Roland Barthes: 'Grain of Voice'
This sees the singing voice as an instrument of expression, unique to the singer. This may even hold trademarks which tie in to the star image, such as Michael Jackson's yelp, Tom Waits' growl, or Liam Gallagher's nasal whine. This can be seen to dominate the performance, separating the song and making it unique. The importance of the singer's vocal 'grain' must therefore also be represented through the visual style of the video.
Synaesthesia
This is the psychological process of visualising images from sounds. This idea is central to understanding or creating music videos, helping to connect with audiences and providing additional pleasure. For this,the grain of voice combines with all elements of the music (from instrumentation, texture, tempo, strucutre, mix, effects and everything else) to create visual associations. These may come from our shared sense of cultural history, intertextual references, or more personal, individual responses.
Genre-defining shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine provide an excellent portrait for the idea of synaesthesia. Their dreaming, swirling, wall-of-noise soundscape is visualised in an extremely literal way in their video for 'To Here Knows When':
