The main question: “what’s the significance of amateur-produced montage music videos?” MMVs blend the analog tradition of film music with the remix of digital media providing a new perspective on audio-visual media where sound represents “time and algorithm” on one hand and video represents “space and data” on the other. This results from blending the sound theories of Michel Chion with the digital media theories of Lev Manovich. At the very least, this new conception of sound as algorithm providing the structure for visual data elevates sound to parity with video rather than its commonly perceived lesser role. In a way, this may signal a return to our pre-modernity sensibilities.
While the empathetic, counterpoint, and anempathetic relationship between sound and video plays a large role in crafting spectator response to MMVs, the particular remix form of MMVs provides an opportunity to re-image the relationship of sound and video where sound, which Chion states has embedded “cultural codes” (8), functions as an algorithm – a code – manipulating video data to produce a cultural text. If we think about the relationship of sound to video, it can expose gendered roles where video is typically thought masculine and seems to dominate the feminine sound and take credit for the overall humanistic impact. This is probably due to the production sequence of most audio-visual products: the video is created first, then sounds (redubbed dialog, noises, and music) are added. the Thus, sound is often seen as taking a passive, supporting role in media, but it’s illustrative to flip this relationship in light of MMVs and view sound as a dominant and controlling algorithm and consider video as passive, malleable data which may be manipulated to serve sound’s vision. The set of binaries thus created from the theories related to MMVs is shown in Fig. 4 as well as the the articulations possible on each side of the binary divide.
The link between sound and algorithm is based on their relationship with time, and the link between video and data is based on their relationship with space.
Needs a discussion of the “music video aesthetic” created by the “sound algorithm.”
To show the time-dependent nature of the music video aesthetic (typically rapid cutting), the 1929 surrealist short film Un Chien Andalou is sped up four times and Killing Joke’s 1994 song Millennium is used as the soundtrack to produce a viable modern music video. This demonstrates how sound functions as the algorithm, controlling our reception as spectators, and how video functions primarily as malleable data and may be sped up or slowed down to match sound/aesthetic requirements. This video is not unlike Rob Zombie’s Living Dead Girl music video from 2009 which used the 1920 classic horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as inspiration.
Needs a discussion of the “surrealist film aesthetic” created by the “sound algorithm.”
To show a time-dependent aspect of the surrealist film aesthetic (often slow and lingering) and the density of imagery in music videos, Killing Joke’s 1994 music video Millennium is slowed to one-quarter time and music from the 1929 surrealist short film Un Chien Andalou is used as the soundtrack to produce a surrealist film due to its juxtaposition of imagery in form and style. This demonstrates how sound functions as the algorithm, controlling our reception as spectators, and how video functions primarily as malleable data and may be sped up or slowed down to match sound/aesthetic requirements. This surrealist film is not unlike the 1924 film Le Ballet Mecanique with its similar emphasis on lingering shots of humans and mechanical objects using disorienting angles and film techniques interspersed with rapid cuts of still shots.
Needs a discussion of how these two video remixes demonstrate the power of the sound-algorithm to manipulate video-data to create cultural texts.