Rock music provides the significant emotional content with the help of lyrics, and this combination can affect the audience’s perception of music. However, the effects can be strengthened with references to images or videos provided. Rock music images in their combination with melodies and lyrics present a new product belonging to the category of art and media culture.
Music and images in the form of videos interact significantly, and these interactions can be positive or negative. Although many rock videos are characterized by the provocative content, images associated with rock music are often chosen to support the idea of a song. The video for Nickelback’s “Photograph” provides the illustration for the song’s lyrics with accentuating the song’s basic moments, in this case, images and lyrics interact to support each other.
The visual content which supports the rock song can evoke the audience’s certain emotions. Much attention is paid to choosing the images which can support the rock music and reflect the meaning of the song (Covach and Flory 412-420). The video for Nickelback’s “Photograph” demonstrates the complex story of the character’s youth, while providing the images of the hometown, native and familiar places, and the references to the character’s school.
The viewer can observe the close connection between the lyrics and the images presented in the video because the lines of the song are supported with the visual content in the form of significant memories and recollections (“Nickelback – Photograph”). This approach is traditionally used for rock ballads, and in this case, visual images provide the direct support for the music.
However, rock music videos are often characterized by using the images of playing musicians in order to emphasize the character of the music and represent the atmosphere. Thus, the story of a man who recollects the memories about his youth, years at school, and having fun with close friends, looking at the photograph and observing the familiar places and young people in the hometown, is mixed with demonstrating the band’s musicians while singing and playing (“Nickelback – Photograph”).
From this point, the story is told from different perspectives, and the viewer can easily associate the singer and the band’s musicians with the main characters of the story. Nickelback’s “Photograph” as the rock music video reflects the most significant features of this genre to focus on the specific nature of rock music with elements of ballads. The video’s content is effectively used to draw attention to the emotional depth of the lyrics.
Thus, music and images interact significantly in the music videos which are worked out to attract the audience’s attention to the song. Various types of images can affect the public’s perception of music differently. The usage of clear stories and visual contents as illustrations often has the positive effect on the audience because images support the lyrics and elements of the melody. The video for the song is perceived as the whole, and the meaning of the rock song’s lyrics becomes more comprehensible.
Works Cited
Covach, John, and Andrew Flory. What’s That Sound?: An Introduction to Rock and Its History. USA: W. W. Norton & Company Incorporated, 2012. Print.
Nickelback – Photograph. 2009. Web.