H.P. - Analysis of Metanarrative - Alice Francis

Metanarrative - Alice Francis

Background 

Alice Francis is a Romanian born artist famous for her contributions to the development of the Electro-Swing genre in the 21st Century. Her image and stylings are very much an amalgamation of 1920's glamour and modern day cultural influences. In this post I will be using critical theories to analyse her metanarrative and deconstruct how her star image is formed.

Music Video - St. James Ballroom

Visual Style

• Typical of the Electro-Swing genre, Alice Francis' image is a classy and glamorous amalgamation of 1920's style and modern day influences. 
• The video for 'St. James Ballroom' clearly displays this mixture of influences with sections both in colour and in black and white with period picture artifacts such as a flicker. The video begins in this 1920's video style as an establishing shot of the ballroom filled with empty tables and chairs fads in with the sound of crowds chatting. This instantly sets the tone for the rest of the video. 

Dyer's Theory of the Star Image 

• Richard Dyer's theory of the Star Image uses a range of criteria to gauge whether an artist is within or separate to the mainstream and what factors go together to establish their status as a 'star', a semi-mythological state which appears to be superior to normality.
• Alice Francis' music is decidedly outside the mainstream, being part of a genre which receives little to no radio or television coverage. However this is not to say that she doesn't conform to many of the criteria that make up the Star Construct.
• She does, for example, show incredible creativity and talent with her use of costume and visual style in the video, which is one of the key star qualities from Dyer's theory. This quality makes her seem new and original, which inspires viewers to follow her and have a keen ambition to see what she does next. 
• Francis' style depends upon a growing fascination in popular culture with the culture of 1920's America. A love for this period has always been present, but in recent years it has grown considerably in the public eye, with even hairstyles and fashion from the period making a resurgence in some capacity. Francis is capitalising on this resurgence, being portrayed as a commodity who is consumed on the strength of her meanings.
• The meanings referred to in this case are her comments in relation to culture and style in the modern day and how the culture of the 1920's can influence this. 
• Critically, Francis' image appears incomplete to the viewer based on her characteristics of appearing both present and absent. She is present when she addresses the viewer by singing to camera, breaking the 4th wall and constructing para-social intimacy, yet absent when she continues to sing and dance as if there were no camera present and she were directing her actions towards the audience in the ballroom.
• This serves to encourage the viewer to continue to consume her work, both by repeated viewings of the same video and by seeking out more of her work, thus selling her to the viewer and constructing a stronger star image in their minds.
• Francis' use of 1920's customs in her video, such as the polite man appearing to be superior to the man who ignored the woman he was with by having the polite man go on to take centre stage with incredible dancing promotes the ideologies of that period. In this case one if those ideologies is gentlemanly behavior. As a star, Francis promotes this and similar ideologies to her viewers and fans. Other ideologies promoted include the importance of glamour and class in appearance as opposed to the mainstream trend of portraying women in little clothing to capitalise on the selling power of the male gaze.

Goodwin's Genre Conventions

• In terms of the video's typicality, using Andrew Goodwin's theory on Genre Conventions it can be seen that the video is very typical of its genre. For example the location is an early 20th century ballroom, an image which goes hand in hand with the Electro-Swing genre. In addition to this the choreography holds a similar typical 1920's style, as do the costumes of the other actors and extras in the video. 
• This assists in the construction of Francis' metanarrative by clearly portraying her musical genre through the use of visuals in her subsidiary media. 
• The video holds an amplified relationship with both the visuals and the music, with lyrics occasionally correlation to an action in the video and generally having a loose similarity in context. The muffling effect on the music at the start correlates to the 1920's style video quality at this point in the video, which is one example of the amplified relationship between the music and visuals. 
• For Francis' image this again assists with linking the viewer's expectations of the artist to the visual style of this time period. This helps to make the artist synonymous with the period and genre in the viewer's mind, creating a strong image for her.
• The video is primarily performance based, with the artist incorporated into the narrative taking place in the ballroom, meaning that the artist gets plenty of screen time to secure her image in the viewer's mind.

Album Cover - St. James Ballroom

 

• Similar to the accompanying music video, the album art for St James Ballroom displays a 1920's style costume and colour scheme, further solidifying Francis' image as a product of this period style.
• The artist's gaze is directly towards the viewer, creating a sense of familiarity, which complies with Dyer's theory that a star is both ordinary and extraordinary. She is ordinary in the sense that a link with the viewer is established via her eye contact with them, but extraordinary due to the coldness and class of her look, giving her a sense of superiority.
• The most noticeable departure from the style of her video is the use of the cat in a bow tie and top hat on a lead. This adds a quirky sense of originality to the artist, again enticing the viewer to consume the product to make sense of her and her image.
• The editing on her dress to give her the appearance of having more shape and being taller further promotes her ideology of glamour and class above sexual magnetism. She complies with a traditional vision of beauty, placing her apart from the mainstream, encouraging fans of indie content to view her work. 
• The typeset and font both strongly channel the 1920's visual style which is so key to her image, which proves the point that her Star Image is created not from single factors, but from the range of subsidiary media that surround her.