Cities in music videos: Audiovisual variations on London’s neoliberal skyline

Abstract

Despite the resurgence of music video clips in the YouTube era, they have not received attention as a specific subject of inquiry in either cultural or urban geography. This article is aimed at providing a full consideration of music videos with a focus on the urban realm. In particular, the paper concentrates on how neoliberal iconic buildings and city skylines emerge in music videos by using London as a case study. Drawing from recent developments within architectural geography and urban morphology, as well as in the geocultural subfields of music geography, media geography and film geography, the paper shows how a partial return to critical traditional interests and text-based research styles could be still useful to appreciate the mutable, fluid, and affective ways in which skylines are mediated. The empirical part of the paper provides an analysis of three music videos set in London and with lyrics and music that refer to a mood or feeling ascribed to London’s iconic architecture.1