So, this blog has covered Lisa A. Lewis’s use of access signs and discovery signs in music videos, particularly those focused on female address. For discovery signs, we’ve looked at bedrooms. For access signs, we’ve looked at streets, a space argued by folks like Angela McRobbie as traditionally being considered off limits to women and girls, bending Jürgen Habermas’s theory of the public sphere to note the omission of any considerable, influential female presence.
But what about access signs that are open spaces, like fields? What do we do with them? What do we do in them, especially if we’re female and supposedly in danger if we don’t stay indoors darning our socks? If the music videos in today’s post are any indication, we might have the power to freeze time, suspending the actions of nuclear families and/or rescue squads in the process (though we might also feel weird about our music being used in the New Moon soundtrack, but such is the shaky economic state of the music industry and, perhaps as a result, the wonky nature of “indie”).
St. Vincent
“Marrow”
Actor
Directed by Terri Timely
We might also lay waste to one another, pumping each other full of lead behind a suburban neighborhood. In my version of this music video, though, the camera fixes on Alison Mosshart as she walks off into the sunset.
The Dead Weather
“Treat Me Like Your Mother”
Horehound
Directed by Jonathan Glazer
