My group member Lynette Carty typed out a letter regarding permission to copyright The Verve's 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' song. The letter has been typed to the management team of The Verve, I praised my team member for thinking outside the box and getting the negotiating side of things done.
Conventions of a music video really depends on the choice of music, but it can be said that most conventions in music videos are generally alike. Similarities can be seen between the different genres a good example is RnB and Hip Hop, the conventions used in both are alike that is why some people do not the difference between both videos.
Hip Hop Video - Missy Elliot - Work it
RnB Video - Destiny's Child - Lose my breathe
The two videos are similar in terms of conventions especially the mis en scene and editing.
Artist Performance
Most music videos have the artist involved in them, as you can imagine it is done to cause awareness. It is common for music artist to do this so their fan base grows. However some music artist choose to do the opposite and put the strangest things in their videos. This is shown in Swedish House Mafia - Save the world.
Lip Syncing
Lip syncing is done in most music videos as it links the lyrics and the song together, some say lip syncing also allows the audience to see the emotions that the lyrics give out. This convention is key to most music videos and it is in fact one of the key conventions.
Editing
The editing in music videos is key to most of the success the artist receives. The pace of editing has to fit the pace of the music, this is because everything has to look like it is running smoothly and that makes the audience have a better understanding of the song.
Mis en scene
The mis en scene in the music video has to match with the mood of the song, this is vital when you want to produce a successful music video.
If a song was very cheerful you would not have things that would be associated with sad things for example a grey sky. You would probably have a shot of people enjoying themselves at a party.
Lighting and the costumes are all part of the mis en scene because that is all part of setting the scene. The lighting is used to create the atmosphere, the more colourful the videos are the more upbeat and happy the song is. As for costumes this reflects the genre and the costumes are important because it reflects on the way the artist presents himself.
Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, for example the stage performance inn rock videos.
There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
There is a relationship between the music and the visuals.
The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist may develop motifs which will occur across their work.
There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly looking at the female body.
There is often inter textual reference to films, T.V. programmes, other music videos etc.
Laura Mulvey's theory of music
Mulvey looked at the visual pleasures and narrative cinema (Feminist film theory and audience)
Mulvey believes that the cinema reflects society and therefore cinema also reflects the patriarchal society. Mulvey's theory tries find out how a patriarchal society manifests itself in society.
Erotic Desire
Mulvey argues that women have two roles in music videos:
They act as an object of erotic desire for the characters.
They also act as an object of erotic desire for us the audience.
The 'Gaze'
Mulvey says the 'gaze' of the camera is the 'gaze' of a male. When the 'gaze' is active the female audience become passive, within narrative male characters always direct their 'gaze' to women.
The audience is made to identify with the male gaze because the camera films from the optical, as well as libidinal point of view of the male character.
The ability to express lyrics from songs into videos was introduced around the 20's. Cinemas were the inspiration for music videos, people saw this as another way to showcase their talent. Music videos are what they are today because of technology and how dedication and the work that has gone into them. Lyrics now have an emotional twist to them because of the things that maybe used in the videos, the words used by the artist are now put in to action, this allows the artist to express themselves and their songs a lot more. The Early Stages One of the first music videos to be made was Mamie Smith's 'Harlem Blues', this was made a video in 1935, so you can imagine how different it was to the videos we know watch, not only is the videos back then black & white it also did not have that much going on in it.
One of the first ever videos that was aired on one of the worlds best music television shows (MTV) was The Buggles - 'Video killed the radio star'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs - This was the actually video published because the URL to the music video could not be embedded. Technical Codes In the 90's a number of technical codes became more common:
The most common was the editing that was associated with the music promo, it had now become fast cut montages.
Split screen, colourisation had now become common used effects.
No representational techniques, in which the music artist is never shown.
Modern music videos are now different because of the use of editing and recording processes, the videos are also helped by the development of a number of effects such as green & blue screens. The video below shows the good use of editing processes, it allows the audience to engage in some sort with the video. What I mean by this is that the audience find it interesting to look at because it is telling a story of some sort. This video has some comic book like twist to it which definitely targeted his target audience of 16+ A ha - Take me on
The advent of HQ colour videotape recorders and video cameras has enabled many pop acts to produce promotional videos fast and relatively cheap compared to the high costs of using film. Justin Bieber recently directed his own video featuring the lovely, good looking Nicki Minaj. The artist used some useful techniques which bring me back to AS media studies, he used the handheld technique, he was able to show his POV and able to move the camera freely to make the audience believe they are involved in the music video. Justin Bieber ft Nicki Minaj - Beauty and a beat
For our A2 media coursework we were asked to make a music video and analyse the start of the music industry and examine the things they do to make a music video.
Music has many genres :
Dance & Electronica
Folk
Pop & Chart
World
Classical
Hip Hop, RnB & Dancehall
Rock & Indie
Soul & Reggae
Jazz & Blues
Country
I enjoy music a lot and my favourite genre has to be RnB, its my favourite simply because of the calming sounds that most of the songs have. People do not only listen to music but they also try use it to either relax and that is what RnB seems to do for me, others find enjoyment from different types of music and this gives an individual the urge to dance.
.jpg)
