Critical & Contextual Awareness in Music Video Production- Essay
In this essay, I will be analysing six different music videos speaking about their context, meaning and style of music video and types of music videos. I will also be speaking about theories by Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin.
Music videos can be split into three different types of music videos to help categorize them; Performance, Narrative and Conceptual (Experimental). They were catagorised by Simon Frith conducted in 1988 to show all of these types of music videos express themselves differently to the audience and have different criteria to reach.
The first type of music videos, performance videos, are the most common type of music video in the music industry. These classically feature the band or star singer performing in a concert to wildly enthusiastic fans. The goal of this is to convey the sense of the concert experience with this band to the audience and to shows the audience that they should like this band if they are so liked by the fans. Performance videos can also show the band or star in their studio creating their song. This is a reminder to the viewer that the sound track is still important to the band or star, showing the audience that this is still the most significant element to them, excluding the belief that they are in it for fame or money out of the audiences minds. Another theorist ‘Gow’ suggests that ‘”the predominance of performance indicates that music video defines itself chiefly by images of artists singing and playing songs”. A good example for this is The Hoosiers- Goodbye Mr A.
Second, Narrative music videos may tell any story with a sequence in the events shown. A classic and most common example of this is love stories. Narratives most likely follow the lyrics, being acted out in the music video or referred to in some way. Narratives are meant to capture the audiences attention with the story, keeping them entertained throughout. A typical structure could be that the boy meets the girl, the boy then looses the girl, and the boy gets the girl back by the end of the video. An example of this love story narrative can be seen in Taylor Swifts, You Belong With Me.
Finally, conceptual, or experimental, music videos rely on a poetic poem, primarily a metaphor to get the point of the music video across. These music videos don't tell a story but rather create a mood to be evoked by viewing it. These music videos can also contain many different meanings and can be interpreted by the audience in many ways, keeping the audience interested in the music video because they want to figure out the meaning. Each viewer may have a different feeling or opinion on what emotion has been created, as a metaphor can be in interpreted in different ways. A good example for a conceptual music video is Can't Stop by Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Music videos have also been said to have a key point by Andrew Goodwin. This means music videos can have relationships between the music and visuals, relationships between the music and the lyrics, genre characteristics, can have an emphasis on looking, close ups of the artists and intertextual references.
Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is basically following a narrative. What can be seen on screen is what the lyrics mean. In Shawn Mendes' song "Treat you Better" this is clearly evident that the lyrics and the visuals have a relationship.
The lyrics are about how a woman he loves is being treated badly by her current boyfriend and how he believes he could treat her better than this other man. It shows him in the video helping her and the other boy being mean as well as the girl crying over their relationship, matching up the the lyrics and their meanings. This is very much of a narrative kind of music video as it follows the simple love story convention of a man trying to gain another woman's love.
Relationship between the music and the visuals can be as simple as the video being edited to the beat of the song.
In Area 11's song "Heaven Piercing Giga Drill", it can be seen that the song is edited to the drum beats. As the songs beat gets faster, the video starts to edit to the beat making the edits faster. As the beat of the drum hits, the shot changes along with the colour that they are wearing and what’s in the background. This makes the video flash between black and white to the beat of the song.
Music videos are also capable of having a specific genre or topic in them. The most popular music videos to do so are hip hop songs which are based on money, girls and cars, even the police.
In Bruno Mars' song "24K magic", the song is emphasizing on money through how they are dressed, the settings behind them- one being a mansion- and even the lyrics refer to money. This music video has a genre about money, the title of the song even referring to 24k which is gold, giving off a very hip-hop vibe from the music and the video. This video could also have a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as they are expressing how much money they have.
[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]Songs that have close ups of the artists with often make them the "main star" in the video, basing it around them and their lives.
In Little Mix's song "Shout out to My Ex", all shots in the video are focused on the four girls, starring them as the main stars of their own music video. They are also the only four people to feature in the music video, basing it all around them and their lives. The fact that they only feature these four band members shows that the song is based around them and their life experiences, singing the the audience and telling them all about this experience of having an ex-partner.
Music videos that emphasizes on looking normally shows someone travelling in different locations and going to hard terrain to find what they are looking for. The most classic ones that have emphasis on looking are love songs.
In Enrique Iglesias song, DUELE EL CORAZON, ft. Wisin, he is shown travelling through deserts, cities and riding horses on the search for love. The music video clearly shows that he is looking for something and creates a huge emphasis on it, especially when the song is all about looking for this girl's love. The song title "Duele el corazon" translates to "the heart hurts" showing that the song is about love and how he will travel far and wide to find this girl for her love.
Music videos that include intertextual references refer to a large time in society or to something that is very recognizable to everyone. This can span from a dance to even racial territory about the police and coloured people.
In this song by Mika called "Lollipop", the animated writing in the video can be classically figured out to be packaging of chocolate bars. One can easily be recognised as KitKat and it references to many different kinds of sweets and assortments that everyone can recognise. Although it doesn't enthuse on a large part of society and it's issues, like many intertextual videos do, it still shows something everyone can recognise.
Centuries by Fallout Boy
Centuries, a song by Fallout Boy, is set in the Roman Era and follows the narrative of a gladiator's life. A gladiator most famously fought in arenas a like to the one shown in the music video. The music video is actually historically accurate on what gladiators and Romans would've worn back in that century and where they used to fight. They even refer to it being set in historical times by the title of the song.
As this song is a narrative music video, the lyrics can be linked to the visuals. They link to a gladiators life, fighting in an arena and that they are fighting to be remembered. One lyric that can prove there is a relationship between the video and the lyrics is "Just one mistake is all it will take" when it shows the other gladiator being killed. This has a strong link, telling the audience that if they make one mistake, they will die. This can evoke the audience to feel scared for the gladiators. Being a narrative music video, it can gain the audiences attention because they will become conversed with the story line.
This music video also has intertextual references. The reference to God in the video when the man gives them rope and other objects before they fight, one being a sling shot with a stone. This is a obvious reference to David vs Goliath being made in the video. This video also refers to God at the end when the man grows wings and light shines behind him. The message of this metaphor made is that they can become powerful and defeat their foes when they have God by their side. This, of course, can bring many different meanings to the audience because it is religious based. The reference to God can also be seen in the cover, the "T" in "Centuries" being a cross, making my analysation more accurate and reliable.
Religion was also a large part of the Roman Era as they believed God was the only one that could heal or punish someone, whether that being the plague or providing food and water. Science wasn't really believed to its fullest in this era because scientists were still discovering how illness worked. This has strong context for the music video and why the gladiators can win when they have God on their side, providing the audience with information on why God is such a large symbol in this video.
I like the narrative in this video and I can appreciate the research that went into this video to make the video historically correct. I like the narrative and can give me some ideas for a narrative storyline that I could use for a music video that isn't love based.
Lovers on the Sun by David Guetta
David Guetta's song, Lovers on the Sun, featuring Sam Martin is also set in a historical time. This music video is set in the Cowboy Era (1866-1886) and uses many western themes throughout. This song also follows a narrative, following a love story narrative of the boy and girl falling in love.
Being a narrative music video, it can gain the audiences attention similarly to "Centuries" because they will become conversed with the story and the historical context. Although this music video is narrative, the lyrics and visuals can be seen to have a relationship as when it says "lovers on the sun", the woman is holding her hand up to the sun. This video can carry many different meanings to the audience because they can argue on who were actually the good and the evil. This music video also doesn't feature either of the artists, meaning that it is complete narrative.
As this is a western themed song, there are definitely intertextual references to this time zone referencing the film "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" through the text on screen. This makes the music video relatively noticeable to the audience. Another factor, though very subtle, in this music video is that the coloured screens that pop up can either be linked to western wanted posters with black outlines of the person, making the audience feel urgency and danger in the video, or it can be linked to the colours of saddles that cowboys used to have. The coloured screens and writing can also reference "Red Dead Redemption."
The bright background and black silhouette is a style used in many videos and one kind of style I find visually interesting to use. It has been used in films and other music videos and I would love to interpret this style into the music video we are creating in someway because of it is visual aesthetics.
Contract by Area 11
Contract, by Area 11, is a performance based video as the band is playing their song in a garage looking area. This is to show the audience that they love performing their song and that music is the most important factor to them.
In this music video, all shots consist of the band members including close ups, making them the stars of their own music video. Most of their songs are performance based and feature them in the video, showing the audience that this is their music and connects to them on a higher level than anticipated.
There is also a clear relationship between the music and visuals when the lights flash to the beat of the drums (Epilepsy warning). The shots are also edited to the beat of their song, making it look more professional and keeps the audience interested in the music video because it isn't just one long drawn out shot of them performing. They also do slow motion sections throughout the music video to give a sense of "stuck in time" before quickly going back to the beat. The slow motion effect is used to keep the audience interested as well as to create meaning.
The colours in this video are also visually attractive, using a simple but outstanding colour palette of black, white, red, orange and yellow. They are used to evoke meaning to the audience, the red/ orange background being when he is in danger and the blue, neutral, colours for when he is safe. This is to give the audience a sense of danger as the song is about signing a contract which classically can be referred to "signing your soul to the devil." The colours are used to show a conversation, the red being the "devil" speaking. It can also be linked to this when they are using the sparkler on the string because it can reference to fire and danger.
This music video, although performance based, it can make the audience gain many different meanings out of the video on which camera shots could be which person from the conversation. This can be talked about even more by the audience because the band have not explained the meaning of the song or the music video, making the video very interesting and mysterious to the audience.
I do enjoy this style for a performance video because it keeps the audiences interest with all the different camera shots, how the colours are used to evoke mood and meaning and how the flashes are edited to the beat. This song is visually aesthetic and a style I would love to try and use in our music video.
Versus by Area 11
This music video is also by Area 11 and is another performance video. Again, this shows that they love performing the song for the audience and that the music is the most important factor to them.
Similarly to the Contract, all shots consist of the band members to show that they are connected to the music. This is a re-occurring theme in most of Area 11's songs. The fact that they only feature these four band members shows that the song is based around them.
This video has a relationship between the music and visuals, similarly to their other song, mostly through the video being edited to the beat of the song. As the video get brighter or darker, it is edited to the beat on how fast the transition is and how long the transition takes. This keeps the audience entertained and interested in the music video because it isn't just one long clip of footage which could get visually boring for the audience.
The colours in this video are similarly used to their other song , "The Contract". This video uses dark and gloomy colours to make the audience feel uneasy and lost. They also use black and white in the video with an affect that looks like faded film. This can be used to show there is a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics because the song is about war, referring to old war film tapes. Furthermore, the video does get brighter during the chorus, evoking a sense of hope and remembrance to the audience and once again linking to the song.
The video continues to show a relationship between visuals and the lyrics when the camera is angled in different tilts or are spinning around. This is to make the audience feel lost, linking back to the use of colour, and can evoke the audience to having a sense of amnesia. This sense of amnesia can refer to the lyrics "The virus in our heads" and "Can you remember what it is we’re dying for?" This cleverly can bring a hidden meaning to the video that the audience has to try and figure out, once again keeping the audience entertained as they try to understand the lyrics and the video.
I enjoy the hidden meaning that Area 11 use in many of their songs that has no explanation and that the audience has to figure out. It keeps the video interesting and keeps the audience watching the video to discover the connection. This could be a clever idea for the music video we have to make.
Scream by Michael Jackson
Scream, by Michael Jackson, is a conceptual music video. This video can hold many different meanings for the audience because it was released after his first trial. It can hold meaning that he may of been innocent and can cause the audience to get different meanings from this song on whether he was innocent or not.
This music video can evoke different moods from the audience because it holds many different meanings, bringing across a different mood for what the audience see in the video. This can mean that they feel sympathy, anger and many more.
Michael Jackson is the star in his own music video, along with his sister Janet Jackson. This is to show the song is based around them, linking back to the trial and trying to prove his innocence. His sister is also in this video to show Michael support and to show she is also having some troubles on how people see her. This interests the audience into this video to try and understand what he may of been going through.
This music video is also all in black and white which can make the video stand out more to the public eye. The use of black and white normally is to make a video seem more connected to the subject and to evoke stronger emotions. Michael Jackson's video does this as it is a topic relative to him and can evoke many emotions for the audience, linking back to the song being based around him.
In this video there is also a intertextual reference to God when he is sat with the light glowing behind his head. This can be seen in other music videos of his as well. This can be him thinking that he is alike to God being prosecuted for who he was because the song is about him trying to prove his innocence. This can evoke many emotions from the audience for this reference because no one really ever knows if he was innocent or not.
I enjoy that there is also hidden meaning in this video and it can hold so many different meanings to different people and their views. Although it is very controversial it is a very interesting style of music video.
Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes
Seven Nation Army, by The White Stripes, is also a conceptual music video. This means that the video can hold many different meanings and creates a mood for the audience.
This video shows a relationship between the music and the visuals through the fact that every triangle hits to the beat of the drums when formed. The skeletons also walk to the beat of the song which could link to the songs title because it is like a marching bands beat in the background. This can evoke different emotions because the audience can gain a sense of danger out of the beat and the link to the army.
The choice of using skeletons as the army is also an interesting choice of imagery. This could be referring to the armies death or his own death after fighting the army.
The colours in this video are specifically chosen for a reason. The red in the music video is to imply danger to the audience because the song is about a man fighting the army, making the audience sense danger on him fighting against the army. The black and white can once again be used to evoke emotion and create an eerie sense around the music video for the audience and to evoke stronger emotions. Black and white in this video also may be used to refer to death, alike to the skeletons, or may even be to make the band look more mysterious on why they are fighting the army.
The flashing lights can also refer to the sense of danger because they can be seen as search lights that the army are using to find him. This evokes the sense of danger to the audience and can link back to the use of the colours to create this sense of danger.
For this video, I enjoy the use of colour and the fact that it can evoke emotion to the audience easily. It makes the video visually interesting and is something that can be easily done for our final music video.
Our music video is roughly planned to be a performance based video with many close ups of the artist and a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. Our band is Shoot the Moon which have the music genre of Ska Punk. This means that the videos analysed above could all fit to the style of the song we are creating the music video for but conceptual may be out of the way. All the camera angles and styles used in the videos can be used for this style of song but we have stuck with performance and narrative.
References
"Simon Frith’s Theory". A2 Media Studies. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Area 11 - Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Area 11 – The Contract (Official Music Video)". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Area 11 - Versus (Official Music Video)". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Bruno Mars - 24K Magic [Official Video]". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Enrique Iglesias - DUELE EL CORAZON Ft. Wisin". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"David Guetta - Lovers On The Sun (Official Video) Ft Sam Martin". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Fall Out Boy - Centuries (Official Video)". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Little Mix - Shout Out To My Ex (Official Video)". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Michael Jackson - Scream". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"MIKA - Lollipop". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't Stop (Offical Music Video)". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Shawn Mendes - Treat You Better". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"The Hoosiers - Goodbye Mr A". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
"The White Stripes - 'Seven Nation Army'". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.
