Seminar Packet: Horror Aesthetics in Contemporary Music Videos

Hook: Why this seminar packet matters for students, teachers, and close readers

Struggling to assemble clear lecture notes on how contemporary musicians borrow horror imagery to create anxiety and narrative? You’re not alone. Media-analysis students and instructors often face fragmented visual sources, sparse academic frameworks for pop music videos, and a pressing need for actionable classroom materials that tie directly to lecture videos. This packet unpacks a high-impact case study—Mitski—to show how horror aesthetics (think Hill House, Grey Gardens, and other gothic references) function visually and narratively in 2026 music videos. It also gives you reproducible lecture outlines, assignment prompts, and an analytic toolkit you can use immediately.

The evolution of horror aesthetics in music videos (2020–2026)

Throughout the 2020s, pop and indie musicians increasingly treat music videos as short films. By late 2025 and into 2026, three converging trends sharpened the use of horror imagery in music videos:

• Narrative ambition: Artists and directors aim for serialized storytelling across singles and videos, using horror tropes to sustain long-form anxiety and mystery. For distribution and platform thinking around serialized content, see our guide to pitching and commissioning for larger streaming platforms: Pitching to Disney+ EMEA.
• Accessible VFX and AI tools: Affordable AI-assisted compositing and generative visuals let smaller teams make convincing uncanny imagery without blockbuster budgets.
• Pop-cultural recycling: Directors consciously cite genre films and documentaries—Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and the voyeuristic intimacy of Grey Gardens—to tap into collective fears and nostalgia.

These forces make contemporary music videos fertile ground for studying how horror aesthetics work not only as style but as a narrative device that configures character, space, and spectator emotion.

Case study: Mitski’s recent work and the Hill House motif

In early 2026 Mitski teased her eighth studio album and released the single "Where's My Phone?," which explicitly borrows from Shirley Jackson’s unsettling lines about sanity and reality. The single’s marketing (a mysterious phone number and a haunting spoken quote) and its music video repurpose Gothic and domestic-horror imagery to stage a protagonist’s interior breakdown. That makes Mitski a model artist for this packet because she demonstrates three core functions of horror in music video:

1. Externalized anxiety: Household spaces (messy rooms, peeling wallpaper, narrow staircases) become screens for psychological distress.
2. Intertextual signaling: Direct allusions to texts like Hill House produce instant emotional shortcuts, summoning dread without lengthy exposition.
3. Ambiguous agency: The protagonist is often both subject and site of spectral forces—inviting the audience to read the haunting as social alienation, grief, or internal trauma.

Use Mitski’s single and its video as a primary example when teaching: it’s contemporary, artist-intended, and richly intertextual.

Primary visual motifs to note in Mitski’s video

• Mise-en-scène of the domestic: clutter, dim lamps, frames within frames.
• Color grading: muted midtones punctuated by harsh highlights—creating contrast between the memory-like and the immediate.
• Sound design: diegetic creaks, distant voices, and intermittent silence that shifts the viewer’s focus.
• Performance style: restrained physicality combined with sudden, uncanny gestures—suggesting an interior split.

Why horror imagery evokes anxiety and narrative: theoretical anchors

The visual language of horror is not just decorative; it’s functional. Use these theories to frame class discussions and lecture notes:

• The Uncanny (Freud and later theorists): familiar domestic objects rendered strange create cognitive dissonance—perfect for music videos about alienation.
• Gothic space as character: In Hill House-like settings, architecture acts on inhabitants; rooms and corridors are narrative forces.
• Intertextual indexicality: Referencing an existing horror text activates viewers’ prior knowledge, transferring affective weight into a short-form video.
• Sound-symbolic coupling: Minimalist score or disrupted pop production heightens suspense, turning hooks into motifs that signal dread.

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality." — Shirley Jackson (quoted by Mitski in promotional audio, 2026)

Practical visual-analysis toolkit (step-by-step)

Use this reproducible method in lectures or close-reading labs to help students move from impression to evidence-based interpretation.

1. First pass — immediate affect: Watch without notes. Ask: what feeling dominates—unease, nostalgia, dread?
2. Second pass — shot inventory: Catalog shot types (wide, medium, close-up), camera moves, and framing choices. Timestamp each example.
3. Third pass — mise-en-scène audit: List props, costume cues, set details, and lighting. Ask how each element contributes to the protagonist’s interiority.
4. Fourth pass — sound and editing: Map diegetic vs. non-diegetic sound, abrupt cuts, and rhythmic sync with musical cues. Note moments where sound creates tension. For practical capture tools that help students record clean audio and single-take close readings, consider portable capture devices like the NovaStream Clip.
5. Fifth pass — intertextual mapping: Identify references (Hill House lines, Grey Gardens portraiture) and discuss what those references bring to the meaning of the video.
6. Synthesis: Build a one-paragraph interpretive claim that ties visuals, sound, and intertext to a single thesis about the song’s narrative or emotional argument.

Lecture packet: ready-to-use components for a 50–90 minute seminar

Below is a modular lecture plan you can drop into a syllabus. Each component aligns with lecture videos and note-taking.

Pre-class readings & watching (30–45 minutes)

• Watch Mitski’s "Where's My Phone?" music video (in-class screening with timestamps provided).
• Read Shirley Jackson excerpt (one paragraph) and selected press coverage (e.g., Rolling Stone, Jan 2026).
• Short essay: "Gothic domesticity and contemporary music video" (500 words).

In-class activities (50–90 minutes)

1. Opening (10 mins): Quick lecture on horror aesthetics in music videos—state the thesis and learning objectives.
2. Screening (5 mins): Play the video twice—once uninterrupted, once with timestamp pauses.
3. Small groups (20 mins): Assign the visual-analysis toolkit steps; each group presents one timestamped finding.
4. Full-class discussion (15–25 mins): Focus on intertextual references and emotional effects.
5. Synthesis exercise (10 mins): Students write a 150-word interpretive paragraph connecting a single image to the track’s broader narrative.

Assessment & follow-up

• Short assignment: 800–1,000 word visual analysis due one week later (grading rubric provided below).
• Optional creative assignment: Produce a 60–90 second video that re-frames a pop song using one horror trope; submit a 300-word reflection. If students need workflow guidance for moving short-form ideas into polished clips, consult the cloud video workflow primer From Graphic Novel to Screen.

Rubric (quick grading guide)

• Thesis & argument (30%): Clear claim connecting visual evidence to narrative or affect.
• Evidence & close reading (40%): Specific timestamps, accurate mise-en-scène description, and sound-edit notes.
• Contextualization (15%): Use of intertextual references (e.g., Hill House) and genre theory.
• Clarity & mechanics (15%): Organization, citation of media, and readability.

Advanced strategies for educators and creators (2026-ready)

As of 2026, a few platform and production developments should shape your pedagogy and content creation:

• AI-assisted transcription and timestamping: Use automated tools to generate synchronized transcripts for lecture videos and music video close readings. Verify accuracy manually—AI helps scale but not replace editorial judgment.
• Multimodal micro-lectures: Produce 4–6 minute focused clips (shot analysis, sound analysis, intertextuality) optimized for learning platforms and social distribution.
• Accessible content warnings: Horror aesthetics often touch on trauma themes. Add clear content notes, and provide trigger-safe alternatives for students. For guidance on trauma-informed intake and sensitivity in educational workflows see resources on trauma-informed intake practices.
• Ethical AI visuals: If demonstrating AI-augmented effects in class, discuss consent and copyright—especially when referencing living artists or copyrighted film clips. Broader ethical framing on AI in creative work is useful reading: Why AI shouldn’t own your strategy.
• Monetization and course packaging: Bundle lecture videos with downloadable timestamped notes, assignment templates, and closed-captioned transcriptions—this increases value for continuing-education learners and supports instructor monetization. For indie distribution and newsletter infrastructure, consider pocket edge hosts for indie newsletters.

Broader trends (late 2025–2026) and what they mean for media analysis

By early 2026 you’ll notice several broader tendencies worth integrating into syllabi and research projects:

• Serial music videos: More artists release videos that function as serialized chapters; expect assignments that require cross-video narrative mapping. For production and live-collaboration tooling that supports serialized output, our edge-assisted collaboration playbook is a practical reference: Edge-Assisted Live Collaboration.
• Hybrid documentary aesthetics: Directors lean on vérité and archival textures (the Grey Gardens influence) to blur documentary and fiction—an excellent prompt for talking about authenticity vs. performance.
• Platform attention shifts: Long-form video features and integrated commerce tools on streaming platforms encourage music videos designed for multiple view patterns (bingeing vs. single-view).
• Interdisciplinary research: Work on music videos now sits at the intersection of film studies, sound studies, and affect theory—great opportunities for collaborative student projects. If you run micro-event workshops around student work, the creator-community playbook on micro-events and privacy-first monetization is a useful model: Future-Proofing Creator Communities.

Sample discussion prompts and essay questions

• How does Mitski’s deployment of Hill House dialogue reframe the listener’s relationship to the narrator of the song?
• Compare the domestic mise-en-scène in Mitski’s video with a pop-video that uses suburban horror (e.g., a 2010s example). What continuities and departures do you notice?
• How do sound design and silence function as narrative devices in contemporary horror-inflected music videos?
• What ethical considerations arise when artists repurpose documentary aesthetics (like Grey Gardens) in fictional music videos?

Actionable takeaways: what to do in the next 48 hours

• Download Mitski’s video and create a timestamp log using the five-pass visual-analysis toolkit.
• Draft a 150-word lecture intro that frames horror aesthetics as narrative strategy, not mere style.
• Set up an auto-transcription workflow for your next lecture video and add a short content-warning slide. For tooling news and studio-clip automations that speed this workflow, see the recent studio tooling partnership update: Clipboard + studio tooling.
• Assign students a two-part submission: (1) a 300-word evidence-based interpretation and (2) one annotated screenshot with a 50-word caption connecting image to thesis.

Closing synthesis: why this matters now

Horror aesthetics in music videos—exemplified by Mitski’s 2026 releases—offer an efficient, emotionally potent shorthand for contemporary anxieties: isolation, domestic precarity, and the strain of public/private identity. For instructors and students, these videos provide compact primary texts that reward close reading. For creators and lecturers, recent platform and AI developments make it easier to produce nuanced instructional content—but they also demand thoughtful pedagogical frameworks and ethical guardrails. For practical capture and short-form production workflows that students can use to make 60–90 second projects, see the NovaStream Clip field review: NovaStream Clip — Portable Capture.

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Use this packet as a template: adapt the lecture plan, implement the visual-analysis toolkit in your next seminar, and share student work as a curated micro-exhibit. Want a ready-to-teach slide deck, timestamped notes, and an editable rubric based on this packet? Sign up at lectures.space to download the full instructor kit and join a 2026 workshop on horror, narrative, and the music video. Transform fragmented clips into structured learning—start today.

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