Research on Music Videos
I have researched different music genres to find a music video by an artist in each category. Pop, Rhythm and Blues (RnB), Hip Hop, Rock, Classical and Dance.
RnB Genre
For the RnB genre I have looked at the artist Ciara and her video for “Love, Sex and Magic” which I found was an extreme of the RnB genre. The actors in this video were 5 tall, young, black women dancing promiscuously with a white man, Justin Timberlake. The girl’s costumes were extremely revealing, modern and stylish, and were often different in different scenes. However this works within the context of the video. The video was set in a studio with poles, chairs, disco lights and mirrors which I found made the viewer focus on the dancing, singing and acting in the video rather than the scenery, this is a cheaper option.The video was split into three of four different scenes, and different/unusual camera angles that changed quickly to relate the video to the predicted audience. The songs lyrics matched the video fabulously. The narrative of the song is simple and short, portraying a negative image of women as their bodies look perfect – imposing a beauty ideal on young girls which in turn could seed eating disorders in young girls trying to look like the women in the video. The actual story of the song is about how women use their "magic" to seduce men.
Pop Genre – (Sad)
I have looked at a sad song in the Pop genre because I felt as though the Pop genre is too big to sum it up with just one video. The sad song is Pink – I don’t believe you which the video shows a jilted bride who is extremely upset. The video has only one actor which is the artist who sings and acts at the same time, her costume is a beautiful wedding dress with jewelry. The location for the video is in a stunning mansion set up for a wedding where the artist wanders round what could have been her wedding day. No expense is spared in the making of this video, as all the props and wedding dress will cost a small fortune which I’m not prepared to spend on my music video. The shots in the video included panning across the variety of rooms, close up shots which focused on the artist crying and good use of a mirror meant that some shots were created through a mirror. The video was in black and white which instantly produced a sad narrative, and the use of rays of light and candles emphasized the sorrow the jilted bride contained. The message of the video was about not believing the people closest to you and sometimes they let you down, which is quite a large and serious topic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIOwNrb6Enw
Pop Genre - Girl BandAnother video I have looked at is the Saturdays with “Forever us over”. The main actors for this video were the 5 girls who were comforting each other after presumably breaking up with their partners. The location for the video was mainly in a house and at the park, general places, but towards the end they were singing as a group and were looking very glamorous. Within the video I found a variety of CU, LS, low angle, high angle and panning shots. I found the editing was quite clearly cut, I think this created a narrative throughout the video to relate to the fast song and keep to fit in with the song. I found this video quite simple and cheap. The narrative of the story was grieving over a relationship of lovers, which is quite an emotional message.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGPwmr2FWn4
Another pop video I looked at was of JLS and “everybody in love” which simply a boy band is singing a mushy love song. The actors were predominantly the four young men, but with several different girls with them at any different time. The audience was mainly girls in the group scenes. The angles were again CU, MS, low and high angles and panning shots, this will give a variety and is attracting to a younger audience. The narrative of this video is very “loved up” and has a simple short message of love the one your with.
Rock Genre
The Rock video was by Biffy Clyroe and the song “Golden Rule”. The actors for the video were the band, and they weren’t acting at all, they were playing the music in a small room of what on the outside looked like an old mansion. The four men all had long hair, tattoo’s and had their tops off which gave a feel of the “rave” scene. The shots were extremely distorted and included a range of CU, MS, LS, Panning and zooming in and out which created a confused atmosphere. The layout of the video involved scenes from the room the band were playing in and long shots of the old mansion which had been digitally distorted. The whole genre is something that doesn’t really appeal to me so it is more than likely I won’t do a music video on this genre. There seemed to be no narrative of the story, as the main focus of the video was about the band performing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDmeMjsV35U
Classical GenreThe classical music video I found very dull, although my age of 17 is not the targeted audience age, so I wouldn’t be expected to like it; however this is realistic because I understand that the music genre is for an older audience. The video included a male pianist, three female violinists and the opera singer. The location for the video was a simple studio with smoke often appearing and a few candles on the floor along with the musical instruments. The costume for the musicians involved suits and ties for the men and classy dresses for the females. The shots included many CU’s of the man and panning shots of the three violinists and pianist. Editing for this video was extremely slow, with lots of fading. The lyrics were Latin and I didn’t manage to get the name of the composer because I watched it on the "classical" music channel, but I can safely say that this video has influenced me to create a music video for someone of my own age. However, a nice touch I found was that the candles all blew out at the end of the video, this is something I think I could use in my own video.
Dance Genre
The dance video I have looked at is David Guetta and Akon’s “Sexy Chic”. This video involved a gathering of beautiful looking people at a pool party, a variety of shots were included that went up and down mainly the dancing girls bodies and MS and CU shots of the two men playing about or singing, a particular favorite shot was an underwater which created an extra interest, the camera’s later were splashed with water which gave a lively impression. This video is definitely for a mature young audience because the amount of movement, light, and clothing in the scene would not appeal to an older generation. The narrative of the video is quite light hearted and is about enjoying yourself, something that I partially aim to cover in my music video.
Country Genre
For the country music video I found Taylor Swift and her song “15”, which the narrative was all about growing up today, and issues facing the everyday 15 year old girl. The camera angles were of the main actor which was, Taylor Swift and included MS, panning and high angles showing the girls vulnerability and youthful face. The scene included butterflies, clouds, flowers and a fake scene of a country farm. I also found that the weather contributed to the mood of the lyrics at any given time, so when the lyrics were sad - it rained. When the lyrics were happy, it was sunny. I think that this is something I’d like to use in my video because you never can predict the weather yourself which is the same in life. I also liked the narrative of the lyrics that matched the song as the lyrics told a story.
Conclusion
In all the music videos, there were similarities as all genres included the band or artist singing purely, however all except the Rock and Classical videos included a narrative of a story to link to the song.
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