern approach to the visual representation of sound in 

Michel Gondry‘s The Hardest Button to Button

by Leonie Randolph

1. Introduction

In this essay, I want to analyze the music video for the White Stripes song "The Hardest Button to Button" directed by Michel Gondry and examine how sound is represented visually in this piece. This essay is essentially the written form of my presentation held on the 3rd of June 2014 in the context of the seminar "Sum Fistsful of Music: Videos You Gotta Analyze Before the Term Ends" conducted by Prof. Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

            After comparing three different sources of inspiration with their interpretation in the video, I will try to summarize Gondry‘s perspective by analyzing the adaptions constituted by him. Considering the music video as a whole, I will then interpret it as a metaphor for recording sound and explain how this theory ties in with my interpretations of the individual shots, mentioned earlier. Finally, I will try to put The Hardest Button to Button in context and determine, if it can be considered postmodern, and identify it as a piece transcending this movement, which could be considered post-postmodern. Concluding this Essay, I will summarize the analysis of the video and incorporate my own opinion.

2. Visual Sound in The Hardest Button to Button

Gondry incorporates different traditions of transcribing sound into visual information throughout the video. Technical strategies, representations in art, as well as musical theory are keys terms for understanding the different sources of inspiration mirrored in The Hardest Button to Button.

            The first strategy of visualizing sound I would like to elaborate on, is one that mimics the style of the representation of sound in the technical field. Here, frequencies or other variables like volume are indicated by graphs, or simplified forms thereof. Depending on the data displayed, full columns depict high volume or frequencies, while empty columns constitute low volume or frequencies. This visualization functions as a sliding scale and allows to track information in relation to time passed, as the columns move in a steady rhythm,  translating the data by lighting up for its viewer at random. Gondry here draws inspiration from the simpler type of representation, often found on boomboxes in the eighties and nineties, as opposed to the more complicated frequency spectrums more common in a professional context. The band members, Meg and Jack White, move back and forth, toward and away from the camera to the beat of the music, imitating the columns of a stereo. In a sense, the representation has come full circle. The band creates the music, which is represented by the columns on the playback device, which is mirrored by the band in the video. By having the band mirror the columns of a stereo, Gondry challenges the relationship of original and representation, and raises the question which occurrence is cause and which symptom.

            The second form of visualization appearing in the video I want to discuss, is the expression of music through art. While there are many ways of interpreting sound  as visual art, I want to focus on dance. Exhibiting similar properties as the music video, namely the aspect of movement, choreographed dance may be one of the oldest forms of transcribing sound into picture, often by accompanying one with the other. Busby Berkeley, a choreographer active in the Hollywood of the thirties, prevails as a genius of the trade and shall serve as an example of my point. Berkeley managed to conduct dancers in ways that made them not only accompany music, but provide visual content by creating hypnotic symmetrical shapes and movements. In these choreographies, the dancers‘ bodies are detached from their usual meaning and put into a completely different context, acting as identical beads in a human kaleidoscope. Gondry adapts this principle and breathes life into inanimate objects by making them dance. Instead of objectifying human bodies and demoting them into things, he elevates Meg White‘s drum kits to dancers, placing them in a choreography similar to Berkeley‘s. Where Berkeley uses the fluid movement of bodies to express sound, Gondry utilizes things, adapting this form of expression to a capitalist consumerist environment.

            The third area of inspiration reflected in the music video is musical notation. Borrowing from tablature notation, Gondry transcribes this visual representation into a literal one. Where tablature notation marks a sound of a specific part of the drum kit with a symbol on a grid, The Hardest Button to Button features the actual drum heard playing in a representational pattern. Deconstructing "the drums" as a musical instrument, single components of the drum kit here function as a visual for the sound they make when they make it, as opposed to being part of a larger construct with the ability of creating a sound. Again, passive is realized as active in this music video and the origin of sound and representation are challenged. Tablature notation usually functions as an instruction manual to be followed. The drum kit in The Hardest Button to Button, however, does not seem to be supposed to serve as a notation, but rather as pictorial apparition of a noise. If the tablature imitates the drums and the drums in the video imitate the tablature, they ultimately serve as a representation of themselves, their single components functioning as symbols for their sound.

            Furthermore, it could be argued that The Hardest Button to Button serves as a metaphor for the recording of sound. In the video, the musical instruments appear one by one in a line, while the musicians move forward with each appearing instrument. In this example, there are many drum sets visible, whereas there is only a single Meg White. Once they have appeared, the drum kits stay fixed in their spot, only White is allowed to move. Similar to how when recording music, the cause of the sound, the artist, is ephemeral and must move on with the passing time, it is the sounds captured, conserved on a record that are timeless and can be replayed on demand. The way that instrument and artist are portrayed in The Hardest Button to Button therefore suggests that the music video is a visual for the recorded title of the album, as opposed to the song as an unbound concept. By reducing the White Stripes to symbols expressing the sound of their recording, Gondry blurs the line between subject and object, forcing the viewer to wonder who is imitating what.

            At first glance, it seems to be the artist who is moving freely, rendering the instrument a passive entity which appears at his will. In an interview, Gondry reveals the technicalities of filming the video. Naturally the drum sets were not emerging out of thin air according to Meg White‘s will, but rather White following the previously set up instruments. Without this background information, the music video can be seen from two perspectives. Either the viewer believes it is the musician who makes the instruments appear, of the other way around. Considering the process of creating the visual effect for the video however, seems to allows only one interpretation. Again, Gondry has the musicians follow the apparition of their music and allows passive objects to gain agency, thereby challenging the audience to question cause and effect.           

            Clearly, representation is a major topic of this video, but can this piece be considered postmodern? Simulation, the postmodern term for representation as it were, is described by Jean Baudrillard as substitution of signs of the real, for the real (Baudrillard 11). According to this, The Hardest Button to Button features several instances of simulations of simulations. The White Stripes are representing the columns of a frequency spectrum, which itself is a representation of sound, the dancing drum kits are representations of dancing women, who in turn are representing the music they are dancing to, the tablature notations, which is a representation of noise, are represented by the actual drum that would make that noise and the entire video seems to be a representation of the recording of the song, which itself is a representation of the actual performance, which is a representation of the song as an abstract concept. Additionally, the sheer mass of products appearing in The Hardest Button to Button attest to a consumerist perspective. However, while Gondry does discuss terms associated with the postmodern, his work does not qualify as a classic piece of the movement. James MacDowell has suggested that Gondry‘s work is not to be classified as postmodern, but rather post-postmodern (MacDowell 15). The quirky quality of the video, which manifests itself for instance by the animate life of objects, points toward a less cynical take on postmodernism (Mac Dowell 14), making it something beyond.

3. Conclusion

In my opinion, Gondry accomplishes two different things in The Hardest Button to Button. Firstly, he combines different forms of the visual representation of sound, utilizing diverse subjects and transforms them into depictions that are of equal value to one another. Instead of dancing lights on a boombox, the band members of the White Stripes are dancing to and fro. In place of dancers who express music with their bodies, it is dancing music instruments that charm the viewer‘s eye. Dead place holders on a piece of paper turn into living symbols, appearing as a live representations of the sound they make. Merging these different influences, Gondry demonstrates that he values technology, art and musical theory equally, eliminating a differentiation of high and low brow culture.

            Secondly, Gondry transforms the different depictions of noise into versions that include his perspective, making them a post-postmodern take on the visual representation of music. Throughout the video, Gondry challenges the viewers concept of reality and representation, cause and symptom, original and imitation. In The Hardest Button to Button each of these conceptual dualities is purposefully portrayed as affecting each other in a dialogue. Breaking with the perception of these terms as dualisms, Gondry enables his audience to perceive them as fluid concepts. Furthermore, there are many instances of inanimate objects gaining an active role, and humans functioning as simulations which occur in the video. This phenomenon can be linked to Gondry‘s affinity for handmade filmmaking and stop-motion animation. However, just as his playful notion of simulation mentioned above, this quirky perspective on consumerism is also evidence for a post-postmodern attitude.

            I personally feel that not only is The Hardest Button to Button an exemplary piece of Gondry‘s work, but a paradigm of post-postmodern thinking. Pieces like this video institute a discussion often thought as concluded. Simultaneously representing music visually in an esthetic manner and integrating coherent messages to be interpreted, this piece successfully operates as music video and cultural theory. In The Hardest Button to Button Gondry has transcended the cynical approach to postmodernism and proven that a music video can work as both entertainment and art.

4. Works cited

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Michigan: University of        Michigan Press, 1994. Print.

Busby Berkeley - Dance Until The Dawn. Youtube. AnnaMayWongSociety, 15   June 2008. Web. 22 Aug. 2014.

Digital image. May Studio Music Lessons. Lynne May, 17 May 2008. Web. 22 Aug.     2014.

MacDowell, James. "Wes Anderson, Tone and the Quirky Sensibility." New Review     of Film and Television Studies 10.1 (2012): 6-27. Print.

The Hardest Button to Button. Dir. Michel Gondry. Perf. The White Stripes. 2003.        Musicvideo.

The White Stripes. "The Hardest Button to Button." Elephant. XL, 2003. CD.

White Stripes - Hardest Button to Button (making). Youtube. Egyptiansushi, 12   Nov. 2006. Web. 23 Aug. 2014

Woodchipper Massacre (1988). Digital image. Tumbler.com. Gifsploitation, Jan.           2014. Web. 22 Aug. 2014.

Aphex Twin – Windowlicker

By Daniel Moreno

Chris Cunningham directed in 1999 Aphex Twins' music video 'Windowlicker'. The ten-minute long  short film takes up stereotypes of Gangsta hip-hop videos and exaggerates them to a point that it makes fun of most of the music videos of the genre during the 90's.

The plot consists of a nearly four-minute introduction, in which two young men try their luck on two young prostitutes. In that time, one of the men, an African American, the other one is a Latino, uses profanity excessively; first, in his monologue while talking to his Latino friend during the car ride scene and, second, when he tries to "persuade" the two young women.

The intro ends abruptly with the crash of an endless seeming white limousine into car of the male protagonists, a black Mazda Miata NA convertible. After that, Aphex Twin aka Richard D. James steps out of the limousine and shows off with his dancing skills to bewitch the females. Meanwhile, the women's faces morph becoming similar to Richard's face, and they join him in his limousine heading to the beach. The two men follow the limousine to the beach, trying to make the women change their minds.

In his video, Cunningham uses corporate identity, morphing, and exaggeration as main features for emphasis. Corporate identity is presented right from the beginning of the music video by showing the Aphex Twin's icon which can be also seen on the umbrellas later on in the short film. Another display of corporate identity the usage of James's face on all female characters. Even on the 'Windowlicker ' EP shows a female body with James's morphed face grinning.

Morphing is used as part of corporate identity, as all females become similar to James's. Morphing is also used for terrifying in a scary way, which illustrates a tremendously ugly woman with a buck-toothed, deformed face. Morphing is also used as an eye catcher to draw attention from the body to the face, as it is hard for viewers to ignore the women's faces in the video, even if most women wear bikinis.

Exaggeration is the third feature exhibited in the music video through the oversexed atmosphere; the usage of 127 uses of profanity, 44 of which are f*** word, symbolic usage of an umbrella and a Champaign bottle as genitalia. The Stereotypes of African Americans in hip-hop music videos are 'over' portrayed to an extend of radicalization. Exaggeration is also used via cinematography; long shots and slow-motion are frequently used in the limousine scene or in the booty- shake scene.

Sources:

http://www.director-file.com/cunningham/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302037/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/may/13/hr-giger-alien-visions-film-design-album-covers-in-pictures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windowlicker#cite_note-The_windowlickers_1-10

Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know

by Mai Nguyen

Introduction

What is a good music video? That was the question I asked myself when I started to search for a video I want to analyze. And the further I thought about it, the more I realized that I have never really occupied myself with that question before. In fact, it seems that in the world of music videos, one is more concerned about quantity rather than about quality. One talks about the most viewed, the most shared, the most expensive video but how often do we think about the aesthetics of music videos? I think that this attitude mirrors the fact that generally the music video is more perceived as a commercial tool rather than a piece of art. But with examples like Lady Gaga’s video for her song “Born This Way” from 2011, which is more than 7 minutes long, it becomes clear that the form of a music video can go far beyond a mere presentation of the artist and the song. 

So, I tried to formulate criteria according to which I would judge the quality of a music video. For this purpose, one quote of singer-songwriter Frank Ocean was very helpful to me. In an interview for BBC Sound of 2012, he states that while making a song he tries to “make a photograph out of something that [one] cannot see”[1]. And now, in my opinion, the challenge of a music video is to bring that actually invisible “photograph” to life but not just by acting out the lyrics word by word. Because the message of a song is also not just what can be read in the lyrics but rather it is about that “something” that hides in between the verses; the emotions that it conveys which would be otherwise impossible to verbalize. So, I chose to present Gotye’s music video for his song “Somebody That I Used to Know” featuring Kimbra from 2011 – a video, which, in my opinion, meets the above mentioned criteria of a good music video.

The video was published in July 2011. It was directed by Australian film maker Natasha Pincus who is also the founder of starkraving productions, a film production company based in Melbourne, Australia. She is mostly known for her directing work on short films and music videos. The background painting in which the singers, Gotye and Kimbra, gradually morph into during the video was based on a piece of work by Gotye’s artist father Frank de Backer. The painting on the singers’ naked bodies which might be the most famous feature about the video was realized by Emma Hack, an Australian artist, renowned for her outstanding body paint installations. The video and the song have enjoyed a huge global success and won numerous awards. At present, the video has reached over 500 million views on YouTube.

Now, after having presented some basic facts, this paper will first take a closer look at the visual themes in the video, focusing on the stop motion animation and the use of camouflage and nudity as visual metaphors. Then, it will provide an analysis of the relation between music and image which was highly inspired by Giulia Gabrielli’s contribution in “Rewind – Play – Fast Forward. The Past Present and Future of the Music Video” published by Henry Keazor and Thorsten Wübbena in 2010.

So, let’s press play.

Stop-Motion

The movement of the colors was made possible by the technique of stop-motion animation which means that during the process of painting the background and the bodies of the singers the camera was repeatedly started and stopped in order to create the illusion of movement. Nastasha Pincus said in an interview that the shoot of the video took three days whereas the third day was 27 hours long. Sometimes, the singers had to stand still for up to 7 hours.

At the beginning of the video, the camera shows Gotye’s bare foot and slowly moves up to his face, along one half of his naked body. Then, the background painting begins to complete itself. Just when Gotye starts singing the chorus of the song (01:33), the colors take over on his body and at the end of the chorus (02:18) the camera zooms out and reveals the completed painting with the two singers camouflaged into the background. Kimbra is facing the wall, turning her back to the camera. By stepping to Gotye (02:46), she destroys the harmony of the painting and after the second chorus (03:33) she steps back to her original place and her back starts to depaint itself until it is completely nude (03:58).

The movement of the colors defines the story line of the video. First, the camera sneaks into the scene, zooming very close on Gotye’s body. The viewer is left puzzled about where the colors might go and which role Gotye plays in the painting. One is witnessing how the painting is constructing itself until the final result is shown at the camouflage scene. Then, Kimbra comes into play and by stepping out of her position in the painting she marks the turning point in the video. Thus, her back depainting itself initiates the destruction of the painting.

The stop-motion animation makes the processes of construction and destruction appear very smooth and natural to the viewer. Even though there is a turning point in the story line it rather feels like a gradual transition rather than a sudden rupture. The story line in the video can be interpreted as the story of a relationship where the two partners are also not able to tell when exactly they started to distance themselves from one another and why they are not happy with each other anymore. Thus, the smooth transition between construction and destruction in the video may hint at the fact that, in daily life, changes in relationships also happen almost unnoticed. In this video, the love story does not end with a tragic heart break situation, overwhelmed by feelings of lost, hate and revenge but rather it depicts the slow and silent ending of a relationship where there is nothing left but indifference, resignation and soberness.

Camouflage

In nature, camouflage is used for reasons of protection. Animals, such as the chameleon, adapt to the color of their environment in order not to be detected by their enemies. So, referring to the relationship depicted in the video, one could argue that being in camouflage might have the purpose to represent the two partners as a unit, melting together in perfect harmony. But the indifferent facial expression of Gotye already implies that there must be another interpretation of the scene. The two do not seem to be happy about the situation which becomes clear to the viewer when Kimbra steps out of the pattern. Especially noteworthy is the way how she steps towards Gotye. She first rolls her shoulder and only takes one step to reach him. She seems to be very decisive about what she is going to tell him. She turns her head to the side, moves close to his ear and opens her mouth widely while speaking to him. She looks reproachful and her words clearly hit him. He closes his eyes, turns his head a little bit away from her, as if he wanted to say that he had enough of her and that he wanted her to stop talking.

So, in the music video, the motif of camouflage is not used in a positive way rather it mirrors the state of melting together as a lack of individuality, spirit and choices under which the two main characters suffer in their relationship. Being stuck in fixed positions, forced to represent perfect harmony feels like a burden, from which Kimbra finally wants to escape by depainting her back and thus, she ends the relationship between them.

Nudity

Similarly to the motif of camouflage, nudity is used in another sense than usually expected. Normally, nudity is seen as a symbol of purity, intimacy and vulnerability but in the video it rather represents strength, self-confidence and liberty. When Kimbra steps back to her position in the painting, her back starts depainting itself. Gotye observes her, without leaving his position, his face showing resignation as if he has already given up on their relationship. He seems to have accepted to let her go. With her nude back, Kimbra stands out in the painting and thus, destroys the harmony of the camouflage, which can be seen as a metaphor for her decision to end the relationship.

But she does not simply leave the scene. In the last moment of the video she even looks directly into his eyes and this is also the only scene where the two are facing each other. In this scene Kimbra’s nude back emphasizes the tension and the confrontation between the two. The video ends abruptly after this moment and, as viewer, one is left in the dark about how the confrontation is going to resolve. Will he try to get her back or is this the final end of their relationship?

So, Kimbra, who leaves the protection of the camouflage, turns out to be the stronger character of the story. She has enough courage and self-confidence to take action and to confront him with her problems. Getting rid of the painting is to her like setting herself free from her stuck situation. Gotye, instead, remains in the painting and passively watches her leaving. In the last scene of the video, when the two are facing each other, his facial expression seems to express acceptance and regret. 

The Relation between Music and Image

“[A]ny kind of analysis will be based on an attempt of accurate and in-depth comprehension of the message the author wants to convey to the recipient, and mainly of the ways through which this is achieved.”[1]

Giulia Gabrielli

Taking this quote as a starting point, the following analysis of the relation between music and image in the music video will first focus on the director’s intention behind the concept in order to further examine on how the audio and visual elements in the video work together as a composition later on.

In an interview with the Australian Center for the Moving Image (acmi), published in 2013, Natasha Pincus said that, for her, the lyrics of the song expressed a reciprocal connection between loss and completion and thus lead her to the image of a relationship as a tapestry. The camouflage was supposed to represent unity and completion whereas the depainting exemplified loss and disconnection. Having understood the visual concept of the video, it is now interesting to see how this picture of a tapestry is realized and how “music and image manage to melt [and] meet”[2] in the video. Because one must not ignore that in music videos – more than in other audio-visual texts, such as films – image and sound are deeply intertwined with each other. In other words, “[we] only have a music video when the spectator perceives [it] as a whole, as a sum of elements which are perfectly integrated into each other.”[3] 

An important aspect for perceiving sound and image of a music video as elements of one unique entity are the points of synchronization that occur throughout the video. According to Chion, “[a] point of synchronization, or synch point, is a salient moment of an audiovisual sequence during which a sound event and a visual event meet in synchrony.”[4] These synch points are crucial for the unity of a music video as they create vertical bonds between the horizontal and parallel tracks of sound and image.

These synch points emphasize the deep interaction between sound and image in a music video so that one might also talk about “duties” that the two elements have towards one another. Gabrielli summarized those “duties” as follows:

1.     The ‘Duty’ of Images towards the Music

A.    Paraphrasing the verbal text of the song

B.    Facilitating the comprehension of the verbal text

C.    Creating an expanded reading and interpretation perspective of the song

D.    Orienting expressivity of the song by creating a specific atmosphere

E.     Creating matches with given parts of the song

2.     The ‘Duty’ of the [Music] towards the Images

A.    Keeping the images together

B.    Determining the choice and rhythmic configuration of the visual elements [5]

In Gotye’s music video, the images mainly fulfill the first (1. A) and the fifth function (1. E). The images provide a visual translation not only of the lyrical meaning of the song but also of the music itself. For example, the movement of the colors represents, on the one hand, the construction and destruction of the relationship described in the lyrics but, on the other hand, the movement simultaneously matches with the playful jingle which occurs right at the beginning of the song and which appears several times throughout the song. This directly leads to the second function of the music towards the images (2. B) which shows how deeply the two channels are interwoven with one another and that in order to understand the full meaning of this music video, it would be fatal to disregard their connection and to treat them as two separate entities instead. Here, the stop motion animation as a visual technique and the jingle as a musical theme work closely together, providing a nice example for a synch point.

Another striking synch point can be found in the solo part of Kimbra (02:33). Especially in the moment when she rolls her shoulder to step towards Gotye (02:47), another drum set is added to the music and the rhythm becomes slightly faster. Her frustration and anger can be heard in the reproaches she addresses to him (“I don’t wanna live that way / Reading into every word you say”). In contrast to the sober and calm tone prevailing throughout the rest of the video, in this scene, Kimbra’s facial expression and gesture are loaded with emotions. Her body posture shows that she is searching for confrontation and the way she moves her head emphasizes each word she is saying. The scene reaches its climax at the moment when Kimbra is shouting “Somebody that I Used to Know”, which is also the title of the song. This moment marks the turning point of the video and also of the song. The significance of that moment is also highlighted by the absence of music so that one’s attention is completely focused on Kimbra.

Of course, one can find many other synch points throughout the video. But they all work in a very subtle and implicit way which also defines the aesthetic quality of this music video. Instead of narratively depicting the story behind the relationship, the video appeals to the emotions evoked by the song in a very artistic way, leaving room for individual interpretation to the viewers.

Conclusion

During my research, the question about the future of the music video was often discussed. Theories varied from extinction to reinvention of the music video and the issue of YouTube and other online video platforms was mentioned many times.  In my opinion, the music video has evolved to an indispensable part of the music industry in particular, and of pop culture in general so that its extinction can be seen as impossible. But it is true that even though the music video still has its purpose as a commercial tool, its form and especially the expectations of the audience about it have remarkably changed in the course of time. While, in former times, the promotional function of the music video was obvious and explicitly shown – as it was mainly used as a substitute for live performances and to recompense the fans for the lack of live performances – nowadays, the music video has emancipated itself from this context and has become a visual interpretation of the music.[1] Today, it takes more than recording a live performance to satisfy the fans due to the fact that YouTube and other online platforms already provide an inflationary offer of those kinds of videos. The audience now assumes that a music video mirrors the artistic self of an artist and thus, the music video has a huge impact on the image of a singer or a band.

Lastly, I want to mention that I enjoyed looking at the music video from an aesthetic and also academic perspective. This experience was very new to me as music videos are mostly considered as flat and low-brow culture. But I think that the video for “Somebody that I Used to Know” has shown that a music video can go far beyond a word by word illustration of a song. I was impressed by the depth, the emotionality and the creative realization of the concept of video. Also, I remember that after my presentation of Gotye’s music video in the seminar, one fellow student remarked that she had not expected the video to have such a coherent story line. And this is exactly how I often felt during the presentations of the other students in the seminar. There were so many surprising details, allusions and intertextual references that I would have never paid attention to.

So now, let’s press rewind and see if there are other things that you might find.

References

Secondary Literature

Gabrielli, Giulia. 2010. “An Analysis of The Relation between Music and Image. The Contribution of Michel Gondry.” in: Keazor, Henry and Wübbena, Thorsten (eds.). Rewind, play, fast forward: the past, present and future of the music video. Bielefeld: Transcript. 89-109.

Keazor, Henry and Wübbena, Thorsten. 2010. “Introduction” in: Keazor, Henry and Wübbena, Thorsten (eds.). Rewind, play, fast forward: the past, present and future of the music video. Bielefeld: Transcript. 7-31.

Chion, Michel. 1994. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press.

About the Music Video “Somebody that I Used to Know”

·      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_That_I_Used_to_Know#Music_video [accessed 01/08/14]

·      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY [accessed 14/08/14]

·      http://vimeo.com/26028186 [accessed 01/08/14]

About Natasha Pincus

·      http://www.starkravingproductions.com.au/contact.html [accessed 01/08/14]

·      http://www.acmi.net.au/vid_director_showcase_natasha_pincus.htm [accessed 01/08/14]

About Emma Hack

·      http://www.emmahackartist.com.au/emma_commercial/emma_musicvideo.html#.U9uJ_mOKng0 [accessed 01/08/14]

·      http://www.emmahackartist.com.au/emma_art/the_artist.html#.U9uKE2OKng0 [accessed 01/08/14]

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[1] Keazor/Wübbena (2010): 23

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[1] Gabrielli (2010): 89

[2] ibid.

[3] ibid: 91

[4] Chion (1994): 58 

[5] Gabrielli (2010): 99

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[1]  Frank Ocean interview - BBC Sound of 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65amv0E_sgI [19/08/14]