Purpose of Music Videos

Purposes of music videos:

• Sell the song and invoke a reaction so it leaves audiences remembering the song.
• It can gives the audiences a better understanding of the song. If there is a narrative on the screen which relates to the lyrics it gives the audiences a better understanding.
• To entertain audiences. If the artist has a talent in dance they can also show this off in the video therefore making them look better.
• markets the artists profile. Audiences will remember the artists face if he is in the video. Music videos are a marketing tool for artists.

Here is an example of Sam Smiths new song "Stay With Me". within the first 20 seconds he is the main focus of the song and has the camera time. He is a fairly new artist so they have made sure that he stars in the video so that audiences are going to recognise him from then onwards. This is clear that this music company are using this video to promote him.





I need to know the purpose of a music video because when it comes to making ours, we need to know what we are trying to achieve. From the list I wrote at the top I can see that when it comes to making ours to include a simple storyline so that audiences can understand the song lyrics.

Music Video History

Timeline Of Music History

Textual Analysis 3

For this task I will be analysing a music video. The music video I will be analysing is "Love How It Hurts" by Scouting For Girls.

Love How It Hurts-

Scouting for Girls are a pop-rock band from the United Kingdom. Their name is a play on the title of the 1908 Scouting handbook Scouting for Boys. The band consists of childhood friends from London, Roy Stride on piano and lead guitar/vocals, and Greg Churchouse on bass guitar and Peter Ellard on percussion.

The genre of this video is pop rock and the narrative is about a young boy in love with a girl his age and you see his life and what happens over the years whilst he is still in love with her. The girl in this clip is with another boy who is known as the ‘jerk’ and in the end it is a happy story for the protagonist as he ends up marrying her as she leaves the jerk. This narrative follows the Todorov theory as it starts with an equilibrium and ends at this stage.

 

 

The lighting for this music video is high key which connotes it is quite positive storyline. They have used bright colours which has connotations of happiness and joyfulness.

The characters within this video was all played by actors and Scouting For Girls were not sure at all. This is unusual for them because in all of their other videos they would usually be shown performing however they have just focused on the storyline for tis music video. They may have done this because they are a well-known band and do not need to promote themselves anymore as most people known them. This is shown by the fact this video alone has over 2 million views.  

The editing for this video is slow paced so that you can see the emotions of the characters. It also uses slow motion and a high angle POV on the protagonist in order to make him look weaker compared to the antagonist (the jerk in the video).

 

Textual Analysis 2

For this task I will be analysing a music video. The video I will be analysing will be Macklemore and Ryan Lewis- Same Love.

 

Same Love-

 

The genre for this music video is hip-hop/ballad. Macklemore is talking about gay rights and the music video is a short film. The film shows a young man who is maybe about 20 (played by Jairemie Alexander) tackling the problem of being homosexual and some of the problems he gets because of this. It shows him going through life and meeting someone who he falls in love with and is happy. Macklemore created this song because he wanted to show he is in support of gay rights and he wanted to get the message out there that people who are homosexual often get upset and that this is not right.

At the start of the video, the lighting is low key which connotes the characters life is a bit dreary and he is not currently happy because he hasn’t ‘came out’ yet. The lighting then becomes higher key when the male character marries his male partner at the end as the credits come on. This high key lighting connotes he is happy and the audience then understand that homosexual people have a right to be happy with who they are and that gay marriage should be legal.

 

The stereotype is that everyone is against homosexual people for the majority of the clip. For example the parents of the gay man. They have done this to show all the possibilities of people that might be against gay marriage so that the audience are more likely to relate as maybe they have seen people like that in their current lives.

The editing for this clip was slow paced in order for the audiences to see and understand people’s facial expressions in order to understand their feelings. If it was fast paced it would not suit the genre and the audience would not pick up the audiences feelings and may not understand the music video and what it is about.  

 

 

 

In this particular video, Macklemore was not shown in the music video at all. This is unusual for a music video because the artist will normally have so many close ups etc. so that the audience know who he is and remember him in order for him to be as successful as possible. I think the reason for him doing this is because the narrative of the song is about gay rights and is a serious music video with a meaning instead of a simple entertainment video so he felt he shouldn’t be in this video.

This music video showed a lot of close ups on different character face and included a slow pans. This meant that the audience were able to pick up on facial expressions. The facial expressions in this music video is one of the most important bits of the video because it shows the audience what is wrong and what’s right.

I think this music video style was quite good because as an audience you are drawn in and want to watch the music video and the song becomes less and less important because you want to know the characters life and the problems homosexual people face. It is also good because it feels like there is a music video for a reason and it has a purpose which makes the artist out to be a nicer person and become more likable.

 

Textual Analysis 1

For this task I will be analysing a music video. The video I will be analysing will be "Writing On The Wall" by Plan B.

Writing On The Wall-

The genre of this music video is pop/soul. The artist is known for this particular genre as he has albums with songs which are similar in style. The narrative of this particular song is about a love story between the character 'Strickland Banks' and his wife/girlfriend. The character; Strickland, is out performing a show whilst his partner is at home waiting for him to come back. From looking at his previous music videos I could see that there is going to be issues within it. I could see because his previous videos have followed the Todorov Theory in which there is a problem. It often ends with the problem stage as well due to his album running as one big story so for his last song in the album I am expecting it to end with an equilibrium.

This song also follows the album. The album is a story overall is the story of the character Strickland banks and all the songs together make a film.

The lighting within the video uses ideas of natural light within a club setting, low lighting with spotlights to help the performer stand out. When we see the scene of his partner cooking, the lighting is slightly brighter, almost neon but still sticking with ambient lighting, again giving the idea of a different decade, possibly the late 20th century. During the night scene, again the effect of natural environment is used, with street lights being the main source.  Reflectors and other hidden lighting will be used to help remove shadows, allowing the video to be continuous without glitches.

The stereotypes of this clip is that mean are shown to sleep around and not care for their women whereas women are seen to be sensitive and vulnerable. This was shown by the types of camera shots such as high angles on the women which connotes her as innocent and venerable. as I have previously said, this was also set back in the 20th century when women were less than equal and this was evident when there was a stereotypically shot when the women was at home cooking for her man.

In the video the character (who was the artist) was shown to be a successful artist known as Strickland Banks. He was shown performing in a nightclub which looked to be a good one as you could see the velocity of the crowd which were all screaming for his name. this shows the success of the character who was also the artist so it is going to help to promote him as an artist as ye is being made to look good and important. Whilst on stage there was POV/low angles looking up at Strickland which connotes his power and success.

The editing showed 7 shot reverse shots all which were led by the character Strickland Banks which says something about when this was set an which men were more dominant than women and they would take the control through relationships. Leading the shot reverse shots shows the importance of the characters and tells the audience whom is more dominant.




This is a screenshot of the first frame within the music video. You can see from the typography that it has his name in big writing and clearly says 'SOLD OUT' in capital letters. This connotes to the audience that the character is about to perform on a stage and the 'sold out' shows he must be a good artist because so many  people have gone to see him that it is sold out. As I have said before, the character is played by Plan B meaning that it shows the audience that he is a big artist himself and will help to promote him.

Real Media Texts

Beyoncé- If I Was a Boy
The narrative (what story occurs)	Settings	Number of shots	Transitions used	Representations seen?
The song is about a relationship and the problems involved. It also involves how men should treat women in a relationship in everyday life from a women’s point of view.	It was set in a city of the working class meaning that the audiences could relate to the video. This can help people to connect to the music video and particularly women as they are stereotypically seen to have been in the same situation as the narrative.	This music video had a lot of shots in and used a lot of close ups and low angles on the artist Beyoncé make the audience more aware as to who the artist is. In other videos such as Calvin Harris’s song Summer there would be a lot more shots because the music is more upbeat even though they could be classed as the same genre. 117 shots were used.	Not many transitions were used except at the end there was a fade to black used. The song was a negative song and ended on the problem in Todorovs theory so this transition may have been used to highlight that it is still on the negative and the problem has not been solved.	Men were seen to be not caring much for their girlfriends/partners and seen to not treat them correctly as they would tend to flirt with other people.

Calvin Harris Ft Ellie Goulding- I Need Your Love
The narrative (what story occurs)	Settings	Number of shots	Representations seen?
The narrative is that Calvin and Ellie play the characters of which who are a couple on holiday and they film their holiday and leave their cameras around to let other film themselves.  This is more of a positive song and it is about the girl expressing her love for the man and ‘needing his love’.	This looks to be set in America because they have certain shots which have an American Flag in the picture and also have foreign motorway signs.	The number of shots in this video is high because it is a fast paced song and in order for some lyrics to match the song it is important that quick cuts are made so it looks in time and looks good. Again there is a lot of close ups and extreme close ups on both the artists so the audience are aware of who the artists are and promotes them. Point of view shots are also heavily used in this video due to it being from their perspective. 130 shots were used.	The representation in this video is that the women is seen to need the man more because she is the one who is singing the lyrics. However this is a positive song and the male is not made out to be an antagonist.

Eminem- Like Toy Soldiers
The narrative (what story occurs)	Settings	Number of shots	Representations seen?
the song is based on a past-time of the artist, a dramatic part of his life, He raps about how problems occurred with other rival rappers, and also about how his friend and fellow rapper 'Proof' was shot because of the fighting that followed the problems between each other rappers lyrics being aimed at one another in an offence way.	This video does not have much of a setting because it uses montages from other rappers and does not show a particular location. He sits in a dark room a lot in the video which connotes maybe that he is going through a dark place in his life at the time.	The video used lots of shots from different places and used lots of close ups and extreme close ups of the artist rapping (Eminem) which again can help to promote him as an artist. 187 shots were used.	The artist is represented in an aggressive way in this music video which is seen my swearing and his body language. He gives off an angry feel to the audience and the lyrics match this.