Audience

Audience
Why do audiences consume music videos?
If a viewer wants to interpret a song the way the artist wants to. But mainly it is the same as any media texts - entertainment, escapism. 

Uses and Gratification Theory
Information - To learn about the world we live in, anything
Personal Identity - To IDENTIFY with a character or artist.
Entertainment - To fill time / escape from normal life. Enjoyment.
Social Interaction - With each other - using a media text as a talking point, for conversation. OR with the media - building a 'relationship'. E.g. Kim Kardashian - watching her show, following her on twitter, buying her branded products.

Male Gaze Theory (1975)
Media products (film, TV, magazine, video games) are predominantly made for heterosexual males. Women's costumes are often tighter, shorter and more revealing.
Females are "for the pleasure of looking at".









Example - an advert that is FOR men; man is clothes and wearing a suit, showing success. Woman is naked - there to attract men to look at the advert.









Example - an advert that is FOR women, but still has a woman posing naked and seductively. 


Questions
1. Watch the videos and then rank them in order of how engaging you found them.
1. Little Mix - Black Magic
2. The Vamps - Somebody to You

2. Why might they get repeat views or be shared/recommended?
Black Magic may get repeated views or be shared as it as a comedic story line as well as an engaging one, for example the audience will want to know what happens after the 'spell', which can be talked about by people.
Somebody to You may be shared as the boys are the focus of the video, which attract audiences through personal identity and entertainment.

3. How do each of these artists benefit from music videos? Consider the audience in your answer.
They may benefit from money through advertisements. They also may benefit through popularity, a good and engaging music video can attract new audiences. This can get them to also listen to other music from that artist.






TARGET AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
Gender
Race
Age
Class
Ethnicity

Editing Styles Research

Stormzy - Big For Your Boots
Genre - grime
Fast paced song, no narrative, performance video
Not a one shot music video, many fast changes in camera angles, fast editing
First 15 seconds - 
shot 1 - 4 seconds
shot 2 - 1 second
shot 3 - 2 seconds
shot 4 - 1 second
shot 5 - 2 seconds
shot 6 - 1 second
shot 7 - 1 second
shot 8 - 1 second
shot 9 - 1 second
shot 10 - 1 second

Foo Fighters - The Pretender
Genre - Rock
Fast paced song, video has short narrative 
It is not a one-shot video, however it is in one setting the whole time 
Before the first beat, one camera angle, as beat comes in massive change in editing to very fast paced and multiple camera angles.
shot 1 - 8 seconds
shot 2 - 3 seconds
shot 3 - 4 seconds

Studying Music Videos

Camerawork
- As with any moving image text, how the camera is used and how images are sequenced will have a significant impact upon meaning.
- For example, just like in feature film, certain camera shots and angles will create meanings for the audience of a music video and can be used to emphasise messages in the song or suggest qualities in the performer.

Editing
- Though the most common form of editing associated with the music promo is fast cut montage, which makes many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing (thus ensuring multiple viewing), there are videos which use slow pace and gentler transitions to establish mood.
- This is particularly apparent for the work of many female solo artists with a broad audience appeal, such as Adele.

Lisa Loeb "Stay (I Missed You)" Music Video
Camera work: Slow tracking out from the cat and then slow tracking in to the singer to set a calm tone which reflects the slow paced, depressing music. Slow tracking towards her face sets an uncomfortable scene for the audience.

Define key words - recap
Dominant representation - people/society that is represented with power and dominance over others
Genre Hybridity - Multiple genres 'merged' into one, e.g. rom-com
Stereotype - a typical/conventional aspect of an object or person
Enigma code - something that happens that we do not understand that draws us in.
Countertype - something that isn't a typical/conventional aspect of an object or person

Intertextuality = When one media text makes reference to another pre-existing media text

1964 - The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show
1999 - Outkast: Hey Ya
Intertextuality = Reference to the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, Hey Ya does the same, sort of a parody of the beatles.


1991 - Massive Attack: Unfinished Symphony
1997 - The Verse: Bittersweet Symphony
Intertextuality = both music videos follow and focus on one character singing the song, with a background and people that the character ignores

Bands which are 'mocked' in the video
Backstreet boys - I want it that way
Nsync - Tearin up my heart
Blink182 - What's my age again?

These videos were popular as they take another popular song and 'spoof' them for comedic purpose.

Paper 2 Section A - Music (Introduction)

Paper 2 Section A - Music

- Music Videos are an important promotional tool for marketing performers and their music.

- They help to create the 'star image' for a new performer (e.g Roddy Ricch)

- They adapt or develop the image of a more established artist. 

- Music videos are used to interpret and anchor the meaning of a song and to entertain the audience.

- Iconography (visual elements of a genre) indicates the genre of music and the style of the performer.

Performance: One Direction - 'What Makes You Beautiful', Lady Gaga - 'Poker Face'. Close ups of the performer, direct address to engage the audience, different outfits.

Narrative: Katy Perry - 'Thinking of You', David Guetta - 'Titanium'. A story is created, sometimes the lyrics don't match the visuals at all and there are just actors, enigma codes.

Conceptual: Lady Gaga - 'Bloody Mary', Ok Go - 'Here it goes Again'. They are based around an idea or image.

- There can be a combination of more than one of the above: 30 seconds to mars - From Yesterday.

The History of Music Videos
- As soon as cinema became popular, there came with it an opportunity to put songs to visuals.
- As early as the 1920s, jazz musicians began to make short films to accompany popular songs.
- In 1965, Bob Dylan made 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' as a segment of the film 'Don't look back'
- This is widely recognised as one of the first music video.

Music TV - Promos
- In the 1970s, producers of music television recognised an opportunity to make short promotional films to promote their artists.
- They began to make 'promos' - early music videos. These often replaced live performances which had previously been the most common way to promote releases on TV.

Example - Bohemian Rhapsody
In 1975, Queen released Bohemian Rhapsody with a groundbreaking video which marked the beginning of the music video era and set the language for the modern music video. The video is considered one of the first to use advanced visual effects.

First Feature Length Video - Thriller 
- Soon artists realised the power of the music video and how it could affect their image.
- In his 1988 book Moonwalk, Jackson expressed interest in having director John Landis direct the music video for Thriller. Having seen Landis' previous work on a horror film, Jackson based himself on a character from Landis' film.
- In 1983 MJ released Thriller, a 14 minute music video. It was shown in many cinemas during its release. The led to acting roles in films including 1990 when he starred in Arachnophobia.

Conventions
- Videos may use linear narratives telling the story of the song or performance montages to draw attention to the song or the performers.
- Videos may use contrasting settings and associated lighting – location or studio or in performance, urban or rural, exotic or everyday, to match the style of music and the musician’s image.
- Videos may use contrasting camerawork and editing to create a tone to match the song and the musician(s), by creating documentary style naturalism or a more stylised performance.
- Videos may use only the music track as soundtrack or may add diegetic elements to help create a self-contained fictional world.
- Mise–en-scene: Costumes, facial expressions, props.
- Use of representations.
- Band shots.
- Bright lighting. 
Conventions in: Katy Perry - Last Friday Night
- Colourful background (clothes, bedroom, etc.), which matches the style of music; bright, bouncy.
- Location of a messy room, people knocked out exhausted; reflects the 'Last Friday Night' convention of being hungover, etc.

- Last Friday Night conforms to a pop genre through the fun that the characters are having and dancing during the party.
- Paradise conforms to an indie genre as they are dancing with instruments that usually are played in indie rock.

Refreshers
- Passive audience - an audience that only watch a media text rather than responding to it actively.
- Active audience - audiences that don't just watch a media text, but are actively involved within it.
- Theoretical framework - aspects of LARI C, language: camera, editing, sound, mise en scen, audiences: uses and gratification, etc. representation: stereotypes, typical representations, Institution: what the media text is produced on, Context: the backgrounds of the media text.
- Mise en scen - characters, facial expressions, lighting, probs.