Sight-Sound Relationships in Lady Gaga's "Judas"

In Goodwin's model, there are three modes used in visualizing music- illustration, amplification, and disjuncture. Among these modes are also their codes-lyrics music, and performance. Through using the taxonomy chart, one can find inspiration to look at music videos in a different sense. One may learn to find specific ways in which the video conveys literal or metaphorical meaning behind the song. Does it tell the story? Does it add a new kind of meaning? How many different ways can we read the music video as a medium?

Various opinions state that Lady Gaga's song "Judas" contradicts Christianity. But in another light,Gaga's "Judas" represents her struggle with the bad men who she had relationships with. Their betrayal inspired her to write "Judas." Love and forgiveness seem to be the theme of the song.

The video definitely illustrates the song's literal lyrics as Lady Gaga is portrayed as Mary Magdalene herself.As the catchy electro-gothic pop tune quotes "I'm just a holy fool/ Oh baby, he's so cruel, but I'm still in love with Judas, baby." This can represent being in love with someone even if they treat you wrong and are full of sin. The lyrics can be taken both literally or metaphorically. Biblically, Gaga speaks as Mary Magdalene as she sings:

"In the most Biblical sense,
I am beyond repentance
Fame hooker, prostitute wench, vomits her mind
But in the cultural sense
I just speak in future tense
Judas kiss me if offenced,
Or wear an ear condom next time"

The video definitely tells the story of the lyrics as they are nearly literally portrayed across the screen. Of course, one must understand the biblical context in order to undertand the video or song itself.

In Lady Gaga's "Judas" music video, Gaga is Mary Magdalene on her way to "Jerusalem." The video portrays the "12 apostles" in a Kenneth Anger biker format. The bikers zoom down the highway on their way to Jerusalem as Gaga looks back to see if "Judas" is still there (which he is). This could represent whether he is or is not betraying her. Judas zooms past Gaga on his bike as she gives him a very unsure look. As she smiles and rides along holding "Jesus," this represents her faith in him. When she arrives to Jerusalem, she dances wearing a red dress next to nearly no clothing. The dance moves involve a move in which she gestures pushing Judas down. This act of pushing down illustrates the lyrics "I'll bring him down." At this point, Judas himself represents her dark side. As the lyrics state "I'll bring him down." As she repeats "down, down," Gaga holds a rosary as if she is using her faith to suppress the darkness. Jesus continues to look on as it represents Gaga (Mary Magdalene) trying to do the right thing. In the same sense, Judas is portrayed as evil and does evil things.

Gaga eventually ventures into her darkness causing a fight to break out between Jesus and Judas. This symbolizes her struggle between good and evil. Gaga then stops the fight between Jesus and Judas as she tries to keep in check with both of her sides. This represents that with lightness and darkness, both can be used for a greater good. Jesus leads Gaga safely away as she clutches onto him embracing her faith. Gaga is shown protecting Jesus as she lifts what appears to be a loaded gun to Judas' mouth. But the gun is only filled with lipstick as she smears it across Judas' face. The gun can represent the creativity that the darkness allows her to have. She therefore does not kill Judas, but uses his darkness for creativity. This makes Gaga feel guilty as she falls to Jesus' feet crying.

There is a "cultural baptism" that takes place in one scene as Gaga is shown washing the feet of both Jesus and Judas. Her realization that she can merge both "good" and "evil" for her own use, she is therefore cleansed by waves of water which surround her being. Therefore, she can be in the light, but also use the darkness for creative purposes. In the next scene, Gaga is dressed as a saint-like clown. This shows that society is only mocking her and that they do not understand. In the end, Lady Gaga is stoned to death which can represent society's misunderstanding of her art and what she is trying to do with it. Although her aim is to guide people "into the light," the video ends with her dead as it appears her realization that society will never understand her.

The song includes three hooks and a house-influenced breakdown.Popjustice states,

in the verses and pre-chorus, Gaga hurls herself into a decadent half-sung, half-rapped Jamaican Patois style." The song contains three hooks, and begins with Gaga singing the line "Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, I'm in love with Judas", accompanied by building synths. This is followed by a thumping electronic beat, as Gaga sings, "Judahhh/ Juda-a-ah/ Gaga"."

This half-rapped Jamaican style is illustrated through Gaga's fist-pumping movement as she is telling Judas "kiss me if offenced or wear ear condom next time."

Indeed, much can be seen and heard throughout this video. Using Goodwin's taxonomy helps one to value the video as a creative masterpiece. As one of my favorite artists of all time, Lady Gaga's creativity continues to inspire me throughout her self-produced music and videos themselves.

My Tori Amos "Bouncing Off Clouds" music video

I am honored to have the privilege of producing a music video of "Bouncing Off Clouds." The song is by the one and only Tori Amos--one of my absolute favorite singer/songwriters of all time. In 2007, the song and green screen Quicktime video file were released to the internet for fans to create a video for the song which would compete in a contest. These files provide a good selection of Tori's performance footage. The footage followed her 9th studio album, American Doll Posse The contest ended that October, but I still happen to have the Quicktime files saved to a back-up hard drive and I'm all set to produce. The main technology I will be working with is using chroma-key to key out the green screen behind Tori. I am currently working with Final Cut Pro and running some rough-cuts. I've actually had the privilege of seeing Tori play this song live. It's quite a breathtaking experience as I am a big fan.



The main focus I want to bring across in this video is not only the idea, but the meaning of "cloud." Using thoughts from studying media, I have found it inspiring to take the lyrics to a semiotical level. The most obvious would be to feature a cloud at it's most literal level. It seems as if everyone's thought process goes right to that image. My focus here is to play with that image. I want to get into the deeper sense of "cloud" and what a cloud can represent. As a fan, I know for a fact that Tori uses this word not only across this song, but in many other lyrics. Compositions such as "Cloud on My Tongue" from Under The Pink (1994) as well as "Your Cloud" from Scarlet's Walk lead me to believe that "cloud" has a significant meaning to Tori not only as a songwriter, but as a woman and mother. It's also intriguing to see how these cloud songs (or shall I say "song clouds?") have changed with Tori over the years.

Cloud on my Tongue (Under the Pink, 1994)

"Got a cloud sleeping on my tongue he goes then it goes and kiss the violets as
they’re waking up leave me with your Borneo leave me the way I was before."

Your Cloud (Scarlet's Walk, 2001)

"If the rain has to separate from itself does it say 'pick out your cloud?"

Bouncing Off Clouds (American Doll Posse, 2007)

"Bouncing off of Clouds we were. Is there a love Lost and Found?
Make it easy Make this easy. It’s not as heavy as it seems"

It's interesting to see what actual contestants from the previous contest did with the visuals. I'm not quite sure if I can compete with the winner of the contest, but it is not my aim to compete. My aim is to create something virtually amazing--something that captures the literal and metaphorical meanings behind the lyrics and audio. For example, I would love to incorporate visuals that communicate the feeling of heaviness as Tori sings "make it easy it's not as heavy as it seems." One lyric that stands out among others is "Is there a love lost and found?" Listening to the ADP album as a whole various times, I have attempted breaking these lyrics into pieces. The whole idea of love lost and then found is beyond romantic. I am breaking the song down into intro, verse, chorus, and bridge:

Intro:
Bouncing off of Clouds we were
Is there a love Lost and Found
Make it easy
Make this easy
It's not as heavy as it seems
Wrapped in metal
Wrapped in ivy
Paint it in mint ice cream

Chorus:
We could be Bouncing off the top of this Cloud
I'll put on my silver
We could be Bouncing off the top of this Cloud

Verse:
Failure to respond but
I did. but did you listen?

Chorus:
Bouncing off the top of this Cloud
I'll put on my silver
About what you said, has it come to this?
I'll put on my silver
Bouncing off the top of this Cloud

Bridge:
Well you can stare all day at the sky
But that won't bring her back
That won't bring her back
You say you're waiting on fate
But I think fate is now
I think fate is now
Waiting on us
Make it easy
Easy easy
We could make this easy
Easy love easy
We could make this easy
Make this easy
It's not as heavy as it seems
Wrapped in metal
Wrapped in ivy
Blue umbrellas now smiling

Chorus:
We could be Bouncing off the top of this Cloud
I'll put on my silver
About what you said, has it come to this?
I'll put on my silver
Bouncing off the top of this Cloud
I'll put on my silver
About what you said, has it come to this?
I'll put on my silver
Bouncing off the top of this Cloud

Outro:
Bouncing off of clouds we were...

I would like to work with the central theme of one being able to find themselves even after tough times or relationships. I feel that the emotional context of the song really speaks to us. Sometimes you just need to "make it easy" and carelessly bounce through the clouds of life. Once love is lost, we begin to find ourselves again. We find ourselves "bouncing off clouds" in search of ourselves. Love aims to be found again.

Aspiring to interpret a world full of phenomena.

Serving as an aspiration to understand meaning/meanings behind any given phenomena,hermeneutics is a seeker. Because it is only an attempt to interpret meaning, "making sense" of a phenomena may seem difficult. Let's not forget that a phenomena is something that is, but also is not. Seeking "to discover the meaning that is not immediately manifest to description," a hermeneutic object takes the meaning "that is revealed by phenomenonological analysis, intuiting, and description" to a whole other level. (Lanigan, 1991, Speaking and Semiology)

Among the above descriptions, Hermeneutics can be defined as the science and philosophy of interpretation. That being said, how can we use these philosophies of meaning while relating them to our ideologies and interpersonal experiences? When we study communication, we are not only concerned with how we communicate, but with the assumptions that underlie communication. In that sense, it is important to keep in mind that the world doesn't come to us. It is almost as if it is pre-processed and already involves meaning. One could also argue the complete opposite if they set out to. The basis of understanding lies within your effort and attempts to make sense of meaning. As Nietzsche suggested, every fact is already an interpretation.


Photo by: Skovsgaard

Hermeneutics can easily be compared to that of a repetitive spiral. In this sense, even the dialectical process itself resembles that of a hermeneutical circle. "From Heidegger’s point of view, the hermeneutical circle is not a method, rather, it is the existential character of human understanding, so, he describes the circle in terms of an existential grounding.The hermeneutical circle is the existential condition of human understanding and is an essential attribute of Dasein’s knowledge. Thus the circle of understanding is not a methodological circle, making it unnecessary for us at the end of the process of interpretation, but it describes an element of the ontological structure of understanding. (Ahmad Vaezi, The Hermeneutical Reflections of Heidegger) Before studying hermeneutics, it is crucial to know that there are 12 Official genres. Five of these 12 types of Hermeneutics stand out amongst the others.

The first and rawest of the types is Natural Hermeneutics. These are the spontaneous, everyday, usually nonreflexive interpretations that one does when inter-subjective understanding breaks down. People use this everyday through basic misunderstanding. It all depends on our ideologies. For example, a universal symbol such as peace could mean something completely different on another planet. To say the least, if one were to "flip the bird" or drop the "f-bomb" in another on Mars, it may not have an effect on its inhabitants. Another example would be perceiving the goth style clothing to be that of devil-worshiping. Here's where hegemony comes into play. If a person refuses attempt to understand something because of that something's preconceived bias, then they will never comprehend that culture or ideology. In the same sense, portraying all feminine men as gay could be considered a deliberate misunderstanding of that culture. In these two examples of miscommunication, it is quite clear that our ideologies can play a big role in perception (which is also based upon our ideological background).

Photo by: fluffy_steve

Normative Hermeneutics involves an understanding of texts as a "deliberate discipline" by castes such as government. Making use of the idea of the law altogether would be an example. In communication as well as other fields, we have to follow certain codes of ethics which are based on moral code. For example, our style plays a huge role in how others perceive us. If one were to walk into a corporate television station with visible piercings and tattoos, it would not be considered ethical. Again, this is based on the codes in which hegemony places people into castes. That being said, there is also sometimes no way to escape the ethics by which we are required to follow.

Scientific Hermeneutics can be used as a means of human and historical sciences. Using theories and formulas such as the Quadratic Formula while considering the importance of America's history become important in this realm. We use science and history as a basic measuring stick to create new possibilities."Though the Frankfurt school has traditionally been empiricist, Habermas criticized the rationality of mathematics . science as effectively placing judgement in the hands of specialists, an undemocratic procedure. Man is entitled to his freedoms — from material want, from social exclusion, and from perversions that alienate him from himself. Thus his interest in Marxism, not to justify Marxist prophecies, but to rationalize and update Marx's criticisms of societies that force men to act contrary to their better natures." (Holcombe, 2007, Hermeneutics, from textetc.com)

Philosophical Hermeneutics deals with a basic philosophy of existing in the world. In a sense,how we interpret meaning is mostly about what we are-- interpreters. As interpreters, we use philosophical sources such as religious inspiration in The Bible and The Republic by Plato. We question these sources by a means to think critically and ultimately seek truth.

That being said, Depth Hermeneutics is that of thinking critically and questioning. As Williams states, it is "called depth because it goes below the waking consciousness: Ideology (Marx), Unconscious (Freud), Language (Lacan), and Discourse (Foucault). It is the act of thinking critically as opposed to conforming to that of hegemonic culture. The act of questioning society and the means by which you and others live may help the world overall become a more bearable place to live in. It is important to notice the reduction of liberties that some class ideologies place. Since they can be considered perversions of language, these ideologies are those that one needs to examine to gain better understanding.

The beauty of this break from blind culture is that the change which many seek in society may result. "When Gadamer said that our experience of the world was linguistical, he also stressed, for Habermas, that it is open to self-correction, that is, that it could, to some extent, overcome its own limitations by seeking better expressions or dissolving its own rigidity and was thus open to any meaning that could be understood. Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel drew from this self-transcendence of language the important notion of a linguistic or communicative rationality, which is laden with universalistic assumptions that can form the basis of an ethical theory." (Jean Grondin, Hermeneutics-Gadamer and His Critics) Therefore, in order to seek any truth, one must become critical in their attempts. Questioning is not only the aspiration, but the liberation of one's self while studying or, shall we say, "critiquing" Communication theories and practices.