THE PURPOSE OF A MUSIC VIDEO

The purpose of a music video is mainly to try and promote the song to sell the music to the largest amount of people possible.

Commonly, music videos have a narrative that relates to the song and this can help audience understanding of the lyrics and the overall message.

Beyonce's If I Were A Boy has a video which actually acts as a visual representation of the role reversal sung about in the song. Beyonce stars as the female in the relationship who acts as the male, cheating, flirting and interacting with other people behind her husbands back.

Using Beyonce as an example again, another purpose of a music video would be to display an artists other talents. In the Single Ladies video Beyonce demonstrates her dancing abilities as well as her voice. 

The whole video features a constant dance routine and difficult choreography which only some artists opt to do in their music videos.

Michael Jackson's Thriller was listed in the Guinness Book of Records 2006 as being the Most Successful Music Video, selling over 9 million copies. 

Thriller demonstrates Jackson's skills at singing, dancing and acting all combined into one music video. The video became a worldwide phenomenon and one of the most famous imitations is the Philippines Male Prison rendition.

Sometimes music videos are used to portray some subliminal messaging to an artists fans and audiences. Lady Gaga very popularly writes songs and creates music videos which tell the world something. Her song and video for Paparazzi explains how tabloids and articles about her slowly demoralise her and the video is hyperbolic of this message in that it displays her in a wheelchair. 

GENERIC CONVENTIONS OF MUSIC VIDEOS

Key conventions in Rock music videos:

A common setting for a Rock music video would be an arena or festival. This is because a majority of Rock videos feature footage from concerts and sets. This means the lighting would be quite bright and it would cut between footage shots and performance shots of the band/ artist.
The costume would generally be similar to the costumes the band already wear; black, leather etc.



This example of Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N Roses shows footage of the band performing and cuts to random bloopers of the band as well.

There are a variety of shots used including medium and close up shots showing individual members of the band and the band together. Not used in this video but common in Rock videos is the footage of the audience.
However Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer music video does feature footage of the audience being incorporated into the music video, as seen below.

Key conventions in Pop music videos:

Pop music videos are generally seen to have the artist being the star of the video. Dance sequences and a lot of lip syncing are including to make the artist the centre of attention in the video. Pop artists, particularly females, use sex appeal in their music videos to attract an audience. A good example of all of these generic conventions is Britney Spears' video for Baby One More Time.

Spears has a dance sequence throughout all of the performance shots in this music video. Also during the shots with just her she tends to still lip sync. Commonly an artist will have back up dancers which follow the same choreography as the star. It could be said that male gaze theory is prominent in videos from Spears, Perry and Rihanna etc because they have a tendency to objectify themselves for entertainment. 

High Key lighting is usually accustom to a Pop music video because the song is usually positive and quirky.

A male example of this would be Bruno Mars' The Lazy Song. In this song Mars is the star and he lip syncs and dances throughout. Along with quirky back up dancers it is a positive pop song with high key lighting. However, there are no cuts in this video and the camera stays in the same position throughout, giving a lot of audience interaction and making it feel more like the star and the back up dancers are actually in front of you. The realism is then taken to another level when Mars interacts with the camera and points during some of the chorus. 

Generic conventions in a Rap music video:

Rap music videos have become more explicit and more objectifying throughout the decades. A recent trend that features in most rap videos is product placement. A Beats set of headphones or Pill speakers are usually advertised in the videos of Jay-Z, Dr Dre and Kanye West.

 

Cars, women, chains and money are stereotypically seen in rap videos and immediately into this video there is a car full of rappers with chains and women in bikinis. 

This video follows the stereotypes associated with the genre and the representations of women are lowered to just sex objects as expected. The lighting is quite high key because there isn't a negative message associated with the song. Generally it is a feel good rap song.

Female rap has become very popular since Missy Elliott, Lil' Kim etc tried to gain equality in the music genre. Since then stars like Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea have been topping the charts with their rap music. 

Beez In The Trap by Nicki Minaj and 2 Chainz is an example of female rap and also features the same stereotypes as before. 

2 Chainz can be seen holding a lot of money in this video and Nick Minaj herself is dressed in little clothing, showing he assets. 

Most Watched Music Videos

Music Videos are commonly watched on YouTube nowadays and the amount of views can be displayed under the video. The most watched video on YouTube to date is Psy - Gangnam Style. 

The quirky, random music video for Psy's debut single quickly became the most watched music video because the song, the video, the artist and the signature dance move all trended all over the world. With over 2 Billion hits (watches) on YouTube it will be hard to beat which is why it still remains the most watched video. 

Another video, which has been watched over 700 Million times is Shakira's Waka Waka. This is because during the Fifa 2010 World Cup this song and music video were associated with the sporting event and incorporated the whole world, just like the World Cup.

The video actually features footage of Footballers making it relevant to the song and building a gleeful and patriotic video all together. 

Miley Cyrus' video for We Can't Stop, her comeback single after completely changing her style, sound and attitude has over 400 Million hits on YouTube. What makes it so popular and so watched is the controversy that goes with the new video, Cyrus can be seen erotically dancing and the lyrics for the song are also explicit. Cyrus has turned from a southern bell to a one of the most controversial stars of the decade which is the main reason for the extreme amount of views on the We Can't Stop video and the other songs from her new album. 

One of the most popular videos in the 80's would be Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation. The Sgt. Pepper jacket which can be seen on Jackson and her back up dancers was iconic in the 80's with girls of all ages copying both her style and imitating the dance moves. The video was released before YouTube was created but since YouTube the video has been viewed over 4 Million times. 

In the 90's Da Funk by Daft Punk was one of the most popular music videos and their breakthrough single due to the new sound of electronic music and their eccentric music video. 

The Dog-Man star is one of the appeals to the video because of its originality and the humour that everyone in the video doesn't realise he's a dog. The video is very popular and acts more as a short film than a music video because of the acting and actual storyline in the video. 

MUSIC VIDEO HISTORY

"A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes."

Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody is usually regarded as the first music video ever created. This is due to the fact that because Queen were touring, they couldn't be available to perform on Top of the Pops so they created a video of a live performance of Bohemian Rhapsody. At the time this was considered revolutionary, after a while it caught on and the next big star to evolve the way music was watched and listened to was Michael Jackson. Billie Jean and then Thriller were the most popular music videos around.




The first ever music video to be played on MTV was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by The Buggles. Due to the title of the song and the message of Music Television rising above Radio in popularity, it fit perfectly with what MTV were trying to achieve. 



On the same day, 1st August 1981, other music videos were played like You Better Run by Pat Benatar and She Wont Dance With Me by Rod Stewart.

Music Videos really became prominent following the success of A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles film featuring many of their songs. This was before the launch of Music Television in 1981 and that was the point where music videos because an integral part of the music industry.

Some of the most expensive music videos to date would be P Diddy's Victory which costed $2,700,00 however Guns N Roses' music video for Estranged costed $4,000,000

Madonna's music video for Die Another Day costed $6,100,000 but had a marketing purpose. Madonna was honoured with the chance to sing the official theme song for the James Bond film Die Another Day. As all Bond films have an accompanied theme song, it was only likely that so much money would be spent on the supporting music video. The symbiosis would make the music video a way of promoting the film and connecting with the audience.

http://blog.tastebuds.fm/the-top-10-most-expensive-music-videos-ever-made/

Some of the most dominant Music Videos in the last 40 years include;

A-Ha's Take On Me

The importance of this music video which is still dominant to this day is the mixed use of camera and animation. The significance of having the male character appearing as a pencil drawing was brand new to audiences and gripped attention from everyone in the 80's. It won 6 awards; Best New Artist in a Video, Best Concept Video, Most Experiemntal Video, Best Direction, Best Special Effects and Viewer's Choice - and it was nominated for two others.

Flashing forward to 2009 is the iconic video for Bad Romance by Lady Gaga.



The first single off Lady Gaga's second album The Fame Monster showed a darker side to her which had not been seen before the November 2009 release. Describing love as 'ugly' and a 'disease' made this a brand new type of Pop music which captured the world in awe. Often compared to a new generation Madonna, GaGa created a new definition for Performance Pop which resulted on Bad Romance's 600 million views on YouTube.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF A MUSIC VIDEO

Sam Smith - I'm Not The Only One

This Sam Smith music video features a variety of locations such as a suburban home and some form of bar/club. This develops a visual contrast between the main male characters life with his wife and life outside of his home, where it could be suggested he is cheating on his wife. there isn't a significant colour to represent the message of the music video but a juxtaposition between high key lighting and low key lighting. The high key lighting surrounds Diana Agron's character displaying her vulnerability but ultimately, how she is the innocent wife being treated badly. 

This contrasts with the low key lighting when her husband can be seen interacting with another woman, showing that what he is doing is wrong and his intentions are bad. 

Certain iconography like the fire which Diana Agron's character starts is significant because it shows at the same time the music video cuts the scenes of the Husband cheating on his wife. The heat from the fire could be suggested to match the heat between the Husband and his mistress, giving reason for the love affair. 

In the shot of the back of the Wife staring into the fire, the depth of field is small, allowing our attention to be placed on the female protagonist. This shot composition actually changes the way we see the female character because it empowers her. The fact we can see her burning her unfaithful Husband's clothing and the brightness coming from the flames show Diana Agron's character in a new light and change the character dynamics. 

The long shot of the Wife character sitting in the middle of the floor connotes a sense of despair and loneliness about the character. 

Her body language also demonstrates a feeling of pain and suffering, due to the knowledge of her unfaithful Husband. The editing in the music video is fairly slow paced due to the tempo of the song itself. The ballad requires a slow paced video to accompany and the shots are slowly transitioned throughout the piece. The editing does cut between scenes of the Wife and the Husband with his mistress. 

The use of this is to show what each party is doing at the same time to highlight how distraught the Wife is. Accompanied with the lyrics "You say i'm crazy, because you don't think I know what you've done." the split between both characters shows the Husband doesn't realise his Wife knows about his affair, playing true to the lyrics. 

The genre of Sam Smith's music is Soul. All of the music he produces is typically of this genre due to the real world problems it covers and the relatable references within his lyrics. The narrative featured in this music video is a Wife who is being cheated on by her Husband but he doesn't know she is aware of it. Due to the lyrics and the style of music Smith produces, the storyline could be expected in the video because it perfectly matches the lyrics. Some subverted aspects which feature in the narrative are the binging of alcohol by Diana Agron's character as she appears to be a old-fashioned, traditional woman. Also the fire which she starts is quite unexpected for the video and the character which Luke Monaghan created. 

Todorov's theory can be applied to the structure of the video because the beginning shows an equilibrium where the Husband and Wife appear fine together. Then there is something to cause disruption, which in this case would be the Husband having an affair and his Wife knowing about it. There is definitely a recognition of the disruption because we see the Wife having a severe break down where she hysterically cries, drinks and starts a fire. The fire and the burning of her Husband's clothes could be the restoration of the disruption because she is deciding to get revenge and leave her Husband, however equilibrium is restored but not in the way the audience may have first thought, Diana Agron's character was 'imagining' the fire etc and actually decides to deal with her Husband's ways, creating a cyclical pattern to the video. With only 3 characters, it is difficult to apply Propp's character theory to Sam Smith's music video. 

Capitol Records are the label that Smith is signed to but they didn't play much of a part in the creation of the I'm Not The Only One music video. It was directed by Luke Monaghan who specialises in the creation of artistic music videos. He has created beautifully shot music videos for Disclosure and A$AP Rocky. Capitol Records have a huge part to play in the brand image of Smith, due to some of their other clients being Mary Lambert, Emeli Sande and Elton John, some of the biggest soul singers in the world. Just like Def Jam specialise in the culture of Rap and Hip-Hop music, Capitol Records prime their performers to be soulful and "poppy" depending on the artist. The brand of Sam Smith displays a soulful singer-songwriter who has been dubbed "The Voice of 2014" and "the male version of Adele". 

Representations that can be seen in the music video include the difference between men and women, the issues concerning infidelity and unfaithful relationships. Stereotypically the woman in the video is seen as vulnerable and submissive to the her Husband, allowing him to cheat on her with no confrontation of the matter. This is what gives the music video it's verisimilitude due to the video and the concept being very relatable. The male appears guiltless and due to the cyclical ending it suggests he frequently cheats on his wife. 

The target audience would be the same audience who follow the rest of Sam Smith's music. Audience's who appreciate the moving works of Adele and similar soul artists. For the video itself, fans of Luke Monaghan and his other work directing music videos. Perhaps a female audience is more accurate to the specific target audience than a male audience because the perspective of the song and video is a female who is being cheated on. However the lyrics can apply from a male's point of view so whoever is being cheated on or who has been cheated on can relate to the piece. Due to the famous cast of the video, the two step flow is a prime marketing technique triggered by having Glee's Diana Agron and The Mindy Project's Chris Messina playing the two main roles. Both well known for their roles in the popular shows, it is much more likely the song and music video will be passed around by fans saying things like "Did you see Quinn from Glee in the new Sam Smith video?". 

Sam Smith's soulful music is a good example of something I would like to create a music video for. I think a slower paced song with meaningful lyrics would be better to create a narrative piece to and allow for a lot of lip syncing and performance elements also. I have taken everything on board that I've learned from this video because it represents some of my original ideas that I had for my own piece.