Music Video Conventions And The History Of The Music Video

Analysing music videos
The use of gratification theory quotes the reason people watch music videos is because they entertain, they have a social factor which influences the audience to speak about the music video and for it to be commonly known in that way. The personalisation and identification the music video can have on the artist so that the audience are able to put a face to a voice. This can also reflect what type of image the band or artist is trying to create. Also the need to escape everyday life, this can lead to shargon fraud as others take pleasure in peoples misfortune.
Most of these key point were identified when I watch a music video from the band Slipknot.
The band portray themselves as coming across as aggressive and threatening, the genre of the music video is metal. The narrative structure was a performance clip as I saw the band performing with their music instruments and singing into a microphone. There was a common theme of masks to perhaps create a feeling of mystery towards the band and create a surreal image. The instruments they were seen playing helped create a realistic image of the artist music. The uses of gratifications and uses the audience get from the video is that they included images of different aspects of metal music. The influence is for them to stand out and look cool for their target audience, in the video the band very reveal their full faces I could only identify certain angles of their faces.

Performance video
This is a music video that contains mostly film performance then it is a performance video. A performance video is a video that shows the artist in one or more different settings. A common place to perform is the recording studio and the rehearsal rooms, but the performance can be taken place anywhere. Often in rap videos there is an artist waking down the street, this is often common in this genre of music videos.

Narrative video
If a music video is clear short silent movie with a simple music background then it can be identified as a narrative video. It contains a visual story that is simple to trace. A narrative video contains no artist lip singing to the video.

Art video
A video is a art video when it contains no lip-sync or no visual narrative. The main difference between a music art video and a contemporary artistic video is the music.

Andrew Goodwin’s music video analysis
He proposes that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, stage performance in rock videos and a dance routine. That there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The demands of the records label will include lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work. There is a frequently references to notion of locking (screen within screens, telescopes etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. There is often reference, to film the programmes, other music videos etc. To identify characteristics of Goodwins theory I have analysed a series of music videos to identify some of his theories.

Lupe Fiasco-Kick Push
The genre showed characteristics for the setting, costume, lots of dark colours, cut ins of hobbies, people stood around on street corner to suggest that they are homeless and poor. All the characters in the clip were identified as being black. The camera angled from underneath the artist to reinforce the artist having power and being intimidating by having status. There are young gang members skateboarding around the city. There are strong relationship between the music and the visuals as we see different black gang members walking around the streets.

Coldplay-Speed of light
There is a strong relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. There are a lot of extreme close ups of the artists and flashing lights cut in through the video. There are different lighting in the background, lights goes with the sound, the artist is seen strongly expressing the lyrics as the lights increase, the artist is surrounded by the lights. Fast cunt in montage of different lights and colours and shapes, strong vocal ability. The same repetitive tune with the piano sounds in the background the basic music then add lyrics to it, the movement to the beat of the music is simple but catchy.

Avril Lavigne- Happy ending
There is a mid shot and close up or the artist, the artist is sat with a blurred video of her previously in the background as she reflects on what is happening in the video. The colour goes from black to white, when the artists is the running through the video after her boyfriend as though they’ve just has a fall out, she is directly running towards the camera as it follows her, here is a full on shot of the artist. There is a mysterious look in the artists face, with her dark eyes and hair we see a close up of artist.

Editing
Editing is associated with music promo fast cut montage, many of the images and videos use slow pace to generate transitions to establish the mood. Apparent of female solo artists with broad audience appeal. Editing digital effects makes it appealing for the audience, split screens, colourisation and course of blockbuster film style.

Laura Mulvey-Gaze theory
“The visual pleasure and narrative cinema”
The male gaze occurs when the audience or heterosexual man linger of the curves of a women’s body. Media texts are made from a male point of view in order to grab their attention. She believes sexualise exist not just content of the text but how it is presented. The gaze at women in advertisements that sexualizes a women’s body even when product is unrelated.
There are the “The three looks” which are identifiable, the first being the perspective of a male character on screen and how he perceives the female character. The second is the perspective of a spectator as they see the female character. The third joins both the first and second together as the male audience members perspective of male character in film this allows the male to take the female character as his own.
The hypodermic syringe is the term associated for the media which is being drilled into viewers. The two step flow is a term used as an example with audiences take of board and follow.

Audiences
Audiences are very important for artists and their music videos because the established music genre needs to target the correct audience in order for the video to get noticed. The genre which are often aimed at a young audience is pop music and the genre of music that is generally aimed at the older audiences is soft rock. The institutions moulding together with music and film to get themselves popularised and noticed in order for the music to sell. All media is never targeted as a riche audience more outlets and limited producers aimed at everyone. The advance of technology makes is easier for audiences to get hold of music and for artists to get themselves recognised. For example, the effect the internet has on production for an artist, fans can also publish videos on the internet.




History of the music video essay
I’ve researched into various music videos and television programmes where music videos were first broadcasted such as Top of the Pops and MTV. After completing all my research and collecting together key dates and important information I’ve processed it into an essay titled ‘The history of the music video’ this research has allowed me to gain knowledge and reasoning’s behind the original ideas for the music video.
One of the first music video’s aired on television was “The Buggles-Video killed the radio star” which set the convention for the music video in 1979.
Soon after Queen made their first music video ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for it to be originally aired on ‘Top Of The Pops’. The song was known as being too complex to perform live, this then begun the trend in the UK for other artists to create music videos. MTV launched themselves in 1981 in the UK, other artists began making videos and airing them on the show. Originally Queen broadcasted the video to enable them to attend other performances to promote the song. Queen’s video was very original and creative with visual images and special effects this was done using camera feedback and prism lenses. This idea came from the artist’s album cover where their looking up into their shadows, at the time this was known to be very high tech and was the first music video.
Top Of The Pops would be home to many artists as they would be able to perform their music and be rated by the public in the weekly top 20 countdown, the show was originally intended to have just a few programmes but ran for over 42 years having a prime time slot on Friday nights on BBC One. By November 2004, viewing figures had plummeted to below three million, the BBC show was then going to move, again, to Sunday evenings on BBC Two, which meant losing the prime-time slot on BBC One that it had maintained for forty years. In June 2006 the show was formally cancelled, however the Top of The Pops Christmas special is still hosted by TV presenters Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates.
The significance of the music video first became apparent at the start of MTV in 1981, originally an America music broadcasting network. MTV’s 24hr broadcasting soon became dependent on the music video to maintain viewing figures. A presenter would take charge in introducing the music video this is known as ‘Video Jockey’. Since 2000 MTV have shown fewer videos due to broadcasting a variety of reality shows as it’s an easy way to make money. MTV then took to the internet by bringing more content to its viewers. The site's features include an online version of MTV News, podcasts, and a video streaming service supported by commercials. There are also movie features, profiles and interviews with recording artists, from MTV's television programs to make it accessible for their viewers at anytime of the day. However, music videos can be located by free download or you tube, instead of having to directly enter the MTV webpage. MTV is now home to channels worldwide which make is accessible for countries to view music from all over the world.