Music video essay

Music Video Essay

Music videos became a way of artists promoting their music and ultimately trying to make more money. One of the first music videos was a song by Bessie Smith (1929), this song appeared in a two­ reel film called St Louis Blues. This video was filmed live and a lot of artists used live perfomance in their music videos. Some artists still use this technique today, mainly indie bands.

Techniques used in music videos The “technique” used in a music video is the editing stage of a music video and couldn't be done on set/live. This is a part of post production.Chroma keying is the same as green screening where a green screen is used and the artist (in this case) performs in front of it then a background image is edited after shooting. Here is an example of chroma keying; ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=debIyWS6Byc​ . In this music video, the artist is performing his song in front of different backgrounds, at one point he’s in rocket ship going to space and then flying around the city on some kind of mythical bird.

Another technique that is used in pretty much every music videos (other than narrative based stories) are miming/ lip sync. This is where the artist of a song performs their song “live” and sometimes dances depending on the theme of their video. Once shooting is done and all the footage of the artist lip syncing is complete, the music track is added over the top of the music video. This is a music video that has elements of lip sync in it but it is mainly narrative basedwhich makes it seem like the artist is telling the audience a story, ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj9coPGuFkM​ . Sometimes music videos use visual effects to make the music video more memorable and to have a lasting effect on the audience. This music video uses visual effects with psychedelic prints and animation,​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z6WJZUsDDs​ .The artits of this video are an indie group and it is very common for this genre to use visual effects as a technique because it the easiest way to set them apart from other genres.

Lastly, we have the technique “cutting to the beat”. This is when the music video is cuts in time to the beat, this is mainly used if there is a lot of dancing or there is a musical journey. ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcVv9R1ZR84​ , this music videoo uses cutting to the beat to help tell the story about her twisted/fake family.

Styles of music videos There are several different styles of music videos that are all different genres. Some of the most popular genres depend on the time period you are in, obviously because of the music eras. Currently, the most popular music genres are pop, hip hop,alternative, rock, house and EDM. However these can change depending on location and age group.For example, the UK house and pop music is more common in teenages. These genres are

influences to the style of the music videos. For instance, indie artists use in concert/ live footage because a lot of people don’t know indie artists and they are best known for their concert performances.​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGKfrgqWcv0​ , this is a music video created by an indie band called Mumford & Sons. They have chosen this concert footage style because for an indie artist they are most popular. Animation is another not very common technique used in music videos. In this case animation is used for an old school hip hop video.​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmnEhmjgZ9s​ .

This really was created for more entertainment purposes and it’s evident because of the big bobble head type characters roaming around the city. One of my favourite music video technique is the interpretive technique because it is left to the how the audience sees it. It’s the individual opinions of the audience and how they interpret it. This is an example of the interpretive technique and this particular video had a lot controversy in the media when it came out. ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWZGAExj­es​ . The opposite to interpretive is the illustrative technique.In this technique, the narrative is being fed to the audience. The artist often uses the illustrative technique to lyrically tell a story.​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbq016ZOWYw​ , an example of both a surrealist and illustrative technique being used to tell a story about drugs and how they are ruining his life. Narrative is basically the “story” technique, where the music video is used as a platform to tell a story. Here is an example of the narrative technique being used; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0&list=PLEFpfXTUvxos­7EHqig2fiZRyB tLq8jde&index=4​ Surealism is not a very common technique as it a time consuming technique and is only used when the artist wants a particularly message to be portrayed. ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEG2VTHS9yg​ , ​ this video is an example of surrealism because everything in the video is distorted and colourful to make the viewer feel high and as if they are on a trip. It is also representational of the song which is called L$D, this is stated to mean love sex dreams but LSD is also known as acid, which is a psychedelic drug. The parody technique is when an artist pokes fun at another artist,film or celebrity.​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ht5RZpzPqw​ This music video pokes fun at several different artists like; Christina Aguilera ­ “Genie In A Bottle” (1999), N Sync ­ “Tearin’ Up My Heart” (1998), Backstreet Boys ­ “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” (1996), Blink­182 ­ “What’s My Age Again?” (1999) and many more. Similar to parody is referencing but instead of poking fun of at another artist, they slightly hint towards another artist. This is often mistaken for homage but isn’t because referencing can be the artist costumes being similar to another artist from a different era.​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb5aq5HcS1A​ , in this music video the references are:Elvis, Beatles, Prince, Guns n Roses, David Bowie, Sex pistols, Misfits, Poison/steel panther, Nirvana, Foo fighters/system of the down. Lastly, the homage technique is used when an artist basically dedicates their music video to another strong

influence from history. Michael Jackson's iconic “Thriller” video created a short film just for one of his songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA#action=share​ Thriller wasn’t just inspired by one music video, it was inspired by two. Michael Jackson’s movie­like music video pulled ideas from Night of the Living Dead and West Side Story.

Codes and conventions Lyric Interpretation is the way that someone watches a music video in relation to the lyrics of the song. This convention is popular because a lot of people like to have their own view of what they think it means. Similar to the interpretive style.

Extending or consolidating song’s meaning ­ To capture the viewer's attention and emotion, a director will produce a music video that generally expands the song's meaning and "tug at your heartstrings". Sometimes they will normally have a different meaning to the lyrics. So it's almost like lyric interpretation but there is a clear meaning, even if it doesn't represent the lyrics.

Linking to other artists is a convention that is very similar to allusion which is a convention that is related to the styles of referencing or pastiche. It makes a reference to something else; very similar to intertextual referencing. It does this in the way that it references other artists, but it generally features an artist in the music video.

TV and other music video platforms Depending on the the genre, effect and style the artist is going for, not all music videos are going to shown on the same platforms. ‘Platform’ is used to describe a point of access when it comes to publishing a music video. There are several different platforms available to make music accessible to pretty much everyone and an artist isn’t limited to just one platform, good publishers would make sure it’s on at least 2 if not all of them.

Most popular platform are the music channels because almost everyone has a tv in their home and are able to have music channels. Websites are also popular because again, most people have a pc or laptop. However websites are also available on smartphones and tablets, not even just that Youtube is mainly accessible through websites. So essentially, publishing your music video o a website would be the smartest thing to do because it's almost guaranteed publicity.

Purposes of music videos Music videos can sometimes be the main reason that a song even gets recognized. The most obvious purpose of a music video is for promotional purposes.This means that the sole purpose of the music video is to get publicity for the song. This is commonly done with artists who are up and coming. For example, Tyler the Creator made a very

controversial video to match his controversial music and in the end got him a lot of publicity. ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSbZidsgMfw​ This video got ​ 83,690,934 views and the first step in his big break.​ Sometimes music videos are made to appeal to a visual audience. This means that the purpose of the music video is to entertain, these types of videos are usually surreal and theatrical. An example of this would be A$AP Mob ­ Yamborghini High ft. Juicy J purely because of the vibrant colours, the crazy edits and the expensive lifestyle they have. ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt7gP_IW­1w This video got ​ 14,466,933 views and 14,064 comments about how good the video is.

Another purpose for music videos is marketing an image. This means that the music video was made to portray a certain image, this may be shown in costume, dance,setting and make up . Beyonce does this best in her formation music video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrCHz1gwzTo&index=2&list=PLgULlLHTSGIR­gpkI QM8gq­W9VaX9CSXY​ This video is all about empowering black women and black people in general, she does this by exemplifying different types of black people some of them are just regular people. She also dresses and acts in a way in different time periods.

Conclusion In my essay I discussed all the different purposes of music videos. Doing this, there was a lot of different styles, techniques and conventions when it comes to music videos. So much more goes into a music video than most people think and the reason for this is because some artists heavily depend on their music videos for majority of their publicity and promotional. However, some artists don't even need a music video for publicity and can just put a song out there and get all the exposure they need from music apps and radio. These type of artists are high profiles and the artists that rely on music videos are most commonly low profile artists.