Dissociative Identity Disorder in Art: Kim Noble

Dissociative Identity Disorder in Art

Intertextual Reference - Edgar Allan Poe

                     


   This scene of my music video was inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, especially 'The Tell-Tale Heart', one of Poe's short stories  first published in 1843 told by an unnamed narrator who endeavours to convince the reader of his sanity, while describing a murder he committed. The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer disposes of the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately the narrator's guilt manifests itself in the form of the sounds - possibly hallucinatory—of the old man's heart still beating under the floorboards. I tried to make this evident in  my production by having the images of what Luna - the girl in my narrative - sees in her head, represented as a large, haunting house and it's cellar, this location possibly invoking a sense of unease with the audience due to the many cases publicized about child deprivation, such as the famous case of Genie, who was the victim of extraordinarily severe abuse, neglect and social isolation. To strengthen this intertextual reference to Poe -although it is not particularly easy to see due to the use of non-ambient lighting in this sequence- the piece of paper has the quote from Poe: “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity" being written on it, once again linking the ideas of insanity seen in Poe's work and the issue of Dissociative Identity Disorder that I decided to explore in my music video. 


      The work of Edgar Allan Poe has been a massive influence on many artists in alternative genres of music such as rock and metal music, with artists such as The Cure, HIM, Thirty Seconds To Mars and Alesana. The Emptiness is the first concept album, and overall third full-length album by the American metalcore band Alesana. It was recorded in the fall of 2009 and was released on January 26, 2010 through Fearless Records. The album is considered that of a rock opera because of its in-depth story, heavily influenced by the works of Edgar Allan Poe - even including a song titled 'Annabel' in reference to Poe's famous 'Annabel Lee'. As seen in the band's video for the track 'The Thespian' from this album, There are clear references to Poe's work, his dark and haunting themes a clear influence in this video in particular.

Representations in Satirical Music

     Satirical music endlessly utilizes the stereotypical representations of people, gender as well as quite possibly the music industry itself. This is because the use of such subjects help to resonate with audiences due to being routed in truth (e.g. the representations actually being presented in the real world). In his book ‘Popular Music, Gender and Postmodernism: Anger Is an Energy', Neil Nehring suggests that ‘Parody may work through irony, but in imitating common sense about a group like women, it proposes an alternative view that one is supposed to prefer to what’s being parodied rather than just remaining suspended between the two.’ 

     Gender roles: 'Hurt Feelings' by Flight of the Conchords 

      Gender roles are a social construct involving a set of social and behavioral norms that, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex. The perception of gender roles includes attitudes, actions, and personality traits associated with a particular gender within that culture.  Stereotypically, women are presented as over emotional and expressive, whereas men are presented in the opposite way.  The Stereotypical Male role is to be a financial provider, as well as being assertive, competitive, independent, confidant, career‐focused;and to hold his emotions in check. Whereas in this video we see both Bret and Jemaine portray stereotypical female traits such as being emotional, sensitive and dependent - looking for constant assurance from others. This helps to highlight the ridiculousness of trying to put people in a solid category due to their gender - of which they have no influence over- and expect certain things of them based on predetermined and outdated ideas. 

        

     Genre: 'Spring Break Anthem' by The Lonely Island

        'Rap/Hip Hop' music is a popular genre in contemporary society with people between the ages of 19-34, from a range of nationalities and ethnic groups, the music videos of which tend to feature scantily clad women and sexual themes where the very frequent use of misogynistic images has become entirely normalized, central shots of the performer and some display of wealth through the presence of materialistic items.The most common theme of misogyny found in hip hop videos today is the objectification of women. Women are ever so often there as mere sexual objects, dancing provocatively in revealing clothing, demonstrating sexual innuendos with their bodies’ movements, present in the clips entirely for the heterosexual male artists and viewers’ satisfaction. 'Spring Break Anthem' opens with the stereotypical characteristics of this genre, but later juxtaposes these ideas with the domestic portrayal of gay marriage,of which is something people may not expect to see portrayed in this genre. As a topical text released at the time that gay marriage was legalised, the portrayal of a stereotypical modern male is mocked, possibly in regards to those who were against this legalisation, and thus - especially through the use of famous actors such as Edward Norton, James Franco and Zach Galifianakis- shows support of the recent milestone. 

     Industry: 'Just Another Boyband' by The Midnight Beast

    The Midnight Beast's 'Just Another Boyband' mocks the modern music industry and the idea of manufactured groups, such as those seen on shows such as the X Factor. Similarly, it plays on the idea that members of such groups don't have much skill in the field of music, as well as the fickle nature of popularity and what's 'in' at the time. This is evident through the line 'and when our album flops and all the hype around us dies, I'm the secret weapon that comes out  and says that he likes kissing guys', suggesting groups like this rely on personal scandals to stay relevant. This also highlights the ideas of certain tropes in the music industry, such as 'the token rapper guy', as voiced in this video - once again mocking the conduct of the modern music industry and the idea of manufactured boy bands. 

Genre Theory in Bring Me The Horizon's 'Drown'

   

     'Drown' is a song by the British Metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon, a stand alone single released on October 21 2014 - the first song to be released following their forth studio album Sempiternal in 2013. Despite the band being placed in the metalcore genre due to their previous releases, this track has been placed in genre of Alternative Rock.






    The video opens with the band appearing in front of a brightly lit backdrop, the mise en scene of which may appear to subvert the genre characteristics as it may play against fans of the genre's expectations of what they would expect see from bands such as this. For example, in fellow British Metalcore band Architects' video for 'Alpha Omega' there is a running theme of dark, steely colours throughout the video of which may seem more fitting for the genre, a stark opposition of that seen in this video.

BMTH 'Drown'

Architects 'Alpha Omega'

      Similarly, the costumes in the video may appear atypical of the genre as they are wearing a more formal costume of matching suits opposed to the dark, casual costume -of items such as jeans and t-shirts- that you may expect to see in a video of this genre. The use of bubbles in the video also appears to break the conventions of alternative music, as they appear to pose a more child-like appeal, which wouldn't fit with the stereotypical conventions seen in other music videos of this genre. This plays on Kress' definition of a genre as 'a kind of text that derives its form from the structure of a social occasion, with  its characteristic participants and their purposes' as the video breaks the conventions set up for the genre accumulated from similar bands, consumers of the music, etc. The apparent break of genre convention in this video highlights the ideas put forward by Nicholas Abercrombie who argues that 'genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal audience which becomes used to seeing programmes within a genre', as the video may not be something that appeals to fans of this music stylization without prior knowledge of the band and the genre they occupy, showing a committed and loyal audience to this band. 

 

      

      Whereas the costume and set/composition of the video may initially appear to break genre conventions, it strongly resembles many of the talk and variety show performances of the 60's, like that of The Beetles - a band of which are emblematic of the status of rock music in contemporary culture, a genre of which led to the evolution of different sub-genres such as metal. Thus, this video presents a clear intertextual reference to this, possibly utilising the style in a satirical way as the performers appear quite uncomfortable in their roles, and do not receive the same reception from their audience within the video as seen in that below.  

       However, there have been countless claims of an association between metal music and social - as well as mental health- problems such as self-destruction and Satanism, and Bring Me The Horizon are one of the many bands of the genre that have been accused of being 'demonic' by certain groups of religious fanatics, as well as influencing individuals in portraying such behaviour.  This idea is present with the exorcism of the drummer midway through the video, possibly a satirical reference to these claims due to the use of the broadcast interruption highlighted by the Muzak edition of the song played over it whilst this is taking place. 

           

            Similarly, ideas such as these may lead to the association of the supernatural and mental illness to alternative and metal music, with links to the horror genre. As previously mentioned, this is evident through the idea of lycanthropy and possession, along with the other strange going-ons presented in the video. 

           The idea of the supernatural being associated with this genre of music, and therefore possibly considered a convention of this style, is reinforced by the use of such themes in other band's music videos, and well as in other videos of this band's as well. For example, another of Bring Me The Horizon's music videos  for their track with Architects' Sam Cater 'The Sadness Will Never End' was heavily influenced by the 2008 Swedish horror film 'Let the Right One In' directed by Tomas Alfredson, a film centred around vampires - another prominent supernatural being in modern pop culture.

Bring Me The Horizon's 'The Sadness Will Never End'

Tomas Alfredson's 'Let the Right One In' (2008)

          There are further links to mental illness with the 'audience' in the video, a small number of patients from a psychiatric ward. Katie Wales notes that 'genre is an intertextual concept', and similarly John Hartley suggests that 'we need to understand genre as a property of the relations between texts‘. The ideas explored in this video create a strong intertextual link to the second series of the anthology TV show 'American Horror Story: Asylum', of which explores the themes of Possession/the supernatural, religion and psychosis, all ideas of which are  present in this music video. 

      

    A Clip from American Horror Story: Asylum

           Furthermore, there are other intertextual references evident in this music video, reinforcing the ideas of genre raised by Wales and Hartley. During the performance, there are shots of the bassist looking at his hand which appears to be deteriorating. This is a clear reference to the school dance scene in Robert Zemeckis' 1985 'Back to the Future' in which the same thing happens to the protagonist Marty McFly as he begins to fade from existence, this reference to the cult classic possibly acting as an audience pleasure for those who recognise and enjoy the reference. 

Scene from Robert Zemeckis' 'Back to the Future' (1985)

Music Video: Cast of lions - 'Paint'