Katalog: MY MUSIC

C I S U M Y M DK + EN inside

Guide side 4

Side 16 Poppens billeder og kunstens beats

Side 37 Amatøræstetikkens indtog

Featuring: Adel Abidin – Beck – Blondage – Candice Breitz – Damien Hirst – Die Antwoord & Roger Ballen – Ditte Ejlerskov – Elton John & Sam Taylor-Johnson – Jacob Bellens & Rikke Benborg Jesper Just – Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg – Lady Gaga – Marilyn Minter – Martin Creed – Micha Klein Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg – Pipilotti Rist – Ruth Ewan – Sia – The Hours – Tim Noble & Sue Webster

d r o r Fo ”Først var popkulturen i kunsten / Nu er kunsten i popkulturen, i mig.” Linjerne er fra Lady Gagas sang Applause på albummet Artpop (2013), og de fører os lige ind i hjertet af udstillingen My Music. Her, blandt musikvideoer og videokunst, installationer og maleri, mixer popmusikken og billedkunsten sine energier og banker dem pulserende rundt i kroppen på os. I disse år udfolder en lang række møder, alliancer og krydsbestøvninger sig mellem musik og kunst – og mellem ypperlig kunstnerisk udfoldelse og benhård kommerciel business – i en grad så det ikke giver mening at skelne skarpt mellem de to felter.

Til daglig møder og forbruger milliarder af børn, unge og voksne popmusikken med mobiltelefonen i hånden; til koncerter, i modemagasiner eller på YouTube og de sociale medier. Kunsten oplever man på gallerier og museer; på udflugt med skoleklassen, på ferien eller med familie og venner i fritiden. Eller gør man? For når man streamer den seneste musikvideo med sit foretrukne band, er den måske skabt netop i krydsfeltet mellem samtidskunsten og poppen – og dermed bliver kunsten en stadig mere integreret del af vores hverdag og medieforbrug.

My Music udfolder sig derfor både inden for og uden for museets mure. My Music kan også opleves i Rødovre Centrum, som ARKEN har samarbejdet tæt med om udviklingen af en pop-up-udstilling, der forlænger udstillingsoplevelsen ud i det offentlige rum. Den digitale kunsthal på Vallensbæk Station, DIAS, lægger ligeledes rum til en pop-up-udstilling, som togpendlere og andre passagerer vil kunne opleve på deres rejse fra A til B og tilbage igen.

En gruppe unge fra Ishøj Ungdomsskole har gennem mange måneder været med til at udvikle indholdet i og formidlingen af My Music. De har været en uundværlig del af udstillingsteamet, og vi vil gerne rette en stor tak til dem for deres inspirerende nysgerrighed, åbenhed og viden. Vi har lært så meget af dem, og vi er stolte af, at deres engagerede stemmer nu kan høres i udstillingen, og at de er med til at bringe dens budskab videre ud i verden. I den forbindelse skal en Side 2

stor tak også rettes til praktikant Marie Møller Jørgensen, der har indgået i dette samarbejde.

I forbindelse med udstillingen udgiver vi dette magasin. Tak til udstillingens kurator, Dorthe Juul Rugaard, for at tage os med ind i en verden af lyd og billeder og til cand.mag og ekstern lektor Elise Ligaard for at udfolde musikforbrug og æstetiske tendenser på YouTube.

Udstillingens mange kunstnere, udlånere samt gallerier og pladeselskaber skal takkes særligt varmt for de mange fantastiske samarbejder, vi har indgået i. Vi er desuden meget taknemmelige for den velvillighed, kreativitet og imponerende indsats, som kommunikationschef Charlotte Andersen og hendes dygtige team i Rødovre Centrum har udfoldet. Og en stor tak til leder Rasmus Vestergaard og kurator Julie Tvillinggaard Bonde fra DIAS, vores samtidskunst-nabo i Vallensbæk, som vi har haft stor glæde af at samarbejde med om udstillingen. En særlig tak til Jesper Elg og Mikkel Grønnebæk fra V1 Gallery for deres vedholdende indsats og generøse indspark til udstillingen.

En varm tak skal rettes til Holmris.Designbrokers, der gavmildt har sponsoreret udstillingens opholdsmøbler.

Vi er utroligt glade for at have indgået et spændende partnerskab med Sennheiser, der leverer udstillingens innovative lydoplevelse. Vi retter en stor tak til hele Sennheiser-teamet, der har gjort en dedikeret og fremragende indsats.

En særlig stor tak skal rettes til Bikubenfonden, ikke mindst Søren Kaare-Andersen og Mette Marcus, hvis yderst generøse støtte til udstillingen har gjort det muligt at realisere dette vigtige projekt. Vi er fonden dybt taknemmelige for den store interesse og tillid, som vi dermed er blevet vist.

Christian Gether Museumsdirektør, ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst

”Pop culture was in art / now art’s in pop culture, in me”.

This line from Lady Gaga’s song Applause on the album Artpop (2013) takes us to the very heart of the exhibition My Music. Here, in the midst of music videos and video art, installations and paintings, pop music and visual art coalesce, sending their combined, pulsating energy through our bodies. We are currently witness to a vast range of intersections, alliances and cross-fertilisations between music and art – and between world-class artistic production and ruthless commercial business – on such a scale that it has stopped making sense to draw any sharp distinctions between the two.

Every day billions of children, teenagers and adults see and consume pop music with a mobile phone in their hands, at concerts, in fashion magazines or on YouTube and social media. Art is something people experience at galleries and museums: on school trips, on holiday or with family and friends at the weekend. Or is it? Because when you stream the latest video of your favourite band, it might just have been made at the crossroads of contemporary art and pop – making art an increasingly integrated part of our daily lives and media consumption.

My Music therefore takes place both within and beyond the confines of the museum. My Music can also be experienced at Rødovre Shopping Centre, who ARKEN has collaborated closely with in creating a pop-up exhibition that extends the exhibition experience into public space. The digital exhibition platform DIAS at Vallensbæk Station also hosts a pop-up exhibition that commuters and other passengers can experience on their journey from A to B and back again.

A group of teenagers from Ishøj Youth School have spent months contributing to the content and mediation of My Music. They have been an indispensable part of the exhibition team, and we would like to thank them for their inspirational curiosity, openness and expertise. They have taught us so much, and we are proud to include their dedicated voices in the exhibition, and that they continue to play a key role in passing on its message. Here we would like to also thank our

intern Marie Møller Jørgensen, who has played a key role in this collaboration.

We have published this magazine in connection with the exhibition. Here we would like to thank the exhibition’s curator Dorthe Juul Rugaard for being our guide into a world of sound and images, and to MA and lecturer Elise Ligaard for her analysis of music consumption and aesthetic trends on YouTube.

We are also extremely grateful to the many artists, owners of works, as well as galleries and record companies for contributing to the many amazing collaborations behind the exhibition. We are also very grateful to Head of Communication Charlotte Andersen and her talented team at Rødovre Shopping Centre for their major and creative contribution. Equal gratitude goes to director Rasmus Vestergaard and curator Julie Tvillinggaard Bonde at DIAS, our contemporary art neighbour in Vallensbæk whose collaboration on the exhibition has been invaluable. We would also like to send a special thank you to Jesper Elg and Mikkel Grønnebæk from V1 Gallery for their perseverance and generous input to the exhibition.

We would like to extend our warm thanks to Holmris.

Designbrokers, who have generously sponsored the furniture in the exhibition.

We are incredibly happy to have embarked on an exciting partnership with Sennheiser, who provide the exhibition’s innovative experience of sound. A big thank you to the entire Sennheiser team for their dedication and outstanding expertise.

We would also like to say a huge thank you to the Bikuben Foundation, not least of all Søren Kaare-Andersen and Mette Marcus whose exceptionally generous support of the exhibition has made the realisation of this important project possible. We are deeply grateful to the foundation for the interest and trust in ARKEN their support represents.

Christian Gether Director, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art Side 3

E D I GU l e d .

1 Få hele udstillingens lydside sådan her:

Get the entire sound experience of the exhibition like this:

1. Download Sennheiser MobileConnect i App Store eller Google Play

1. Download Sennheiser MobileConnect in App Store or Google Play.

2. Vælg Wi-Fi ”ARKEN My Music” i indstillinger

2. Choose Wi-Fi ”ARKEN My Music” in settings.

3. Åbn appen og vælg et lydspor fra

3. Open the app and choose a sound track from

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til 11

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to 11

4. Du kan indstille lyden med ”Personal Hearing Assistant”

4. You can adjust the sound with “Personal Hearing Assistant”.

ARKEN stiller udstyr til rådighed, hvis du ikke har en smartphone, tablet eller hovedtelefoner.

ARKEN provides devices if you do not have a smartphone, a tablet or earphones.

Sound Experience by Sennheiser

Sound Experience by Sennheiser

Side 4

Adel Abidin (IQ 1973) Michael, 2015 1-kanals videoinstallation, farve, lyd / 1-channel video installation, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 16:02 min.

Courtesy kunstneren / the artist and Lawrie Shabibi

“What have we done to the world?” Michael Jackson sidder i den varme stol i et talkshow midt på Manhattan. Han er breaking news på alle nyhedskanaler verden over, for han er helt sensationelt genopstanden og går nu på jorden iblandt os. Uden for på Times Square går masserne amok i hysteri mens deres øjne er klæbet til billboardskærmen, hvor deres idol taler til dem.

Adel Abidins videofilm Michael er naturligvis fake news. Men illusionen er perfekt, lige indtil du synes, at nogle af de gådefulde og lommefilosofiske svar, som kongen af pop giver talkshow-værten, er sære. De rimer, og de virker bekendte. Og du har ret. For han citerer sig selv gennem hele interviewet. Enhver replik er lånt fra hans egne sangtekster – og budskabet om kærlighed og fred er dermed fanget i en lukket cyklus af popfraser.

“What have we done to the world?”

Michael Jackson in person sits in the hot seat on a talk show in the heart of Manhattan. He is breaking news on TV stations worldwide, having been sensationally resurrected and returned to us.

Outside in Times Square the crowds go berserk with their eyes glued to the billboard screen where their idol speaks to them. Adel Abidin’s video film Michael is, of course fake news. But the illusion is perfect until you start thinking some of the cryptic, homespun philosophy the king of pop whispers in response to the questions of the talk-show host seems weird. His answers rhyme and seem strangely familiar. And you are not wrong. Because throughout the entire interview everything he says is taken from his own lyrics – so his message of peace and love is trapped in a closed cycle of pop phrases.

Side 5

Beck (US 1970) Jeremy Blake (US 1971) Instruktør / Director Round The Bend, 2002 1-kanalsvideo, farve, lyd / 1-channel video, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 5:16 min.

Produceret af / Produced by Nigel Godrich © 2002 Interscope Records

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Side 6

Blødt tonede overgange mellem abstrakte farveflader og stille snapshots af tillukkede gardiner, lysekroner, buketter. Becks blide, melankolske stemme, langsomme guitarakkorder og bløde strygersekvenser. Neonfarvede strøg vokser frem og forandres som maleri i bevægelse.

Jeremy Blakes ’digitale tidsbaserede maleri’ går i ét med Becks sang om at miste fodfæstet og glide ud på kanten af sin fornuft. Der er ingen handling, kun stemninger og billeder, der er i konstant opløsning og tilblivelse. Glimt og detaljer fra intime interiører og syntetiske drømmesyn. Det er visuel musik.

Soft-tone transitions between abstract colours and muted snapshots of closed curtains, chandeliers and bouquets.

Beck’s soft, melancholic voice, slow guitar chords and gentle string passages. Neon-coloured strokes emerge and transform like a painting in motion.

Jeremy Blake’s digital time-based painting merges with Beck’s song about getting out of your depth and slipping towards the edge of reason. There is no plot, just moods and images constantly emerging and dissolving. Glimpses and details of intimate interiors and synthetic mirages. Visual music.

Blondage (DK) Jonas Bang & M.I.L.K (DK) Instruktører / Directors Dive, 2016 1-kanalsvideo, farve, lyd / 1-channel video, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 3:43 min.

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Der krydsklippes mellem en løves blodige jagt efter en zebra på savannen, en dansende kvinde og en mand, hvis energiske løb gennem New Yorks gader ender med nedlæggelsen af en burger.

Den simple analogi mellem rovdyrets vilde natur og storbymenneskets endeløse jagt gennem byen er skelettet i Jonas Bang & M.I.L.K.s video til Blondages debutsingle Dive. En sang der handler om at føle sig lykkelig, vild og rastløs.

Slutscenen er et vink til filminstruktør Jørgen Leths ikoniske scene med Andy Warhol, der spiser en hamburger foran kameraet i filmen 66 scener fra Amerika (1981). Esben Nørskov Andersen fra Blondage sænker blikket for at tage en bid af sin hamburger. På den måde hægter musikvideoen sig på det tætte forhold til popkultur, forbrug og masseproduktion, som kunsten har dyrket siden Warhol.

Crosscuts between a lion’s bloody hunt of a zebra on the savannah, a dancing woman, and a man whose energetic run through the streets of New York ends with him devouring a burger. The simple analogy between the savage nature of the predator and the urbanite’s endless hunt through the city forms the backbone of Jonas Bang & M.I.L.K.’s video for Blondage’s debut single Dive. A song about feeling exuberant, wild and restless. The closing scene echoes the film director Jørgen Leth’s iconic scene with Andy Warhol eating a hamburger in front of the camera in 66 scenes from America (1981). Blondage’s Esben Nørskov Andersen lowers his gaze ready to take a bite of his burger, inscribing the music video in the close relationship between pop culture, consumerism and mass production cultivated in art since Warhol.

Side 7

Candice Breitz (ZA 1972) QUEEN (A Portrait of Madonna), 2005 30-kanals videoinstallation, 30 hard drives / 30-channel video installation, 30 hard drives Varighed / Duration: 73:30 min.

Courtesy Kaufmann Repetto, Milan; Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg; KOW, Berlin

Side 8

At være inkarneret fan af en superstjerne som Madonna og blive indbudt til at synge sig gennem hele hendes Immaculate Collection-album foran et kamera må være fantastisk. I hvert fald giver de 30 fans, der medvirker i Candice Breitz’ videoinstallation, alt hvad de har i sig. De er synkroniseret som et kor, én energisk krop eller stemme, og de kan hvert et ord, hver en attitude, hvert et move. ”Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it / Vogue!”

Dog er de helt sig selv, fornemmer vi. De udtrykker sig personligt, vidt forskelligt, selvom de er underlagt både Breitz’ og Madonnas ’drejebog’. Installationen er som titlen siger et portræt af Madonna. Men popdronningen er fjern og uopnåelig; hun viser kun sit ansigt gennem sine fans.

To be a devoted fan of a superstar like Madonna and be invited to sing her entire Immaculate Collection album in front of a camera must be a dream come true, and the fans in Candice Breitz’s video installation certainly give it all they’ve got. They are synchronised like a choir, a unified, energetic voice or body, and they know every word, every attitude, every move by heart: ”Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it / Vogue!”

At the same time they are entirely themselves. Despite being subject to the ‘script’ of both Breitz and Madonna, they express themselves highly individually. The installation is, as its title tells us, a portrait of Madonna. But the pop queen is remote and inaccessible, revealing herself only through her fans.

Damien Hirst (UK 1965) Beautiful B. Painting, 1996 Blank interiørmaling på lærred / Household gloss on canvas Mål / Dimensions: Ø 183 cm ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst, gave fra / donation from The Merla Art Foundation, London 2011

Boom pop splash! Hvad nu, hvis det runde, farvestrålende lærred var en vinylplade? Hvordan ville den lyde? Får du lyst til at danse? Bevægelse og rytme er udgangspunktet for den britiske kunstner Damien Hirsts ’spin painting’.

Maling er hældt på et roterende lærred og hvirvlet fra centrum ud mod kanten i en eksplosion af farver.

Maleriet er produceret mekanisk i stil med Andy Warhols popkunst. Hirsts kunst er også – som Warhols – intimt forbundet med popkultur og popmusik.

Jay Z har rappet foran et Hirst-maleri i musikvideoen til Blue Magic (2007), og videoen til The Hour’s See the Light begynder med et close up af den hvirvlende og flydende maling.

Boom, pop, splash! What if the round, colourful canvas was a vinyl record?

How would it sound? Would it make you want to dance? Movement and rhythm form the basis of the British artist Damien Hirst’s spin painting. The paint is poured onto a rotating canvas and spun from the centre to the edge in a centrifugal explosion of colour.

Like Andy Warhol’s pop art, the painting is mechanically made. Hirst’s art is also – like Warhol’s – closely connected to pop culture and pop music. Jay Z has rapped in front of a Hirst painting in the music video for Blue Magic (2007), and the video for The Hours’ See the Light opens with a close-up of spinning liquid paint.

Side 9

Die Antwoord (ZA) Roger Ballen (US 1950) Instruktør og installation / Director and installation I Fink U Freeky, 2012 1-kanalsvideo, lyd, blandede materialer / 1-channel video, audio, mixed media Varighed / Duration: 3:55 min.

Courtesy Die Antwoord & Roger Ballen

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Side 10

Fem år efter, den kom frem, er musikvideoen I Fink U Freeky stadig en knytnæve lige i ansigtet med sin rå og ekstatiske energi. Den er skabt i tæt samarbejde mellem fotograf og kunstner Roger Ballen og det sydafrikanske band Die Antwoord. Yo-Landi og Ninja fra bandet rapper på engelsk og afrikaans i et trashet og møgbeskidt scenarie, hvor rotter, udstoppede dyr og et galleri af de særeste freaks danser manisk til de vilde beats. Det er ækelt og dragende, chokerende og sexet.

Vi er landet i en randzone, på kanten af samfundet, hvor Ballens surreelle, iscenesatte univers møder “zef”, en sydafrikansk modkultur, som Die Antwoords sang er et kampråb for. Et tættere slægtskab mellem billeder og lyd skal man lede længe efter.

Here five years after its release the wild, ecstatic energy of the music video I Fink U Freeky still hits you like a slap in the face. The video is the result of a close collaboration between photographer and artist Roger Ballen and South African Die Antwoord. Band members Yo-Landi and Ninja rap in English and Afrikaans in a filthy, trashed setting where rats, stuffed animals and a gallery of weird freaks dance manically to the raving beats. Repulsive and compelling, shocking and provocative.

We have landed in a border zone at the edge of society, where Ballen’s surrealistic, staged universe meets ‘zef’, the South African counter-culture Die Antwoord’s song is a battle cry for. A closer affinity between sound and image is hard to imagine.

Ditte Ejlerskov (DK 1982) The Oh My Gosh Weave, 2015 Olie på to lærreder, sammenvævet / Oil on two canvases, weaved together 210 X 368 cm Courtesy kunstneren / the artist

Dette værk af Ditte Ejlerskov er en del af en større værkserie, der drejer sig om de tre pop-ikoner: Nicki Minaj, Rihanna og Beyoncé. Fascineret af disse forførende power-kvinder tager Ejlerskov deres feministiske strategi til sig og undersøger effekten af at inddrage den i det billedkunstneriske felt. I dette værk har Ejlerskov sammenvævet to af sine malerier, der hver især repræsenterer et element fra Nicki Minajs voldsomt seksuelle musikvideo Anaconda (2014). Det ene maleri er et still fra musikvideoen og viser Nicki Minaj og to dansere med deres fyldige numser, som det hele handler om. Det andet viser et udsagn fra sangen, der ifølge Ejlerskov skal udtales med en stereotyp hvid amerikansk kvindestemme og i en forarget, nedladende tone: ”Oh my gosh, look at her butt!”

This work by Ditte Ejlerskov is part of a series based on three pop icons: Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Beyoncé. Fascinated by these seductively powerful women, Ejlerskov adopts their feminist strategies and explore the effects of bringing them into the realm of visual art. In this work Ejlerskov has ‘interwoven’ two of her paintings, each representing an element of Nicki Minaj’s heavily sexualised music video Anaconda from 2014. One of the paintings depicts a still from the music video depicting Nicki Minaj and two dancers with the ample behinds the song is about. The other is a statement from the song, which according to Ejlerskov should be pronounced with a stereotypical white American woman’s accent in an outraged, condescending tone of voice: “Oh my gosh, look at her butt!”

Side 11

Elton John (UK 1947) Sam Taylor-Johnson (UK 1967) Instruktør / Director I Want Love, 2001 1-kanalsvideo, farve, lyd / 1-channel video, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 4:42 min.

Featuring Robert Downey Jr. © 2001 Mercury Records Limited

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Side 12

Hjerte rimer på smerte. Ulykkelig kærlighed er et af popmusikkens absolutte yndlingsemner. Enhver popmusiker har delt deres mest sårbare og skrøbelige øjeblikke med os gennem deres musik.

Og hver dag danser, synger og græder kvinder og mænd, drenge og piger sig et sted i verden igennem deres hjertesorger – til musikken.

Fotograf og videokunstner Sam TaylorJohnson har instrueret en enkel video til en enkel sang af Elton John, I Want Love. Det er et one-take, hvori skuespiller Robert Downey Jr. vandrer gennem en smuk, forladt villa i tæt øjenkontakt med kameraet, mens han bevæger læberne til sangteksten. Grædende og sårbare celebrity-mænd har også poseret for Taylor-Johnson i fotoserien Crying Men. Huset er Greystone Mansion fra 1928 – en af Hollywoods mest berømte og anvendte locations.

Love hurts. Broken hearts are at the very top of the list of pop themes.

Almost every pop musician has shared their most vulnerable moments with us in music at some point. And every day somewhere in the world women and men and girls and boys dance, sing and cry their hearts out – to music.

The photographer and video artist Sam Taylor-Johnson has directed a simple video for a simple song by Elton John: I Want Love. In one take, the actor Robert Downey Jr. walks through a beautiful, empty mansion in close eye contact with the camera as he lip-synchs the lyrics. Vulnerable male celebrities have also posed for Taylor-Johnson’s photography series Crying Men. The house is Greystone Mansion (built in 1928), one of Hollywood’s most famous and popular film locations.

Jacob Bellens (DK 1979) Rikke Benborg (DK 1973) Instruktør / Director Untouchable, 2016 8mm film overført til video, farve, lyd / 8mm film transferred to video, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 5:26 min.

Courtesy Jacob Bellens & Rikke Benborg Med særlig tak til / With special thanks to Christian Alkjær, Evan Reehl Ryer, ISCP New York, the Danish Arts Foundation / Statens Kunstfond

Der er opstået en helt særlig musikvideo i samarbejdet mellem musikeren Jacob Bellens og billedkunstneren Rikke Benborg. I modsætning til de fleste andre musikvideoer, er denne optaget på gammeldags 8 mm film, hvilket giver den et helt særligt udtryk.

Den er knitret og grynet og farverne er afdæmpede. Resultatet er som en sci-fi film fra 1970’erne, der vender op og ned på tiden. Dens optagetekniske metode og udtryk peger tilbage i tiden, billedkompositionen og de to karakterers sælsomme fremtræden peger ud i fremtiden, hvorimod fortællingen foregår i en melankolsk nutid.

The collaboration between musician Jacob Bellens and artist Rikke Benborg has resulted in a unique music video.

Unlike most music videos, this one is filmed on 8mm film, which gives it a very special look. It is grainy and gritty, and the colours are muted. The result is like a sci-fi film from the 1970s that turns time upside down. The filming technique and look point back in time, the framing and strange appearance of the characters points to the future, whereas the story plays out in a depressing present.

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Side 13

Jesper Just (DK 1974) What a Feeling, 2013 1-kanals video, farve / 1-channel video, colour Varighed / Duration: 7:30 min.

Courtesy Jesper Just & Wink Edition

Side 14

“Take your passion / And make it happen / Pictures come alive / You can dance right through your life.” Et af de store firser-pophits var Irene Caras What a Feeling (1983) fra filmen Flashdance, fuld af permanentkrøller og benvarmere, svedig jazz-ballet og romantik.

I Jesper Justs videoværk er kun sangtitlen tilbage – og spotlys, der følger en langsom version af den ellers så energiske musik. Ingen lyd, ord eller handling.

Til gengæld opstår nye billeder og bevægelser, lyset får karakter af søgelys, og hvad det fanger i sin kegle er måske begyndelsen på en helt ny fortælling. ”Pictures come alive”.

“Take your passion / And make it happen / Pictures come alive / You can dance right through your life”. One of the biggest pop hits of the eighties was Irene Cara’s What a Feeling (1983) from the film Flashdance – a modern fable full of permed hair, leg warmers, sweaty jazz ballet and romance.

In Jesper Just’s video work only the title of the song remains, and spotlights that follow a slow version of the other­ wise high-energy music. No sound, words or action. Instead there are new images and movements: the light develops the character of a searchlight and what it captures in its beam could be the beginning of an entirely different story. In the words of the song: pictures come alive.

Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg (US 1984 / US 1971) Matthew Cullen (US) Instruktør / Director Will Cotton (US 1965) Artistic direction California Gurls, 2010 1-kanalsvideo, farve, lyd / 1-channel video, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 3:59 min.

Produceret af / Produced by Bernard Rahill, Patrick Nugent, Javier Jimenez & Danny Lockwood © 2010 Capital Records, LLC

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I musikvideoen til Katy Perrys sang California Gurls fra 2010 bliver forskellige magtforhold tegnet op i et barnagtigt drømmeunivers af sukkersød overflod.

Musikvideoen er skabt i samarbejde med billedkunstneren Will Cotton, som er kendt for sine pastelfarvede portrætter af yndige unge kvinder, beklædt med cupcakes, makroner og candyfloss. Med udgangspunkt i brætspillet Candy Land, som indtager en central rolle i Cottons kunstpraksis, fungerer musikvideoen som et ekstra betydningslag. Her optræder Perry som en brik i spillet Candyfornia, hvor hun vinder opgøret mod den fæle sugar-daddy, spillet af rapperen Snoop Dogg og hans hær af vingummibamser. I sangen synger Perry om Californiens berømte solkyssede piger, som pryder den gyldne vestkyst iklædt hotpants og bikinitoppe.

In the music video for Katy Perry’s 2010 song California Gurls, power relationships are depicted in a childish dream­­world of saccharine excess.

The video is a collaboration with the artist Will Cotton, who is famous for his pastel portraits of pretty young women covered in cupcakes, macaroons and candyfloss. Based on the board game Candy Land, which plays a central role in Cotton’s art, the music video offers an extra layer of meaning in which as a piece in the game ‘Candyfornia’ Perry wins a battle with a vile sugar daddy – played by the rapper Snoop Dogg – and his army of fruit-gum teddy bears. In the lyrics of the song, Perry sings about California’s sun-kissed girls adorning the golden west coast in their hot pants and bikini tops.

Side 15

Still (detalje) fra Marilyn Minter, Green Pink Caviar, 2009 Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, HumlebĂŚk, Denmark

s n s e n p e t p s n Po u k g o r e d e l l i b s : d s y t r k l i bea t n o i t k u d o p r t o n p I m e l l e t m s t n e u k d felt e l l i b g o k i s mu Af Dorthe Juul Rugaard

Det er det her, du skal forestille dig. Du står i udstillingen My Music. Dit blik er fanget af kunstneren Marilyn Minters videoværk Green Pink Caviar – en glossy kvindemund på en billboard-stor skærm, der slikker og spytter begærligt rundt i limegrøn sirup, mens ambientmusik drypper langsomt ind i din øregang. Måske kan du lide, hvad du ser, eller måske er makrolinsens skarpe optagelse af tungekødet og de røde læbers legesyge bevægelser alt for meget. Du går videre, men du når ikke langt, før skuespilleren Robert Downey Jr.s brune dådyrøjne lokker dig hen til kunstneren Sam Taylor-Johnsons musikvideo, hvori Downey lipsync’er indfølende og sårbart til Elton Johns I Want Love.

Side 17

E

ller måske bliver din nysgerrighed pludselig pirret af popduoen Blondages energiske beats og rasende flotte musikvideo Dive, der krydsklipper mellem en hunløves blodige zebrajagt på savannen og en vild flugt til fods gennem New Yorks asfaltjungle. I nærheden pulserer kunstnerduoen Tim Noble & Sue Websters lysinstallation skabt til musikeren Nick Caves album Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, mens en genopstanden Michael Jackson i kunstneren Adel Abidins videoværk Michael giver live-interview til de hysteriske masser på Times Square i New York. Og så er du parat til at gå ind i rummet ved siden af, hvor du lægger dig i de blå puder og lader dig omslutte af kunstneren Pipilotti Rists skingre vokal, der fortolker Chris Isaaks gamle hit Wicked Game, mens du svømmer hen til hypnotiske, sanselige undervandsbilleder. Kunst og popmusik plejer omgang med hinanden i et krydsbombardement af billeder og beats, og du er inviteret indenfor til – her i mørket – at lade dine sanser og impulser beskyde fra alle sider.

Beats og billeder Udstillingen My Music – og denne artikel – ser nærmere på nogle af de alliancer og samarbejder, der i disse år blomstrer mellem popmusikken og samtidskunsten. Der skal ikke googles meget for at få færten af, at noget er på færde, når R&B-gudinden Beyoncé remixer videokunstner Pipilotti Rists videoværk Ever is Over All på hendes visuelle album Lemonade (2016), når performancekunstner Marina Abramović performer med rapperen Jay-Z i hans kortfilm Picasso Baby (2013), eller når Lady Gaga udsender sit Art Pop album (2013) med udgangspunkt i en skulptur-

Lady Gaga, Art Pop, 2013. Album cover. © 2013 Interscope Records

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produktion og et albumcover-design af kunstneren Jeff Koons, der sætter en tyk streg under hendes intense forbrug af kunsthistoriens ikoniske hits.

Popmusik har altid haft et liv på forbrugerens nethinde – ikke kun i øregangen. Den visuelle side af popmusik – i bredest mulig forstand – er både kreativ, kunstnerisk og kommerciel.

Den kan forstærke, fordreje eller fortolke musikken. Den er også en effektiv løftestang i salget af musikken til forbrugerne gennem distribution og massemedier. Fra albumcovers til scenedesigns, merchandise og ikke mindst musikvideoer har popmusikken en lang, rig og dybt fascinerende historie.

Musikvideoens historie rækker tilbage til filmmediets tidlige avantgarde-eksperimenter, men den tog fart, da MTV gik i luften i 1981. Med YouTubes ankomst på nettet i 2005 blev musikvideoen en både gratis og konstant tilgængelig måde at opleve sine yndlingsartister på, uanset om man – som millioner af andre – er der for at dyrke Beyoncés skønhed og ypperlige vokal, eller om man søger efter de smalle auteurproduktioner for musikvideokunstens skyld.

”Popmusik har altid haft et liv på forbrugerens nethinde – ikke kun i øregangen.”

Artiklen her fører os ind i krydsfeltet ad tre forskellige veje – musikvideoen, som trækker på billedkunstens koder; billedkunstværkerne, som går i kødet på popmusikkens visuelle æstetik og identitetsprocesser; og de tætte og gensidige samarbejder, der skaber ny værdi og betydning både kommercielt og kunstnerisk.

Som denne udstilling viser, står popmusikken i dag i et tæt forhold til billedkunsten, og det betyder, at også den mest poppede pop ofte byder på visuelle oplevelser, der bryder vores forventninger, beriger musikken og åbner nye perspektiver. Vender man bøtten på hovedet og ser på billedkunsten, er den også fuld af popmusik og af den visuelle kultur, som knytter sig til musikken. Alt det, der giver musikkens kunstnere visuel tilstedeværelse, online og offline – fra musikvideo til promotionbilleder, scenedesign og merchandise.

Den indflydelse på vores hverdagsliv, selvforståelse, sociale relationer, forbrugsmønstre og politiske holdninger, som popmusikken har i kraft af dens udbredelse gennem massemedierne, gør den inspirerende, provokerende og stimulerende for mange billedkunstnere. Dermed finder popmusikken og musikvideoen også i stigende grad vej til fx gallerierne og museerne.

Krydsfeltet mellem popmusik og billedkunst udvikler sig i rivende fart i disse år, hvor ikke blot kanoniserede film- og musikvideoinstruktører, men også kunstnere, der har deres praksis inden for fx videokunst, maleri, installation, fotografi og skulptur, arbejder kreativt og kritisk med popmusikkens beats og billeder. Tætte samarbejder mellem popartister og billedkunstnere opstår, og publikum selv,

forbrugerne, deltager aktivt i dette krydsfelt med uploads af deres egne produktioner på internettets videokanaler og streamingtjenester.1 Musikvideo som videokunst – som massemedie Musikvideoproduktioner låner ofte fra og finder inspiration i billedkunstens verden, ligesom det også ses i udstrakt grad inden for fx reklame- og filmindustrien. Men hvad giver det til en musikvideo, når musikeren eller instruktøren stikker sin snabel ned i den visuelle kunsts reservoir af æstetikker, motiver og strategier? Og hvor bliver det meningsløst at skelne mellem popmusikkens kreative visuelle kultur og billedkunstens ditto?

Lady Gaga er en megastjerne som musikperformer, og hun er en af de popartister, hvis performanceidentitet og visuelle udsagn har stærk tilknytning til billedkunstens æstetiske og konceptuelle koder. En produktion, der rækker langt ud over musikvideoens kommercielle formål, er hendes video til Born This Way (2011, instr. Nick Knight), som i skrivende stund er blevet streamet mere end 213 millioner gange på YouTube.2 Videoen er bygget op omkring symbolik, referencer og inspiration fra kunst- og kulturhistorien – fra Dronning Elisabeth I over Hitchcocks filmmusik og halvfjerdser-sci-fi til surrealisme og performancekunst. Den er kompleks og mørk og dystopisk, samtidig med at den gør, hvad den skal, nemlig lade Gaga fyre den af med benhårdt koreograferede dansescener og al den chokerende ekstravagance, man forventer af hende.

Videoen åbner med en sekvens på to et halvt minut, hvor Gaga – aka Mother Monster – toner frem som en guddommelig rumdronning og på baggrund af filmmusikken fra Alfred Hitchcocks Vertigo leverer en monolog, der blandt andet lyder: “This is the manifest of Mother Monster. On G.O.A.T, a Government Owned Alien Territory in space, a birth of magnificent and magical proportions took place … And thus began the beginning of the new race, a race within the race of humanity, a race which bears no prejudice, no judgment but boundless freedom.”

Det nye, frigjorte menneske bliver bragt til universet i et både barokt og surreelt haute couture-drømmesyn af monstrøse, kalejdoskopiske sekvenser. Gaga har selv peget på inspirationen hertil fra surrealistiske og ekspressive malere som Salvador Dalí og Francis Bacon.3 Sangen, og videoen er en hyldest til samfundets marginaliserede eksistenser og en opfordring til at elske sig selv og andre, uanset køn, race og seksuel orientering – pakket ind i en mystisk og kosmisk kamp mellem liv og død, nydelse og smerte, det gode og det onde. Den grænseløse krop, chokket, udforskningen af begæret, det metafysiske og det subjektive sinds dybder er alle surrealistiske omdrejningspunkter, som er integreret i Gagas performative og visuelle repertoire.4

En anden billedkunstner, der er trukket ind i Born This Way er den franske performancekunstner ORLAN. Kernen i hendes radikale praksis er hendes ’reinkarnation’ gennem en række plastiske operationer, som hun gennemgik fra 1990-93. Det var en slags performance-operationer, hvor hun fik ændret sine ansigtstræk. Ikke for at blive smukkere, men for at blive stærkere gennem selvopfindelsen. ORLAN har også to små implantater i panden. Fra det ene moder-monster til det andet.

Gagas små fremspring i panden, skarpt vinklede kindben og sylespidse skuldre i Born This Way er en tydelig hilsen til den franske performancekunstners arbejde med krop og identitet.

Så tydelig, at ORLAN i 2013 sagsøgte Gaga for plagiat.

Still fra musikvideoen til Lady Gagas Born This Way, 2011 © Interscope Records

Det er måske frugtesløst at diskutere, hvorvidt Born This Way er videokunst snarere end en kommerciel musikvideo. Producer Steven Reiss og forfatter Neil Feinemann siger det således: ”No art form is as schizophrenic as the music video.

In part a commercial and in part a short film, it has flaunted the line between art and commerce, undermined narrative and character development, and shortened an entire generation’s attention span.”5 Lady Gagas video bekræfter dette; den hører til blandt noget af det mest massemediale og mainstream inden for genren og den bidrager samtidig til den eksperimenterende visuelle og performative kunst.

Det samme gælder en anden musikvideo i My Music, som komponisten og sangerinden Sia selv har instrueret sammen med filmkunstner Daniel Askill til hittet Elastic Heart (2015, 844 millioner visninger på YouTube), hvori skuespiller og performancekunstner Shia LaBeouf optræder i en intens performance sammen med den da 11-årige danser Maddie Ziegler.6 I videoen repræsenterer de to performere forskellige sindstilstande i sangerinden selv, mens de beskidte og iført hudfarvet trikot danser i et stort bur i en poetisk storm af ekspressiv gestik og vanvittige grimasser, der chokerer i kraft af de kontrastfulde relationer og emotionelle magtkampe, der udspiller sig mellem en muskuløs mand og en lille pige. Maddie har indtil videre haft hovedrollen som danser i fem af Sias musikvideoer, og hun har også performet med Side 19

Still fra musikvideoen til Sias Elastic Heart, 2015. © 2015 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

hende i en række koncerter og TV-shows, iført identiske platinblonde parykker. Sia optræder ikke selv i sine musikvideoer, og hun lader sjældent sit ansigt se under en liveoptræden, for hendes parykpandehår når ned til næseroden, eller hun synger med ryggen til publikum, mens Maddie danser.

Strategien er smart; den tjener formålet at lade Sia kunne gå på gaden uden at blive genkendt, og den har stor kommerciel effekt. Men der er også en kunstnerisk dimension i det konsekvent gennemførte samarbejde med Maddie som dobbeltgænger. Sias ’mini-me’ fortolker og performer musikken ekspressivt i en fuldendt symbiose med popstjernens kraftfulde vokal. Samtidig minder strategien om en konceptuel og performativ, nærmest Andy Warholsk eller Cindy Shermansk tilgang til selvrepræsentation og kunstneridentitet.

Nu skal vi krydse gaden sammen med den engelske musiker og kunstner Martin Creed. I Work No. 1701 (2015) er

musikvideo og videokunst ét, da Creed har komponeret, indspillet og produceret både lyd og billeder. Han har haft sit eget band siden 1994 og indtager en central plads på den internationale kunstscene. Personer, der på hver sin måde er udfordrede som fodgængere, krydser et fodgængerfelt i New York til lyden af Creeds muntre popsang. En person ad gangen, i klip efter klip. Videoen bygger på et minimum af handling og variation. Men ud af næsten intet vokser en rigdom, for hver persons haltende, slæbende, hoppende og hakkende gangart bliver lige så rytmisk som musikken. Vi ser ikke en gangbesværet persons anstrengelse for at nå fra A til B, men en dans, der kalder smilet frem. Man får uundgåeligt et flashback til The Beatles’ ikoniske albumcover til Abbey Road med fodgængerfeltet, som de fire bandmedlemmer krydsede i 1969. Motivet er siden blevet parafraseret til hudløshed af professionelle og amatører.7 Om Creed selv har haft denne reference for øje er ikke afgørende, for uanset hvad indskriver han sit værk i den fortsatte strøm af remix, parafrasering og sampling af materiale, som popkulturens professionelle og kreative amatører praktiserer konstant, og som trives så godt på internettet.

Creeds visuelle og musikalske værker bliver ofte opfattet som konceptuelle, men for ham er de snarere emotionelle: ”I make work because I … want to express myself and because I want to try and communicate with people and because I want to be loved. I love it all.”8 Måske er han i sin søgen efter den lige vej mellem kunst og publikum lige så langt inde i poppens dna som nogen anden musiker og kunstner.

Still fra Martin Creed, Work No. 1701, 2013. Courtesy kunstneren, Hauser & Wirth og Gavin Brown’s enterprise

Side 20

Når kunsten slår hul på poppen Men hvad er så poppens dna? Er det dens evne til at appellere og kommunikere bredest muligt, dens kommercielle drive, dens flygtighed og den homogenitet, som ligger skjult under et ofte kreativt genbrug af andre genrer og kulturprodukter? Og hvilken indflydelse har popmusikken og dens kulturer på fx vores sociale liv og vores selvforståelse? En del samtidskunstnere rejser på forskellig vis disse spørgsmål gennem værker, der låner poppens smittende udtryksformer, samtidig med at de åbner for refleksion.

Still fra Candice Breitz, QUEEN (A Portrait of Madonna), 2005. Courtesy Kaufmann Repetto, Milano; Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg; KOW, Berlin

embodied by the fans, and their understanding of the persona of the star is the transformative act that enables the star to exist. Perhaps this is the most authentic portrayal of a celebrity possible: an amalgamation of our various forms of identification with the virtually non-existent reality of the star.”10 Videoinstallationen forstærker fornemmelsen af superstjernen som en ’immaterial girl’, som et fjernt fata morgana.

Samtidig bringer den os tæt på et ensemble af subjekter, der trods deres italienske modersmål taler et globalt og fælles pop-sprog, hvorigennem de udtrykker sig som gjaldt det livet. Deres frigjorte og ’empowered’ performances udfolder sig dermed i en form for drejebog og med spilleregler, som de hele tiden forhandler gennem deres personlige udtryk.

De følger albummets manuskript af dansebeats og poplyrik, mens de giver alt, hvad de har til kameraet og til situationen.

Det er imidlertid i de sære og kejtede sprækker, der opstår, når originalmusikken mellem vers og mellem de enkelte tracks er uden lyrik, at performerne har det stærkeste nærvær. Hvor de ler forlegent til kameraet, drikker en slurk vand, rømmer sig. Hvor de prøver at udfylde tomrummet ved at danse og nynne sig frem til næste sang, eller hvor man kan høre deres fodtrin. Hvor de kort sagt falder ud af de foreskrevne dansetrin og fraseringer.

Måske er det netop disse sprækker, det handler om for Candice Breitz? I et interview fra 2003 fortæller Breitz om poppens stærke dobbeltbundne evne til at animere og pacificere den enkeltes liv og identitet og om sine kunstneriske forsøg på at forstyrre denne mekanisme:

En af dem er videokunstneren Candice Breitz. I hendes medrivende installation QUEEN (A Portrait of Madonna) fra 2005 synger og danser 30 dedikerede Madonna-fans sig energisk og intenst gennem hele Madonnas greatest hitsalbum The Immaculate Collection (1990).9 ”Music can be such a revelation / dancing around you feel the sweet sensation”, lyder det fra de mange skærme. Foran et fast indstillet kamera, med musikken i øresneglen, et minimum af instruktion fra kunstneren og meget lidt klipning performer de deres idols største hits med en indlevelse og dedikation, der er lige så smittende og rørende, som den er foruroligende.

Breitz har samlet optagelserne i en monumental væg af skærme, og foran dette synkroniserede kor af tredive stemmer, fortolkninger, selviscenesættelser, koreografier og eksistenser, der alle har Madonnas musik i deres ører, står man med håret blæst bagud i et frontalt møde – ikke med Madonnas portræt, hvis man hermed forstår en vellignende afbildning, men med Madonna, som hun ses, erfares og udleves af sine mange fans. Som kuratoren Jessica Morgan præcist har beskrevet det:

Popmusik taler ifølge Breitz kun med én stemme. Det mulighedsfelt, den tilbyder for identifikation, er ensidigt. I QUEEN konstruerer Breitz imidlertid en form for reanimeret portræt med sprækker, der giver plads til et nærvær, som forekommer ægte og rørende – også selvom det er skabt på popkulturens vilkår, og som åbner en dialog om, hvordan vi bliver

”… the star’s representation is a reflection of our own understanding or projection of that character. Like a hologram, the three-dimensionality that we think we see in the celebrity persona is the result of mass mediation and above all our own act of projection or construal … The celebrity is literally

”Breitz’ kunstneriske praksis vidner om en intens, men ambivalent fascination af popmusik og fankultur, Hollywoodfilm og massemedier ...”

”Pop seems to offer opportunities for self-invention – this is what makes it so seductive. The problem with Pop, of course, is that the kinds of selves it encourages us to invent are usually passive and predetermined, which means that rather than truly being offered a moment of self-invention, we are invited to shape ourselves in moulds which have already been poured. Artists who work inside Pop might want to offer some resistance to this condition, to crack Pop open, to tap into the promises that it makes and desires it creates, to try and defuse that aspect of Pop which makes it dangerous…”.11

Side 21

”Breitz har samlet optagelserne i en monumental væg af skærme, og foran dette synkroniserede kor af tredive stemmer, fortolkninger, selviscenesættelser, koreografier og eksistenser, der alle har Madonnas musik i deres ører, står man med håret blæst bagud i et frontalt møde – ikke med Madonnas portræt, hvis man hermed forstår en vellignende afbildning, men med Madonna, som hun ses, erfares og udleves af sine mange fans.”

Ditte Ejlerskov, The Pink Painting, 2014. 22 x 27 cm, olie på lærred

Side 22

dem, vi er, gennem pop. Breitz’ kunstneriske praksis vidner om en intens, men ambivalent fascination af popmusik og fankultur, Hollywoodfilm og massemedier, og den gør hende selv til en slags ”deranged fan” med et kunstnerisk udkomme, der både kritiserer og fejrer popkulturen.12 Billedkunstneren Ditte Ejlerskov, der på My Music viser sit gigantiske maleri The Oh My Gosh Weave (2015) er også popfan. Efter at hun har beskæftiget sig indgående med stjerner som Beyoncé og Rihanna, er hendes seneste projekt en stor maleriserie, der fremstiller den afroamerikanske rapper Nicki Minaj som en politisk feminist. I Ejlerskovs maleriske fortolkning har Minajs seksualiserede og vulgære selvfremstilling til formål at udstille det hvide, eurocentriske blik på den sorte kvinde og rækker i lige linje tilbage til Josephine Baker og den afroamerikanske cake-walk-dans.13 I den omdiskuterede musikvideo til sangen Anaconda (instr.

Colin Tilley), som udkom i 2014 og på den første dag på YouTube blev streamet 19,6 millioner gange, twerker og lapdancer Minaj med sin big black ass derudaf i en fugtig regnskov, mens hun i en karikeret hillbilly-accent gentager sætningen ”Oh my gosh, look at her butt.”14 I maleriet er en opmaling af et still fra musikvideoen vævet sammen med et rent tekstbillede af Minajs sætning, som et fikserbillede, der gør det vanskeligt at fokusere på enten billede eller tekst.

Ejlerskov mener i modsætning til Breitz, at poppen rummer muligheder for dialog og kritik i sig selv, at den har potentiale til at influere på virkeligheden og gøre en politisk forskel. Hvorvidt det lykkes, afhænger naturligvis ikke blot af afsenderen, men i lige så høj grad af modtageren og hendes reception af musikken og dens visuelle univers.

Som Breitz viser det i QUEEN, er der i hvert fald vide rammer for, hvordan musikken kan omsættes til nye, subjektive og produktive udtryk.

Still fra Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Worship, 2016. Courtesy kunstneren og Lisson Gallery. Still © Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg

Worship (2016) er en animationsfilm af den svenske kunstnerduo Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg. Mens Djurberg udfører det ekstremt tidskrævende og møjsommelige arbejde med at skabe modellervoksfilm frame by frame, komponerer Berg elektronisk musik, der skaber en intim forbindelse mellem billeder og lyd. Gennem filmens 8 minutter og 6 sekunder vrider kvinder, der ikke lader Nicki Minaj noget efter, hvad angår kvindelig yppighed og sexede outfits, sig æggende op og ned ad bananer, majskolber og similibesatte ispinde, alt i potent oversize, mens de strutter med alt, hvad de har, og kaster begærlige blikke til kameraet, som var de aktører i en soft porn-produktion. Mændene dyrker deres trimmede overkroppe på gyldne motorcykler. Der er kælne katte, en klam rottealfons og en grotesk sugar daddy af en tudse, der sidder i sin lænestol og lader sig opvarte. Alt er bling. Bergs musik udgør billedernes konstante, rytmiske puls, og han bygger den langsomt op i lag af drævende, kværnende, suggestive klangflader. Det er en nærmest tredimensionel lyd, der skaber billeder med lige så stor styrke som modellervoksfilmen.

Hvad er på færde her i disse drømmeagtigt foruroligende og

groteske billed-og lydscenarier? Worship ligner, men er ikke som en musikvideo, selvom den trækker på mainstreampoppens mest banale koder. Musikken er med sit faste tempo og sine ubrudte beats som et stykke popmusik, men den er vokalløs og dermed atypisk. De animerede voksfigurers tilbedelse af de mest trivielle ting – og af sig selv – spejler indholdet i utallige musikvideoer, men de byder samtidig på en anden, mere forstyrrende og foruroligende oplevelse.

Mens de frister, forfører og chokerer os, giver de os både nydelse og væmmelse. Drømmen er også et mareridt.

Kunstneren Pipilotti Rist var, inden hun blev videokunstner, medlem af den kvindelige synth- og performancegruppe Les Reines Prochaines.15 I begge sine videoværker på My Music, I’m Not the Girl Who Misses Much (1986) og Sip My Ocean (1996), arbejder hun med oplevelsen af det kropslige og sanselige gennem videokunstens elektroniske billeder, samtidig med at hun ofte synger cover-versioner af kendte popnumre, som hun vrider ud af deres vante lydform. I sin tidlige video I’m not the Girl Who Misses Much synger hun igen og igen en let omskrevet linje fra The Beatles-sangen Happiness is a Warm Gun, mens hun udfører en excorcistisk dans foran et fast opstillet videokamera. Hendes bryster sidder uden på kjolen, mens hun snurrer og spjætter og kaster sig ind i væggen, hæmningsløst og dybt komisk. ”I’m noooot the giiiiirl who misses much la di de di da de.” Læg dertil, at den flimrende og grumsede VHS-optagelse kører i skiftevis fast og slow forward, så hun lyder som en manisk Smølfine, hundjævel eller desparat popstjerne-wannabe. Det er svært at se på og umuligt at se væk fra. Værket er skabt i MTV-æraens flimrende storhedstid, hvor musikvideoerne strømmede nonstop ud af fjernsynsapparaterne på ethvert moderne teenageværelse. Men Rist er ikke en Madonna, og hendes video sælger ikke musikken. Hun er blot stjerne i sit eget do-it-yourself-show, alene med kameraet. Således lægger hun op til en stærk identifikation med hende, og samtidig forbinder værket sig til den besættelse af selvbilleder og selviscenesættelse, der kommer stærkest til udtryk på medier som fx musical.ly. og YouTube.

What you see is what you hear My Music er fuld af værker, der kører på tværs af popmusikkens og musikvideoens motorveje. Samtidig rummer krydsfeltet også et væld af konkrete samarbejder mellem popartister og billedkunstnere, hvor inspirationen mere tydeligt går den anden vej – ikke fra poppen ind i kunsten – men fra kunsten ind i poppen.

Et markant samarbejde har siden 2008 udfoldet sig mellem rapperen Kanye West og konceptkunstneren Vanessa Beecroft, der fx har instrueret den fantastiske kortfilmsmusikvideo til tracket Runaway (2010) og skabt performances til modeshows med Kanye Wests Yeezy-kollektioner, scenedesigns og meget andet.16 Som kunsthistoriker Antje KrauseWahl peger på, er der i nogle tilfælde tale om, at kunstneren, Side 23

der instruerer en musikvideo, drager nytte af nye, globale distributionsmuligheder og et stærkt udvidet publikum, og i andre tilfælde, at hun ’fordøjer’ musikvideoens formater for et decideret kunstpublikum. Men der er samtidig også stor variation i den værdi, som kunstneren tillægger samarbejdet i sin egen produktion, og som musikproduktet tillægges i kraft af sin tilknytning til billedkunsten.17

Still fra musikvideoen til Kanye Wests Runaway, 2010. © 2010 Roc-A-Fella Records, LLC

Et eksempel på et musikvideosamarbejde, der har kommerciel og kunsterisk værdi for både billedkunster og musiker, er videoen til California Gurls, sangeren Katy Perrys sommerhit fra 2010 (387 millioner visninger på YouTube, instr. Tony Kaye).18 Her er den amerikanske kunstner Will Cotton artistic director. Produktionen er som en komplet, tredimensionel udfoldelse af kunstnerens kalorierige og ekstremt kitchede

Will Cotton, Cotton Candy Katy, 2010. 183 x 213 cm, olie på lærred. © Will Cotton. Courtesy Mary Boone Gallery, New York

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maleriske praksis, hvor flødeskum og karamelis, cupcakes, candyfloss og bolschestænger udgør hans fotorealistisk udførte landskabsmotiver, portrætter og stillebener. Alt er slik. Katy Perry bad Cotton om at skabe coveret til hendes album Teenage Dream (2010), og resultatet blev Cotton Candy Katy, et portræt, hvor hun ligger som en nøgen pinup i en lyserød candyfloss-sky, nu erhvervet til National Portrait Gallery i Washington DC. Videoen til California Gurls blev næste skridt i samarbejdet. Mødet mellem Cottons billeder, Katy Perrys musik og hendes kokette performance i videoen er et match made in heaven, en overvældende sukkersød konstruktion af en surreel og utopisk popfantasi. Den udfolder en simpel og karikeret fortælling, hvor Katy Perry iført cupcake-bikinitop befrier nogle kvinder, der er fanget i Candifornia, et brætspilsunivers regeret af sukkerkongen (rapperen Snoop Dogg) og hans hær af vingummibamser – og ultimativt får ham ned med nakken i et flødeskumssprøjtende power girl-opgør.

Videoen fusionerer de kommercielle og kunstneriske niveauer. Den langer musikken over disken i en letfordøjelig, humoristisk og familievenlig indpakning, der bekræfter Perrys kække, popmusikalske stil. Og samtidig udlåner Cottons kunstneriske praksis alle de kulturelle, litterære og kunsthistoriske referencer til musikken, som han sampler i sit maleri – fra 1700-tallets hollandske stillebentradition til amerikansk pinup-maleri og fra brødrene Grimms eventyr til Alice i Eventyrland. Popnummeret, der er en bilradio-venlig hyldest til de ‘uforglemmelige og solkyssede californiske piger’, får i musikvideoen en ironisk og metaforisk dimension, fordi videoens animerede verden af guilty pleasures og feministiske tungen-i-kinden-statements bliver et billede på amerikansk popkultur og dens kommercielle spilleregler, som musikken og forretningen Katy Perry selv er underlagt. I et interview forklarer Cotton, hvordan det populære amerikanske brætspil, Candyland, fra 1948 for ham blev en afgørende inspiration og en præcis metafor for den amerikanske kultur, som hans værker udspringer af og kredser om – en metafor som i videoen bliver opdyrket i en overvældende detalje-

Still fra videoen til Becks Round The Bend, 2002. © 2002 Interscope Records

”Mødet mellem Cottons billeder, Katy Perrys musik og hendes kokette performance i videoen er et match made i heaven, en overvældende sukkersød konstruktion af en surreel og utopisk popfantasi.”

rigdom, hvor selv det lagkagelignende Capitol Records-tårn (Katy Perrys pladeselskab) er med på brætspillet.19 I kunstneren Jeremy Blakes abstrakt-maleriske musikvideo til Becks Round The Bend fra break up-albummet Sea Change (2002, vist 247.000 gange på YouTube) er der tale om en egentlig symbiose mellem lyd og billeder.20 Becks musikalske melankoli og Blakes flydende, digitale abstraktioner forstærker hinanden på den mest affektive og hypnotiske vis.

Den afdæmpede, akustiske guitar- og strygermusik glider søvndyssende langsomt frem i harmoni med Blakes abstrakte, digitale overlejringer af snapshots af tillukkede gardiner, blomster og lysekroner, der langsomt fader ind og ud mellem hinanden. Becks ansigt toner også frem med et drømmende blik, indstillet på uendeligt. Videoen udvisker grænsen mellem virkelighed og simulation i et farvespektrum, der nærmest fungerer som visuelle lydbølger og i den forstand kan betegnes som ’visuel musik’.21 Alt imens Beck synger om, hvordan du lige så godt kan slippe tøjlerne og lade det ske, når tilværelsen rammer dig ”Faster than any bullet / From an empty gun.”

Blake har beskrevet sin digitale, æstetiske praksis, hvor form og soliditet opløses på skærmen i flydende og lysende farvefelter som ”mark making resolving itself onscreen in a kind of time based painting.”22 Hans værker anslår en hallucinatorisk, næsten psykedelisk formløshed, som er den perfekte, emotionelle ledsager til Becks sang, hvis titel betyder ’mentalt forvirret’.

I Fink U Freeky er titlen på et track af den sydafrikanske raprave-gruppe Die Antwoord, som fotograf og kunstner Roger Ballen, amerikansk født, men bosat i Johannesburg gennem en årrække, i 2012 indgik i et tæt musikvideo-samarbejde med (vist 100 millioner gange på YouTube).23 Det kunne lige så vel have været bandets replik til Ballen, da de i 2006 stiftede bekendtskab med hans værker og blev ’slået i ansigtet’ af billedernes rå og dybt foruroligende, ofte fiktionaliserede sort-hvide skildringer af ’andethed’ i form af mennesker og dyr fra sydafrikanske randområder. Bandets to medlemmer Ninja og Yo-Landi angiver dette møde med Ballens ”freak-mode zone” og den ”retarded graffiti scrawled all over the walls and random objects” i hans værker som en direkte katalysator for, at de undergik: ”dark and dangerous psychological transformations as we dove deep into the most primal regions of our minds and Side 25

”... Man må sande, at ikke bare relationer mellem forskellige kreative genrer og scener, men også begreber som høj og lav, smal og bred, elitær og populær, er under stærk forandring.” merged with our shadow selves. Instead of trying to work out how to find into society, we decided to make our own unique breed of ‘Fuck You’-style pop music. We called this new dark pop group Die Antwoord.”24 Roger Ballens kunst var med andre ord en faktor i bandets formation, og de har siden da lavet flere kunstneriske samarbejder, hvoraf videoen til I Fink You Freeky er det foreløbigt mest markante. Der er tale om et langvarigt, fortsat og dybt samarbejde, der baserer sig på kulturel identifikation og et æstetisk fælleskab på tværs af medier. Senest har Yo-Landi med Ballen som artistic director instrueret den twistede og bizarre kortfilm Tommy Can’t Sleep (2017) med musik af The Black Goat.

I Fink U Freeky er et sandt ballenesque humor- og horrorshow af albinoer og anatomisk afvigende personager, der danser intenst til musikkens frenetiske beats og energiske lyriksekvenser, som gruppen rapper på både engelsk og afrikaans. Omgivet af dette persongalleri i beskidte og skramlede tableauer, som Roger Ballen har fyldt med graffititegninger, rekvisitter, slanger og rotter, optræder Die Antwoord som et par trashy gangster-trailerkids, der steger spejlæg med biller i deres camperkøkken og rammer os hårdt med cheeky og freaky attituder på den anden side af skærmen.25 Kunstkritikeren Ivor Powell påpeger, at selvom Ballen og Die Antwoords kunstneriske praksisser og æstetik er så tæt forbundne, har de også forskellige udgangspunkter for deres kunst. Hvor Ballens kunstneriske projekt i virkeligheden er en eksistentiel søgen efter sit eget subjekt i dialog med ’den anden’ i form af randzoner og sære menneskelige eksistenser, er Die Antwoords musik et element i et halvt virkeligt, halvt cybervirkeligt kunstprojekt. Yo-Landi og Ninja udfolder sig både i den fysiske og den digitale verden; de er på én gang reelle subjekter og fiktive karakterer, der deltager i den kommercielle, visuelle kultur med kunstneriske input og sociale kommentarer formet som underholdning.26 Exit Through the Gift Shop I museets shop, hvor du kan browse gennem designvarer, bøger og reproduktioner af din yndlingskunst, støder du på et værk i My Music, der forekommer sært ude af trit med udstillingens digitale slaraffenland af billeder og lyd: en jukeboks, som du kan gå hen og vælge musik på, aldeles offline. Vælger du et nummer, afspilles musikken ud i rummet for dig og alle andre tilstedeværende. Når det er færdigt, kan du vælge et nyt. Men ingen algoritmer kommer med forslag til dig baseret på din digitale historik, som på Side 26

Spotify eller andre musikstreaming-tjenester. Ligeledes er den visuelle stimulans fra musikvideoen erstattet med dine øjnes afsøgning af jukeboksen selv, rummet den står i og ikke mindst de reaktioner fra andre, som dit musikvalg afføder. Jukeboksen er et kunstværk af den skotske kunstner Ruth Ewan, som siden 2003 har opdateret den med tusindvis af protestsange, indsendt til hende fra folk som forslag til værkets indhold, A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World. Altså et stadigt voksende arkiv, ikke bare over politisk motiveret popmusik, men også over de mennesker, der har skabt musikken, og de, der gennem musikken ønsker at give deres egen oplevelse og politiske holdninger videre til andre.

Popmusikken og billedkunsten kan ligne et umage par, og dog er de alligevel så nært beslægtede og frugtbare sammen. Der er stor variation i den måde, hvorpå mødet mellem dem udspiller sig, hvad angår kommercielle interesser, kunstneriske udsagn og udvekslingen mellem kunst og forbruger, produkt og publikum. Kulturteoretiker Mathias Bonde Korsgaard skriver i sin bog Music Video after MTV (2017) om musikvideoens remediering af andre medier eller med andre ord om, hvordan musikvideoen som audiovisuel mediekultur kun kan forstås gennem dens indflydelse på – og fra – medier som film, TV, mode og reklame. Den imiterer, låner fra og ligner andre medier i stor stil, ligesom den selv øver indflydelse på disse. Det ligger i dens blod, da den i sig selv er et møde mellem medier – musikken og de levende billeder.27 Udstillingen My Music viser, at billedkunsten også er et felt, som musikvideoen og popmusikkens kultur remedierer med stor variation. Med de aktuelle møder, alliancer og krydsbestøvninger, der nærer popmusikkens og billedkunstens fælles, kommercielle og kunstneriske legeplads – på gallerierne og på fx YouTube – må man sande, at ikke bare relationer mellem forskellige kreative genrer og scener, men også begreber som høj og lav, smal og bred, elitær og populær, er under stærk forandring. Det er en forandring, som er understøttet af den on demand-tilgængelighed, som video- og musikstreaming har gjort mulig for kunsten, musikken og alt det, der ligger derimellem. Formentlig udviskes forskellene blot yderligere i takt med, at den digitale teknologi ændrer vores deltagelse i og forbrug af kulturproduktion. Se musikken og dans til kunsten – på livet løs!

Dorthe Juul Rugaard er mag.art. og museumsinspektør på ARKEN.

Roger Ballen, Spooky Eyes, 2012.

Courtesy Roger Ballen & Galleri Tom Christoffersen

Side 27

Litteratur Baccaria, Marcella, “Process and Meaning in the Art of Candice Breitz”, i Candice Breitz, red.

Marcella Beccaria, Torino: Castello di Rivoli, 2005

Korsgaard, Mathias Bonde, Music Video After MTV, Routledge Research in Music, 2017, https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781317208327/ cfi/6/32!/4/2/6@0:5.01 (sidst besøgt 29.08.17)

Noter 1 Se Elise Ligaards artikel ”Amatøræstetikkens indtog” i dette magasin, 37-43.

Ballen, Roger m. fl., Die Antwoord. I Fink U Freeky, München, London & New York: Prestel Verlag, 2013

Krause-Wahl, Antje, “Why Artists Make Clips. Contemporary Connections between Art and Pop”, i Rewind Play Fast Forward. The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video, red. Henry Keazor og Thorsten Wübbena, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2010

3 Gray (2012), 125.

Connor, Michael og Johanna Gosse, “Delirious Architectures. Notes on Jeremy Blake, Liquid Crystal Palace and Digital Materialism” i Abstract Video. The Moving Image in Contemporary Art, red. Gabrielle Jennings, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015 Creed, Martin, Martin Creed: Works, London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2014 Durbin, Kate & Meghan Vicks (red.), Gaga Stigmata: Critical Writings and Art About Lady Gaga, 2011. http:// gagajournal.blogspot.dk/ search?updated-max=2011-0308T22:24:00-08:00&maxresults=20&start=72&by-date=false Gioni, Massimiliano og Margot Norton (red.), Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest, New York: New Museum, Phaidon, 2016 Gray, Richard J. II, “Surrealism, the Theatre of Cruelty and Lady Gaga” i The Performance Identities of Lady Gaga: Critical Essays, red. Richard J. Gray II, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Inc., 2012 Heesch, Florian, “Everything Pulsates. Hans Berg’s Music for Film” i Snakes Knows it’s Yoga, red.

Veit Görner, Kristin Schrader m. fl., Kesstner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Kunstforeningen GL STRAND, Copenhagen, 2010 Henriksen, Jens og Ditte Ejlerskov (red.), The Minaj Book, Woodpecker Projects, Narayana Press, 2015 Hermoine, Hoby, “Will Cotton: the painter who made Katy Perry his muse”, 20.06.2014. http://www. telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/artfeatures/10889423/Will-Cotton-thepainter-who-made-Katy-Perry-hismuse.html (sidst besøgt 02.08.17).

Keefer, Cindy, “Visual Music’s Influence on Contemporary Abstraction”, i Abstract Video. The Moving Image in Contemporary Art, red. Gabrielle Jennings, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015

Side 28

Mandel, Leah, “A Brief History Of Kanye West’s Work With Vanessa Beecroft”, 11.02.2016. http://www. thefader.com/2016/02/11/kanyewest-vanessa-beecroft (sidst besøgt 02.08.17) Morgan, Jessica, “A Scripted Life” , i Candice Breitz: Multiple Exposures, red. Octavio Zaya, New York: Actar, 2007 Reiss, Steven og Neil Feinemann, Thirty Frames per Second. The Visionary Art of the Music Video, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000 Stange, Raimar, Zurück in die Kunst, Hamburg: Rogner & Bernhard bei Zweitausendeins, 2003

2 Dette tal stammer fra august 2017.

4 Se Gray (2012) for en detaljeret analyse af Lady Gaga som surrealist og dadaist.

5 Reiss og Feinemann (2010), 10.

6 Dette tal stammer fra august 2017.

7 Se eventuelt de fotografier, der blev taget af The Beatles i forbindelse med fotooptagelsen i 1969, hvor bandmedlemmerne går frem og tilbage over gaden. Til albumcoveret valgte bandet det fotografi, hvor alle fire går i takt. https://www. beatlesbible.com/1969/08/08/ the-abbey-road-cover-photographysession/ (sidst besøgt 29.08.17).

8 Fra interview med Martin Creed i Creed (2014), xxx.

9 Madonnas Immaculate Collection udkom i 1990 som hendes første greatest hits-album og blev med mere end 30 millioner solgte skiver det bedst sælgende compilationalbum af en solo-artist og i øvrigt et af de mest solgte albums nogensinde.

10 Morgan (2007).

11 Stange (2003), 70 ff.

12 Baccaria (2005), 25.

13 Se Terry R. Myers’ interview med Ditte Ejlerskov i Henriksen og Ejlerskov (2005), upag.

14 Wikipedia (19.09.2017), Anaconda (Nicki Minaj song). https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_ (Nicki_Minaj_song)#Music_video (sidst besøgt 03.07.17).

15 Gioni og Norton (2016), 21-22.

16 Mandel (2016).

17 Krause-Wahl (2010), 208 og 217.

Krause-Wahl analyserer specifikt to musikvideoer, der begge vises på My Music, nemlig Elton Johns I Want Love (2001), instrueret af Sam-Taylor Johnson, og musikvideoen til The Hours’ See The Light med Damien Hirst som artistic director (2008).

18 Dette tal stammer fra august 2017.

19 Hermione (2014).

20 Dette tal stammer fra august 2017.

21 Keefer (2015), 84. I teksten optegnes en række forskellige, men beslægtede definitioner af begrebet ’visuel musik’, der rækker tilbage til den tyske filmskaber Oskar Fischingers eksperimenter i 1930’erne med at skabe abstrakte, levende billeder som og til musik.

22 Connor og Gosse (2015), 119.

23 Dette tal stammer fra august 2017.

24 Ballen (2013), 7.

25 Die Antwoord inkorporerer ’Zef’ i videoen – en modkulturel bevægelse, en stil og en subkultur i Sydafrika, som peger tilbage på den lavere, hvide middelklasse i Sydafrika under apartheid.

26 Ballen (2013), 115 ff.

27 Korsgaard (2017).

Still fra Jesper Just, What a Feeling, 2013 Courtesy Jesper Just and Wink Edition

Pop Pictures and Art Beats: The Crossovers between Pop Music and Visual Art Dorthe Juul Rugaard

T

his is what you have to imagine. You are standing in the exhibition My Music. Marilyn Minter’s video work Green Pink Caviar has caught your eye – a woman’s glossy mouth on a billboard sized screen lapping up, licking and spitting lime-green syrup as ambient music slowly drips into your ears. Maybe you like what you see, or maybe the sharp focus of the macro lens on the flesh of the tongue and the playful movement of the red lips is just too much. You move on, but do not get far before the gaze of a doe-eyed Robert Downey Jr. draws you towards Sam Taylor-Johnson’s music video with Downey performing a heartfelt and vulnerable lip-synch of Elton John’s I Want Love. Or maybe you are suddenly intrigued by the pop duo Blondage’s energetic beats and ravishingly beautiful music video Dive crosscutting between a lioness’ gory zebra hunt across the savannah and running through the asphalt jungle of New York. Close by the art duo Tim Noble & Sue Webster’s light installation created for Nick Cave’s album Dig!!!

Lazarus Dig!!! pulsates, while a resurrected Michael Jackson is interviewed live by a hysterical crowd in Times Square in the artist Adel Abidin’s video work Michael. Now you are ready to enter the next room, where you lie down on blue cushions and allow yourself to be enveloped by the artist Pipilotti Rist’s screeching rendition of Chris Isaak’s old hit Wicked Game as you surrender to the hypnotically sensuous underwater imagery. Art and pop music intersect in a bombardment of pictures and beats, and we invite you into the dark where your senses and impulses are assailed from all sides.

Rhythm and Resolution The exhibition My Music – and this article – zooms in on the contemporary boom in alliances and collaborations between pop music and contemporary art. You do not have to google much to know something is going on when R&B icon Beyoncé remixes video artist Pipilotti Rist’s video work Ever is Over All on her visual album Lemonade (2016), when the performance artist Marina Abramović performs with the rapper Jay-Z in his short film Picasso Baby (2013), or when Lady Gaga releases her Art Pop album (2013) based on sculptures and with an album cover by the artist Jeff Koons that underlines her intense use of iconic art history hits. Pop music has always had an impact on the retina as well as the auditory canal of the consumer. The visual side of pop music – in the broadest possible sense – is creative, artistic and commercial. It can amplify, twist or interpret the music. It is also an effective tool for selling music to consumers through distribution and mass media. From album covers to set designs, merchandise and (not least) the music video, pop music has a long, rich and deeply fascinating history. The history of the music video goes back to early avant-garde film experiments, but it really took off with the launch of MTV in 1981. With the online advent of YouTube in 2005, the music video became a free and

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constantly accessible way for people to experience their favourite music whether they – like millions of others – are there to enjoy the beauty and powerful voice of Beyoncé, or whether they are looking for niche auteur productions for the sake of music video art.

The following article takes us into this site of intersection via three paths: music videos that use the codes of visual art; artworks that use the visual aesthetics and identity processes of pop music; and close, mutual collaborations that generate new value and meanings, both commercially and artistically.

As My Music shows, pop music today has a close relationship to art, which means that even the most commercial pop often provides visual experiences that challenge our expectations, enhance our experience of the music, and open new perspectives. If we turn it the other way around and look at art, it too is full of pop music and the visual culture that makes music artists visually present online and offline – from the music video to promotional photographs, set designs and merchandise. Via mass media the influence that pop music has on our daily lives, self-perception, social relations, patterns of consumption, and political opinions makes it inspiring, provocative and stimulating for many artists. As a result of which pop music and music videos are seen more and more in contexts like art galleries and museums.

The crossover between pop music and art is currently exploding. Leading film and music video directors, but also artists who work with video art, painting, installation, photography and sculpture, incorporate the beats and imagery of pop music. Pop artists and visual artists collaborate closely, and the audience – the consumers – are also active in the field, uploading their own productions on online video channels and streaming services. 1 The Music Video as Video Art and Mass Medium Music video productions often borrow from and find inspiration in the art world, something just as prevalent in the advertising and film industries.

But what happens to a music video when a musician or director draws on the reservoir of aesthetics, subjects and strategies of visual art?

And at what point does it stop making sense to separate the creative visual culture of pop music and art?

Lady Gaga is a megastar as a musical performer, and one of the pop artists whose performance identity and visual statements are strongly connected to the aesthetic and conceptual codes of visual art. One production that goes way beyond the commercial goals of the music video is Born This Way (2011, dir. Nick Knight), which at the time of writing has been streamed more than 213 million times on YouTube.2 The video centres around symbolism, references and inspiration from art and art history – from Queen Elisabeth I, Hitchcock’s film scores and seventies sci-fi, to surrealism and performance art. It is complex, dark and dystopian, at the same time as doing what it should, i.e. allowing Lady Gaga to give her all in ruthlessly choreographed dance scenes with the shocking extravagance we have

come to expect of the star.

The video opens with two-and-a-half minutes where Lady Gaga – aka Mother Monster – appears as a divine space queen. With the film score of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in the background, she delivers a monologue with the words: “This is the manifest of Mother Monster. On G.O.A.T, a Government Owned Alien Territory in space, a birth of magnificent and magical proportions took place … And thus began the beginning of the new race, a race within the race of humanity, a race which bears no prejudice, no judgment but boundless freedom.”

The new, liberated human is brought to the universe in a baroque and surreal, haute couture vision of monstrous, kaleidoscopic sequences.

Lady Gaga herself has identified surrealist and expressive painters like Salvador Dalí and Francis Bacon as sources of inspiration.3 The song and video are a tribute to those marginalised by society and a call to love oneself and others regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation – all packaged in a mystical, cosmic battle between life and death, pain and pleasure, and good and evil. The limitless body, shock, exploration of desire and complexity of the metaphysical and the subjective mind are all integral and surrealistic points of focus in Lady Gaga’s performative and visual repertoire.4 Another visual artist drawn into Born This Way is the French performance artist ORLAN. At the core of ORLAN’S art is her radical ‘reincarnation’ through the series of plastic surgery operations she underwent from 1990-1993. During these ‘performance operations’ she had her facial features changed. Not to become more beautiful, but to take control through self-invention. ORLAN also has two small implants in her forehead. From one mother monster to another – the small protrusions on Lady Gaga’s forehead, her acutely angled cheekbones, and her knife-sharp shoulder blades in Born This Way are an obvious tribute to the French performance artist’s work with the body and identity. So obvious, that in 2013 ORLAN sued Lady Gaga for plagiarism.

Maybe there is no point trying to define whether Born This Way is more video art than commercial music video. As producer Steven Reiss and author Neil Feinemann write: ”No art form is as schizophrenic as the music video. In part a commercial and in part a short film, it has flaunted the line between art and commerce, undermined narrative and character development, and shortened an entire generation’s attention span.”5 Lady Gaga’s video confirms this. It is among the most mass mediated and mainstream in the genre, yet can also be seen as experimental visual and performance art.

This is equally true of another music video in My Music, which the composer and singer Sia directed in collaboration with the filmmaker and artist Daniel Askill for the hit Elastic Heart (2015, 844 million views on YouTube6), where the actress and performance artist Shia LaBeouf does an intense performance with the dancer Maddie Ziegler, who was eleven at the time. In the video

each performer represents a different state of mind of the singer herself. In a large cage, with dirt smeared bodies and flesh coloured leotards, they dance a poetic storm of expressive gestures and grotesque grimaces that shock due to the emotional power struggles that play out between a muscular man and a young girl. So far Maddie has played the lead as a dancer in five of Sia’s music videos, and has also performed with the singer at concerts and on TV, both of them wearing identical platinum blonde wigs. Sia never performs in her own music videos, and she rarely allows her face to be seen during live concerts: the fringe of her wig almost reaches her nose, or she sings with her back to the audience while Maddie dances. It is a smart strategy, offering Sia the possibility of living her life without being recognised on the street, at the same time as having a major commercial impact. But there is also an artistic dimension to her consistent collaboration with Maddie as a doppelgänger. Sia’s ’mini me’ interprets and performs the music in complete symbiosis with the powerful vocals of the pop star. At the same time, the strategy is reminiscent of a conceptual and performative approach to self-representation and artist identity akin to that of Andy Warhol or Cindy Sherman.

Now we are going to cross the street with the English musician and artist Martin Creed. Work No. 1701 (2015) is both a music video and art video: Creed has composed, recorded and produced both the sound and visuals. He has had his own band since 1994, and is a central figure on the international art scene. In the video, people who are challenged in different ways as pedestrians walk across a zebra crossing in New York accompanied by Creed’s cheerful pop song.

One after the other, in one take after the other.

The video has a minimum of action and variation.

But from almost nothing, exuberance emerges as each individual’s halting, shuffling, hopping, disjointed gait becomes as rhythmical as the music. Instead of seeing people who have difficulty walking struggling to get from A to B, we see a dance that makes us smile. And there is the inevitable flashback to the Beatles iconic cover of Abbey Road with the four band members walking across a zebra crossing in 1969, an image that has been paraphrased endlessly ever since by both professionals and amateurs.7 Whether Creed had this reference in mind is not important: the work is still part of the continuous flow of constant remixing, paraphrasing and sampling of material by professionals and creative amateurs that flourishes on the Internet.

Creed’s visual and musical works are often seen as conceptual, but the artist himself sees them as emotional: ”I make work because I […] want to express myself and because I want to try and communicate with people and because I want to be loved. I love it all.”8 Maybe in his quest to find a direct path between art and the audience Creed is as close to the DNA of pop as any other musician or artist.

When Art Cracks Pop Open But what is the DNA of pop? Is it its capacity to appeal and communicate as widely as possible, its commercial drive, its transience and the homogeneity that lurks beneath the often creative

recycling of other genres and cultural products?

And what influence does pop music and the culture of pop have on things like our social life and self-perception? These are all questions raised in different ways by contemporary artists who borrow the catchy expressive style of pop at the same time as creating space for reflection.

One of them is the artist Candice Breitz. In her engaging installation QUEEN (A Portrait of Madonna) from 2005, thirty dedicated Madonna fans sing and dance energetically to the entire greatest hits-album The Immaculate Collection (1990).9 ”Music can be such a revelation / dancing around you feel the sweet sensation” is sung simultaneously from a grid of screens. Listening to the album on earphones, and with a minimum of direction by the artist and minimal editing, each person stands at the same distance from the camera performing the greatest hits of their idol with an intensity and dedication that is as infectious and touching as it is disconcerting. Breitz has installed the fans in a monumental wall of screens, and in front of this synchronised chorus of thirty voices, interpretations, performances, choreographies and existences, all of them with Madonna playing in their ears, you are blown away by a head-on encounter not with an actual portrait of Madonna (if the portrait of the title is to be understood as a lifelike depiction of the pop icon), but of Madonna as she is seen, experienced and lived out by her many fans. Curator Jessica Morgan provides an accurate analysis: ”[T]he star’s representation is a reflection of our own understanding or projection of that character. Like a hologram, the three-dimensionality that we think we see in the celebrity persona is the result of mass mediation and above all our own act of projection … The celebrity is literally embodied by the fans, and their understanding of the persona of the star is the transformative act that enables the star to exist. Perhaps this is the most authentic portrayal of a celebrity possible: an amalgamation of our various forms of identification with the virtually non-existent reality of the star.”10 The video installation reinforces the sense of the superstar as an ’immaterial girl’, as a remote Fata Morgana. At the same time it brings us close to an ensemble of subjects who, despite having Italian as their native tongue, use the global and shared language of pop to express themselves as if their lives depended on it. Their emancipated and empowered performances unfold within a script of sorts, written according to rules they constantly negotiate through their own personal interpretations. They adhere to the script of the album’s dance beats and pop lyrics as they surrender to the camera and situation, but it is in the bizarre and awkward cracks with no lyrics between verses and tracks that the performers are most intimately present. Where they laugh self-consciously at the camera, take a sip of water, clear their throats. Where they try to fill the silence by dancing and humming their way to the next song, or where we can hear their footsteps.

Where, in short, they do not adhere to any pre-prescribed dance steps or vocal phrasing.

Perhaps it is precisely these cracks that are the

point for Candice Breitz? In a 2003 interview she talks about the dual capacity of pop to animate and pacify people in their individual lives and identities, and of her attempts as an artist to disrupt that mechanism: ”Pop seems to offer opportunities for self-invention – this is what makes it so seductive. The problem with Pop, of course, is that the kinds of selves it encourages us to invent are usually passive and predetermined, which means that rather than truly being offered a moment of self-invention, we are invited to shape ourselves in moulds which have already been poured.

Artists who work inside Pop might want to offer some resistance to this condition, to crack Pop open, to tap into the promises that it makes and desires it creates, to try and defuse that aspect of Pop which makes it dangerous …”.11 According to Breitz, pop music only has one voice. The possibility for identification it offers is one-sided. In QUEEN, on the other hand, Breitz constructs a reanimated portrait with cracks that provide the space for an intimacy that seems genuine and moving – even though it is generated on the terms of pop culture – and that opens up for a dialogue about how we become who we are through the culture of pop. Breitz’s art practise expresses an intense but ambivalent fascination with pop music and fan culture, Hollywood film and mass media, making the artist herself a kind of ”deranged fan” producing works that are simultaneously celebratory and critical of pop culture.12 Artist Ditte Ejlerskov, exhibiting her gigantic painting The Oh My Gosh Weave (2015) in My Music, is also a pop fan. After working intensely on stars like Beyoncé and Rihanna, her latest project is a series of paintings portraying the African American rapper Nicki Minaj as a political feminist. In Ejlerskov’s artistic interpretation, the goal of Minaj’s stereotypically sexualised selfpresentation is to expose white, Eurocentric views of the black woman, drawing direct historical links to Josephine Baker and the African American cake-walk dance.13 In the controversial music video for the song Anaconda (dir. Colin Tilley), released in 2014 and streamed 19.6 million times on the first day, Minaj twerks and lap dances with her ’big black ass’ in a humid rain forest, repeating the sentence ”Oh my gosh, look at her butt” in an exaggerated take on white American woman’s accent.14 The painting is based on a still from the music video interwoven with the sentence, making it difficult to focus exclusively on either the image or the words.

Unlike Breitz, Ejlerskov sees pop itself as containing the potential for dialogue and critique, with the possibility of impacting on reality and making a political difference. The extent to which it is successful depends, of course, not only on the author of the message, but also the recipient and her reception of the music and its visual universe.

As Breitz demonstrates in QUEEN, there is vast scope for pop music to be converted into new subjective and productive forms.

Worship (2016) is an animation film by the Swedish art duo Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg.

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While Djurberg performs the extremely timeconsuming labour of creating clay animation frame by frame, Berg composes electronic music that creates an intimate connection between the images and sound. During the film, women who can give Nicki Minaj a run for her money when it comes to voluptuousness and sexy outfits writhe provocatively up and down potently oversized bananas, corncobs and rhinestone-clad ice lollies, strutting their stuff and eyeing the camera lasciviously as if starring in a soft-core porn production. Men parade their toned upper bodies on golden motorbikes. There are amorous cats, an unsavoury rat pimp, and a grotesque sugar daddy toad sitting in his chair being waited on. And lots and lots of bling. Berg’s music provides the constant, rhythmical pulse of the images, gradually building layers to form hypnotic, grinding, expanses of suggestive sound. The sound is almost three-dimensional, generating images with as much force as the clay animation.

What is going on in these dreamlike, disturbing and grotesque sound and image scenarios?

Worship resembles a music video, but despite drawing on the most banal codes of mainstream pop is not. With its fast pace and unbroken rhythm the music sounds like a pop track, but is atypically devoid of vocals. The animated clay figures’ worship of the most trivial things – and themselves – mirrors the content of endless music videos, but also offer a different, more disturbing and disquieting experience. They tempt, seduce and shock us, creating both pleasure and loathing. The dream is also a nightmare.

Before becoming a video artist, Pipilotti Rist was a member of the women’s synth and performance group Les Reines Prochaines.15 In both her video works in My Music – I’m Not the Girl Who Misses Much (1986) and Sip My Ocean (1996) – she works with bodily and sensory experience through the electronic imagery of the music video, often singing cover versions of famous pop songs that she distorts beyond their familiar sound forms. In the early work I’m not the Girl Who Misses Much, she repeats a line from the Beatles track Happiness is a Warm Gun – with a change of pronoun – as she performs an exorcistic dance in front of a static camera. With her breasts exposed above her dress, she spins, jerks and throws herself against the wall hilariously and recklessly as she sings ”I’m noooot the giiiiirl who misses much la di de di da de..”. On top of which, the flickering, gritty VHS footage shifts between slow motion and fast forward, so she sounds like a manic smurf, she-devil or desperate pop-star wannabe. It is difficult to watch – and impossible to look away. The work was made during the heyday of the MTV era, when music vidoes blasted non-stop from the TV in every teenager’s room. But Rist is no Madonna, nor does her video sell music. She is merely the star of her own DIY show, alone with the camera. In this way she invites identification, but also links the work to the obsession with the images and staging of the self so prevalent on media like musical.ly. og YouTube.

What You See is What You Hear My Music is full of works that intersect the highways of pop music and the music video. But

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the field also includes concrete collaborations between pop artists and visual artists where inspiration is drawn in the opposite direction: not from pop to art, but from art to pop.

Since 2008 a striking example of this kind of collaboration has developed between the rapper Kanye West and conceptual artist Vanessa Beecroft, who has directed the fantastic shortfilm music video for the track Runaway (2010) and created performances for fashion shows with Kanye West’s Yeezy collections, set designs and much more.16 As art historian Antje KrauseWahl points out, in some cases artists who direct music videos benefit from new, global distribution possibilities and a much wider audience, and in others that they ‘digest’ the format of the music video for the art audience.

But the value an artist places on such collaborations in terms of their own art practise, and the value a music product gains due to its connection to art, can vary widely.17 One example of a music video collaboration with commercial and artistic value for artist and musician alike is the video for Katy Perry’s 2010 summer hit California Gurls (387 million views on YouTube,18 dir. Matthew Cullen) with artist Will Cotton in the role of artistic director. The production is a total, three-dimensional display of Cotton’s high-calorie, extreme kitsch practise as a painter, in which whipped cream and caramel ice cream, cupcakes, candyfloss and candy canes constitute his photorealist landscapes, portraits and still lifes. Everything is candy. Katy Perry asked Cotton to make the cover for her album Teenage Dream (2010), and the result was Cotton Candy Katy, a portrait – now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC – where the pop star lies naked like a pin-up model in a pink candyfloss cloud.

The next stage of the collaboration was the video for California Gurls. The juxtaposition of Cotton’s imagery, Katy Perry’s music, and her coquettish performance in the video are a match made in heaven – an overwhelming, saccharine construction of a surreal and utopian pop fantasy. It has a simple, cartoon-like narrative, with Katy Perry in a cupcake bikini liberating a group of women imprisoned in Candifornia, a board game universe lorded over by the sugar king (rapper Snoop Dogg) and his army of fruit-gum teddy bears, who is ultimately defeated in a whippedcream aerosol, power girl showdown.

The video is a fusion of commercial and artistic layers. It sells music in easy to digest, humorous and family-friendly packaging that underlines Perry’s jaunty, poppy style. And at the same time, Cotton’s video imagery borrows from the same cultural, literary and art historical references he samples in his paintings – from 18th-century Dutch still lifes to American pin-up paintings, from the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales to Alice in Wonderland. In the music video, the pop number’s car-radio friendly tribute to sun-kissed California girls is given an ironic, metaphorical twist: its animated world of ‘guilty’ pleasures and feminist tongue-in-cheek statements expose American pop culture and the commercial ground rules that Katy Perry’s music and the Kate Perry ‘industry’ themselves are subject to. In an interview, Cotton describes how the popular

American board game Candyland from 1948 was a key source of inspiration, as well as a precise metaphor for the American culture his works originate in and address – a metaphor that in the video is cultivated in a wealth of detail where the layer-cake tower of Capitol Records (Katy Perry’s record company) is also part of the board game.19 In the artist Jeremy Blake’s abstract, painterly music video for Beck’s Round The Bend from the break up-album Sea Change (2002, 247,000 views on YouTube20) there is a genuine symbiosis between sound and image. Beck’s musical melancholy and Blake’s flowing, digital abstractions affectively and hypnotically reinforce each other. The muted, acoustic guitar and strings slide soporifically forward in harmony with Blake’s abstract, digital overlays of snapshots of closed curtains, flowers and chandeliers fading slowly in and out. Beck’s face also appears with a dreamlike gaze tuned in to infinity. The video erases the boundary between reality and simulation in a chromatic spectrum that functions almost like visual sound waves, as ‘visual music’.21 All as Beck sings that when life hits you ”Faster than any bullet / From an empty gun” you might as well let go and let it happen.

Blake has described the digital aesthetics where form and solidity dissolve in fluid, luminous fields of colour as ”mark making resolving itself onscreen in a kind of time based painting.”22 His works create a hallucinatory, almost psychedelic formlessness – the perfect emotional accompaniment to Beck singing about losing his mind or going ‘around the bend’.

I Fink U Freeky is the title of a track by the South African rap-rave group Die Antwoord, who the photographer and artist Roger Ballen – born in the US but based in Johannesburg – embarked on a close video music collaboration with in 2012 (100 million views on YouTube23). The title could just as well be the band’s response to Ballen, whose work they encountered in 2006. They experienced the brutal and disturbing nature of his often-fictionalised black-and-white images of ‘otherness’ in the form of people and animals from marginal zones of South Africa as a “punch in the face”. Ninja and Yo-Landi, the two members of the band, say that seeing Ballen’s “freakmode zone” and the “retarded graffiti scrawled all over the walls and random objects” in his works was a catalyst for their experience of: ”dark and dangerous psychological transformations as we dove deep into the most primal regions of our minds and merged with our shadow selves. Instead of trying to work out how to find into society, we decided to make our own unique breed of ‘Fuck You’-style pop music. We called this new dark pop group Die Antwoord.”24 In other words, the work of Roger Ballen’s was a major impetus for the formation of the group, and they have subsequently embarked on several artistic collaborations of which the video to I Find You Freeky is the most striking so far. Their collaboration is intense and long-term, based on cultural identification and a sense of aesthetic communion that traverses media. Most recently Yo-Landi, with Ballen in the role of artistic director,

has directed the twisted, bizarre short film Tommy Can’t Sleep (2017) with music by The Black Goat.

I Fink U Freeky is a true Ballenesque freak show of albinos and the anatomically deviant dancing intensely to the frenetic beats and energetic bursts of lyrics the group rap in English and Afrikaans. Surrounded by this gallery of characters, in the grimy, gritty tableaux Roger Ballen has filled with graffiti, props, snakes and rats, Die Antwoord perform as a pair of trashy gangster trailer kids, frying eggs with beetles in the pan in their camper kitchen – hitting us on the other side of the screen with their cheeky, freaky attitude.25 But as art critic Ivor Powell writes, even though Ballen and Die Antwoord’s artistic practise and aesthetics are closely linked, they have different points of departure for their art. Whereas Ballen’s artistic project is more of an existential search for his own identity in dialogue with ‘the other’ on the margins of society, Die Antwoord’s music is an element of a cyber-real art project.

Yo-Landi and Ninja exist in both the physical and digital world, they are both real subjects and fictional ‘characters’ participating in a commercial, visual culture where artistic input and social commentary are entertainment. 26 Exit Through the Gift Shop In the museum shop, where you can browse among designer goods, books and reproductions of your favourite artworks, you can find another work from My Music that would seem to be strangely out of sync with the exhibition’s digital, audiovisual cornucopia: a jukebox where you can choose music, entirely offline. When you choose a number it is played for you and everyone else in the shop. Once it has finished playing, you can choose a new single. But without the help of any algorithms to make suggestions based on your digital history like Spotify or other music streaming services. Similarly, the visual stimulus of the music video is replaced by your own eyes scanning the jukebox itself, the room you are in, and not least how others react to the music you have chosen. The jukebox is an artwork by the artist Ruth Ewan, who since 2013 has constantly updated it with thousands of protest songs people have sent her for A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World – a constantly expanding archive not only of politically motivated music, but also of the people who have made it and the people who want to pass their experience of it and their political beliefs on to others.

Pop music and art might seem an odd couple, yet they are so closely related and productive together. There is vast variety in the way the combination of the two plays out in terms of commercial interests, artistic statements and the exchange between art and the consumer and the product and the audience. In his book Music Video after MTV (2017), the art theorist Mathias Bonde Korsgaard writes about the remediation of other media, or how as audiovisual culture the music video can be understood through its influence on and by media like film, TV, fashion and advertising. It imitates, borrows from and looks a lot like other media, just as it in turn influences those media. Something that is in its blood. It is, after all, a fusion of media – of music and moving images.27 The exhibition My

Music shows that art is also a realm where the music video and the culture of pop music are remediated in endless ways. Given the current encounters, alliances and cross-fertilisations that nourish the joint commercial and artistic playground of pop music and art in places like galleries and on YouTube, we have to accept that it is not only the relationships between different creative genres and cultural scenes that are being radically transformed, but also concepts like high and low, niche and mainstream, and elitist and popular. A transformation sustained by the ‘on demand’ accessibility that video and music streaming has made possible for art, music, and everything in between. The boundaries will probably become even more blurred as digital technology changes the ways we participate in and consume cultural products. So watch the music and dance to the art with everything you’ve got!

Dorthe Juul Rugaard holds an MA and is curator at ARKEN. Bibliography • Baccaria, Marcella, “Process and Meaning in the Art of Candice Breitz” in Candice Breitz, ed.

Marcella Beccaria, Turin: Castello di Rivoli, 2005 • Ballen, Roger et al., Die Antwoord: I Fink U Freeky, Munich/London/New York: Prestel Verlag, 2013 • Connor, Michael and Johanna Gosse, “Delirious Architectures, Notes on Jeremy Blake, Liquid Crystal Palace, and Digital Materialism” in Abstract Video: The Moving Image in Contemporary Art, ed. Gabrielle Jennings, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015 • Creed, Martin, Martin Creed: Works, London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2014 • Durbin, Kate & Meghan Vicks (eds.), Gaga Stigmata: Critical Writings and Art About Lady Gaga, 2011. http://gagajournal.blogspot.dk/ search?updated-max=2011-03-08T22:24:0008:00&max-results=20&start=72&by-date=false • Gioni, Massimiliano and Margot Norton (eds.), Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest, New York: New Museum, Phaidon, 2016 • Gray II, Richard J., “Surrealism, the Theatre of Cruelty and Lady Gaga” in The Performance Identities of Lady Gaga: Critical Essays, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Inc., 2012 • Heesch, Florian, “Everything Pulsates: Hans Berg’s Music for Film” in Snakes Knows it’s Yoga, eds. Veit Görner, Kristin Schrader et al, Kesstner Gesellschaft, Hanover/Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam/Kunstforeningen GL STRAND, Copenhagen, 2010 • Henriksen, Jens and Ditte Ejlerskov (eds.), The Minaj Book, Woodpecker Projects, Narayana Press, 2015 • Hermoine, Hoby, “Will Cotton: the painter who made Katy Perry his muse”, 20.06.2014. http:// www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/10889423/Will-Cotton-the-painter-whomade-Katy-Perry-his-muse.html [accessed 02.08.17].

• Keefer, Cindy, “Visual Music’s Influence on Contemporary Abstraction” in Abstract Video: The Moving Image in Contemporary Art, ed.

Gabrielle Jennings, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015

• Korsgaard, Mathias Bonde, Music Video After MTV, Routledge Research in Music, 2017, https:// online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781317208327/ cfi/6/32!/4/2/6@0:5.01 [accessed 29.08.17].

• Krause-Wahl, Antje, “Why Artists Make Clips: Contemporary Connections between Art and Pop”, in Rewind Play Fast Forward: The Past, Present and Future of the Music Video, eds. Henry Keazor and Thorsten Wübbena, Bielefeld: Transcript Publishing, Bielefeld, 2010 • Mandel, Leah, “A Brief History Of Kanye West’s Work With Vanessa Beecroft”, 11.02.2016. http:// www.thefader.com/2016/02/11/kanye-west-vanessa-beecroft [accessed 02.08.17] • Morgan, Jessica, “A Scripted Life” in Candice Breitz: Multiple Exposures, ed. Octavio Zaya, New York: Actar, 2007 • Reiss, Steven and Neil Feinemann, Thirty Frames per Second: The Visionary Art of the Music Video, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000 • Stange, Raimar, Zurück in die Kunst, Hamburg: Rogner & Bernhard bei Zweitausendeins, 2003 Noter 1 See the article “The Advent of Amateur Aesthetics” by Elise Ligaard in this magazine, 44-46.

2 Figures from August 2017.

3 Gray (2012), 125.

4 See Gray’s article for a detailed analysis of Lady Gaga as surrealist and Dadaist.

5 Reiss and Feinemann (2010), 10.

6 Figures from August 2017.

7 See, for example, the photographs of The Beatles taken during the photo shoot in 1969, where the members of the group walk back and forth over the crossing. As the album cover they chose the shot where all four of them walk in step. https://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/08/08/ the-abbey-road-cover-photography-session/ [accessed 29.08.17].

8 Interview with Martin Creed in Creed (2014), xxx.

9 Madonna’s Immaculate Collection was released in 1990 as her first greatest hits album and with 30 million sold copies became the best-selling compilation album by a solo artist and one of the most sold albums ever.

10 Morgan (2007).

11 Stange (2003), 70 ff.

12 Baccaria (2005), 25.

13 See Terry R. Myers’ interview med Ditte Ejlerskov in Henriksen and Ejlerskov (2005), unpaginated.

14 Wikipedia (19.09.2017), Anaconda (Nicki Minaj song). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_ (Nicki_Minaj_song)#Music_video [accessed 03.07.17].

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15 See Gioni and Norton (2016), 21-22.

16 Mandel (2016).

17 Krause-Wahl (2010), 208 and 217. Krause-Wahl analyses two specific music videos that are exhibited in My Music: Elton John’s I Want Love (2001), directed by Sam-Taylor Johnson, and the music video for The Hours’ See The Light with Damien Hirst as artistic director (2008).

18 Figures from August 2017.

19 Hermione (2014).

20 Figures from August 2017.

21 Keefer (2015), 84. The text lists a number of different but related definitions of the concept ‘visual music’ going back to the German filmmaker Oskar Fischinger’s experiments in creating abstract, moving images as and to music in the 1930s.

22 Connor and Gosse (2015), 119.

23 Figures from August 2017.

24 Ballen (2013), 7.

25 Die Antwoord incorporate ’Zef’ in the video – a counter-culture movement, style and subculture in South Africa that refers back to the white, lower-middle class during apartheid.

26 Ballen (2013), 115 ff.

27 Korsgaard (2017).

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Side 35

r : ø t g a o t d Am n i s n e k k i t e t å p æs r e o e d i v k i Mus e b u T You Af Elise Ligaard

Jeg skriver to små ord i Googles søgebjælke: Gangnam style.

To ord. Næsten 40 millioner resultater. Øverst i Google-vinduet ses en stor rubrik med en tegning af en solbrilleklædt mand i en hestestald og i midten af billedet en trekant: det universelle symbol for play – afspil! Et enkelt klik, og så befinder jeg mig på YouTube til tonerne af koreanske Psys elektropop-hit. Og hvis jeg ikke gør noget aktivt for at stoppe musikken, så fortsætter YouTubes uendelige spilleliste med flere videoer af samme musiker, samme genre eller med tusindvis af parodier og remakes: babyer, der står på rulleskøjter til sangen,1 ”Mitt Romney Style”2, for ikke at nævne de tusindvis af akustiske covernumre.3 YouTube holder aldrig pause.

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N

ettet og sociale medier som fx YouTube har fået en enorm betydning for den måde, hvorpå mange mennesker i dag møder, opdager og bruger musik og musikvideoer. På YouTube kan både amatører og store internationale stjerner uploade deres produktioner med et ønske om at blive set og delt. Det er således ikke blot medieredaktioner, der styrer hvilke videoer, der bliver virale hits, men også de klikkende brugere. Og den etablerede musikbranche følger nysgerrigt med i YouTubes mange muligheder.

Artiklen her tegner et oprids af, hvordan YouTube har været med til at forme den måde, som brugere møder musikvideoer på, og hvordan musikvideoen som format og æstetisk udtryk har ændret sig post-YouTube.

YouTubes indflydelse YouTube.com blev lanceret i 2005 som en online platform, hvor brugere gratis kan uploade og dele hjemmevideoer.

Det skulle med tiden vise sig at blive en kæmpe succes.

Efter blot få måneder havde siden flere millioner brugere, og i 2006 opkøbte Google hjemmesiden for 1,65 milliarder dollar4 – noget, der for alvor skabte opmærksomhed omkring siden.5 I dag har YouTube over 1 mia. brugere,6 og det anslås, at der dagligt uploades 400 timers videomateriale hvert minut.7 Det mest populære på YouTube er musikvideoer.8 Og det er også her, at YouTube indkasserer de fleste indtægter. En rapport fra 2017 anslår, at 66 procent af YouTubes indtægter er knyttet til såkaldt kunstnerisk indhold som bl.a. musik, film, musikvideoer m.m.9 Det er derfor ikke uden grund, at musikbranchen med jævne mellemrum presser på for at få YouTube til at betale flere penge i royalties til musikere og komponister. Men musikbranchen kan i dag heller ikke undvære YouTube, der er blevet en af de vigtigste promoveringsplatforme for musikere. 59 procent af danskere i alderen 16-17 år, der streamer musik, benytter YouTube, hvormed siden er den mest populære musikstreamingtjeneste i landet.10 YouTube er altså en yderst indflydelsesrig og magtfuld virksomhed, som er tæt sammenvævet med musikbranchen i dag, men som også er afhængig af sine brugere.

”59 procent af danskere i alderen 16-17 år, der streamer musik, benytter YouTube, hvormed siden er den mest populære musikstreamingtjeneste i landet.”

Selvom YouTubes succes afhænger af sine brugeres entusiastiske ’klik’, der sørger for, at videoerne bliver spredt og delt millioner af gange, er det ikke brugerne alene, der har indflydelse på, hvilke videoer der bliver set mest. På trods af, at YouTube ikke har en programsat sendeflade som fx TV-stationer, er indholdet stadig medieret: I kraft af avancerede algoritmer, der ranglister søgeresultater, er det ikke Side 38

Screen shot af googlesøgning på Gangnam style. Nu er de 40 millioner hits blevet til 43 millioner.

tilfældigt, hvilke videoer der dukker op som de første. På den måde styres brugerne til at klikke på nøje udvalgte videoer,11 som ofte har til hensigt at promovere en særlig artist, film e.l.

Det kan derfor indimellem være svært at gennemskue, hvor grænsen mellem reklame og ikke-reklame går, hvem afsenderen er, og ikke mindst, hvad afsenderens intention er.12 Med Google som ejer af YouTube, har virksomheden haft mulighed for at kombinere og fusionere informationer om brugere fra en lang række Google-ejede platforme så som Gmail, Google Maps, søgehistorik, internetbrowseren Google Chrome m.m. YouTube skal ifølge medieprofessor José van Dijck forstås i forlængelse af disse platforme, der bl.a. muliggør individualiserede reklamebudskaber til et massepublikum.13 Hertil hører, at både TV- og nyhedsstationer samt virksomheder i dag har egne YouTube-kanaler, der er med til at øge opmærksomheden omkring deres produkter.

Selve det faktum, at der findes milliarder af videoer på YouTube, er dog på ingen måde ensbetydende med, at de enkelte brugere nødvendigvis ser mere forskelligartet indhold, end de ville gøre ved at se fjernsyn. Tværtimod. I en undersøgelse, som van Dijck henviser til, anslås det, at 97 procent af alle videovisninger er fordelt på blot 20 procent af brug-erne.14 Der er med andre ord en tendens til, at det er den samme type indhold, brugerne ender med at se, på trods af at muligheden for at opsøge ikke-mainstream indhold er stor. Og der er store pengesummer på spil i forsøget

på at blive optaget på YouTubes liste over de mest populære videoer. Pladeselskaber og distributører kan nemlig købe sig til placeringer på de eftertragtede lister og således få deres videoer set af millioner af brugere.15 Aktive prosumers På trods af de kommercielle interesser, der har indflydelse på, hvilke videoer der bliver set af flest, er der alligevel sket et skred i den måde, medieindhold i dag deles på. Dette beskriver medieforskerne Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford og Joshua Green i bogen Spreadable Media, hvor de undersøger den måde, medieindhold generelt spredes på. Før nettet var mediebilledet præget af distribution, hvor medieindhold hovedsagligt blev kontrolleret af enkelte distributører og producenter, fx avisbureauer og TV-stationer. I dag taler man derimod om cirkulation, hvor det ikke alene er store, kommercielle virksomheder og interesser, der styrer hvilket indhold, der bliver delt på nettet, men i lige så høj grad græsrodsbevægelser og fanfællesskaber, der præger udbredelsen af indhold.16 Også selvom YouTube, som beskrevet, aktivt leder brugernes opmærksomhed hen på særligt udvalgte videoer. På den måde er der utallige eksempler på, at det er energiske fans, der står bag nogle af de største YouTube-succeser ved at dele og sprede medieindholdet i forskellige online fora. Flere YouTube-stjerners succes er båret frem af klikkende YouTube-brugere. Det gælder fx Tay Zonday, der gik viralt med sangen Chocolate Rain (2010), eller superstjerner som Justin Bieber eller The Weeknd og danske MØ.

YouTubes popularitet afhænger altså både af kommercielle interesser og af internetbrugernes deltagelse. Når vi bevæger os rundt på nettet, gør vi det ikke kun som passive forbrugere, men også som aktive deltagere, der former, deler, kommenterer, genfortolker og blander medieindhold på nye og kreative måder. Og det er YouTube i høj grad et eksempel på. Der er derfor, med Henry Jenkins formulering, tale om en deltagelseskultur.17 Grænsen mellem producent og forbruger/lytter er i opbrud i denne online-tidsalder. Derfor er der flere medieforskere, der betragter brugere som prosumers – et ord, der er sammensat af producer eller professionel og consumer (forbruger).18 For når vi blander os i debatter på nettet eller uploader vores egne videoer eller billeder, så bidrager vi med indhold. Vi bliver selv skabere. Og ind imellem går helt almindelige brugeres videoer viralt og bliver delt flere millioner af gange.

Grænsen mellem det at være professionel og amatør er således flydende på sider som YouTube. Professionelle videoproducenter søger inspiration og efterligner det hjemmelavede udtryk, mens mange amatører kan fremstille musik og videoer af en kvalitet, der er på niveau med de professionelles. Og det er ikke altid til at forudsige hvilke videoer, der får flest views.

En stor andel af YouTube-videoerne består af indhold, der på den ene eller anden måde refererer til andre videoer. Det kan fx være coverversioner af andres sange, sammenklip af film

eller TV-serier m.m., altså videoer, der bygger videre på indhold skabt af andre.19 Det er imidlertid ikke noget nyt, at publikum forholder sig aktivt til de kulturprodukter, de møder. Fans har længe udtrykt deres begejstring på mange kreative måder: gennem fanfiktion, videoer, sange, billeder, udklædning, optrædener osv. Allerede i 1970’erne voksede undergrundskulturer frem, hvor særligt kvindelige fans af science fiction-serier som Star Trek gav sig i kast med at sammenklippe scener på nye måder og således producerede egne fanvids,20 der hyldede og genfortolkede TV-serier.

For medieforskeren Henry Jenkins er det derfor vigtigt at understrege, at den aktive deltagelseskultur således ikke er opstået som et resultat af virksomheder som YouTube.21 De kreative amatører og fanfællesskaber eksisterede i forvejen.

Men med YouTube har brugere fået endnu et sted, hvor man nemt kan dele hjemmeproduktioner og niche-interesser.

Hvad enten man interesserer sig for feministiske skatere, inuit hiphop, indie-computerspil, fortolkninger af Wagners Die Walküre, tips til at lægge øjenskygge eller reparere sin køkkenblender, miljøaktivisme, nuttede kattekillinger eller kunsthistoriske foredrag, kan man på YouTube finde sammen med andre, der deler ens interesse.

”At deltage på sociale medier, hvad enten vi uploader videoer, musik eller billeder, vi selv har skabt, eller deler materiale skabt af andre, er en måde, hvorpå vi kan signalere til de online omgivelser, hvem vi er.”

Måske er det at dele historier et af de mest grundlæggende menneskelige træk? Sådan filosoferer Jenkins, Ford og Green i hvert fald.22 Når vi deler en video på vores Facebookvæg, interagerer vi med hinanden. Samtidig ønsker vi også at fremvise os selv på en særlig måde og sende nogle særlige signaler. At deltage på sociale medier, hvad enten vi uploader videoer, musik eller billeder, vi selv har skabt, eller deler materiale skabt af andre, er en måde, hvorpå vi kan signalere til de online omgivelser, hvem vi er.

Deltagelseskulturen på nettet er således først og fremmest knyttet til fællesskaber. Vi står ikke som isolerede individer, når vi kommenterer og deler indhold på nettet. Derimod skal engagement på nettet, ifølge Jenkins, Ford og Green, ses som en forlængelse af samtaler, brugerne allerede har – offline som online.23 En platform som YouTube er derfor social i sit udgangspunkt. Brugere uploader videoer, netop for at andre skal se, dele og kommentere på dem.

I mange tilfælde blander kommercielle interesser sig dog i videoindholdet. Fx når firmaer og brands sponsorerer særlige videoer og får berømte YouTube-vloggere24 til at anmelde eller promovere deres produkter. De sociale og fællesskabsopbyggende elementer ved YouTube hænger altså uløseligt sammen med markedsføring og profit – noget, der stiller store krav til YouTube-brugeres evne til at navigere i videoindholdet.

Side 39

Mødet mellem Star Wars og rapperen Drake YouTube-videoer er fulde af intertekstuelle referencer, hybrider og interne jokes. De brugerskabte videoer henviser til hinanden, kopierer, parodierer og digter videre på andre videoers koncepter. På den måde er YouTube en side med lange kæder af videoer, der bygger videre på hinanden, fx i form af remix eller mashups, der eksempelvis parrer to forskellige musiknumre eller blander musikvideoer med filmreferencer eller kunstreferencer. Som en ”clip and quote”-kultur, der vidner om brugernes engagement, kreativitet og evne til at se forbindelser på kryds og tværs af enkelte værker og medieplatforme.25 På YouTube kan man derfor finde alt fra videoer af børne-tv-karaktererne TeleTubbies, der mimer Die Antwoords dystre technopopsang I Fink U Freeky (2012),26 til en sammenklipning af Adeles storslåede hit Hello (2015) og Lionel Richies 1980’er-hit Hello (1983), så det ser ud som om, at Adele og Lionel taler i telefon sammen.27 Man kan se genfortolkninger af musikvideoen til Drakes Hotline Bling (2016), hvor den canadiske hiphop-stjerne danser med et Star Wars-lyssværd28 eller Michael Jacksons legendariske Thriller (1982) genopført med LEGO-figurer.29

Daft Cube34 mfl. I dag, 10 år efter Daft Hands blev uploadet, står videoen som en YouTube-klassiker, og det er muligt at købe t-shirts, kasketter og andet merchandise med en illustration af hænderne.

Videoerne på YouTube formidler altså først og fremmest ideer og koncepter, som ifølge Burgess taler ind i sociale netværk.

Videokoncepterne (fx Daft Punk-teksten) bliver herefter brugt i nye sammenhænge. Og selve det, at mange videoer tager udgangspunkt i helt simple koncepter, er måske én af grundene til, at det bliver fristende og sjovt for andre at lave deres egen version af en video – fordi det hverken kræver et stort budget eller særlige tekniske kundskaber.

Ifølge Jean Burgess, som forsker i digital mediekultur, besidder mange af de mest populære YouTube-videoer nogle specifikke, mindeværdige koncepter eller visuelle hooks, som kan kopieres og bruges i andre former og kontekster.30 Et eksempel er en fanvideo til den elektroniske duo Daft Punks nummer Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. I videoen med titlen Daft Hands (2007)31 ses to hænder, hvor der på hver finger og på håndfladerne er skrevet forskellige bogstaver og ord. Ved at bevæge fingrene i en særlig rækkefølge, danner bogstaverne sangteksten til sangen. Konceptet er altså simpelt og skarptskåret, men også finurligt og sjovt.

Daft Hands gik hurtigt viralt, og blot få måneder efter kunne man finde en række andre brugerskabte videoer, der byggede videre på konceptet, fx med Daft Bodies,32 Daft Arms,33

Musik + video = musikvideo Med millioner af brugerskabte videoer, fanvideoer, parodier og genfortolkninger af andres videoer er det audiovisuelle landskab i dag både sprudlende og broget. Men samtidig kan det være svært at gennemskue, hvem der er afsender på en video: Er der tale om en passioneret fan, en virksomhed, et politisk parti eller et produkt? Det fremgår ikke altid tydeligt, hvem der står bag YouTube-videoerne, og derfor kan hensigten med en video også nemt kamufleres.35 I det online-hav af videoer, skabt af såvel professionelle som amatører, flyder videogenrerne sammen, og på samme måde som fans inspireres af idolernes videoer og gradvist får adgang til teknologi, der giver et mere ’professionelt’ udtryk, finder musikvideoinstruktører også inspiration i den hjemmelavede stil. Alt dette betyder ifølge musikvideoforskeren Carol Vernallis, at det i dag kan være svært at definere, hvad en musikvideo er. ”Engang vidste vi, hvad en musikvideo var, men det gør vi ikke længere”, skriver hun.36 Oprindeligt var musikvideoernes primære formål at promovere en specifik single eller album. Musikvideoen skulle altså først og fremmest få folk til at købe et andet produkt – nemlig musikken. Med lanceringen af MTV i 1981 fik musikvideoerne deres helt egen TV-kanal, hvilket har haft stor betydning for musikvideoens udbredelse og for de penge, der gradvist

Still fra YouTube-videoen Daft Hands, 2007

Still fra YouTube-videoen Daft Bodies, 2007

Side 40

blev postet ind i musikvideoproduktionerne.37 Snart blev musikvideoer en fuldt integreret del af pladebranchens struktur og spillede en central rolle som promoveringsværktøj. Musikvideoer, der blev vist på fx MTV, var dog underlagt en række restriktioner: Musikvideoerne skulle have nogenlunde samme længde (4-5 minutter), og MTV’s Standards and Practices Division bortcensurerede billeder af bl.a. stoffer, vold og eksplicit seksuelle referencer. Ligeledes var der, i modsætning til hos YouTube, restriktioner på brug af product placement.38 Efter at have nået sit finansielle lavpunkt i 00’erne, hvor pladeselskabernes budgetter var svundet ind, bl.a. på grund af digitalt pirateri og ulovlig fildeling, har musikvideo-formatet nu fået fornyet liv på de nye online-platforme og er således ikke længere underlagt de samme rammer som tidligere.

Der er ikke længere én TV-station, der har det sidste ord – tværtimod. Musikvideoer er i dag noget, der primært skabes til cirkulation på nettet. Og som medieforskeren Maura Edmond påpeger, er musikvideomediet med sit korte format og friske, næsten karikerede udtryk som skabt til nettets platform.39 De etablerede musikere udnytter nettets muligheder til at eksperimentere med nye udtryksformer. Eksempelvis udsendte Rapperen Kanye West i 2010 sin 35 minutter lange musikfilm-værk Runaway, skabt i samarbejde med billedkunstneren Vanessa Beecroft, mens popikonet Beyoncé i 2016 udsendte det visuelle konceptalbum Lemonade, som bl.a. refererer til videokunstneren Pippilotti Rists værk Ever Is Over All. Begge værker arbejder i et krydsfelt mellem musik, film, poesi og dans, som kan være svært at genrekategorisere – i øvrigt i lighed med en del af musikvideoerne i udstillingen My Music. En kollektiv Johnny Cash-hyldest blev søsat i 2010, hvor 250.000 fans verden over bidrog med tegninger, der blev sammensat til en musikvideo til sangen Ain’t No Grave, og med musikvideo-projektet The Wilderness Downtown (2010) konstruerede instruktøren Chris Milk en interaktiv musikvideo til Arcade Fire, hvor brugere via en hjemmeside kunne skabe deres egne, unikke videoer. Der bliver altså i disse år leget og eksperimenteret med musikvideo-mediet og grænserne for, hvad en musikvideo er.

Amatøræstetik Musikvideohistorien er naturligvis spækket med kreative, innovative og eksperimenterende eksempler, der arbejder med musikvideoen som en kunstform frem for blot et promoveringsværktøj – også fra før nettets fremkomst! Men nettet og YouTubes muligheder har unægtelig haft en stor betydning for musikvideoens form og æstetik.

Nettet er fuldt af pop up-vinduer og reklame-afbrydelser. Der er konstant rubrikker, der linker til andre hjemmesider, artikler eller videoer. Vi scroller op og ned, fra side til side, vi zoomer ind og ud. Vi kan kommentere og dele og like det indhold, vi ser. Alt sammen stilistiske udtryk og

Still fra musikvideoen til OK Go’ Here It Goes Again, 2006

karakteristika, der har sat deres aftryk på forskellige kunstprodukter som fx musikvideoen.

Mange videoer på YouTube er præget af tempo, hurtige bevægelser, gentagelser og billeder i lav opløsning. Ofte er videoerne centreret omkring et sarkastisk, humoristisk eller overraskende indhold: En panda nyser uventet, eller en baby griner på en forbløffende måde. På den måde mener Carol Vernallis, at man kan tale om en decideret YouTube-æstetik, der netop er karakteriseret ved højt tempo, korte klip, en grynet billedkvalitet og fravær af professionelt optageudstyr som fx lysopsætning og højkvalitetsmikrofoner. Samtidig er meget af det indhold, der findes på YouTube, skabt til at blive set på en lille computerskærm eller en smartphone, hvorfor de enkelte billeder ikke er nær så rige på detaljer som fx scener fra klassiske spillefilm. Mange YouTube-videoer er således opbygget omkring simple koncepter, der umiddelbart er lette at afkode, og som i overvejende grad tager udgangspunkt i hverdagslignende situationer.

”I musikvideoen til sangen 7/11 (2014) render Beyoncé rundt på et hotel og filmer sig selv med en selfie-stang i en billedkvalitet, der ligner en film, der kunne være optaget med en smartphone ...”

Vernallis argumenterer for, at der i disse år sker en ’YouTubeifisering’ af alt fra spillefilm, reklamer til ikke mindst musikvideoer, hvor instruktører lader sig inspirere af YouTubes stilistiske udtryk.40 I musikvideoen til sangen 7/11 (2014) render Beyoncé rundt på et hotel og filmer sig selv med en selfie-stang i en billedkvalitet, der ligner en film, der kunne være optaget med en smartphone, mens videoen til Lana Del Reys Video Games (2011) er sammensat af vidt forskellige klip, der mest af alt minder om en række tilfældige Side 41

Still fra YouTube-videoen Happy We are from Tehran, 2014, der blev skabt af en gruppe iranske unge. De blev efterfølgende retsforfulgt af de iranske myndigheder på grund af videoen.

YouTube-videoer. Indiepop-gruppen OK Go har ligeledes haft viral succes med deres lavbudget musikvideoer, fx til sangen Here It Goes Again (2006), der med sit simple og skrabede udtryk viser bandets medlemmer i forskellige positurer på løbebånd, så de skaber en finurlig og underholdende ’løbebåndsdans’. Noget, som alle med lidt øvelse kunne have gjort, bemærker Edmond.41 Der er således stribevis af eksempler på, at etablerede musikere dyrker YouTubes grynede billedkvalitet og amatøræstetik. På den måde ønsker musikerne at bygge bro til publikum ved at skabe et udtryk, der indikerer, at skellet mellem superstjernerne og alle os andre ikke nødvendigvis er så stort.

Musikvideoen til Pharrell Williams storhit Happy (2013) er et andet eksempel på en video, der ønsker at tale ind i den aktive deltagerkultur, der findes på sider som YouTube.

Videoen blev lanceret som verdens første 24 timers musikvideo. På en hjemmeside kører sangen på repeat, og alt efter hvornår på døgnet man besøger hjemmesiden, vil man se en særlig video af forskellige mennesker, der danser rundt til sangen i Los Angeles’ gader. Alle kan danse med til Happy, synes budskabet at være. På den måde leger Happy med en særlig deltagelsesæstetik, der sætter ’almindelige’ mennesker i fokus. Efterfølgende har tusindvis af brugere verden over optaget deres egne Happy-dansevideoer og bl.a. uploadet dem til siden wearehappyfrom.com. Men deltagelsen er altså i høj grad tilrettelagt, mener Sara Malou Strandvad og Connie Svabo, der begge forsker i visuel kultur.42 Det har netop været intentionen med videoen at skabe et format, der lægger op til deltagelse. Derfor kan man med rette påpege, at deltagelseskulturen på nettet ikke blot er brugerdrevet, men også er noget, musikbranchen påvirker. Og det er i den grad bekvemt for musikbranchen at lade brugerne selv stå for udbredelsen og altså promoveringen af en single.

Både reklame og kunstværk I dag kan det være svært at afgøre, om en musikvideo hovedsagligt er tænkt som promovering for en single, eller om musikvideoen er værket i sig selv. Tænk fx på Side 42

førnævnte Gangnam Style (2012) af den sydkoreanske musiker Psy. Videoen er til dato den mest streamede video på YouTube med over 2,8 milliarder views. Er det videoen, der skal sælge en single, eller er det i virkeligheden sangen, der skal promovere videoen? Når vi til fester kopierer Psys humoristiske danserutine, henviser vi så ikke først og fremmest til videoen?

Med online-tjenester som YouTube rejses en række spørgsmål omkring den måde, vi tidligere har forstået genreskel på.

Film, TV-serier, computerspil og reklamer kan skabe referencer til en traditionel musikvideo-æstetik og vice versa, mens nye udtryksformer som Snapchat- eller Musical.ly-videoer,43 flash mobs,44 GIFs,45 mfl. ligeledes er med til at udfordre, hvad der egentlig udgør en musikvideo. Skellet mellem ’høj’ og ’lav’, mellem kunst og reklame, mellem professionel og amatør er sløret. Et forhold, der kalder på nye genredefinitioner, og som også stiller højere krav til os brugere om selv at kunne navigere i den evindelige strøm af videoer – og selv skabe mening i det indhold, vi møder.

Elise Ligaard er cand.mag. i musikvidenskab og ekstern lektor.

Litteratur Burgess, Jean (2014), ”All Your Chocolate Rain Are Belong To Us? Viral Video, YouTube and the Dynamics of Participatory Culture”, i Art in the Global Present, red. Nikos Papastergiadis & Victoria Lynn, Sydney: UTS ePress, 86-96 van Dijck, Jose (2013), “YouTube: The Intimate Connection between Television and Video Sharing”, i The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media, New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 110-131 Edmond, Maura, (2014), “Here We Go Again: Music Videos after YouTube”, i Television & New Media 15 (4), 305-320 Hjortshøj, Morten (14. marts 2016), ”Elsker, elsker ikke, elsker…”, Politiken, Sektion 2 (Kultur), 1 Jenkins, Henry (2009), “What Happened Before YouTube?”, i YouTube, Online Video and Participatory Culture, red. Jean Burgess & Joshua Green, Cambridge: Polity Press, 109-125 Jenkins, Henry, Sam Ford & Joshua Benjamin Green (2013), Spreadable Media, Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (Postmillennial Pop), New York: New York University Press Marshall, Carla (3. september 2014), 32 Amazing YouTube Facts & Stats to Tweet & Share [Opdateret september 2015]. http://tubularinsights.com/youtube-factsstats-2014/ (sidst besøgt 06.07.2017) Poulsen, Pernille Møller (red.) (2017), Musikselskaber 2016 – tal og perspektiver, ifpi Danmark Strandvad, Sara Malou, & Connie Svabo (2014), K & K, 2014, vol. 43, issue 118, 101-112 Vernallis, Carol (2013), Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema, Oxford: Oxford University Press Vourela, Mikkel (4. april 2017), Musikbranchen går til angreb på YouTubes musiksucces. Politiken, Sektion 2 (Kultur), 3

Noter 1 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mP1DPTY4Y7o

5 Siden Google opkøbte YouTube, har platformen udviklet sig radikalt og er bl.a. blevet mere sammenblandet med kommercielle interesser. Se van Dijck (2013) for mere om dette.

19 Eksempler på dette er det franske pigeband L.E.J., der gik viralt med deres akustiske covers af sommerhits (2015): https://www. youtube.com/ watch?v=u4zb6LUehwY, internetfænomenet Harlem Shake, hvor tusindvis af brugere har filmet sig dansende løssluppent til det basdrevne elektroniske musiknummer af DJ’en Baauer (se fx https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f7wj_ RcqYk (2013)) eller de mange parodier på Carly Rae Jepsens hit Call Me Maybe (2012), fx denne video, hvor ’bidder’ fra præsident Obamas taler er sammensat, så det lyder som om, Obama synger sangen: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=hX1YVzdnpEc

6 Hjortshøj (2016).

20 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 29.

7 Marshall (2014).

21 Jenkins (2009), 110.

8 Vernallis (2013), 6.

22 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 2.

9 Rapporten er bestilt af den europæiske organisation GESAC, der repræsenterer over 1 mio. europæiske rettighedshavere.

Hjortshøj (2016).

23 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 199.

2 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=yTCRwi71_ns 3 Se fx duoen Jayesslees cover, der har over 47 mio. views: https://www. youtube.com/ watch?v=XZ3OLswKKAw 4 Jenkins (2009), 109.

10 Vuorela (2017). 64 % af danskerne benyttede i 2016 en streamingtjeneste til at høre musik. Foruden YouTube er Spotify og YouSee Musik de mest populære tjenester. Både Spotify og YouSee Musik betaler betydeligt flere penge i royalties end YouTube. Hvor YouTube i 2016 kun udbetalte 11 mio. kr. til musikselskaberne, udbetalte de øvrige streamingtjenester 381 mio. kr. i royalties. Så på trods af at YouTube er den mest populære streamingtjeneste, udgør udbetalingerne fra siden blot 2,8% af de samlede streamingindtægter. Se Poulsen (2017).

24 Ordet vlogger er en sammentrækning af video og blogger’ og bruges om personer, der uploader videoer af sig selv, fx i form af en videodagbog.

25 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 187.

13 van Dijck (2013), 124.

32 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=lLYD_-A_X5E

18 Vernallis (2013), 308.

41 Edmond (2014), 305.

42 Strandvad & Svabo (2014).

43 På platformen Musical.ly kan brugere bl.a. optage og dele film af sig selv, mens man mimer til sange.

44 Flash mobs er et fænomen, hvor en gruppe mennesker mødes i det offentlige rum for at fremføre en særlig performance, fx en dans.

45 GIF står for Graphics Interchange Format og er en serie af få billeder, der sættes sammen, så de minder om en ultrakort film, der kører i ring.

29 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=qaO2ohOy8aI&t=312s

31 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=K2cYWfq--Nw

17 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 2.

40 Vernallis (2013), 14.

28 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=EgJX_ZdcYeY

12 Se Jenkins (2009) for mere om dette.

16 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 2.

39 Edmond (2014), 308.

27 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=PUjvaMWKeBI

30 Burgess (2014), 91.

15 van Dijck (2013), 125.

38 Product placement betyder, at firmaer betaler penge for at få deres produkter placeret i videoen. Dette har været en måde, hvorpå pladeselskaber har kunnet financiere musikvideoer post-YouTube. Britney Spears’ video Hold It Against Me (2011) skulle fx have indtjent en halv mio. dollar alene på product placement.

26 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Sy5wpB8uT7Y

11 van Dijck (2013), 113.

14 van Dijck (2013), 116.

37 Den angiveligt dyreste musikvideo er videoen til Michael og Janet Jacksons duet Scream fra 1995. Den kostede 7 mio. dollar at producere.

33 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=V4vNvGKUotQ 34 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=-j8bM4Ywtuc 35 Se Jenkins (2009) for mere om dette.

36 Vernallis (2013), 11. Min oversættelse.

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The Advent of Amateur Aesthetics: Music Videos on YouTube

type two words into Google: Gangnam style.

Just two words that give almost 40 million results. At the top of the search results is a large image with a cartoon drawing of a man in a stable wearing sunglasses, and in the middle of the image a triangle pointing right: the universal symbol for play. One click takes me to YouTube and the South Korean musician Psy’s electropop hit. And if I don’t intervene to stop the music, YouTube continues its endless playlist of videos by the same artist, in the same genre, or with thousands of parodies and remakes of the song, including babies on roller skates1, a ‘Mitt Romney Style’ version,2 not to mention thousands of acoustic cover versions.3 YouTube never sleeps.

The Internet and social media like YouTube have had a massive impact on the way people encounter, discover and use music and music videos. On YouTube amateurs and international stars alike can upload their productions in the hope of them being seen and shared. So it is no longer only editorial staff who decide which videos become viral hits, but also the rest of us clicking users.

And the music industry follows YouTube’s many possibilities closely.

This article outlines the way YouTube has contributed to the way people encounter music videos, and how the music video as a format and aesthetic form has changed since its launch.

algorithms that rank search results, which videos are listed first is not the result of a random process. Users are steered to click on specific videos11 – videos often aimed at promoting a specific artist or film, etc. Which can make it difficult to identify the boundary between advertising and non-commercial products, the source of the video, and not least the intention of that source.12 As the owner of YouTube, the Google corporation has been able to combine and merge information about users from a wide range of Google-owned platforms like Gmail, Google Maps, search histories, the browser Google Chrome, etc.

According to media professor José van Dijck, YouTube should be seen as an extension of these platforms, which also makes it possible to individually customise advertising for a mass audience.13 TV stations, news outlets and corporations also have their own YouTube channels to promote their products.

That there are billions of videos on YouTube does not, however, necessarily mean that individual users see more diverse content than they would on TV. On the contrary: in a survey cited by van Dijck, an estimated 97% of all video views are distributed between just 20% of users.14 In other words, many users end up seeing the same kind of content despite the endless opportunities to see non-mainstream content. And a lot of money is at stake in the attempt to get onto YouTube’s list of ‘trending’ videos. Record companies and distributors can actually pay to be on the coveted lists, thereby ensuring that their videos are seen by millions of viewers.15

The Influence of YouTube YouTube.com was launched in 2005 as an online platform where users could upload and share home videos for free. It turned out to be a huge success. Just a few months after its launch YouTube had millions of users, and in 2006 it was bought by Google for $1.65 billion4 – something that generated massive attention about the site.5 Today YouTube has over a billion users,6 with an estimated 400 hours of video material uploaded per minute.7 Music videos are the most popular items on YouTube,8 and also where YouTube generates most income. A 2017 report estimates that 66% of YouTube’s income comes from ‘artistic content’ like music, film, music videos, etc.9 So it is hardly surprising that the music industry regularly puts pressure on YouTube to pay royalties to musicians and composers. But the industry itself needs YouTube, which has become one of the most important promotional platforms for musicians. 59% of Danes aged 16-17 who stream music use YouTube, making the site the most popular music streaming service in the country.10 YouTube is thus a highly influential and powerful corporation, inextricably linked to the music industry, but also dependent on its own users.

Active Prosumers Despite the commercial interests that influence which videos are seen by most viewers, there has also been a shift in the way media content is shared today, something analysed by media researchers Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford and Joshua Green in their book Spreadable Media on the ways media content in general is dispersed.

Before the advent of the Internet, the media was governed by distribution with media content being largely controlled by individual distributors and producers like news bureaus and TV stations.

Today circulation is key. Here it is not solely major corporations and commercial interests that determine what content is shared online: grassroots movements and fan communities have just as much influence on the distribution of content.16 Even though YouTube, as mentioned above, actively steers viewers to selected videos, there are countless examples of enthusiastic fans sharing and spreading media content via online fora being behind some of the biggest YouTube hits. Examples include Tay Zonday, who went viral with the song Chocolate Rain (2010), or superstars like Justin Bieber, or The Weeknd and the Danish singer MØ, whose success has been driven by clicking YouTube users.

Even though YouTube’s success is dependent on the enthusiastic clicks of its users, spreading and sharing videos millions of times, the users are not alone in influencing which videos are seen most.

Despite the fact that YouTube, unlike TV stations for example, has no scheduled programming, the content is still mediated. Due to advanced

So YouTube’s popularity is dependent on both commercial interests and the participation of Internet users. When we navigate the Internet we are not only passive consumers, but also active participants who shape, share, comment on, reinterpret and mix media content in new, creative ways. Here YouTube is a prime example,

By Elise Ligaard

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making it what Henry Jenkins defines as a ‘participatory culture’.17 The boundary between the producer and consumer/listener is shifting radically online. Which is why many media researchers see users as prosumers – a hybrid term combining producer and consumer.18 Because when we participate in online debates or upload our own videos or photographs, we contribute content. We become creators. And sometimes the videos of ordinary users go viral and are shared millions of times, blurring the boundary between professionals and amateurs on sites like YouTube. Professional video producers find inspiration and imitate the ‘homemade’ look of amateurs, while many amateurs are capable of creating music and videos of a professional standard. And it is not always possible to predict which videos will get most views.

A large number of YouTube videos consist of content that makes some kind of reference to other videos, like cover versions of songs or edited sequences from films or TV series, i.e. videos based on content generated by others.19 Not that audiences relating actively to the cultural products they encounter is a new phenomenon. There is a history of fans expressing their enthusiasm in numerous creative ways: through fan fiction, videos, songs, images, dress, performances, etc. As early as the 1970s, underground cultures emerged where the primarily female fans of science fiction series like Star Trek started editing scenes in different ways to produce their own fanvids20 paying tribute to and reinterpreting the TV series.

For media researcher Henry Jenkins, it is therefore important to emphasise that the active culture of participation has not emerged as a result of corporations like YouTube.21 Creative amateurs and fan communities already existed.

But with the advent of YouTube, users have found yet another platform where it is easy to share home productions and niche interests. Whether we are interested in feminist skaters, Inuit hip hop, Indie computer games, interpretations of Wagner’s Die Walküre, tips for applying eye shadow or repairing a blender, environmental activism, cute kittens or art history lectures, we can connect with others who share the same interests via YouTube.

Perhaps there is nothing more human than sharing stories? That, at least, is one of the points made by Jenkins, Ford and Green.22 When we share a video on Facebook, we interact with each other. At the same time, we also want to present ourselves in particular ways and send specific signals. Our participation on social media – either uploading videos, music or photographs we have made ourselves, or sharing material created by others – is a way of signalling who we are in an online environment.

Participatory culture on the Internet is thus first and foremost connected to communities. We are not isolated individuals when we comment on and share content online. On the contrary, according to Jenkins, Ford and Green our online activity should be seen as an extension of conversations users already have – both offline and online.23 The basis of a platform like YouTube is social. Users upload videos precisely for others

to watch, share and comment on.

In many cases, however, commercial interests interfere with the video content, for example when companies and brands sponsor specific videos and use famous YouTube vloggers24 to review or promote their products. So the social and community generating elements of YouTube are inextricably linked to product promotion and profit – something that poses challenges to YouTube users’ ability to navigate video content.

The Meeting of Star Wars and the Rapper Drake YouTube videos are full of intertextual references, hybrids and inside jokes. User-generated videos make references to each other and copy, parody and elaborate on the video concepts of others. In this sense, YouTube is a site with long chains of videos that elaborate on each other, for example as remixes or mash-ups that mix two music tracks or combine music videos with film or art references. This creates a ‘clip and quote’ culture that demonstrates users’ engagement, creativity and ability to make connections between and across individual works and media platforms.25 On YouTube you can find everything from videos of the children’s TV characters the Teletubbies miming Die Antwoord’s bleak techno track I Fink U Freeky (2012),26 to a montage of Adele’s massive hit Hello (2015) edited with Lionel Richie’s 1980s hit Hello (1983) to make it look as if Adele and Lionel are having a telephone conversation.27 You can watch reinterpretations of the music video for Drake’s Hotline Bling (2016), where the Canadian hip-hop star dances with a Star Wars light sabre28, or Michael Jackson’s legendary Thriller (1982) performed by LEGO figures.29 According to digital media culture researcher Jean Burgess, many of the most popular YouTube videos have specific, memorable concepts or visual hooks that can be copied and used in other forms and contexts.30 One example is a fan video for the electronic duo Daft Punk’s track Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. In the video, called Daft Hands (2007),31 a pair of hands has different letters and words written on each finger and palm. By opening and closing the fingers in a specific order, the letters and words form the lyrics of the song. The concept is simple and clear-cut, but also clever and fun. Daft Hands went viral fast, and just months later there were other, user-generated videos that elaborated on the concept like Daft Bodies,32 Daft Arms,33 Daft Cube,34 etc. Today, ten years after Daft Hands was uploaded, the video is held to be a ‘YouTube classic’ with T-shirts, caps and other merchandise illustrated with the hands on the market.

According to Burgess, videos on YouTube thus first and foremost communicate ideas and concepts that appeal to social networks. Video concepts (like the Daft Punk lyrics) are then used in new contexts. And the fact that many of the videos are based on simple concepts is maybe one of the things that makes it appealing and fun for others to make their own version – because it does not demand a large budget or a high level of technical skill.

Music+Video=Music Video With millions of user-generated videos, fan videos, parodies and reinterpretations of the

videos of others, the audiovisual landscape of today is both lively and diverse. At the same time, it can be difficult to find out who has submitted the video: a passionate fan, a corporation, a political party or product promoters? It is not always clear who is behind YouTube videos, and the intention of a video can therefore also easily be camouflaged.35 In the online profusion of videos created by professionals and amateurs alike, different video genres merge, and just as fans are inspired by the videos of their idols and have gradually gained access to technology that gives their work a more ‘professional’ look, the directors of music videos are equally inspired by the homemade style of amateurs. According to music video researcher Carol Vernallis, this means it can be difficult to define what a music video is. As she writes: “at one time we knew what a music video is (sic), but no longer.”36 Originally the main goal of music videos was to promote a specific single or album. So the primary purpose of the music video was to get people to buy another product, i.e. music. With the launch of MTV in 1981, music videos were given their own TV channel, something that had a major impact on the spread of music videos and the amount of money that was invested in their production.37 Music videos soon became an integral part of the record industry, playing a central role as a promotional tool. But the music videos shown on MTV, for example, were subject to restrictions: they had to have the same approximate length (4-5 minutes) and MTV’s Standards and Practices Division censored videos that included drugs, violence and explicit sexual references. There were also, unlike YouTube, restrictions on the use of product placement.38 After a financial low point in the 00s, when the profits of record companies plummeted due to digital piracy and illegal file sharing, the music video format has been given new life on online platforms where it is no longer subject to the same conditions as previously. There is no longer a single TV station that has the last word. On the contrary, music videos today are primarily created for online circulation, and as the media researcher Maura Edmond points out, their short, catchy format and self-contained structure makes them ideal for the platform of the Internet.39 Established musicians also use the possibilities of the Internet to experiment with new expressive forms. In 2010 the rapper Kanye West released the 35-minute music film Runaway created in collaboration with the artist Vanessa Beecroft, and in 2016 the pop icon Beyoncé released the conceptual visual album Lemonade, which includes references to the video artist Pippilotti Rist’s work Ever Is Over All. Both productions operate at the intersection of music, film, poetry and dance and can – like many of the music videos in My Music – be difficult to categorise according to genre. In 2010 a collective tribute to Johnny Cash was launched with 250,000 fans worldwide contributing drawings that were used in a music video for the song Ain’t No Grave, and in the music video project The Wilderness Downtown (2010), the director Chris Milk created an interactive music video for Arcade Fire where users could create their own unique videos via a website. The medium of the music video and the

boundaries for what constitutes a music video have become a site of experimentation.

Amateur Aesthetics The history of the music video is, of course, full of creative, innovative, experimental examples that work with the music video as an art form rather than merely as a promotional tool – also prior to the advent of the Internet. But the possibilities of the Internet and YouTube have undeniably had a major impact on the form and aesthetics of the music video.

The Internet is full of pop-up windows and commercial breaks. There are constant boxes linking to other websites, articles or videos. We scroll up and down and from side to side, we zoom in and out. We can add comments, share and ‘like’ the content we see. All of which are visual elements, forms and characteristics that have left their mark on a range of artistic products like the music video.

Many of the videos on YouTube are highly paced with fast movements, repetitions and low-resolution images. The videos often revolve around sarcasm/irony, comical content or surprise: a panda sneezing unexpectedly or a baby laughing in a startling way. In this sense, Carol Vernallis argues that there is a specific YouTube aesthetic, characterised precisely by a fast pace, short edits, gritty image quality, and the absence of professional film equipment like lighting or high-quality microphones. A lot of the content on YouTube is also made to be watched on a small computer screen or smartphone, as a result of which the visuals are not nearly as rich in detail as the scenes in classical feature films, for example. Many YouTube videos are thus structured according to simple concepts that are apparently easy to decipher and largely based on everyday situations.

Vernallis argues that we are currently witness to a ‘YouTube-ification’ of everything from feature films to advertisements and, not least, music videos, whose directors find inspiration in the visual style of YouTube.40 In the music video for 7/11 (2014),, Beyoncé runs around a hotel filming herself with a selfie stick in the visual style of a smartphone recording, whereas the video for Lana Del Rey’s Video Games (2011) is a compilation of clips that looks like a series of random YouTube videos. The indie pop group OK Go have also had viral success with low-budget music videos like Here It Goes Again (2006), where the members of the group are filmed in a simple and basic style in different poses on a treadmill, creating a quirky and entertaining ‘treadmill dance’. Something just about anyone with a little practise can, as Edmond points out, do.41 There are thus endless examples of established musicians using the gritty image quality and amateur aesthetics of YouTube, building a bridge to their audience via a style that implies that the gap between super stars and ‘the rest of us’ is not necessarily that great.

The music video for Pharrell William’s megahit Happy (2013) is another example of a video aimed to appeal to the active participatory culture to be found on sites like YouTube. The video was launched as the first 24-hour music video in the world. On the website the song is

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looped, and depending on the time of day you visit there is a different video of different people dancing to the song on the streets of Los Angeles. The message seems to be that everyone can dance along to Happy. In doing so, the Happy video plays on a specific participatory aesthetic that puts ‘ordinary’ people centre stage. Subsequently, thousands of viewers worldwide have filmed and uploaded their own Happy dance videos, also on the website wearehappyfrom. com. But according to visual culture researchers Sara Malou Strandvad and Connie Svabo, this kind of participation is heavily orchestrated.42 The intention of the video is to create a format that sets the stage for participation, as a result of which it could be argued that online participatory culture is not only user-driven, but also influenced by the music industry. And it is convenient, to say the least, for the industry that consumers themselves distribute and thereby promote a single.

Participatory Culture, eds. Jean Burgess & Joshua Green, Cambridge: Polity Press, 109-125 • Jenkins, Henry, Sam Ford & Joshua Benjamin Green (2013), Spreadable Media, Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (Postmillennial Pop), New York: New York University Press • Marshall, Carla (03.09.2014). “32 Amazing YouTube Facts & Stats to Tweet & Share” [Updated September 2015]. See: http://tubularinsights.com/youtube-facts-stats-2014/. Accessed 06.07.2017 • Poulsen, Pernille Møller (ed., 2017), Musikselskaber 2016 – tal og perspektiver, Ifpi Danmark.

• Strandvad, Sara Malou, & Connie Svabo (2014), K & K, 2014, vol. 43, issue 118, 101-112 • Vernallis, Carol (2013), Unruly Media: Youtube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema, Oxford: Oxford University Press • Vourela, Mikkel (04.04.2017). “Musikbranchen går til angreb på YouTubes musiksucces”.

Politiken, Sektion 2 (Kultur), 3

Advertising and Art Today it can be difficult to determine whether a music video is mainly intended to promote a single, or whether the music video is itself ‘the product’. Take Gangnam Style (2012) by the South Korean musician Psy mentioned above. To date the video is the most streamed video on YouTube, with over 2.8 billion views. The question is whether it is the video that is meant to sell the single, or the song that is meant to promote the video? If we copy Psy’s dance routine at parties, is our point of reference not first and foremost the video?

Online sites like YouTube raise a number of issues in terms of our previous understanding of genre boundaries. Film, TV series, computer games and advertisements can create references to traditional music video aesthetics and vice versa, and new expressive forms like Snapchat or Musical.ly videos,43 flash mobs44 and GIFs45 similarly challenge what actually constitutes a music video. The boundary between ‘high’ and ‘low’, between art and advertising, and between professional and amateur is blurred.

Something that calls for new genre definitions and makes new demands on us as viewers in navigating a constant barrage of videos and making sense of the content we encounter.

Notes 1 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mP1DPTY4Y7o 2 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=yTCRwi71_ns 3 See, for example, Jayesslee’s cover, which has over 47 million views: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=XZ3OLswKKAw 4 Jenkins (2009), 109.

5 Since Google’s purchase of YouTube the platform has developed radically. Part of this development has been an increased alignment with commercial interests, something van Dijck (2013) addresses in more detail.

6 Hjortshøj (2016).

7 Marshall (2014).

8 Marshall (2014).

9 The report was commissioned by the European organisation GESAC, which represents over a million European copyright holders. Hjortshøj (2016).

10 Vuorela (2017). In 2016, 64% of Danes used a streaming service to listen to music. After YouTube, Spotify and YouSee Musik are the most popular. Both Spotify and YouSee Musik pay significantly more in royalties than YouTube.

Whereas YouTube only paid $1,8 millon to music companies in 2016, the other streaming services paid $61 million in royalties. So despite being the most popular streaming service, YouTube actually only pays 2.8% of the total income generated by streaming. See Poulsen (2017).

11 van Dijck (2013), 113.

12 For more on the subject see Jenkins (2009).

13 van Dijck (2013), 124.

14 van Dijck (2013), 116.

15 van Dijck (2013), 125.

16 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 2.

17 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 2.

18 Vernallis (2013), 308.

19 Examples include the French girls’ group L.E.J., who went viral with their acoustic covers of summer hits (2015) [https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=u4zb6LUehwY], the internet phenomenon Harlem Shake, where thousands of users have filmed themselves freaking out to the heavy bass electro of the DJ Baauer (see, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f7wj_RcqYk, 2013), or the numerous parodies of Carly Rae

Lecturer Elise Ligaard holds an MA in musicology.

Bibliography • Burgess, Jean (2014), “All Your Chocolate Rain Are Belong To Us? Viral Video, You Tube and the Dynamics of Participatory Culture”, in Art in the Global Present, eds. Nikos Papastergiadis & Victoria Lynn, Sydney: UTS ePress, 86-96 • van Dijck, Jose (2013). “YouTube: The Intimate Connection between Television and Video Sharing”, in The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media, New York: Oxford University Press, 110-131 • Edmond, Maura (2014), “Here We Go Again: Music Videos after YouTube”, Television & New Media, 15 (4), 305-320 • Hjortshøj, Morten (14.03.2016). “Elsker, elsker ikke, elsker…”. Politiken, Sektion 2 (Kultur), 1 • Jenkins, Henry (2009), “What Happened Before YouTube?”, in YouTube, Online Video and

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Jepsen’s hit (2012), for example a video where short excerpts of President Obama’s speeches are edited together so it sounds as if he is singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=hX1YVzdnpEc 20 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 29.

21 Jenkins (2009), 110.

22 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 2.

23 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 199.

24 The term ’vlogger’, used to describe people who upload videos of themselves in the form of a video diary, for example, is a contraction of ’video’ and ’blogger’.

25 Jenkins, Ford & Green (2013), 187.

26 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Sy5wpB8uT7Y 27 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=PUjvaMWKeBI 28 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=EgJX_ZdcYeY 29 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=qaO2ohOy8aI&t=312s 30 Burgess (2014), 91 31 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=K2cYWfq--Nw 32 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=lLYD_-A_X5E 33 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=V4vNvGKUotQ 34 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=-j8bM4Ywtuc 35 See Jenkins (2009).

36 Vernallis (2013), 11.

37 The most expensive music video apparently made to date is the video for Michael and Janet Jackson’s duet Scream from 1995, which allegedly cost $7 million to produce.

38 Product placement, by which companies pay to have their products in a video, is one of the ways record companies have financed the production of music videos since the advent of YouTube. Britney Spears’ video Hold It Against Me (2011), for example, reportedly earned $0.5 million on product placement alone.

39 Edmond (2014), 308.

40 Vernallis (2013), 14.

41 Edmond (2014), 305.

42 Strandvad & Svabo (2014).

43 On the online platform Musical.ly users can record and share videos of themselves miming songs.

44 Flash mobs are a phenomenon where a group of people meet in public spaces to perform a dance, for example.

45 GIF (‘Graphics Interchange Format’) is a series compressed images edited together to look like a very short film that is looped.

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E D I U G l e d .

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Lady Gaga (US 1986) Nick Knight (UK 1958) Instruktør / Director Born This Way, 2011 1-kanalsvideo, farve, lyd / 1-channel video, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 7:20 min.

Produceret af / Produced by Vincent Herbert, Nicole Ehrlich & Steven Johnson Koreografi af / Choreography by Laurie Ann © 2011 Interscope Records

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Lady Gagas fremadstormende og ekstravagante stil vækker opsigt vidt og bredt. Hun refererer ofte mere eller mindre direkte til prominente billedkunstnere, og sågar hendes kunstnernavn Gaga vækker associationer til den kunstneriske avantgardebevægelse, Dada. Videoen til Born This Way fra 2011 er så tydeligt inspireret af den franske krops- og performancekunstner ORLAN, at denne i 2013 sagsøgte Gaga for plagiat. Med albummet ART POP fra 2013 tvister Gaga begrebet Pop Art, en genre som blandt andet forbindes med kunstnere som Andy Warhol og Roy Lichtenstein. ART POP albummets cover er skabt af billedkunstneren Jeff Koons, som er en central figur inden for popkunst-genren i dag.

Lady Gaga’s excessive, extravagant style always causes a sensation. She ­often refers – more or less explicitly – to prominent visual artists, and even her stage name evokes associations with the avant-garde Dada art movement. The 2011 video for Born This Way was so obviously inspired by the French body and performance artist ORLAN that in 2013 she sued Gaga for plagiarism. With the 2016 album ART POP Gaga twists the concept of pop art, a genre associated with artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. The cover of ART POP is the work of the artist Jeff Koons, a leading figure in the field of pop art today.

Marilyn Minter (US 1948) Green Pink Caviar, 2009 HD video, farve, lyd / HD video, colour, audio Varighed / Duration 7:45 min.

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark

Green Pink Caviar er et forførende og sensuelt videoværk, der placerer sig mellem det billedskønne og det beskidte og vulgære. Værket er skabt af den New York-baserede kunstner Marilyn Minter i løbet af et photo shoot for make-up-giganten MAC. Minters æstetik forener det poppede, polerede og lette fra mainstreamkulturens massemedier med trash, punk og rock’n’roll fra samfundets undergrund. Resultatet er en stærk helhed, der rummer en mangfoldighed af modsætninger. Her møder glansbilledets overflade intime, kropslige elementer i form af nubret tungekød og spyt, som nærmest slynges ud i hovedet på beskueren.

Green Pink Caviar is a enticing, sensual video work located between striking beauty and dirty vulgarity. The work was created by New York based artist Marilyn Minter during a photo shoot for the cosmetics corporation MAC. Minter’s aesthetics combine the highly polished pop of mainstream mass media with the trashed punk and rock ‘n’ roll of the underground. The result is a powerful display of contrasts: the glossy surface of advertising meets intimate bodily elements in the form of the rough surface of the tongue and saliva that is virtually thrown in the face of the viewer.

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Martin Creed (UK 1968) Work No. 1701, 2013 Digital film Varighed / Duration: 4:36 min.

Courtesy kunstneren / the artist, Hauser & Wirth & Gavin Brown’s enterprise

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Hen mod slutningen af kunstner og musiker Martin Creeds musikvideoskråstreg-videoværk trækker en mand, der ikke kan gå, sig over et forgængerfelt i New York. Efter at musikken er standset, kæmper han sig det sidste stykke langs fortovet, forbi hjørnet og ud af kameraets – og vores – synsfelt.

Han fuldfører sin simple handling levende og energisk.

Hver person, der krydser gaden i videoen, bevæger sig på sin egen måde. Deres handicap og gangbesvær bliver rytmisk. Det uperfekte stråler.

Så enkelt viser Creed os, at kroppen både er vores begrænsning og instrument, og at vi alle forsøger at danse os gennem livet.

Towards the end of the artist and musician Martin Creed’s music video-slashvideo work a man that can’t walk drags himself across a zebra crossing in New York. After the music has stopped he continues to battle his way along the last section of pavement, around the corner, and out of view of the camera – and us. He completes the simple action with life and energy.

Each person that crosses the street in the video moves in their own way.

Their physical challenges and difficulties become rhythmical. The imperfect shines. With simple means Creed shows us that the body is our limit and instrument, and that each of us tries to dance through life in our own way.

Micha Klein (NL 1964) Crystal Powder from God, 2000 C-print Mål / Dimensions: 180 x 300 cm ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst

Seks overjordisk perfekte, letpåklædte personer poserer i et funklende, pastelfarvet fantasilandskab. En skinnende, farvestrålende utopi. Micha Kleins fiktive personager ligner de smukke og fejlfri personer, vi møder i reklamer. Kleins modeller er ikke alene kunstige, de lever også af et kunstigt stof – nemlig krystalpulveret, som ligger i den ene mands hånd. Krystalpulver er et andet ord for MDMA, et psykedelisk stof, der bliver indtaget i internationale klubmiljøer.

Micha Klein har selv arbejdet som VJ (video jockey) i det hollandske klubmiljø. Med sine computerskabte billeder udforsker han den mediebaserede ungdomskultur, som den udfolder sig på klubber, i mode, musik og massemedier.

Billeder afbilder ikke virkelighed - de skaber virkelighed.

Six supernaturally perfect, scantily clad figures are posing in a sparkling pastel fantasy world: a shining, brightly coloured utopia. Micha Klein’s fictional figures are like the beautiful, flawless people we see in adverts. Klein’s models are not only synthetic, they also live on an artificial substance – i.e. the crystal powder held out by one of the men. ‘Crystal’ is a slang term for MDMA, a psychedelic drug popular in the international world of clubbing.

Micha Klein himself has been a VJ (video jockey) on the Dutch club scene.

With his computer-generated works he explores the media-based youth culture seen in clubs, fashion, music and on mass media. Images do not depict reality – they create it.

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Natalie Djurberg & Hans Berg (SE 1978) (SE 1978) Worship, 2016 Modellervoks-animation, digital video, stereo audio / Clay animation, digital video, stereo audio Varighed / Duration: 8:6 min.

Courtesy kunstnerne / the artists & Lisson Gallery Still © Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg

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I animationsfilmen Worship (2016) har Natalie Djurberg og Hans Berg skabt et grotesk univers af billede og lyd, der tilsammen danner en stærk, æstetisk helhed. Modellervoksfigurerne i filmen er både forførende og frastødende. De mimer på tragikomisk vis musikvideoens billedsprog, men med én forskel.

Hos Djurberg og Berg er alt overdrevet.

Pop-ikonets glamour og sexappeal er forvrænget, så der fremstår et grinagtigt og vanvittigt scenarie. I sin form spiller værket på animationsfilmens formsprog. Men det her er ikke Walter og Trofast. Tværtimod vækker værket til kritisk refleksion, for i modsætning til formen er indholdet her bestemt ikke for de yngste.

In the animation video Worship (2016), Natalie Djurberg and Hans Berg create a grotesque universe of images and sound that form a powerful aesthetic whole. The clay animation figures in the film are simultaneously seductive and repulsive, a tragi-comic take on the imagery of the music video but with a key difference: in the visual universe of Djurberg & Berg everything is exaggerated. The glamour and sex appeal of pop icons is twisted to appear ridiculous and absurd. The form plays on animation film, but we are far removed from the comedy of Wallace and Gromit. On the contrary, the work provides a source for critical reflection, because unlike its form, the challenge posed by its content is definitely not child’s play.

Pipilotti Rist (CH 1962) Sip My Ocean, 1996 1-kanals videoinstallation med to projektioner, farve, lyd / 1-channel video installation with two projections, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 8:00 min.

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark

Hvem husker ikke Helena Christensen på stranden i den sexede video til Chris Isaaks megahit Wicked Game fra 1991?

Pipilotti Rists videoinstallation Sip My Ocean har – om ikke sexappeal – så i hvert fald sit helt eget forførende og hypnotiske ’take’ på Isaaks sang. Det er Rists egen stemme, vi hører, mens vi ligger på det blå tæppe og lader os suge ind i de sanselige og kalejdoskopiske undervandsbilleder. Hendes sang bliver mere og mere skinger og hysterisk, indtil sangen klinger ud med et nærmest patetisk indfølt ”Nooooobody loves nooo oooone.”

Sip My Ocean er ikke en musikvideo, men hvad er den så? En coverversion i tre dimensioner? Eller noget helt for sig selv? Vi hører i hvert fald en ny stemme, der trækker os med ned i havet i længsel efter kærlighed.

Most people who were around at the time remember Helena Christensen on the beach in the steamy video for Chris Isaak’s 1991 megahit Wicked Game.

Whilst it may not have the same direct sex appeal, Pipilotti Rist’s video installation Sip My Ocean represents the artist’s own seductive, hypnotic take on Isaak’s song. The voice we hear is Rist’s own, as we lie on the blue cushions and let ourselves be drawn into the sensual, kaleidoscopic underwater imagery. Her song becomes increasingly shrill and hysterical, until it dies out with a heartfelt almost pathetic ”Nooooobody loves nooo oooone”.

Sip My Ocean is not a music video, but what is it? A three-dimensional cover version? Or something entirely different? Regardless, what we hear is a new voice that pulls us to the bottom of the ocean in its longing for love.

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Pipilotti Rist (CH 1962) I’m Not the Girl Who Misses Much, 1986 1-kanalsvideo, farve, lyd / 1-channel video, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 7:46 min.

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark. Erhvervet med midler fra / Acquired with funding from Museumsfonden af 7. december 1966

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Har du husket at tage din selfie i dag?

At fodre dine YouTube-følgere med et nyt klip? Samtidig med, at Pipilotti Rist i 1986 dansede foran videokameraet i sin nedringede kjole, mens hun sang en linje fra The Beatles om og om igen, strømmede de nyeste musikvideoer ud gennem billedrørs-fjernsynene til alle, der kunne tage MTV. Andy Warhol var her også endnu til at minde os om, at i fremtiden ville vi alle få vores 15 minutters berømmelse.

Optagelsen er manipuleret efterfølgende, så Rist enten springer manisk rundt i fast forward tempo med en sangstemme som en overstimuleret smølf, eller hun glider langsomt ud af billedfladen, mens hun lyder, som om hun er besat. Det er urkomisk og helt forfærdeligt. Hun performer sin popfrase intenst og direkte i et nøgent rum. Ville du give hende et like?

Did you remember to take a selfie today? To feed your YouTube followers with a new video clip? In 1986, as Pipilotti Rist danced in front her video camera in a low-cut dress singing a line from The Beatles again and again, the latest music videos poured out of the TV sets of everyone with access to MTV. Andy Warhol was still here to remind us that in the future everyone would have fifteen minutes of fame.

The recording has been manipulated so Rist is either fast-forwarded, hopping around manically with the voice of a hyper smurf, or gliding slowly out of frame sounding like someone possessed. It is hilarious and tragic. She performs the pop phrase intensely and directly in a stripped room. Would you give her a ‘like’?

Ruth Ewan (UK 1980) A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World Igangværende arkiv påbegyndt i 2003 / Ongoing archive started in 2003 CD-jukebox, digital og analog CDafspiller / CD jukebox, digital and analogue CD player Courtesy kunstneren / the artist

Ruth Ewans jukeboks er et arkiv af protestsange, der begyndte som et kollektivt projekt i 2003. Rent teknisk er jukeboksen en sælsom mellemting mellem det digitale og det analoge.

Alle kan bidrage til jukeboksens indhold af protestsange ved at sende en mail med forslag til Ruth Ewan via hendes hjemmeside: www.ruthewan.com.

Jukeboksen har rejst verden rundt i forbindelse med forskellige kunstudstillinger og events, og for hver gang den udstilles, opdateres sangbiblioteket med nye protestsange. I modsætning til YouTube eller andre streamingtjenester er dette arkiv en blivende og fysisk samling, hvis synlighed ikke er styret af popularitet eller reklamepenge. Når du vælger en sang vil den ikke blot kunne høres af dig, men også af de andre i ARKENs foyer. Dit sangvalg bliver til en kollektiv musikoplevelse.

Ruth Ewan’s jukebox is an archive of protest songs initiated as a collective protest in 2003. At a technical level the jukebox is a strange hybrid of the digital and analogue. Anyone can contribute to its collection of protest songs by submitting a suggestion to Ruth Ewan via her website www.ruthewan.com.

The jukebox has toured internationally for art exhibitions and events, and every time it is exhibited it is updated with new protest songs. Unlike YouTube or other streaming services, the archive is a lasting, physical collection, the visibility of which is not controlled by popularity or advertising revenue. When you select a song it is not only heard by you, but by everyone in ARKEN’s foyer.

Your choice of song becomes a collective music experience.

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Sia (AU 1975) Sia & Daniel Askill Instruktører / Directors Elastic Heart, 2013 1-kanalsvideo, farve, lyd / 1-channel video, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 5:08 min. © 2014 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

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Maddie Ziegler danser vildt, spontant og i fysisk nærkontakt med Shia Leboeuf (kontroversiel skuespiller og performancekunstner) i musikvideoen til Elastic Heart. Ziegler har været stand-in for popstjerne og sangskriver Sia i fem musikvideoer samt gentagne gange på scenen og i tv-shows. Grebet er praktisk, for Sia vil helst ikke genkendes på gaden. Men det har også en kommerciel effekt og en karakter af performancekunst.

Se på videoen, hvor vilddyrene raser i buret. Maddie og Leboeuf, barn og voksen, prøver kræfter med hinanden og giver udtryk for dynamikker og sindstilstande, der måske raser i Sia selv. Den skarpt skårne paryk er et stramt, konceptuelt element i alt det ekspressive – både Maddie og Sia bærer den, når de optræder, sammen eller hver for sig.

Maddie Ziegler dances with wild spontaneity and in close physical contact with the controversial actor and performance artist Shia Leboeuf in the music video Elastic Heart. Ziegler has been a stand-in for the pop star and songwriter Sia in five music videos, as well as on stage and TV. A practical measure, since Sia would prefer not to be recognised on the street, but also a commercial gimmick and kind of performance art.

In the video, the wild animals rage in their cage. Maddie and Leboeuf, child and adult, pit their strength against each other, expressing feelings and mental states that may rage within Sia herself. The acutely angled wig is a stringent, conceptual element in the midst of all the emotion – Maddie and Sia wear it when they perform together, but also when they perform separately.

The Hours (UK) Tony Kaye (UK 1952) Instruktør / Director Damien Hirst (UK 1965) Artistic director See the Light, 2008 1-kanalsvido, farve, lyd / 1-channel video, colour, audio Varighed / Duration: 7:19 min.

2008 Is Good Ltd.

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Sort farve slynges ud på et spin painting af Damien Hirst. En kvinde i hospitalstøj flipper ud i en forladt Pradabutik. Hun ryger og snakker nervøst i psykiaterens venteværelse, hvor der i baggrunden hænger værker af Damien Hirst. Sætter blodige håndaftryk på en væg med opsprættede køer. Smadrer hospitalsstuen. Glider ind i scanneren med laserlysets skarpe sigtelinjer hen over ansigtet. Hvidt lys.

Damien Hirst er kunstnerisk instruktør på The Hours’ musikvideo og hans fingeraftryk er overalt. Han har sammen med instruktør Tony Kaye og skuespiller Sienna Miller skabt en kortfilm, der på én gang forstærker musikkens fortælling og sætter Hirsts kunst i centrum.

Black paint is hurled onto a spin painting by Damien Hirst. A woman in a hospital gown freaks out in an empty Prada store. She sits talking and smoking nervously in a psychiatrist’s waiting room where a painting by Hirst hangs in the background. Makes bloody handprints on a wall of ripped open cows.

Wrecks a hospital room. Glides into a scanner with the sharp lines of the laser etched on her face. White light.

Damien Hirst is the artistic director of The Hours’ music video, and his fingerprints are all over it. With the director Tony Kaye and actress Sienna Miller he has created a short film that amplifies the story of the song and puts Hirst’s art centre stage.

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Tim Noble & Sue Webster (UK 1966) (UK 1967) I samarbejde med / In collaboration with Nick Cave (AU 1957) Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, 2007 770 farvede UFO reflektorkapsler, lamper og holdere, skumpap, elektronisk DMX (4-kanals glittereffekt) / 770 colour UFO reflector caps, lamps and holders, Foamex, electronic light sequencer (4-channel shimmer effect) Courtesy kunstnerne / the artists and Blain Southern

Flashy og trashy – kunstnerduoen Tim Noble & Sue Webster har fra begyndelsen været infiltreret i pop-, punk- og rockmusikkens verden. Da Nick Cave skulle designe et cover til sit album Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! ringede han til Sue Webster, og de udviklede sammen ideen om at skrive titlen som et lysende slogan på et skilt.

Sangen handler om den bibelske figur Lazarus, der stod op fra de døde, men Nick Cave har flyttet ham til New York og ind i nutiden. Skiltet gør det samme. Vulgært og kitchet, i solnedgangsfarver, som et stykke gøgl fra en markedsplads eller en forstyrrende reklame på Times Square.

Flashy and trashy – the art duo Tim Noble & Sue Webster have infiltrated the world of pop, punk and rock music since their inception. When Nick Cave wanted to design a cover for his album Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! he called Sue Webster and they developed the idea of writing the title as a luminous slogan on a sign together.

The song is about the biblical figure of Lazarus, who was raised from the dead.

Nick Cave has moved him to New York – and the present. The sign does the same.

Lurid and kitsch in sunset colours, like something from a funfair or an invasive advert in Times Square.

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Magasinet er udgivet i forbindelse med udstillingen / The magazine has been published on the occasion of the exhibition MY MUSIC ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst / ARKEN Museum of Modern Art 7. oktober 2017 – 25. marts 2018 / 7 October 2017 – 25 March 2018 Udstillingsorganisation / Curators: Christian Gether, Stine Høholt, Dorthe Juul Rugaard Udstillingsassistent / Curatorial asssistant: Maria Kamilla Larsen Udstillingsdesign / Exhibition design: Kasper Riisholt Magasinredaktion / Editorial team: Christian Gether, Stine Høholt, Camilla Jalving Redaktionsassistent / Editorial assistant: Maria Kamilla Larsen Korrektur / Proof reading: Poul Rosenberg Oversættelse / Translation: Jane Rowley Grafisk design / Graphic design: Kasper Riisholt Elise Ligaards artikel “Amatøræstetikkens indtog: Musikvideoer på YouTube” er peer-reviewed / Elise Ligaards article “The Advent of Amateur Aesthetics: Music Videos on YouTube” has been peer-reviewed.

Papir / Paper: 90g Luxosatin / 70g Amber Graphic Tryk / Print: Narayana Press Oplag / Number printed: 20.000 Udgiver / Publisher: ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst Skovvej 100 2635 Ishøj Danmark Tel. +45 4354 0222 www.arken.dk © 2017 ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst, forfatterne og kunstnerne. © 2017 ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, authors and artists. © Damien Hirst. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2017 © Ditte Ejlerskov/VISDA 2017 © Martin Creed. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2017 © Nathalie Djurberg og Hans Berg/VISDA 2017 © Tim Noble & Sue Webster/VISDA 2017 ISBN: 978-87-78751-23-2 Trykt i Danmark / Printed in Denmark 2017 Fotokreditering / Photo credits: Stephen White, 8 Anders Sune Berg, 9, 53 Ditte Ejlerskov, 11, 22 Ruth Ewans, 57 Omslag/cover: Candice Breitz, QUEEN (A Portrait of Madonna), 2005 (udsnit/detail) Udstillingen er støttet af Bikubenfonden The exhibition has been supported by the Bikuben Foundation