Conventions of Music Videos

Techniques of Music Videos

Goodwins Theory

Goodwin suggests that lyrics in a song will visually relate to the music video. Ne-Yo singing 'Let me love you until you love yourself' is visually implied on screen. As shown in his music video it is him getting close with a girl and showing he has feelings for her.

Genre chracteristics are certain traits associated with music genres for example R'n'B you expect scenes to be at night maybe in a club of some sort or at a day time party in a hot place, jewelry around the neck, pretty girls and stylish clothes shown during the music video. A good example of is Wiley Heatwave, in this you see a huge day time party with alot of girls half naked and wiley wearing stylish clothes.




Notions of looking is the way someone is seen. A good example is alot of women in music videos are presented as object according to Goodwin. It is not just restricted to women it can represent men such as controlling or cheats.

Narrative based songs were also part of his theory where he feels people watching the video should be able to relate to the experience. It can either be fragmented or linear which is only broken up by the chorus. A example of this 'What you Say' by Jason Derulo where during the song he's describing what happened and telling the story then after the chorus has passed carrying on the story and explaining what happened.

The sound of the song and the effect is has on the audience for example a fast paced song should have a fast cutting rate and a slower song should have the opposite. A good example of this is Gangham Style where in the song it is slow paced at one point then when the beat becomes really fast the cutting is really fast then after it slows back down the cutting becomes normal again.

Styles of Music Videos- Concept Based

A concept based music video is where a music video slightly relates to the words of the song but things in the video are mostly random and it does not have a narrative story to it. A good example of this is Skrillex- Bangarang ft sirah.


In the video the beat and pace of the songs relates to music video for example when the kids are robbing the ice cream van it turns to heavy base and beat. This can make the video interesting as you wonder what the video is about.

Styles of Music Videos- Performance Based

Performance based music videos are where you just see the artists doing a performance of their song. A good example of this is Labrinth feat Emeli Sande, Beneath Your Beautiful. In the video you see the two artists singing a performing the song with only cutting when it changes singer along with Labrinth playing the piano. This is a good technique as it gives viewers the chance to see the artists perform the song without any story to try and follow.


This technique is very good also for showing off someones dancing for example Beyonces, All The Single Ladies shows off her body and her dancing and is a very well known and popular performance based music videos.

Styles of Music Videos- Narrative Based

Narrative based music videos are videos where a story is told throught the music video relating to the words in the music or a story is shown through the video. A good example of this is Coldplays song, Hurts Like Heaven. In the music video there is a comic theme to it where it shows you the story through the song and leaves a 'To be continued' at the end to show that the story isn't over yet and speculating another music video will be made for a song from their album. Artists do this to get the audience hooked to the song and make you want to know the story of the song. People will then often watch the music video multiple times to make sure they haven't missed anything important. This is a good technique used in many music videos.

Introduction

In this assignment I will be talking about the techniques and conventions of music videos, purposes and about some of the most popular music videos.

Purposes of Music Videos and Extension Income

The purpose of music videos is initially to get the artists music more known but it can also be used to improve other things. One of the things that can be improved is the revenue earned by the artist, for example with every million viewer that vies their video on Youtube the artist gains a certain amount of money and if a song becomes popular after being seen on as a music video it encourages the listener to want to listen to other songs done by the artists where they may eventually buy the song or album by the artist or go to their concerts if they are touring. Also it can be used to improve the artists image. A good example of this is Lady Gaga who uses her music videos to be known as a unique and very different person related to her music videos by what she wears and does in her videos. This has improved her image alot as from being barely known at first to being the most person followed on the networking site Twitter.


A synergy which is a song on film which is part of its soundtrack made popular because of the film and becomes more known is Justin Biebers Never Say Never where during the song clips of the film are shown during it. This a good way of income using films to promote songs.
Another example of this is Project X when during the film a song by Kid Cudi called 'Pursuit of Happiness' has become popular since the film being released.

Another way is through having their song played through adverts, getting the song more known and also the income from the company producing the advert. A good example of this is the Relentless advert where it uses Professer Greens




Music channels such as MTV and 4Music are also a good way for artists to produce income. MTV started in August 1981 which started off as just a music channel, now it has a varity of reality TV programs and has become very popular over the years.