Anti-Child Trafficking Messages in Music: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

The huge social impact of technological networks has manifested how useful multimodality is in contemporary communication and in its meaning-making process. Over the last years, some multimodal studies have focused on analysing music discourse. Music is multimodal, and thus, a form of communication carrying meaning through it (Lyndon, 2018). The aim of this research is to analyse Avicii’s For A Better Day and Justin Bieber’s Yummy music videos carrying a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis based on Kress and Van Leeuwen work (2006), in which not only verbal but also other semiotic resources such as visuals, speech, colour, and gestures, among others, are examined in order to discover how the message behind the music videos is conveyed. The modes of communication involved in this multimodal study were analysed in isolation and then, compared. The results suggested that the analyses of lyrics in isolation might not convey the real meaning behind songs and music videos. In this case, what seemed two simple love songs, one hoping for a better day and another dedicated to someone the author feels attracted to, carried, indeed, a rather controversial and tough topic behind. Messages behind songs and music videos may vary if only discoursed is analysed. That is why, other modes of communication, apart from discourse, such as visuals, must be also considered when analysing music since each mode of communication plays a specific and crucial role in the process of meaning-making (Adami, 2016). Furthermore, the interpretation of these semiotic resources may vary depending on the audience, the time period and the background knowledge of each individual (Machin, 2010). Finally, further research on Avicii and Bieber’s videos could be carried out in order to examine possible hidden messages about other crimes such as the one found in this paper or even find relation in other artists’ music videos which condemn the same or similar crimes.