This was my first idea, I wanted to have that feeling of
space and I thought that this picture was the right one that I was looking for
because it suits the Drum and Bass genre, I have looked at loads of different
covers in the genre and most of them seem to use a space theme or yellow/black.
I then put the text over the image, I chose the text because I think that it
goes with the genre and feel of the album, the album has a space feel to me. I
think that the only couple of problems with this cover are that the texts are a
bit far away from each other and the colour of the text should be changed as it
isn't really easy to read and it should be in your face.
This of course isn't a professional cover but it is an idea
that will be developed further if the group/target audience decide this is the one that we want
to use.
This was my second idea, I thought this was a really nice image to use because I think that the space look suits the Drum and Bass genre, I love how the different colours merge and form a nice oval. The colours are nice because I think that they fit the genre and the space background adds a nice finishing touch. The text is pretty good on this one I feel because it is in the right style and in the right place on the image, the colours draw the audiences eyes into the middle where the text is.
This of course isn't a professional cover but it is an idea that will be developed further if the group decide this is the one that we want to use.
These Ideas are for the front cover, the background theme throughout the digipak would be the background of whatever idea is chosen, this therefore will keep the digipak consistent and easy for the audience to recognise what genre/artist this belongs to.
A digipak is a style of CD packaging that typically consists of a book style paperboard outer binding with a few plastic trays which are capable of holding a CD attached on the inside. Digipaks were quite common when they were first released and all of the biggest artists had to have one released. Digipaks were really popular in the early 2000s and digipaks were also good because they weren't as bad for the environment as jewel cases and were relatively easy to make. A digipak usually is 6 or 8 folds and will hold one or two CD's. A digipak will have a lot of information about the artist and about their new album which is what the artist will want to know about. A digipak is important because I feel it allows the artist/band to connect with their audience.
Example of a Digipak:
A magazine advertisement is a powerful piece of advertising because the advert will normally catch the readers attention and the advert will be in a magazine that is suitable for the genre/target audience. A magazine advertisement for music will typically advertise the artist/bands album or tour. A magazine advertisement is important because it allows the viewer to know when the tour/album comes out and it is important because it creates another dimension to connect to their audience with and it is an important marketing technique.
Example of a Magazine Advertisement:
Digipak's are usually consistent in conjunction with the advertisement so that the consumer knows who the artist is/band are whether they are looking at the digipak or the advertisement. Having a consistent theme makes it easier to promote one or the other and if the consumer were to see the advertisement then they will associate that with the digipak when they see it in the shop rather than having to really look for who the digipak is by.
I have been thinking of some ideas for our digipak and I got some
inspiration from some digipak's that already exist and they are in the Drum and
Bass genre as well.
This first digipak idea is from the
Drum and Bass/Dance artist DJ FRESH. I like this cover because it has nice
colours that are blended in with a weird object (skull) in the middle of the
cover, I think that it's funky colours go with the dance side of his genre
and the skull is more on the drum and bass side.
This is the second digipak idea and
it is from the group NERO who do a few different genres and one
of them is Drum and Bass. I like the fact that they have a space feel
to this cover, this is pretty common in drum and bass digipak designs because
it has a futuristic feeling.
This is the third digipak idea and is from
the British Drum and Bass group Chase and Status. This is a group we were
considering to use because they are in the right genre and are British. I like
Chase and Status' album/digipak cover because it uses the conventional colours
for drum and bass which are black/white and yellow, I don't really know why
these colours are used but they are.
This is the fourth digipak idea and is
from the Drum and Bass/Dubstep artist Stan SB and he is the artist that we have
chosen to do our music video on. We chose Stan SB because he had the right song
for us to make a music video from, it was in the right genre, the lyrics are
excellent and the feeling is right.
This is the fifth digipak idea and is from
the artist Example, one of his genres is Drum and Bass. This cover is a typical
cover for drum and bass because it uses yellow and black. This cover is very
simple yet I think it is very effective.
This is a music artists poster from a genre that our group are considering for our final music video, the genre of this specific music artist is dance/house, I like this music artist poster for the song "Around The World" because it fits in with the background of the music video for this song. All of the people on the bottom there are in the music video as well so in that respect they also relate to the genre/music video. In this sort of music genre you tend to see red/green/blue colours because they are associated with dance/house music. The image on the poster does fit in with the genre of the music artist, it shows what is going to be in the music video in a subtle way and the message it is trying to get across to the audience I think is "we're not conventional artists, we like to mix things up".
This music poster is a good poster but it doesn't really fit in with the typical conventions of music posters; the ways it doesn't are listed below:
The artist isn't in there themselves, therefore the artist has gone with a cartoon poster to try and relate better to the song and perhaps the record label didn't want the artist on the poster, they wanted to do the poster in a unconventional way to most posters.
With this poster because the artist isn't on there they don't look into the camera to grab the users attention, they try and do it in a different and kind of cool way by using cartoons and the same colour scheme to the background on the music poster.
A few problems with this poster are; that it doesn't say when the album/single is released, where it is available to buy and the record label isn't on there.
Typical Conventions of Music Posters:
Typically the artist tries to promote themselves instead of the actual album or single.
The artist normally looks into the camera to capture audiences attention.
The image on the poster always represents the album/single itself, what the lyrics of the song mean and what the artist wishes to get across to the audience.
The colour-scheme links in with the image as well as the album/single itself, in that one image it tells the audience what they are going to get from the album.
This is the music video for "Around The World", in the background you can see the same colour scheme board that is used on the music artists poster promoting this song, this is good because it follows the same theme as the video and is therefore easy to associate the music video to the music artists poster.
Lip Syncing is the movement of lips to a pre recorded song to give the appearance that the person who is performing is the one who is singing.
The film track and music track are recorded separately during the creation of a music video, the artists usually lip-sync to their songs and often imitate playing musical instruments as well. Artists also sometimes move their lips at a faster speed from the track, to create videos with a slow-motion effect in the final clip. Some artists have also been known to lip-sync backwards for music videos such that, when reversed, the singer is seen to sing forwards while time appears to move backwards for his or her surroundings these make interesting music videos when watched.
Lip syncing is done quite often when the artist is performing at a live concert because they are auto tuned in the actual track and don't want to sound bad on stage. Lip syncing is improtant because the artist can't always sing to the song for the whole time they are performing on the stage, especially if they are dancing at the same time.
This person on YouTube has done a compilation of different songs and he has lip-synced to them, I thought this would be a good example of lip syncing when he clearly isn't actually singing every song.
- Sell products/ the song.
- Products can be marketed.
- Product desirable.
General Information off the Factsheet -
- Songs used to only available on TV music channels e.g. TOTP.
- Music + videos allowed in a variety of platforms now .
- Videos can be uploaded to sites such as YouTube.
- Viewed on devices such as mobile phones and iPods.
- The availability of this music on YouTube means that people were more inclined to watch the videos for free on YouTube other than paying for the music on iTunes.
- Laws put in place and record companies tried to sue anyone who uploaded a video from their record label.
- The record companies realise now that these sites are really time consuming to stop people uploading music like that.
- Most companies now allow their artists' music videos to be online but under controlled conditions
- Song BMG have a YouTube channel that hosts their artists' music videos from which there are links to iTunes to buy the songs.
- Television shows associated music such as X-Factor, upload performances from their show up to their YouTube channel so fans can view their contestants performances. They also have links so that fans can download the music off of iTunes.
- In America, 3 major record companies have combined to become VEVO. These are Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Abu Dhabi Media (along with content licenced by EMI).
- MTV Networld and Warner Music Group have allowed American Internet Users to access music videos via their MTV site.
Conventions of Music Video:
- Movement is essential to music videos and usually compliments the rhythm of the song.
- Movement can be achieved by physically moving the camera, the people moving and dancing or through the speed of editing.
- Narrative - Most music videos have them. The storyline may relate to the song's lyrics and illustrate what is being said or be independent from the song and tell a different story.
- Intertextuality - Music video is such a well established genre that it is possible for producers to play with the conventions by making references to the genre in general and to other music videos.
- Band or Artist - Most music videos feature them altough some might go against this and they are also a product to be sold.
- Lip-syncing - The artist may be featured performing their music in the form of lip-syncing.
Activity 1: Analysis of favourite music video
This video by Naughty Boy called La La La is my favourite music video at the moment because it has a good catchy song, the music video is very well done and there is an imaginative narrative to it. The main narrative is trying to include The Wizard Of Oz, where the man with silver face paint on is meant to be the tinman, the dog is meant to be the lion, the person dressed up as a scarecrow is meant to be the scarecrow and i think this intertextual reference is very creative and pretty easy to actually get because most people have seen the film The Wizard Of Oz so it links in nicely. I think that the camera tracking the little boy is decent because it shows his journey and the clothing is especially creative because it is appropriate to the narrative and follows the same sort of style in The Wizard Of Oz.
In this video, Naughty Boy himself isn't in the video so I think it is narrative based and not performance based. He wants to get a certain message across and if he was in it, it wouldn't get the message across as easy as it does at the moment. At about 2:36 in the music video there is a tv on the screen, this is especially effective because it isn't easy to read but gets a message across and the message on the screen says "Hotel Cabana" which is Naughty Boy's new album so this is promoting their album without the audience realising really. I only realised it because I delved into this music video to see if there were any hidden messages. Overall this is my favourite music video at the moment, my opinion is bound to change sooner or later but this is my favourite at the moment just because of the good intertextual reference to The Wizard Of Oz and the catchy song.
Activity 2: Conventions found in music videos
Genre:Clothing:Behaviors:Video settings:
Hip-hop Blinged up clothing Fast cars/bling on them Street
Metal/Rock Dark/black clothes Playing electric guitars Live performance
This is a music video from a student from another school. This song is called The Ocean. I think this is quite a good music video for a media studies student. The only problem is that I don't think that the narrative is clear enough for the end user and the lyrics don't seem to match the video which isn't very common. The lip-syncing is slightly out as well which is easy to pick up on in a music video because you are constantly looking at their mouth movements therefore the mistakes are more obvious than in something like a movie. The camera shots are decent throughout with quite a lot of varied shots in it, there are quite a few fades throughout the video which gives it a good affect instead of just normal cuts throughout but personally I am not a fan of fades because they aren't common in music videos.
The person who features in this music video is wearing clothes that I would associate with a person who likes this genre of music so I think that they have done well in that respect. I think that the lighting was good throughout even though it was outside because sometimes you can get shots where the sun is in the frame and makes the camera go a bit weird. I think that the target audience for the video is both genders from ages 16-25. Also, I think that the video would be better if the setting was near the ocean/sea because then the setting would correspond to the song title. There aren't any titles in this song apart from the beginning bit saying the students names and candidate numbers.
When artist releases a new album they use lots of different types of promotional material, they do this to make sure that the album that they release is well known and will be a success. For one of our ancillary tasks we have to produce a magazine advertisement/poster. I chose this magazine advertisement below because it is a magazine advertisement for a genre that we were considering to use for our final product.
This magazine advertisement is relevant because it is of a genre that we are considering for our music video. Chase and Status are British D'n'B artists who like to tour quite often hence me getting this magazine advertisement for one of their tours. As with typical drum and bass advertisements or album covers, this has the colour yellow in it and as well as this picture in the background standing out, this picture is also featured on their album cover so it shows that they are consistent with their designs. The layout of this magazine advertisement is decent because it has all of the relevant details in the right place, the title is in an eye catching position, the subtitle is nicely positioned in the middle of the advertisement and the tour information is situated at the bottom of the advertisement. This advertisement takes the same form as most advertisements in magazines but this one is good because it is pretty unique using a picture of a dog as the background.
From looking at this magazine advertisement, I think as a group we need to make sure that we make our ancillaries consistent with both the digipak and with the magazine advertisement. These are very important if we want to try and gain maximum marks in both the ancillary tasks.
1. Music Videos demonstrate certain gene characteristics.
I think that this song has certain gene characteristics because it has a car in it (hence the name of the song “Still Speedin’”), there are close ups to show the characteristics of the hip hop artist, there are attractive women in the video, the artist is also involved in the music video as well and is the centre of attention. These conventions are typically shown in hip hop music videos.
2. Relationship between lyrics and visuals. Often illustrative but could amplify or contradict the lyrics.
There aren’t really many lyrics relating to the visuals but ones that I did pick up on were where Dynamo makes a cameo appearance when Sway says the lines “Time to blow like Dynamo, no more disappearing act”.Another line is where “Seat belt” is said and it shows a seat belt but other than that there isn't anything else that I could pick out.
3. Relationship between lyrics and visuals. Often illustrative but could amplify or contradict the lyrics.
There isn’t any link between the music and the video really which is typical for a hip hop video.
4. The demands of the record label are that there are lots of close ups of the artist.
In this music video there are a lot of close ups of Sway, this is most likely because his record company has told him to be in a lot of the close up shots so you know that he is the artist doing the music video.
5. The artist might develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work. (A visual style).
Sway’s typical look in a music video is to wear glasses, I guess this is another way of showing off his style and you can recognise him easily if that is his particular style and in this music video he wears blacked out glasses.
6. There is frequent reference to the notion of "looking" such as the male gaze theory and voyeuristic looking at females.
I think that there are some voyeuristic bits in the music video nearer to the end where you see a woman undressing and this can also relate to the male gaze theory as she is shown in a way that is meant to interest men.
7. There are often intertextual references. Mostly to film, television and popular culture.
With this song I don't think there are any intertextual references. Although I did pick up on a few of the lyrics which were "Bobs your uncle, mines uncle Phil again" and I think thet line is perhaps related to Fresh Prince because Will Smiths dad is called Bob and Sway says he was raised by a dude as cool as him, as well as that, "Bobs your uncle" is a famous saying so that line might have a few different meanings.
Goodwin's Theory suggests that there are 7 elements present in most music videos, these are;
1. Music Videos demonstrate certain genre characteristics. e.g. Stage performance in a metal/rock video(Kiss), dance routines in a boy/girl bands video (JLS) or blinged up women/men in rap/hip hop videos (2 Chainz).
2. Relationship between lyrics and video. These are often illustrative but could amplify or contradict the lyrics. e.g. Taylor Swift - We Are Never Getting Back Together.
3. Relationships between lyrics and visuals. These are often illustrative but could amplify or contradict the lyrics. e.g. Daft Punk - Around the World.
4. The demands of the record label are that the artist/band has a lot of close ups. e.g. Britney Spears - Piece Of Me.
5. The artist might develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (A visual style). The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army. Man holding guitar and the woman playing her drums.
6. There is frequent reference to the notion of "looking" such as male gaze theory and voyeuristic looking at females. e.g. 50 Cent - Candy Shop.
7. There are often intertextual references - Mostly to film, television and popular culture. e.g. Plan B with the song and film Ill Manors.
A music video is a short film which integrates a song and imagery, produced mainly for promotional purposes but are also considered artistic as well. Modern music videos are typically made and used for marketing devices intended to promote the sale of music recordings.
Music Videos are made for a whole host of reasons:
Entertainment Purposes (the reason why I have chosen Michael Jackson's - Thriller is because it is the best and most well known entertainment music video/feature film)
To promote the artist/band (this videos promotes Rihanna because it is a promotional video for her new album LOUD)
To help the artist's/band's singles to be heard globally (on a mass scale) (this song "Gangnam Style" was a massive success on YouTube therefore it was heard globally and so far has racked up 1.7 billion views)
To give the audience an incentive to see the artist/band live (at the end of this song there is a performance bit where it shows a snippet of them singing along to the lyrics at a festival, this will give the audience an incentive to see the artist live)
To link with a Film/TV Series (Intertextual references of stories in Newspapers used in Paparazzi by Lady Gaga below).
To invoke reactions (This song "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood has sexual nature behind the lyrics and invoked a reaction with the public when they realised what the meaning behind the words were).
To ensure people remember the song/video (this song by Rebecca Black is really annoying, therefore makes people remember the song/video)
A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a piece of music, typically a song. Most modern music videos are used as a marketing device. The music videos tend to be visually memorable. The music video will normally last the length of the song. There are normally specific conventions in music videos they accommodate the genre of the song. Some music videos are called "Promos" this is because the record company wants to promote the artist/band gain money and the way to gain money is by putting out promo videos to get lots of different audiences interested in the artist/band. Music videos are termed as short-form music videos to distinguish them from full length movies.
1930's music videos/First music videos:
The first music video to be brought out was St Louis Blues by Bessie Smith in 1929. She appeared in a film called St Louis Blues to which this song St Luis Blues accompanied. It stayed in theaters till 1932.
1940's music videos:
In 1940 Walt Disney released Fantasia. An animated film which is accompanied by classical music. This is what made up their music video.
In the 1930's to the 1940's Walt Disney brought out Silly Symphonies, these were short films in which music accompanied them, they classed these as music videos.
As well as Silly Symphonies, Merrie Melodies also came out and was also a big success.
The animated short films from Walt Disney were built around the songs to create visuals to accompany the song.
1950's music videos/Middle of the century:
The earliest music videos or music promos were filmed in the mid 1950's.
The Panoram jukebox was then introduced with a few music videos on there at a time and you also had to pay to watch them. These were popular in taverns/night spots but faded out during World War II.
After the Panoram the Scopitone came out. The Scopitone is a type of jukebox featuring a 16 mm film component. Scopitone films were a forerunner of music videos.
1960's music videos: The next major influence on music videos was The Beatles - A hard day's night (1964). This is the music video for the song but the song was made into a full move which goes on for 87 minutes. The bit that features in this music video is at the start of the full movie.
After The Beatles, there was an American TV series called The Monkees, they performed a few songs and one of their most known songs is I'm a Believer.
The Beatles then took music to new heights releasing movies/music videos for Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane.
Psychedelic music period - Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced bypsychedelicculture and which attempt to replicate and/or enhance the mind-altering experiences ofpsychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid-1960s amongfolk rockandblues rockbands in theUnited StatesandBritain. Psychedelic music bands often used new recording techniques and effects and drew onnon-Western sourcessuch as theragasand drones ofIndian music. (Source - Wikipedia). These music videos by The Beatles were introduced right at the height of the Psychedelic music period. In 1964's TOTP (Top Of The Pops) came out and this was a huge success because for the first time you could see all of your favourite bands/artists performing on the TV or if you were lucky enough in the studio. This carried on through the 1970's, 80's and half way thorough the 1990's. This series carried on weekly for quite a while but was eventually cut off and only appears once a year as a Christmas special after the 90's. In 1966, Bob Dylan performed Subterranean Homesick Blues. This video was just of some man in the field flicking through sheets of paper with the lyrics on. Unfortunately I couldn't find a music video for this song. 1970's music videos/ Modern Era: The key innovations in the development of music videos were the video recording and editing processes. Also high quality colour video recorders came along and also portable ones came along and were much easier than the DIY made ones they used to use. These helped artists (particularly pop acts) to produce promo videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the high costs of using film. However, as the genre developed, music directors opted to use 35 mm film as the preferred medium, while others mixed film and video.
The first "Proper" music video is Queen's - Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975.
1980's music videos:
In 1981, MTV (Music Television) was launched. It was the first TV channel to broadcast 24 hour music. In MTV's early years their main target demographic were young adults, but today MTV broadcasts are generally aimed at adolescents and teenagers.
The first video to be launched on MTV was Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star.
In the mid 1980's there were more sophisticated effects introduced in music videos.
Michael Jackson took music videos to a new level when he made them into short films, he was the first artist to use this technique. The ever popular Thriller is the one that sticks out in my head as the best music video - short film. Thriller was introduced in the year of 1983 and the video cost around $500,000 which was a lot of money back then to spend just on a music video. (I have only added the short version as it doesn't allow for the longer version to be put on here, the longer version however is about 14 minutes long whereas this shortened "music video" version is the typical 4 minutes long).
In 1985, VH1 was released and the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly older demographic than its sister channel, focusing on the lighter, softer side of popular music.
In 1985, Dire Straights brought out a music video called Money For Nothing, this was the first music video to use computer animation.
In 1986, The Chart Show on Channel 4 was introduced and ran until 1988. In 1988, The Chart Show was then shown on ITV and ran until 1998. Channel 4 then got The Chart show back in 2003.
In 1986, Peter Gabriel's song Sledgehammer used special effects and animation techniques. This won 9 MTV music awards.
Now music television is in decline and the Internet has taken over as the platform for music video. YouTube, Facebook, Myspace and iTunes are now the go to places for artists. Lily Allen is probably the best example of an artist promoted and established through the Internet. Cheap technology also means videos can be made on any budget. The video for OK Go’s - A Million Ways cost less than £30 and was filmed in the singer’s back garden. The dance routine became an Internet sensation and was downloaded over 9 million times.
The most expensive music video is Scream by Michael Jackson in 1995. It cost $7 million to create. (Could only find it on VEVO on YouTube).
Top 5 most expensive music videos are:
Michael Jackson - Scream - $7 million
Madonna - Die Another Day - $6 million
Madonna - Express Yourself - $5 million
Madonna - Bedtime Story - $5 million
Michael Jackson - Black Or White - $4 million
From this we can see that in the top 5 most expensive music videos, Michael Jackson and Madonna take all of the spots.
On YouTube the most watched music video is Psy's - Gangnam Style. It was released in mid-2012 and already has 1.7 billion views which is just incredible. It is also the most viewed video on YouTube.
On YouTube the top 5 most watched music videos are:
Psy - Gangnam Style - 1.7 billion views
Justin Bieber - Baby - 875 million views
Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor - 680 million views
Eminem - Love The Way You Lie - 580 million views
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem - 555 million views
Key Conventions found in Music Videos from different genres:
Hip-hop - Usually includes artist, normally set in a club or party environment, usually no storyline, typically the women are dancers or models and usually half naked, features jewellery, alcohol, sports cars, features mansion and branded clothing and usually other famous artists featured in the video.
Examples:
50 Cent - Candy Shop
B.I.G - Notorious
T-pain - Low
50 Cent - In the Club
Pop - Colourful, close ups of artist, fun and light hearted, appeals to younger target audience, shows artist/band involved in dance routines, good mood - location - happy e.g. a beach/house, teenager scenario (crush) and video has a narrative.
Music Video no.3 - John Newman - Love Me Again (Pop/Soul)
Narrative - The narrative in this music video is quite clear. I think that it is about a man (john newman perhaps) that has done something wrong to a woman, he has hurt her and feels bad and he compares himself with devils and demons. Now I think that he regrets his actions and he wants to try and fix things. He's trying to rise above the crowd but needs to know if she can "love him again" which coinsides with the song title and whether it's enough to fight for. The basis for this song I found out is that he messed up with his ex girfiend and she was working down in Dorset for a bit so he jumped on a train to go and surprise her and turned up at her work. He asked her to love him again and again, which then became the title and basis of the song from which he wrote the lyrics on the train home.
Settings - Throughout this music video there were only 4 settings used, the first of which and the most common was the stage performance which was a good location I think for this kind of music video, then there was the room where the dancer(s) were on his/her own at different points in the music video, then there is the pool/snooker table room where the man and gir run through into the final location which is situated outside where the couple get hit by a van at the end.
Number of Shots - There were 144 shots used in this music video.
Transitions Used - There were a few transitions in this music video but of course the most common was a cut as it is usually the most effective transition in music videos. There was a little fade to black I think when the woman walks across the camera at 1:04, lots of the transitions are cuts and some of the rest are ones where someone walks across the camera then it cuts to a different clip but I like them sort of transitions because they seem more real.
Representations Seen - In this music video there are a few representations present, the first of which I think is age because most of the people in the room are of a similar age which can connote that they like the same sort of music/are always together with people of the same age as each other or on the other hand it could be to enhance the fact that the 2 people are sort of out of place because they seem younger than all of the other people in there. I also think that gender plays a part in this music video because it seems like most of the room is filled with men probably trying to connote that he is only talking to one woman and she should feel important and that he isn't interested in any other women.
Music Video no.2 - Bruno Mars - Treasure (Disco/Funk)
Narrative -The narrative of this music video, as in most of Bruno Mars' videos, is that of another woman. In this song he is saying about how he was feeling towards this woman that he likes. He says "Gimme your, gimme your, gimme your attention, baby. I gotta tell you a little somethin' about yourself! You're wonderful, flawless, ooh you're a sexy lady, but you walk around here like you wanna be someone else". I think that these lyrics tell the narrative well because what he is trying to say basically is that he wants her attention to tell her something about herself, he thinks she is wonderful, flawless and a sexy lady but she walks around like someone else - this last line is interesting because I think that what he means here is that she is insecure and is not comfortable with herself and also wants her to know that she is amazing just the way she is which then links into one of his other songs "Just The Way You Are" which incidentally says the lines "'Cause you're amazing, just the way you are". I think the main narrative of this song is Bruno Mars trying to make this girl that he like realise she looks nice just the way she is and that he treasures her. There is a section of the music video (1:13 to 2:04 mins) where it goes into a psychedelic state. Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and/or enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. I think this type of music video is in the category of a psychedelic pop video.
Settings - The predominant setting for this music video is on a stage, this isn't really a typical scene for this type of music genre so perhaps he is trying to say something by being a bit unconventional.
Number of Shots - There were 80 shots used in this music video.
Transitions Used - Most of the transitions were cuts. One transition which was good was where it was like a box coming onto the screen with another video in it so it came over the top of the video that was playing (1:13).
Representations Seen - This song "Treasure" is a good example of a modern day disco/funk video I think because it has most of the generic conventions that disco/funk genre music videos should have. With lots of disco/funk sort of songs they try to put a message across which I think is a fun sort of vibe to make people feel happy. A representation that is used in all of Bruno Mars' music is to do with gender and the opposite sex, he always includes something about a women in his lyrics and this is typical of Bruno Mars. I think that another representation in his music video could also be age because he seems to have a song that is for the younger generation which then juxtaposes the setting and costumes because they are quite old fashioned.
Narrative - The narrative of this music video, as of many of Marshall Mathers' songs, is that of his life. In this song he is saying about how he was feeling depressed but he was able to pull himself out of his slum and he's telling a story of how he did it. He knows he will never have it fully figured out. "This black cloud still follows me around" he knows it will always follow him around but instead of it getting the better of him he is going to fight it when he gets out of his slum and is less insane. I think the main narrative of this song is him getting back on the road after being addicted to drugs and living in a slum and I feel that he now wants to make a difference with his life and not be depressed all of the time.
Settings - The predominant setting for this music video is on the streets of New York and this was shown at the start with the establishing shot, we can also see the Brooklyn Bridge in the shot this reinforces my idea that it is set in New York. Another setting is a house that looks tatty perhaps derelict.
Number of Shots - There were 213 shots used in this music video.
Transitions Used - Most of the transitions were just cuts. One transition which was good was where he was walking up to the bus as it was passing then the shot cross fades/wipes into another shot but it looks good.
Representations Seen - This song "Not Afraid" is a good example of a modern day rap video I think because it has most of the generic conventions of rap videos. As with most of the rap videos of this day and age, they are mainly trying to get a message across and this one is saying about if you go down the road of drugs then if you are lucky you will get the chance to rebuild your life but it isn't easy to do. There can be negative views against this genre because there is a lot of swearing, people taking drugs, blinged up men and women and cars being driven erratically and these are typical of a rap genre music video. This can have a negative impact because some children watch these videos and try to recreate what is happening and that obviously has a negative impact on a lot of things. Especially because rappers like Eminem are role models for children and if they are doing them things then children will want to live up to their role model. Like with all media representations this music video has a purpose and an audience. The purpose of this music video is to make children realise what Marshall Mathers went through in his life and how he wants to sort it out and ultimately telling the children to not go down the path that he took as it is hard to get out of. The target audience of young teenagers will listen to this music because they feel that they can relate to the message being sent.
This video from Arctic Monkeys is a performance video. The song and video is based around prostitution in Sheffield (this is also where the band are from) and a man that is implied as either the prostitutes pimp or client and throughout the song is described as a "scummy" man. The first image of the video is a woman who turns out to be the prostitute. This first image is from the start of the music video and we can tell that she is from a urban, poor area from the background having a tower block in it. I think that the tower block going around her is making it seem like she is caged in as it goes all the way around her in the shot. The woman is seen at a mid shot so you can see the expression on her face this is a sad and depressed one and we can also see her clothing in the shot, she is in a hoody and jacket which is the stereotypical clothing of someone who lives in a council estate area. My first impressions of this woman are that she is relatively poor and very unhappy.
As the video plays, our impression of the woman doesn't change as she stands on the estate and smokes a cigarette until the image of her leaning in a car window and standing on street corners our impression turns to more sympathy towards the woman for the condition of her life. In the video, the women is seen walking down a spiral staircase. This could be showing us where her life is heading: in a downward spiral. The "scummy" man either her pimp or client increases this feeling of pity for the girl as he seems controlling as he cuts and places food on her plate almost as if she were a child and abusive as he picks her up and carries her as she struggles to escape, his grasp, pulls her around by her hand and whilst in the back of a car he licks her face and manhandles her. Despite this the video portrays she puts up with this abuse because he in a way looks after her by supplying her food and warmth and at one point is shown to be placing extra layers on her to keep her warm.
The video also shows the lack of glamour in the girls life as when she tries to become a magicians assistant which is normally a glamorous job the man gets jealous and beats him up and forced her to slap and punch the magician showing she is trapped being a prostitute and trapped being with this man who abuses her. The atmosphere of sadness and depression is exaggerated through the weather as well. It is shown as cold, wet and a winter environment making the situation for the prostitute a lot worse.
The reason why we did notes and looked over this music video in class is because it is a good music video for the genre that it is in. We did this also to get used to doing textual analysis' on different music videos and this will help us and ultimately myself in doing good deep textual analysis' on a variety of different music videos from all different genres.
The genre of Plan B's music video Writing On The Wall is Pop, the genres that Plan B typically uses are soul, jazz, pop and rap.
In this music video I think there is a typical narrative and it is that there is a man who is happy with this woman in the beginning nut then the man has an affair/one-night-stand and then the woman is quite annoyed but still wants him back. I think in the music video/narrative there was what is expected from a song like this, where there is a relationship that then goes wrong, that there will be shots of the artist and there is a strong narrative. The things that I found that are unexpected in this music video are; there wasn't any attempt to fix the relationship but normally at the end of the song you would see an attempt to fix the relationship but that doesn't happen which is weird and unconventional and that there is a one-night-stand and he messes up his relationship in one night.
I didn't see any intertextual references really apart from that there is an ode to Stevie Wonder lyrics "there is superstitious writing on the wall". The basic storyline of the music video is that there is a man who breaks up with his girlfriend because he was seeing someone else. There are themes of love and lust in this music video. The structure is pretty recognisable as in TODOROV's Equilibrium, in this music video there is an Equilibrium, Disruption and Recognition. There are some recognisable characters in the narrative, these include; false hero, villain, hero, male artist, female protagonist and antagonist. The video reflects the lyrics pretty well where her relationship isn't over but he is having an affair.
There are a few representations of gender present; age; gender - woman in kitchen making meal - stereotypical, male who's the worker and celeb has more power over the women. These are represented in the music video in the following way; age/gender is represented in the setting where Plan B is/men are nearly always in a setting that is old looking and dull and the woman are in a setting that is brighter and more modern like the kitchen. I think that this could represent a divide between both the men and woman and a divide in Plan B and the woman's relationship. In this music video I think that Plan B is represented as the villain and his girlfriend is represented as the hero. Plan B is represented in this music video as a celebrity as he appears on the screen and there are a few close ups of him.
The video setting for this music video are; woman in house cooking, man at club performing, looks like it's set in the 70's and white room is innocence when the woman is in there. The colours used in this music video are quite varied. On the man the colours seem to be dull but on the women the colours seem to be more colourful and bright. Some typography in the music video is where there is a Strickland Banks Presents sign at the club and it also has a sold out sign to show that he is obviously very popular. There are a few shots that stand out in this music video and these are; ECU of girlfriends face at home, ECU of meal and this connotes how important the meal is to her/his last chance, Low Angle of Strickland Banks which can connote power, High Angle on woman to connote her being vulnerable, CU's of woman and ECU's of the guitar and band. There are POV shots showing Plan B moving around to see his prospective. The editing in this music is quite fast paced and there are a lot of cuts which keep the pace up.
The target audience is Plan B's fans mainly probably in their twenties to thirties because of the time of setting and there are girls for aesthetics, he is smartly dressed and the setting is a typical place to attract young adults - in a club. I think that the demographic grouping for this sort of music video is E and D this is because the way that Plan B portrays his songs and music videos it seems like he is trying to address the people in them demographic groups. The record company is paying for the artist to look like a star in the video with the big sold out sign in red and to appeal to women. When Plan B performs to the camera his iconography is to wear a suit.
