Fixation Database of Music Videos

The Fixation Database is a visual study of color and light rhythm in films, music videos, and other time-based media. Each image in the database presents every frame from the source video placed sequentially in a grid, creating a visual, colored timeline called a fixation.

This Music Video Database focuses on short format music videos. From the heyday of MTV to contemporary KPOP, the images show color palettes trends among artists, directors, genres, and decades. Because of the short runtime of music videos, individual frames are discernable, and the composition of colored elements add texture to the images. The database reveals structures of musical arrangement, song composition, rhythm, and climax, through color changes, brightness levels, and strobing lights. Like all visual time-based media, patterns can be discerned that can be categorized, including the half-and-half (a subtle or dramatic color change at the half-way mark), the songwriter (distinct color changes for chorus, verse, and bridge), entropy (increasing action and light strobing toward the end of the video), and the checkerboard (rhythmic light pulses at regular intervals creating moiré patterns).

Jeffrey Moser

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