Music Video Genres

I have narrowed it down to three possible genres for my music video, each genre has particular conventions in the majority of their videos. One of the main things which will influence my final decision is how much I actually listen to the genre itself, I feel that in order to portray it well I would need to already like this genre and effectively would have a basic level of understanding anyway.

ALTERNATIVE/POP ROCK

CONVENTIONS
In a simple analysis these music videos lean towards being highly performance based videos which consisting of narrative shots places in between these performances to create a narrative, performance combination.

I like the idea of this music genre as I think it would be relatively easy to create a high quality professional looking video. also the wide element of performance and narrative mix creates a wide range of setting and scenes which could be filmed.

ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC - EDM

CONVENTIONS
Typically these songs have a high focus around narrative videos; videos with meaning and a high emotive storyline. That or they are totally focused around visual effects and high "clubland" visuals to reflect the conventions of a cub/party where the music is typically played.

I like the idea of this genre as it is typical dance/ club music and filming clips could be fun as you could use lots of fast pace light effects and have a very high tempo energetic video. These high speed videos always seem to be effective even after multiple views because there is so much to take it you keep noticing new points to the video. I this elements of media like this- particularly films, a filming which watching it over and over you simply notice new things hidden the first time, and essentially a music video is just a very short 3-4 minute film.
Also there are lots of pieces of music which do not have existing music videos and would be easy to create a new unique video as there is no existing video to compare to.

COUNTRY

CONVENTIONS
Typically narrative based music videos with a high focus around  love and relationships, although what song isn't focused around love these days. however portrays a "sweeter" faithful, loving, relationship rather than the hurtful heartbreak of many pop and rock songs. In effect the music video often reflects these positive emotions with high key lighting, outside settings, day time setting; also the use of lots of slower longer take to highlight the softer tone and slow romantic themes.

I think that this genre could be really fun also as you could play around with setting and costumes well. Although I find that long takes in low budget/home made films and videos always tend to look just that home made, in order to create a professional looking video I want to focus around many short takes, which would go again these conventions.
Also, the other two genres I listen to a lot, this genre I feel would be harder to relate to as i do not listen to it and would feel I was being very stereotypical having hay bails, tractors and checkered shirts everywhere.

However no genre is set in stone every genre has music videos which will be these very typical convention following videos, whereas  on the other hand there will be music videos which, on simple the video alone, will seem as though they should be in a completely contrasting genre.


I think the music genre I will focus on however is the Alternative /Pop rock,        
particularly after analysing the two existing videos.

FOCUS MUSIC GENRES #1

ALTERNATIVE / POP ROCK

 

I found this music video created by a previous A2 student for a song by The Fray- Absolute. I found that this style of music video was very typical of the soft alternative rock/ pop rock genre. the video created here i find is very professional and can easily be made to such a high standard as it is mainly performance based

CONVENTIONS OF MUSIC VIDEOS

Examples of pop / alternative rock songs:

The Script- Six Degrees Of Separation

You Me At Six- Underdog

I have found in most of these videos they are mainly performance based with a few clips inserted in between these clips of narrative based shots.

CAMERA SHOTS/ANGLES
The Script: 
Opening frame: close up shot of Danny singing and playing the guitar- helps the audience identify the artist very easy and quickly. Gives him a very simplistic appeal and approachable, help the audience to relate to him and builds a closer relation with the audience.
Slow Pan/dolly: there is a series of shots which are taken from the same setting and scene but have been filmed at different angles, initial low angle builds to mid shot. This gives the band a more approachable appeal again, they initially shown as an intimidating powerful band to highlight their success, however the use of developing to the mid shot could suggest and show how they have not let this fame go to their head and still feel "level" with the audience
You Me At Six
Each of the shots taken uses some from of camera movement particularly the band performing shots, this is down to the high beat and tempo of the song . These movements consist mainly of pans and dolly shots, with select zoom shots, like in The Script's video the panning and dolly shots help the create a smoother flow throughout the song.

EDITING
The Script: 
Initially very long takes, however increasingly shorter and lots of jump cuts as the song increases in tempo: the editing is focused around the speed and beat of the song. The producer has used split screen effect to match the music themes and lyrics. the song is based around these "six degrees"/ steps when these elements are mentioned in the song the screen splits one more time and an additional clip is shown, each to freeze when the next begins. So in the end the screen has these six elements on show. These clips show two characters, Danny and a female character- these highlights the relationship theme, the tears shown by the woman also put emphasis on the hurt and emotion expressed around the break up int he song.
You Me At Six:
First shot is longer than the majority of the shot, however still only 4 seconds long, the majority of the shots only last for half a second, this highlights the high tempo to the song and makes the video more entertaining, more shots means that viewers are not going to be able to take in all of the video the first time so even after multiple views it is not boring.

LIGHTING

The Script: 
The performances shots use a lot of stage and backing stage lights, ones used in concerts and actual performances. also many of the shots are very low lighting, the artists themselves are still visible but the setting is very plain and limited light.

You Me At Six:

Much like The Script the lighting is very dark on setting and objects while still keeping the artist visible. the lighting is very consistent, even on the narratives shots of the female character the lighting is still very dark, however both songs are focused around relationship pain and or break ups, therefore the themes of these songs are predominantly dark and negative as well.
So essentially the theme of the song influences everything with a performance/narrative based music video, which makes sense- it would seem odd to show a character wildly happy and having fun while the same person in the lyrics is depressed. Although is done intentionally can attract attention for these reason as it is so unique and unexpected.

INTERTEXTUALITY

I have noticed that some music videos have used intertextuality in their videos to invlove existing songs they have created. This is a clever device which can help the artist gain popularity, especially if the interetxtualioty song hits off, the clip of the per existing song can capture the attention of this wider audience and gains more views and essentially more sales to this existing song.
 

This is most famous with Jason Derulo's second big hit song "In my head" - featured the begining of his first hit single "Whatcha say".

 

 

This technique was also apparent in Fall out boy's "The Phoenix" which featured the opening section to the video "My songs know what you did in the dark (Light em up)".

Steve Shane - "Every Pretty Smile"

Steve Shane is an alternative rock/power pop artist. He is an independent artist so he have very limited videos and fanbase.
This song "Every  Pretty Smile" (Uploaded on 23 Jun 2011- Starring Rileah Vanderbilt. Directed by Behn Fannin); is a very creative CENCEPT BASED video, this could essentially help gain the attention from record companies.

Unique videos often create a hype, this is useful for independent artists like Shane who can use this popularity to fund their success and essentially let their audience get them signed. YouTube is a great source for independent artists like Shane, as record companies can find new artists and promote them from their YouTube success- For example Justin Bieber's success all can from a home video of him singing to Chris Brown - With You which to this day has gained over 44 million views.

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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS
The initial theme portrayed by the song is love and showing how the singer is in love with the girls shown in the video. however after looking at the lyrics of the song there are clear contrasts between the two. the video gives a very innocent sweet appeal to the artist showing him madly in love with the girl and trying to win her in any way. On the other hand the lyrics don't show the same style with lines such as:

 "maybe if I'm lucky, She can teach me a thing or two"

 "how that fabric, Caresses her legs"
Proving Goodwin's voyeurism theory however to a lesser extent as the sexual activity is more suggested rather than shown. This give a more sexual theme around the girl, however it does still show the intimacy between the two which can still relate to this love.
But what does Steve do then.... States that he's in "no rush to find Mrs. Right cause I'm having so much fun, With all these wrong ones"
A round of applause please. Well done to Mr. Romantic you sure know how to win over all us girls.
 
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS
The music and visual relationship however is very strong the artist has matched the beat the the song and change in tempo to change of images.

For example the tap in the side of the phone, not only does this effect the images displayed but the music  matches these beat with the drumming tune.



Also they have managed to create a real focus on the instruments and shown very close up shots and have taken up the entire of the screen on show with very little background elements to distract the audience.





RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AUDIENCE
The only problem with using this effect if there seems to be a barrier between the artist and the audience. the lack of actual artist shots in first person seems to give less of an impact on the audience, the direct address the the camera does help to gain this. However the video portrays the artists as just that an artist, not give the friendly relatable approach, even when watching him he is still on the media even a very "celeb" appeal.

THE NOTION OF LOOKING
The audience does get the sense of watching the characters as the shots are all shown on media devises which are displaying the actual video. This doesn't give a very first hand feel but more of a second hand appeal.

The characters in the video aren't highly sexualised. The woman is shown in a dress and the lyrics do focus on sexual elements at times however the actual shots tend to be more innocent and don't show the element of invading the intimacy of the characers.

This may be to attract the younger target market and have a "family friendly" video.

INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES
There aren't really any links to other music videos or media, this video has a very unique concept and personally I haven't seen anything like it before. This makes the video stand out and typically appealing to a younger audience through the use of technology as well.

Everyone's favourite Christmas present

I've noticed that most videos I have watched have been themed around the time of year of their release. -songs released in summer are typically based in summer and show a lot of light and sunshine, whereas winter and Christmas songs reflect the winter season regardless of the lyrics.
FOR EXAMPLE

McFly- Do Ya, 

This song is based at Christmas time. However the lyrics are not specifically about Christmas apart from the slight connection with the "making a list", the song could still be published as a non Christmas song. However due to its release date of 24th November it has a huge influence from the holiday.