Media Research Stages

Jordon Monckton

Purpose of Music Videos

A music video is a short film which is played with a song, the artist is featured in this video and this is how they advertise and get their song to be well known and memorable. Most music videos are made as a marketing process to get the song well known and therefore sell lots of

records. Every music video possible has been made, every idea has been thought of and therefore makes it harder for artists to think of more original ideas. The artist use lots of different

techniques from animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. These all create different and abstract ideas which will attract a big

audience and if its different will usually get more and more people viewing it therefore making them associate the song with the video selling thousands of copies. Many music videos do not

interpret images from the song's lyrics, making it less literal than expected.

Development Music videos have developed significantly over the years mainly due to the new technology used to make them better than they have ever been. The music industry is very competitive so artists and producers have to always becoming up with new ideas so their videos are better than the other hundreds that they have to compete against. People nowadays remember songs due to their music videos and the special techniques the production team come up with to make their product well remembered and sell well. For example, Michael Jacksons Thriller – is remembered due to the dance production that was made with it making it attract attention and be remembered which it intended to do.Nearly every artist tries to be different and uses their music videos to attract the listeners attentions, Lady GaGa and Rihanna all make outrageous videos which have everyone talking therefore promoting their song by word of mouth. Music Videos will continue to develop as new technology comes and more and more artists take leaps to get noticed.

Technologies InvolvedIn the music industry there are hundreds of technologies used, and they all started off with just one camera which would of taken hours to film and get right, especially as it was in black and white with no special effects. This has changed a ridiculously amount in the last 100 years as we have become more obsessed with better and greater things, people use the cinema and film as escapism and therefore look for something that is better than reality, the film industry do this by using technologies such as; green screen, digital cameras, cinema complex, red camera etc, these are all different types of technology are making the film industry bigger and better which attract a lot more people. Artists are always looking for the next thing to wow their audience and therefore use this technology to show them bigger and better things which would interest them and attract them visually as well as acoustically. The internet also okays a massive part in the music video process as it has massive audience, you can advertise on sites such a YouTube which is shown in practically every country in the world showing that anyone can access your video at anytime, anywhere in the world. This makes the internet one of the main distributors for music videos helping the artist get their music out there showing the audience how they have used the modern day technologies to make their videos the best on the market.

Conventions of the product

Conventions of music videos are all the aspects we expect to see and are able to relate with the genre and representation. These usual conventions are part of Mise-en-scene, Editing, Camera Shots, Lighting, Costumes, Camera Movements, Sound. Examples of these are shown in every single music video that is ever made, these codes and conventions help us relate to music videos and identify them correctly.

Conventions of Pop Videos -Girly, Bright, Happy, Sweets, Children, Outdoors, Nature. EG – Britney Spears, Girls Allowed, JLS.

Conventions of Hip Hop Videos-Streets, Weapons, Pubs, Clubs, Girls, Cars, Smoking, Alcohol. EG – Eminem, T-pain, 50 Cent, N-Dubz.

Conventions of Indie/Rock Videos-Instruments, Leather, Smoking, Long hair, Dark, Eyeliner, Alcohol, Warehouses.EG – You me at six, My chemical Romance, Kings of Leon.

With all these conventions we have learnt to recognise things through them and automatically understand what type of genre we are seeing from the video being played.

Theoretical Approaches

Andrew Goodwin's approach to music videos:

Goodwin suggest that music videos are constructed by the link between the song and the video, as well as the video showing that people are recognising songs through videos more and more. He also suggest that the camera shots of close ups creates a relationship between the artist and audience making them feel like they are involved and can relate to the artist. To do this Voyeurism is show to make the video appeal to more male audience, they use females to attract men and therefore relate hip hop and pop videos to voyeurism. Although intertextuality is also used to make the videos seem more funny and create a familiar connection with the audience.

Andrew Goodwin's has developed a theory that highlights music videos into a form –- You may see examples of voyeurism, mainly towards females which also creates stereotypes.-A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or going against the lyrics.- Genre defining the music videos showing different styles and how people can relate to them.- Close up shots of the main artists to show them as the main part of the music video. -A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.

Contemporary issuesAs music videos have been developing so have the contemporary issues that have come with them. Every artist has tried to be different and do something that will make an audience ‘wow’ due to these explicates that the videos show some have been banned from YouTube or are only allowed to be shown on the watershed after 9pm. Although this is not just the videos, the lyrics in some song are also known to be rude, explicate, sexual, racist, homophobic and therefore have dropped a lot of rating for the song and the artist. For example Eminem wrote a song about homophobia and therefore was hated until he came back with a song with Elton John.