- 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.
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.
Great work here - a good introduction to music videos!
ReplyDeleteThank you .
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