Visual and Verbal Communication in Coldplay’s Music Video Clip “Hymn for the Weekend”
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DOI: 10.24843/JH.2018.v22.i03.p24
ISSN: 2302-920X
Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud
Vol 22.3 Agustus 2018: 729-734
Visual and Verbal Communication in Coldplay’s Music Video Clip “Hymn for the Weekend”
Viqi Hanif Putra
English Department, Faculty of Arts, Udayana University [[email protected]] *Corresponding Author
Abstract
The title of the study is “Visual and Verbal Communication in Coldplay’s Music Video Clip Hymn for the Weekend”. The study is commonly aimed at finding out the messages from the lyrics of the song music video clip. The data analysis were collected by documentation method and note taking technique by listening to the song and analyzing the meaning of the word in song lyrics based onVisual Communication Elements theory proposed by Dyer (1993) and the theory of meaning by Geoffrey Leech (1974). The findings of the current study show that there are six categories from the visual communication elements including appearance, manner, activity, props, settings, and images, as well as the meaning found in this study were connotative meaning, conceptual meaning, stylistic meaning, and affective meaning.
Keywords: visual, verbal, communication, video clip, meaning
Abstrak
Judul dari penelitian ini adalah “Visual dan Verbal komunikasi pada Coldplay musik video klip “Hymn for the Weekend”. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menemukan pesan dari lirik lagu di dalam video klip ini. Analisis data ini menggunakan metode dokumentasi dan pencatatan ketika memilih data dengan mendengarkan lagu dan menganalisa apa makna kata yang sebenarnya ada di dalam lagu tersebut berdasarkan unsur-unsur komunikasi visual teoridari Dyer (1993) dan teori makna dari Geoffrey Leech (1974). Hasildaripenelitianinimemperlihatkanbahwaada 6 kategori dari unsur-unsur komunikasi visual termasuk penampilan, perilaku, aktivitas, property, tempat, dan gambar, dan juga makna yang ditemukan di penelitian ini adalah makna konotatif, makna konseptual, makna ilmu gaya bahasa, dan makna afektif.
Kata kunci: visual, verbal, komunikasi, video klip, arti.
Language is a method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of word in a structured and conventional way, whereas a communication is a process by which information exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior. Communication is also one of the most significant things to us for understanding
each other, and not so far from the topic above that Verbal Sign according to Chandler (2001: 27) is something that deals with text and word, and the Visual Sign according to Chandler (2001: 10) defined visual sign as pictures which present the kinds of products, logos of companies, etc. In music video clip there must be a meaning behind the song lyric itself, and it can be shown by the verbal representation in the Coldplay’s music
video clip entitled “Hymn for the
Weekend”
There are many genres in music in the world including rock, pop, jazz, rap, metal, punk, blues, R&B, country, alternative, etc. The content of the video clip sometimes discusses or describes love, racism, social conflict, religion, politics, etc. In other words, music with a video clip has many messages that can be delivered to everyone, adults or teenagers that can get pleasure from the music if they love the song.
A music video or song video is a short film mixing a song and imagery, produced from promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos were primarily made prior to the 1980s; these works were described by various terms such as “illustrated song”, “filmed insert”, “promotional (promo) film”, “promotional clip”, “promotional video”, “song video”, “song clip”, or “film clip”.
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a. What messages are conveyed byvisual and verbal
communication elements in video clip “Hymn for the Weekend”?
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b. How do verbal and visual communications mutually support each other?
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a) Toidentify what messages are
conveyed by the visual and verbal communication elements in the video clip “Hymn for the Weekend”.
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b) To analyze the meanings of English compound nouns found in the short story entitled “The Star-Child”.
The research method of this study includes the data source, method and technique of collecting data, method and technique of analyzing data and method and technique of presenting data. Each
part of research method is explained as follows:
The data were taken from a music video clip of a pop rock band from London named Coldplay.The title of the video clip is “Hymn for the Weekend”, and, actually, this song is featured by one of the beautiful voices of American singers, Beyonce. This video clip was released on 29 January 2016 as the second single from their seventh studio album A Head Full ofDreams (2015), where it appeared as the third track.
In collecting the data, documentation method and note taking technique were applied in this study, and in collecting the data there were three steps including
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1. Downloading the video clip.
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2. Watching, listening to music video clip carefully, and reading the song lyric cautiously.
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3. Capturing and note taking the data.
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4. Finding the signs and classifying the data according to their types.
Based on semantic theories about study of sign and meaning, the collected data were qualitatively and descriptively analyzed. The theory about principal visual communication elements from Dyer (1993:97-105) was used as the main theory in this study.
The procedures in analyzing the music video clip were done by organizing the data, watching and listening carefully the music video clip and reading the lyric in order to get the appropriate data and then categorizing the data into groups. The scenes in the music video clip were put according to the meaning of the lyric. Therefore, it
could be clearly understood which scenes were expressing the meaning.
In presenting the analysis of the first and second problems, the result of the analysis was descriptively presented by using explanation of the pictures. The first question was what messages were conveyed by visual and verbal communication elements from the video clip. In this part, how this method could find the right sign according to their types as well as convey the message from the song.
In answering the second question, the data were analyzed using the picture and giving the lyric of the song below the picture, and then giving explanation below the picture, how the verbal and visual communications were mutually supporting each other. To analyze the problem, a descriptive method was used. For example, to provide some meanings and explain how the message from the song could be conveyed to the people who watch the video.
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5. Visual and Verbal Communication in Coldplay’s Music Video Clip “Hymn for the Weekend”
This chapter presents the analysis of video clip by Coldplay that has been collected as the data source entitled “Hymn for the Weekend”. The video clip was chosen because it has a valuable message that should be informed to the people or the viewers, so everyone can apply the values. Besides, the music implies more about happiness, how people can dance for a moment if they watch and feel the music video clip.
There are six main components of visual communication elements used in this music video clip. They are appearance, manner, activity, props,
setting, and photographs or images. The identification can be described as follows:
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1. Appearance
Appearance or human physical appearance refers to how human being looks like. It is also one of the most important things for every person and reflects characteristics for everyone, although not one hundred percent but that is enough to look for each other. The appearance of musicians especially has a different characteristic and style, depending on their age, personality and lifestyle. In general, appearance has an influence on career, friendship, etc., like how a style becomes characteristics based on the country.
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2. Manner
Manner is behavior of emotion at one time. Manners are the unenforced standards of conduct which demonstrate that a person is proper, caring, non-grouchy, polite, and refined. They are like laws in that they codify or set a standard for human behavior, but they unlike laws in that there is no formal system for punishing transgressions, the main informal punishment being social disapproval.
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3. Activity
Activity is a body gesture movement or posture like what the actors are doing in the video clip, for example, in the video clip like one person who wants to dance with another one and then they exactly convey the meaning depending upon the social, cultural context, physical things etc.
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4. Props
The props for the video clip are very important. It can support “Hymn for the Weekend” video clip. There are many properties used in this video clip including a car, house tools, colorful powder, boat, and a bioscope studio.
These are very useful to make a video clip more beautiful and also the character of the video clips found clearly. This illustrates that the property is one of the important parts to create a unique and interesting video clip. The preparation of the props itself is not easy, the preparation must be by mature and experienced people, and if all goes well, the video clip “Hymn for the Weekend” surely becomes more interesting and amazing for the audience.
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5. Setting
The setting of the video clip isoutdoor used for the whole of the clip, but just for some moments they act in the bioscope studio and on the lake. In the “Hymn for the Weekend” video clips use outdoor because it can be seen that the character of this video clips is very strong and has a lot of meanings with happiness. In other words, the people or the caster who are acting in this video clips are mostly kids. So, from the member’s point of view the video clip is more suitable outdoor in order to make the actor get the feelings of this song, and it proves that the video clip is very interesting for the audience to see this music video clip.
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6. Photographs or Images
A photo or an image can be two parts or dimensions in this video clip such as screen display and photographs. It may be captured by cameras, lenses, etc. There are several parts used in this video clip such a focus and depth of vision, close up, lighting and color, cropping, camera angle, and special effect or montage.
The verbal representation of the “Hymn for the Weekend” song is a textual analysis. The analysis is about the meaning of the song without asking the writer and the personnel of the band. The theory used in this part is the theory of Meaning proposed by Leech (1974).
The messages or the analysis of the meaning could be formulated as below: 1. First stanza
Line 1: “Oh, angel sent from up above” It means that God sends an angel to Chris for his better life and angel in this lyric means “happiness” that comes into his life. This meaning category includes connotative meaning because that is not a real meaning but it refers to something else. Briefly, when God sends an angel to Chris Martin’s life he just feels better like there is coolness in his life.
Line 2: “you know you make my world light up”
The meaning of the lyric is a person who gives a new spirit to Chris Martin as a main actor of the clip, and “you” in this lyric is referring to someone who gives a new strength to Chris, but “light up” means something like a new gladness. It includes affective meaning because that can reflects to the feeling of the speaker itself. So, this lyric is referring to someone who is very important for the vocalist (Chris Martin) because they always make his life more beautiful.
Line 3: “When I was down, when I was hurt”
The meaning of this lyricis similar to the meaning of line 2 that is belonging to conceptual meaning because it is logical and it can be assumed widely. “I” in this lyric is referring to the speaker (Chris), and the meaning of the lyric is “when Chris feels down, he feels very painful and no people can help or make him blissful at that moment”.
Line 4: “You came to lift me up”
The meaning of the lyric is a person that comes to someone’s life and gives a little motivation or inspiration to his life, in order to make him not sad anymore from his problem. “Lift” in this line means “raise up or stimulation”, and then “me”
is referring to the speaker Chris Martin as the vocalist of the band. It is categorized as stylistic meaning because the lyric can deliver us about how real the situation is. So, the lyric is about someone who gives little motivation in order that Chris Martin keeps spirit to endure the life.
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2.Second stanza
Line 1: Life is a drink, and love's a drug” The meaning of this lyric is life that has no burden, even “drink and drug” means a free life like there is no tribulations in his life. It is including in connotative meaning because it is referring to the other thing that is actually not a real meaning.
Line 2:”Oh, now I think I must be miles up”
The meaning of this lyric is about someone who always fights in every situation; even they have a problem in their life. “I” in this lyric is referring to the Chris Martin as the main actor of the video clip. It is categorized as affective meaning because it can reflect his feeling. So, the vocalist Chris Martin should be fighting and never gives up for continuing his life.
Line 3: “when I was a river, dried up” The meaning of the lyric is a river that will be dry up. It means he is in the river that will be dry up for waiting someone who will come to his life,“I” is referring to Chris Martin as the main actor in the video clip. It is belonging to connotative meaning because it is referring to the other thing that is actually not a real meaning. Thus, when our life got a difficultyor problem, we just keep surviving for our future.
Line 4: “you came to rain a flood”
This lyric means someone who comes in trouble, and “someone” in this lyric is referring to Chris Martin as the vocalist of the band, while “you” is referring to
someone else who tells Chris to come to the trouble. “Rain a flood” means a big trouble that can make Chris as the main actor jump in trouble, and it is categorized as the connotative meaning.
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3. Third stanza
Line 1: “And said drink from me, drink from me”
“Drink from me” means drink with me or in other words it is referring tosomeone that is looking for his cheerfulness, he invites someone to seeking the happiness, and “me” in this lyric is referring to Chris Martin as the main actor of the clip, and it is belonging to connotative meaning. So, Chris Martin is just looking for his happiness by inviting someone or other persons to drink or dance with him in order to make his life happy.
Line 2: “When I was so thirsty”
This lyric is similar to line before (line one third stanzas). It means when he is thirsty, he wants to invite someone to join him, and “I” is referring to Chris Martin as the vocalist of the band. It is categorized as connotative meaning because actually that is not a real meaning but it is referring to something else.
Line 3: “pour on a symphony”
This lyric means he just shares his gladness through a beautiful music, and he feels gorgeous when he dances with his friends. “Symphony” means beautiful music strains which Chris enjoyed, and it is categorized as connotative meaning. So, Chris gets his happiness on a beautiful music strain and he cannot be stopped dancing.
Line 4: “now I just can't get enough” This lyric means “I” cannot be enough to get his happiness; he wants to drink more and more. It means he is always thirsty
for his happiness, and he wants to keep dancing. The meaning category of this line belongs to the connotative meaning.
The current study is entitled “Visual and Verbal Communication in Coldplay’s Music Video Clip Hymn for the Weekend”. It is discussing about the analysis of sign and meaning, especially the visual communication elements used to support visual sign on video clip itself.
The first findings of “Hymn for the Weekend” song by Coldplay uses eighteen elements including age, gender, national and racial, hair, body and size, looks, expression, eye contact, pose, clothes, touch, body movement, positional communication, focus and depth of vision, close up, lighting and color, cropping, camera angel, and special effect or montage. There are six categories of visual communication elements all together such as appearance, manner, activity, props, setting, and photographs or images.
The second findings is about the analysis of the verbal representation of the “Hymn for the Weekend” video clips based on the real meaning by the lyrics itself, and the meaning found in this analysis is Conceptual Meaning, Connotative Meaning, Stylistic Meaning, and Affective Meaning. The analysis is based on real point of view of my judgment without asking the writer or the personnel of that band.
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Dyer, Gillian. (1993). Advertising as Communication. Methuen &Co.Ltd, London.
Leech, Geoffery. (1974). Semantics. UNS Press, Jakarta.
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