G324: Independent Learning - Music Video Factsheet + Activities

Purpose of a music video -

- 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

Punk               Tight, black jeans       Skateboarding                    Skate park

G324: Other Students Music Videos

Music video 1:

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.

 

G324: Magazine Advertisements

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.

G324: Initial Ideas on our Music Video

These are my initial ideas on a music video:

G324: Textual Analysis And Goodwin's Theory

Song chosen - Sway -  Still Speedin'



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.

G324: Goodwin's Theory

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.

 

G324: The Purpose of A Music Video

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)