RESEARCH

4/6/2015

What is a music video?

A music video is a short film consisting of imagery to accompany music. It is produced for promotional and artistic purposes. There are three different kinds of music video:

Performance: It shows the band/group performing the song. It can show the group singing, dancing or simply playing their instruments. Performance videos are often used by rock genres groups to show their skills and instrument talents.
Narrative: Most of a narrative video is based around a story. Actors and actresses have been known to perform in some of these music videos.
Concept/abstract: When the video is based around one idea or concept. It may contain abstract objects that symbolise a particular theme.

Andrew Goodwin stated in 1992 that "music videos are not primarily a commodity form but a promotional one". This suggests that the music video is to promote the particular musical artist through an entertaining manor so that audiences will recognise the artist in question, and wish to buy their piece of music.

Below are five different genre music videos that I have analysed and categorised into the typologies above:

1. Taylor Swift - Bad Blood ft. Kendrick Lamar

Bad Blood is a Taylor Swift song that was released in 2015. It is featured within the pop genre, like many of her other songs. Most pop music videos are performance typologies that show the musical artists dancing or singing, Taylor Swift's music is often a hybrid of typologies as they tell a story, yet feature the artist in them, making them a mixture of performance and narrative. This makes the viewer grip to the video, as there is a story to it and we wish to see the end. We also see Swift performing in the video which is a promotional technique that makes viewers see her as a fun, interactive person.

The video is also illustrative as it's a literal interpretation of the lyrics (betrayal and war). It is also amplification as new layers of meaning are added throughout the song and the viewer learns more throughout the video.

2. Queen - Under Pressure

Under Pressure is a 1981 song recorded by the British rock band Queen and David Bowie. It is a rock song that has a montage of destruction and problems within the music video making the video a concept/abstract type. This is because the artists are not shown and there is no clear story throughout the video. Though rock songs are usually performance videos to show there skills with instruments, Queen make an exception to show the viewers how corrupt and destructive the world still is/was. It shows Queen as a caring band that cares about the world and the people on it, this acts as a promotional method to make them seem nice people.

The video is contradictory as the imagery shown is different from what the viewers would expect, but it is also amplification as there is a cryptic message within the video, and we begin to understand the meaning of the lyrics.

3. Sia - Elastic Heart feat. Shia LaBeouf & Maddie Ziegler

Elastic Heart is a 2013 electropop song released by Sia for the film Hunger Games: Catching Fire. It is a Narrative-type video as it is clearly based around a love story, which instantly interacts with the viewer as most of the audience have experienced such heartbreak situations. It also features the actor Shia Labeouf, which agrees with the genre of narrative videos, as they usually feature actors as a promotional concept as it widens their audience and potential customers. It is also a concept/abstract music video because there is a hidden meaning that makes the viewer think harder of just what the videos mysterious film is.

It is a hybrid of amplification and contradictory as there are layers of meaning that build up throughout the video, but it also has a loose connection with the lyrics and imagery, making it a contradictory.

4. Eminem - Without Me

Without Me is a song by Eminem that was released in 2002. It is a rap song that has an obscure music video that doesn't entirely relate with the lyrics. It is considered a performance and a narrative video because it features Eminem acting throughout a superhero story. Like Taylor Swift's videos we, as an audience, warm to Eminem as he continues to appear as a fun person with a good sense of humour. We also see Eminem rapping, this shows the viewer that he has talent and an impressive skill, yet again, making us want to buy his album due to how impressed we are by him.

It is also a contradictory music video that has no relevance to the lyrics; it is simply there to entertain the viewer. Similar to Taylor Swift's video, the theme is action, which is no coincidence as action is the most popular genre of film. This widens the amount of potential customers that the song could gain.

5. OutKast - Hey Ya!

Hey Ya! is a 2003 song by OutKast. It is a hip hop song that is simply a performance-type song because we frequently see the band performing their song on a stage in front of an audience. This is probably so that the viewers can see how talented the band members are due to the wide range of musical instruments that they play. This is a promotional technique to inform the viewers of how skilful the band members are which impresses us as an audience, tempting us to buy their album due to a satisfaction towards the music video.

The imagery is that of an illustrative kind because the scene is fun and bubbly, which is the purpose of the song as it also sounds fun and upbeat. There are also literal scenes where the actions replicate the lyrics exactly, like the line "shake it like a Polaroid picture" - the crowd at this point are shaking Polaroid pictures.