Blinding lights (The weeknd): Formal techniques and branded content in mtv’s video of the year

Abstract

This research aims to provide a textual analysis of the Blinding Lights music video by The Weeknd, winner of Video of the Year 2020 at the MTV Video Music Awards. We have chosen this video clip as a representative model of this format in the contemporary context. Our initial hypothesis is that MTV awarded this music video because it prolongs classical and exemplary formal and narrative techniques, even conventional ones, despite the format’s openness to formal experimentation. We intend through textual analysis to discover the key elements of its formal construction. The application of a textual analysis on a single audio-visual work is a common application in music video studies. Textual analysis allows us to identify frequent techniques that appear in in music video formats such as the variety of frames with a functional purpose, abundant camera movements, lack of continuity between shots, a weak narrative or the circular ordering of events, among others. In addition, Blinding Lights is a paradigmatic music video production due to its obvious commercial purpose, as part of a branded content strategy for Mercedes-Benz.