ABSTRACT
Rock videos are quintessential television in two main ways. First, they embody in condensed form all the characteristics of television that make it such a popular medium-its “producerliness” and semiotic democracy; its segmentation; its discursive practices of excess, contradictions, metaphor, metonymy, and puns; and its intertextuality. Second, they appeal specifically to subordinate groups, teenagers in general and within them specific youth subcultures. Madonna’s appeal is particularly to teenage girls, and this chapter considers one of her videos, “Material Girl,” in some detail and compares it with another designed to appeal to the same market, A-ha’s “Take on Me.”
