Music Videos- 1. Redundancy and Entropy

1. Redundancy and Entropy

• Redundancy - "... is that which is predictable or conventional in a message... Redundancy is the result of high predictability..."

e.g.
Saying 'Hello' is a predictable way of greeting somebody... but low on information (it tells us little). This is highly 'redundant'message.

"Redundancy is not merely a useful tool in communication, it is absolutely vital... A degree of redundancy is essential to practical communication..."

• Entropy is "...unpredicatable"

A text is entropic if it contains unpredictable elements.

Are texts entropic or redundant?
No... all images arguably contain elements of both... However, some texts communicate effectively using high degrees of redundancy and other high degree of entropy.

2. Entropy/Redundancy are employed in different measures in different genre:
Which of these are higher/lower in Entropy and redundancy

Taylor Swift Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgFeZr5ptV8

Taylor Swift video tends to have a high degree of redundancy, due to her 'Country Pop' style the lyrics and visuals tend to be literal with no ambiguity and sends out a more 'predictable' message to her audience creating a 'high predictability' as the video has generic teen pop qualities such as, having fun and the bright Mise En Scene aspects such as, clothing and setting.


Yo La Tengo Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az3SHeMHC6c

This video is slightly more entropic, as it as a highly unconventional narrative and use of cinematography. However, it does have quite some aspects of redundancy, as it shares quite a few conventions of the indie rock genre, such as having a 'home made' or 'authentic' aesthetic. 

OK Go video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA

High Degree of Entropy used in this music video, the visuals hold little relevance to the audio. This creates a sense of ambiguity within the video making it less predictable.