p-ISSN: 2528-5076, e-ISSN: 2302-920X

Humanis: Journal of Arts and Humanities

Vol 24.1 Pebruari 2020:11-19

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24843/JH.2020.v24.i01.p02

Terakreditasi Sinta-4, SK No: 23/E/KPT/2019

Visual and Verbal in Music Video Clip of The Script’s Band Entitled ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’

Putu Dian Restiana Dewi*, Sang Ayu Isnu Maharani , I Ketut Wandia English Department, Faculty of Art, Udayana University [dianrestianaa@gmail.com]

Denpasar, bali, Indonesia *Corresponding author

Abstrak

Judul artikel ini adalah "Visual and Verbal In Music Video Clip Of The Script’s Band Entaitled “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”". Penulisan artikel ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pesan-pesan dari lirik video music klip menggunakan teori elemen komunikasi visual dan teori makna.Hal ini juga bertujuan menganalisis penggunaan elemen komunikasi visual dan verbal juga mencari korelasi antara elemen visual dan representasi verbal dengan makna lagu dalam klip video ini. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis unsur-unsur komunikasi visual dan untuk mengetahui makna lirik lagu. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah studi pustaka dan teknik pencatatan. Penelitian ini dianalisis secara kualitatif berdasarkan teori John Dyer (1993) dan teori makna oleh Geoffrey Leech (1974). Ditemukan bahwa musik video klip dalam album The Script berisi 5 kategori komunikasi visual seperti penampilan, gaya, danaktivitas, *(property dan pengaturan)* dan visual atau gambar. Arti dari lirik lagu yang ditemukan adalah makna konseptual dan konotatif. Hubungan antara komunikasi verbal dan visual, mereka saling mendukung.

Kata kunci: Klip video musik, Visual, Verbal, Komunikasi, Makna

Abstract

The title of this article is “Visual and Verbal In Music Video Clip Of The Script’s Band Entaitled “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”. The writing of this article aimed at finding out the messages from the lyrics of the music video clip applying theory of visual communication elements and the theory of meaning. It is also aimed at analyzing the use of visual and verbal communication elements as well as finding out correlation between the visual elements and verbal representation with the meaning of the song in this video clip.The aims of this study were to analyze the elements of visual communication and to find out the meanings of the song lyric. The method used in this study was library research method and it is supported by note taking technique. The data was qualitativelyanalyzed based on John Dyer’s theory (1993) and the theory of meaning by Geoffrey Leech (1974). It was found that the music video clip in the album The Script contained the 5 categories of visual communication such as appearance, manner, activity, props and setting, and visual or image. The meanings of the song lyrics found were conceptual and connotative meaning. The relationship between verbal and visual communication found that they were supporting each other.

Keywords: Music video clip, Visual, Verbal, Communication, Meaning

Info Article

Received        :    1st July 2019

Accepted       :   11th February 2020

Publised        :   29th February 2020

INTRODUCTION

According to Goodwin (1994: 3) the representation of visual sign in music video took place in early 1980’s and it will be often refer as a new art form. Visual sign in music video is mostly represent on the combination of elliptical storylines actor or model and animation or cartoon. The content of the music video through the representation of visual sign sometimes describes violence, racism, social conflicts, religion, love, or even politics and other sensitive topics.

“According to Chandler (2001: 27) verbal sign is something that deals with text and word. According to Halliday (1985: 43) a text is a language in operation and a product of its environment and functions in that environments. Chandler (2001: 10) defines that visual sign as pictures, which presents the kind of the products, logo of company, etc.”

“The term ‘Communication’ according to Hybel & Weaver (2004: 7) is interaction with others to share information and beliefs, exchange ideas and feelings, make plans and solve problems. Sometimes this interaction is done interpersonally, in a team or small group, in a conference and sometimes through the media or via computer. We may say that communication consists of transmitting information from one people to another. “

“A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including” "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo)

film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip".”

“Music videos use a wide range of styles of contemporary video making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and nonnarrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation, music, and live action. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance.”

“In music video clips, the element of verbal and visual sign is usually found when we watch it. But sometimes it is depending on viewers. They usually do not understand the message or the meaning of the music video clip that they have watched.”

“The topic was interesting because in a music video clip we can analyze the message that the song writer wants to deliver to us, especially in the script music video clip entitled “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”. It is not just about the lyrics, the movement of an actor or an actress in a music video clip and the expression of a songalso more reveals.”

Suliani (2012) the writing is entitled “Visual and Verbal Communication element in the Celine Dion’s Video Clips”. It is aimed at analyzing the use of visual and verbal communication elements and also finding out correlation between the visual elements and verbal representation with the meaning of the song in the Celine Dion’s video clips. There were two music video clips. These video clips were taken from the best seller video clip Celine Dion in www.youtube.com, which consist of two tracks entitled My Heart will go on and All by my Self.

“The main theories applied in this study are the theory of the visual communication elements by Dyer (1993), the theory of verbal representation by Dyer in his book with title ‘Advertising as Communication’ and theory of meaning proposed by Leech (1974) in Semantics. Other linguists’ theories that are related to the topic were also used to support the analysis of the study. The collected data were descriptively and qualitatively analyzed based on the theory used in the study.”

“The findings of the analysis show that the use of the visual and verbal communication elements in the music video clips depend on the content of the video clips itself. Video clips which contain story in it, use more visual and verbal communication elements rather than the clips which has no story. With respect to the role of visual communication elements of the clips, it was found that the correlation between visual sign and verbal representation in the video clip. The meanings of song lyrics do play an important role since they can support each other in conveying the song messages well.”

The strength of this paper is the data source that is very familiar with the people in the word. It makes everyone who reads it can understand what the writer wants to analyze. The weakness of the paper is the paper does not consist of 50 pages. The relation to the paper is also analyzing verbal and visual sign. and also choosing the music video clip as the data source.

Pidada (2012) conducted a research entitle “Verbal and Visual Messages of Barack Obama Political Cartoons”. The discussion in this study is aimed to analyze the meaning that is represented on each cartoon. The data of this study was Barack Obama Cartoon Gallery taken from www.politicalhumor.about.com.The data was collected through documentary

method and it was assisted by techniques of reading and compiling, then the collected data was analyzed descriptively by the theory of meaning proposed by Leech and theory of verbal and visual message proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure.

“The result shows that there are two types of meaning that can be identified in this study; connotative and denotative meaning. After all the cartoons have been classified based on verbal and visual sign in order to get the message of each cartoon, four cartoons belong to connotative meaning and one cartoon belongs to denotative meaning. The message of each cartoon that has been analyzed is mostly about the weaknesses and the strengths of Barack Obama Presidency.”

“The strength of this paper is the data source is very interesting. Since the data source was the political cartoon, it makes the reader want to read it continuously. The weakness of the paper is the data source is too much; it makes the readers be bored to read. The relation of the paper and my current study that it has the same analysis about verbal and visual.”

Fatria Maulita (2013) did research entitle “The Meaning of Visual and Verbal Aspect of Paramore Video clip. The data of this study comes from the Paramore band video clip. For the paper Fatria Maulita analyzed two problems. The first problem is what steps of visual aspect did the video clip use, and the second problem is what the meaning of the lyrics are based on. The data source of this undergraduate thesis is different from this study. The data of this study was taken from rancid video clip entitled ”The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” while the data of Fitria Maulita was taken from the Paramore’s video clips. The aims of this study is how to analyze the meaning of the lyrics based on the verbal aspect in the Script’s clip while the aims of Fauria’s study is how to classify the step

of visual aspect used in Paramore’s clip. The analysis of her study shows the use of sematic theory of sign and meaning. By using those theories, she describes the visual communication elements used in the Paramore’s clip.

“The sign or the representing object can have any material manifestation as long as it can fulfill the representation function: a word, a novel, a gesture, a reaction in the brain, a city, etc. On the status of the presented object nothing is made explicit by this definition.” It may be material or mental, fictitious or factual, real, natural, or artificial. ”From this it follows that something which is a sign in one context may be an object in another or vice versa.” Signs do not constitute a class of object. A sign is a “functional” unit. The way in which they visually and mathematically structure the word that is the focus on their inquiry, without however looking in much detail at how scientists attend to each other as living, meaningful bodies, or structure what they see through the organization of talk in interaction. “

“Richard E. Mayer and Laura J. Massa (2003) examined the hypothesis that some people are verbal learners and some others are visual ones. They presented a battery of 14 cognitive measures related to the visualizer–verbalizer dimension to 95 college students and then conducted correlational and factor analyses. In a factor analysis, each measure loaded most heavily onto 1 of 4 factors: cognitive style (such as visual–verbal style questionnaires), learning preference (such as behavioral and rating instruments involving visual–verbal preferences in multimedia learning scenarios), spatial ability (such as visualization and spatial relations tests and verbal–spatial ability self-ratings), and general achievement (such as tests of verbal and mathematical achievement). The results have implications for how to conceptualize and measure individual

differences in the visualizer–verbalizer dimension and cognitive style in general.”

The strength of this journal’s article is the research in this journal’s article using a field research in collecting the data in which the result of the analysis is more satisfying for the reader. The weakness of this journal’s article is the topic that was chosen is not a familiar one. It can be categorized as something new for the reader that may cause confusion for the readers. The relation of the paper to my current study is in term of data source that is an analysis of music video clip.

In this study there are some problems to be analyzed:

  • a.    What elements of the visual and verbal communication can be found in the music video clip entitled ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’?

  • b.    What is the meaning of the song lyrics?

In this study there are some aims of study, they are as follows:

  • a.    To analyze the elements of visual and verbal communication that related to the topic using the theory of visual sign.

  • b.    To find out the meaning of the song lyrics.

METHOD

“Research can be defined as a careful study of a subject, especially in order to discover new fact or information about the subject. There were three steps taken to analyze the music video clip. Those steps are: data source, method and technique of collecting data, method and technique of analyzing data, and method of presenting data analysis”

Data Source

“The data was music video clip entitled “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”. The Man Who Can't Be Moved is a pop ballad, the second single from Irish band The Script from their

album The Script. The song was released on 25 July 2008. The song heavily applies    for    the CBS show Ghost

Whisperer during its fourth season. This song served as their radio promotional single in the United States, gaining airplay on multiple radio stations. On 8 June 2009, the song was released as the second official single in U.S. The song was chosen as one of the soundtracks for the 2009 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. This song has been covered by the cappella group Straight No Chaser.” The video was directed by MarcKlasfeld. It     was     released     on     the

band's YouTube channel and other music channels and this video clip is dured by 4 minutes.”

Method and Technique of Collecting Data

In collecting the data, library research method was applied. It is used to get the information related to visual communication elements and also to find out the meaning of The Script music video clip. The techniques apply in this study were note taking the video music script and listening thoroughly to the video clip.

Method and Technique of Analyzing Data

“The procedures of the analysis were done as follows:

First, the video clip was descriptively analyzed to observe the visual and verbal communication elements used in The Script music video clip. Then the analysis continued with the analysis of the figurative language related to the meaning of the lyric as verbal communication in the music video clip entitled “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”.”

The procedure in music video clips analysis was based on four steps:

  • a.    Collecting the music video clip from YouTube and got the original lyric from the album.

  • b.    Watching the music video clip carefully.

  • c.    Taking some notes of the scene or the story in the music video clip.

  • d.    Analyzing and relating the scene or the story in the music video clip with the lyric of the song.

Method    and    Technique    of

Presenting the Analyzing Data

“The study used descriptive qualitative method in presenting analysis and was shown in the form of screen shots and explanation. The song lyric was clearly considered as the visual and verbal communication because the writer of the song wanted to describe how the feeling of a person in the song. The expression used for special effect of study was presented in combination of formal and informal method because the analysis of visual communication of appearance used formal and the other analysis except appearance aspect used informal one of each video clip were presented using theory proposed byDyer (1993) followed by theory of meaning by Leech (1974). The data were presented descriptively in order to provide complete and clear senteces.”

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

This part deals with the result and discussion of the analysis of a music video clip of The Script that has been collected as the data sources entitled ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’.

Five Components of The Principle of Visual Communication

Elements In Visual Sign

  • 1.    Appearance

Human physical appearance refers to state of human beings. There are five elements of appearance that are used in

this music video clip; they are gender, nationality, hair, body and looks. The observation of these elements will be explained as follows.

  • a.    “Gender

The classification of gender in this video can be classified into female and male.

With total of the actor who played in the video clip are ten male and ten female.”

  • b.    Nationality and Race

The Script is known as a group band which has European member as their origin. The actors and actresses can be classified into white skin, black skin, blue eyes, brown eyes, straight hair, curly hair, and blonde hair, high and big shape.

  • c.    Hairstyle

Straight, blonde, bald, short and frizzy are the hair’s category of the band members and the actor/actress, which can be identified in this video.

  • d.    Body Shape

The summary of this video can be mentioned that most actors and actresses had a medium and tall body shape. While the other actors and actresses had fat, skinny, strong, and short body shape.

  • e.    Looks

The actor and actress in this music video dressed themselves as a normal human look that we usually meet in the streets. Like one of the example was from the afro man can be identified as character who wears a white shirt and black suit.

  • 2.    Manner

“Manner indicates behaviour of emotion at any one time and it is manifested in three main codes of nonverbal communication. Three elements of manner are expression, pose and clothes.”

  • a.    Expresion

In this video, the expression can be seen from the characters, which represents through the singer and all of the

actors/actresses. The expression of the singer shown in this video is a negative expression as if they have a bad problem and depressed. In the same way, there are many actor/actress showing negative expressions.

  • b.    Pose

The pose which can be seen in this video is a kind of active pose, because the pose which is shown in this video clip all of the actors/ actress seems to enjoy the situation which is expressed in the body movement of all the actors/ actress. In the middle of the video there are some guys that seem to be the main actrors sitting and not making any movement. And then in the end of the music video clip the actors/ actress show something active which is shown by the body movement by running and walking here and there. Through the movement and pose of them in the video clip, the audience can feel the emotion contained in the whole concept of the video clip.

  • c.    Clothes

“Clothes are obviously important carrier of the meaning which needs to be represented in this analysis. They can be ranged from the formal to the informal, and can be smart, sophisticated, glamorous, elegant, trendy or comfortable and casual. The clothes put on by actors and actresses in this video are varied. Jeans, t-shirt, are the example of non-formal clothes but comfortable. Dress, shirt, suit are the example of formal clothes seen in this video by the singer the and actors/actresses.”

  • 3.    Activity

“Body gestures, movement and posture can be related to what the actor is doing. Body movements are the elements of the activity, which appeared in this video. It will be observed as follows.” a. Body Movement

There are three kinds of body movements that can be identified on this

video. They are: Standing, This movement shown in almost of the scenes in the video clip like the old woman with brown shirt, the man with black sunglasses and black suit and the afro girl.Walking, This body movement is shown from the beginning up to the end of the video clip when the vocalist of the band who is the main actor was looking for someone along the street. Sitting, this movement can be seen clearly in the last scenes when the actor sat on the street paying attention to a photo.

  • 4.    Props and Settings

The music tools the props are used in this video. A building is also used as props in this video. The setting in this video consists of outdoor and indoor setting.

  • 5.    Visual or Image

The use of focus and depth vision, close ups, and camera angle in analyzing visual or images can be described as follows:

  • a.    Focus and Depth Vision

“The face of the actors/actress in every scene is observed from focus and depth vision. The face of the actor/actress is presented in fuzzy description.”

  • b.    Close-ups

“The close up pictures can be seen on the pictures of the band member appearance when they play the guitar, the bass, the drum, and also sing.”

  • c.    Camera Angle

Front Angle, the use of front angle in producing the picture in the clip can be seen on some pictures. It is used in creating the opening, the band playing music, the girl with red coat, the woman holding her daughter, the girl with tatto, the girl with colored sweater and the old woman with brown shirt. Side Angle, the pictures that are shown from the side angle are the picture of the afro girl, the

black haired women in the car and the man with white hat. Above Angle, the pictures on the clip taken by camera from above angle are the picture of building. Back Angel, the back angle is used in producing the picture of the vocalist.

Types of Meaning

In order to know the meaning of the figurative word in The Man Who Can’t Be Moved song by The Script, Leech theory about meaning is used here. There are two kinds of meaning used to analyse the data.

  • 1.    Conceptual meaning

“Conceptual meaning is also called denotative meaning or cognitive meaning. It is logical and widely assumed to be the central factor in linguistic communication. If it’s a day, a month, years, gotta stand my ground even if it rains or snows. The sentence above is a conceptual meaning as all the meaning in the sentence are already described in the sentence, or the other words, the sentence does not refer to any other meaning. The above sentence is a configuration of abstract symbol that showed exactly what the listener requires to know if it is distinguished from all other possible meaning in the language. The lyrics above obviously had an excessive meaning in human physical strength that could not be able to stand or adapt in a very long time (a day, a month, a year) and in a situation of heavy rain and snowy place.”

  • 2.    Connotative Meaning

“Connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. Connotative meaning is indeterminate and opens in the same sense as our knowledge and believes about the universes that are open-ended. There is no hole in his shoes but a big hole. There

is a connotative meaning is used in this sentence as it cannot taken literally. What is meant by the words There are no holes in his shoes but a big hole. The word explained to us that there was a scar own by someone. The whole itself could be described as the hole of shoes themselves. It defined shoes that had been damaged. In just a broken hearted man. There is a connotative meaning is used in this sentence as it cannot taken literally. What does it mean by the words in just a broken hearted man? Due to the terms of the broken human body explained to us about physical disabilities but in the lyrics stated another terms that someone felt a broken feeling because of something. Maybe I’ll get famous as the man who can’t be moved. There is a connotative meaning used in this sentence as it cannot be taken literally. What is meant by the words Maybe I’ll get famous as the man who can’t be moved. The lyrics above described something that is considered as a famous or well-known by people, that usually created or was built directly or indirectly and there was someone who did not know hopes how to do the self-back up again due to missing something or someone. It was hard to make the people be known as well by the society.”

CONCLUSION

“This study has discussed the visual and verbal communication used in music video clip. It is focused on the discussion of visual and verbal communication elements used in the music video. Besides, this study also focused on the analysis of the figurative language, and meaning. Based on the foregoing analysis and the discussion, the following points can be presented as conclusion:”

“The music video clip entitled “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” uses 11 elements from 5 categories of visual elements. In the appearance category it was found 5 elements, those 5 “elements

are gender, nationality and race, hairstyle, body shape and looks. In the manner category, it was found 3 elements, those are expression, pose, and clothes. In activity category, it was found only 1 element, it was body movement. In the props and settings category, it was found that the video consisted in outdoor and indoor setting. In the visual or image category, 3 elements were found, those are focus and depth vision, close-ups, and camera angel”.

“There are some meaning used in supporting verbal communication in music video clip entitled “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”. The music video clip used 2 types of meanings, those are conceptual and connotative meaning”.

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