Conventions

In music videos every camera shot has a big impact on the meaning. Close ups and cut up body shots are used to show the artist singing, emotions and face expressions. Close up will also be used to show the band members playing their instruments, for example  ‘Never too later’ by Three days grace stars with  a close up to show the guitar player with his hi’s guitar. In music videos the main form is fast editing, that makes it hard to grasp on the first viewing of the images to offer the audience different pleasure. Mise en scene is what the audience see on the screen such as props, characters, setting, costume, make-up, lighting and sounds.

Intertextuality is when a music video takes reference from a film, for example ‘the kill’ by 30 seconds to mars takes reference from the film ‘The shining’  Cutting to beat is when the camera shots are edited to match the music beat or the bass line. Green screen is where the artist is stood on front of a green back drop, then a background is added behind the artist for example ‘Show me the way to Amarillo.’ Miming/ lip singing, this is where the artist fakes the singing in the video and then it’s recorded afterwards in a studio and then added in the video at the post-production stage. Extended song meanings are when the audience can add a meaning to the song’s lyrics. Allusion is when an artist uses someone as a reference in their songs  or example Shania  Twain ‘that don’t impress me much’ when she talks about Brad Pit and she says “okay, so you’re Brad Pit? That don’t impress me much” and then she makes a reference to him for ‘good looks’.

Techniques

 Goodwin’s theory suggests that the video amplifies, illustrates or contradict the lyrics and the music. It also says that close-up should always be included because their important especially when it’s a video of a band  there will be a close-up of their instruments  and each genre should have their own musical style and iconography such as punk music has the band members playing their instruments , skinny jeans, converse, spiky hair, mohawks in their videos. Also the band or artist might want to start their own star image by developing star iconography. Goodwin says that a female performer is often objectified mainly for display purposes through a combination of camera shots and editing to show sexualised actions of the star, for example ‘only girl’ by Rihanna  there is lots of close ups of the star showing sexualised actions because it’s a selling point.

Concept Based

In a concept based video is more  dependant of the camera angles rather than what’s happening on the screen. Most concept based videos don’t usually make sense and they use an abstract metaphorical image with links to the song allowing the audience to create their own interpretations they also us a simple idea that’s not usually related to the song then they develop it. Example ‘Holiday’ by green day, the song is about war but the video starts with the band in a car and time is moving fast around them  and their moving to different location throughout the video. It also has a part where the band‘s in a bar or something and their all drinking and the drummer is dress as a girl. After that the band is in the car and its parked up the bass player and the drummer are sat in it and the lead singer is stood at the back of it with girls dancing around him. Then the band goes back into the car and at the end of the video the car slowly moves into shot whilst the band looks like their all asleep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0tMy82yxi4

Narrative based

This type of video is where the video tells the story of the lyrics. This type is popular with all sorts of artists because most songs have a narrative, and lyrics to follow.  In a narrative based video there a five elements to it which are equilibrium, disequilibrium, recognition, reparation and new equilibrium. Example  ‘Jesus of suburbia’ By Green Day  this video starts off with the reparation  first with  a dialogue bit with the characters Jimmy walking over to his girlfriend telling her that he saw her with someone else. Then it goes to the equilibrium of him and his girlfriend at a party having fun and happy then it goes to him and his girlfriend in his room. Then it goes to the disequilibrium and recognition of Jimmy and his mum arguing he has to drag her home from a party   then its shows  Jimmy having a fight with a guy that he saw his girlfriend with. The narrative new equilibrium of him packing his stuff and leaving his mums house. The reason for this type of video is so that the audience understand the song more and the video helps with that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA8v3B1SxR0&ob=av2n

Performance based

Performance based video is when the band or artist is dancing or performing on their own or in front of a crowd. In this type of video there is no narrative it’s just different camera angles that are repeated.  This type of video is more popular with rock artists rather than other artists because rock artist play instruments and it gives them a chance to show the audience what they can do so there would be close ups of each band member playing their instrument example   ‘Know your enemy’ By Green Day the shots go to each band member all the way through the song and the camera also shows random things such as lights and a CCTV camera.  Another example is ‘Down with the sickness’ By Disturbed who uses iconography so the audience recognises the type of genre such as the way they dress the crowd jumping and going crazy, pushing each other and head banging. The camera shots used in this video are  repeat by going to the band walking down the hall way then the drummer is show then the guitarist  as well as the singer and the rest of the band and also the crowd is shown.  Other artists usually have dancing in their video such as Rihanna in ‘umbrella and only girl’; both videos are of Rihanna dancing.  Artists like Rihanna us sex appeal as a selling point. That’s why this type of video is used for R&b and Pop artists.

 Disturbed Down with the sickness link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkhfL0pnMPQ&ob=av2e

purpose of music videos

What is the purpose of music videos?

When music videos started off 20 years ago the main purpose was to promote the sale of the bands song and to add visual imagery. If people watch a good video people will remember it and because they like it they’ll keep watching it when it comes on. If people keep watching the video the song will eventually rub off on the viewer. A good music video grabs the viewer’s attention because how well it’s visually created. Over time the purpose has changed, when music videos first started they were shot films example Michael Jackson’s Thriller, but now music videos are there to promote the song. Over time videos have changed by going shorter, some videos have nothing to do with the song itself. 

Introduction

For this assignment I will be commissioned to develop a blog that shows my understanding of the purpose of music video. I must understand the style, conventions and techniques of music videos.