Music Video Research - Conventions

Katy Perry feat. Kanye West - E.T.

• Artist as Shaman - e.g.; floating in space
• Special Effects - e.g.; flickering lights and background green-screening etc.
• Costume
• Lyrics matched to image/clip - Occurs soindie popetimes e.g.; lead singer mainly
• Artist as part of the story/concept
• Genre Characteristics - Electronic - Sci-Fi/Futuristic

  Katy Perry's "E.T." music video links to Sven Carlsson's theory of a conceptual performance by using extravagant props and costumes to narrate the story, in the video e.g.; the headgear of the lead singer (Katy Perry) playing the part of the alien, floating in space. The artist is shown asour generatione she, and Kanye West, is shown doing supernatural actions e.g.; floating in space & in spaceships.

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Nicki Minaj - Did It On 'em

• Behind the scene clips - e.g.; from previous shows, crowds from the singers past concerts etc.
• Montage - e.g.; loads of clips mashed together to give a compilation
• Performance - e.g.; live on-stage performances
• Stock footage - e.g.; from previous concerts and tours etc.
• Others mime to artist - e.g.; fans singing along to the chorus from previous shows
• Edits matched to music - e.g.; flickering images at the beginning before the soft drop in bass
• Text over video - showing who directed it (in this instance; "DJ Scoob Doo")
• Image Obsession (?) - still (possibly stock images) pictures of the singer - occurs frequently during the compilation.

  In Nicki Minaj's "Did It On 'em" clip compilation, linking Andrew Goodwin's theory, as us are the consumers of songs like this, for example, we can give our own meaning to the song in our minds, although what we can take from the video and its lyrics (from the beginning narrative and chorus) we have all felt like that at least once, so people can relate.

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Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl

• Performance - a dream sequence
• Lyrics matched to image - e.g.; lots of girls in a bedroom linking to "I kissed a girl".
• Artist as storyteller - e.g.; links with the title of the song
• Adolescent Male Fantasy - many girls in a bedroom etc.
• Costume - etc. underwear & lingerie

  In this music video, it links with Michael Shore's theory with music videos being a recycled style that contains an "information overload", and most are routed around the 'views of adolescent male fantasies'. This is a prime example concerning power, girls, wealth and the ideal life. In this video shows the sexualisation of women which links to what men can think about (like one of the examples bullet pointed above).

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Skrillex feat. Sirah - Bangarang

• Narrative - tells a story
• Artist no show
• Special effects - e.g.; the little explosions the children throw at the ice cream truck
• Costume - e.g.; typical street clothes in run-down towns - hoodie, bandana, hat etc.

  In Skillex's dubstep music video "Bangarang", this links with Sven Carlsson's theory on a conceptual video. This is due to the audience watching something other than the artist throughout the performance. This also is supported by not using the artist in the performance at all.

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Jennifer Lopez - Get Right

• Contrived Performance
• Genre Characteristics - Hip-Hop; Attractive women, use of alcohol etc. (more examples shown below)
• Narrative Clips - at the beginning, where the artist acts out several roles
• Artist as part of story/concept
• Screens within screens - featured T.Vs with the music video being played several times at the beginning
• Costume - stereotypical hip-hop style clothing and brands
• Others mime to artist - e.g.; the little girl at the end, and the blonde tipsy women (played by J-Lo) miming to the chorus
• Adolescent male fantasies - provocative dancer on the bar (played by the artist)

  In this music video, it has a back story at the beginning showing J-Lo (the artist) acting several parts in the music video before the audio starts playing. It follows Michael Shore's theory of a 'recycled styles' and views of male fantasies e.g.;  girls, wealth (due to the stereotypical genre style, as shown examples above) and the dancing style, which can give clichéd imagery to others. There is a use of stereotypical hip-hop/rap characteristics to the music video e.g.; club location, close ups of jewelry and clothes of the artist, the artist being attractive, use of alcohol etc.

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Wild Belle - Keep You

• Performance
• Genre Characteristics - Reggae
• Narrative - e.g.; it shows a bit of the story before the music audio starts
• Lyrics matched to image - "tell me what the matter is, little man" showing the man being an young boy
• Artist as part of the story/concept - her being the worried other-half to this man that plays away, saying why can't she 'keep' him for herself, without him cheating.
• Artist no show - other partner in Wild Belle is not present in the music video

  In Wild Belle's video "Keep You", it links to Andrew Goodwin's theory on how we see the narrative, and that we make up in our minds what it means or stands for; "we make up our own meaning of a song in our minds" / "a music video can anchor meaning". So everyone can have their own meaning of the music video because we have to decode the narrative by how see the music video, and that maybe different to each individual/consumer.

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Foo Fighters - The Pretender

• Performance - (Sven E Carlsson Theory link)
• Genre Characteristics - Pop/Rock
• Concept clips
• Special Effects - e.g.; as the red screen shatters into the police wall in front of the band, as they are performing

  In "The Pretender", I also see a link with Sven Carlsson's theory as a music video is perceived as opposites e.g.; in colour, they're shown in front of a bright white and red background, and on the other side there's black and dark, dull colours. They as well show that their music video, by Sven Carlsson's theory, is a performance video, which consistently shows clips of the band performing (singing and, sort of, dancing) throughout the music video.

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French Montana - Pop That

• Performance
• Genre Characteristics - Hip-Hop/Rap
• Adolescent Male Fantasy/Voyeurism - the display of girls in bikinis, money, clothes/brands etc.
• Others mime to artist - featuring other famous rappers e.g.; Drake, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross miming to French Montana (the lead artist in the video)

  In this music video, there is a big element on Michael Shores theory of regenerated styles of males fantasies, with added elements of girls, power and wealth. All of these convey clichéd imagery of "soft-core pornography" (slightly). This is fueled by the use of the genre characteristics e.g.; use of branding on alcohol (Ciroc Vodka pops up a few times), at a party, 'attractive women', doesn't exactly follow a story-line  close ups of jewelry and brands on clothing, expensive luxuries like the house/mansion shown in the background etc.

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The Prodigy - Spitfire

• Genre Characteristics - Pop/Rock
• Conceptual clips
• Special effects - (editing)
• Montages (slight) - blurred stock footage of riots, and horror films (I think)
• Artist as cameo
• Artist as Shaman - supernatural occurrences in the beginning

  In the Prodigy's "Spitfire", they show a link to Andrew Goodwin's theory well, of how we can convey a meaning which can be different to other consumers of this media, because we all have a different meaning to this song - we ignore the common narrative. In the genre characteristics, it's shown as a very aggressive (due to the tone of the music), dark, use of red, black and white/grey a lot, dark locations, close ups of scary figures from some horror films (I think), etc.

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Justin Timberlake - TKO

• Lyrics matched to image
• Concept clips
• Artist as storyteller
• Artist as part of the story/concept
• Genre characteristics

  In this music video by Justin Timberlake, shows a link from Sven E Carlsson with his opposites i.e.; in this video there's very light scenes where the woman is seen to be wearing a white shirt in a spacey, bright atmosphere (even though we know, from listening to the lyrics, there isn't something right) then to a dark atmosphere outside as the woman is dressed in dark clothes, we can't see her very well, and is dragging the artist, Justin, with a car by a rope.

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Amy MacDonald - Poison Prince





• Performance
• Artist as part of concept/story
• Montages
• Themes matched to image
• Narrative clips

  In this video I've chosen, shows a link with Sven E Carlsson's music video theory of a performance video. I really like this video and I'm considering using this song or one of her similar songs for my own re-make later on in the project. I like the choppy cuts as the singer does silent shots. But if I did the re-make to her song or another similar song, I wouldn't do a mostly performance-based music video i.e.; I wouldn't have a band playing in the background because I'd have to depend on others to be there, playing the instruments whether they know how to or not, when I need to film the shots that day.

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Eminem feat. Dido - Stan



• Screems within screens
• Lyrics matched to image
• Artist as storyteller (voice [rap] only)
• Image obsession
• Artist as helper/observer
• Themes matched to image (e.g.; pathetic fallacy)
• Others mime to artist (Stan)
• Genre characteristics (dark themed shots, dirty surroundings/rough and tough living environment)

  In Eminem's song 'Stan' (could mean 'Stalker' and 'Fan' put together) can link with Sven E Carlsson's conceptual performances because we are watching another guy, named Stan for the video, sang originally by Eminem.

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Lily Allen - Hard Out Here



• Contrived Performance
• Genre Characteristics
• Artist as part of the story/concept
• Adolescent Male Fantasy/Voyeurism
• Image Obsession
• Artist as observer 

  In this music video, Lily Allen has made a satire music video, showing how artists are socially accepted in pop culture to dress in a certain way, look a certain way and act a certain way in day-to-day life i.e.; like the video shows being outrageous and out there to 'shock' the public. With the beginning of the music video showing the artist on an operating table having liposuction, and a look-alike American chat show host standing over her, saying i.e.; "Jesus, how can somebody let themselves get like this?" A general response from the social media when the subject is on celebrities and artists. Then we have the artist dancing and singing to the chorus, surrounded by twerking girls. It shows what we expect and accept is normal in music videos nowadays and how things have changed from then and now.

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~ I have now decided to use Amy MacDonald's 'This Is The Life' for my music video. I want this to be quite urban and not too over-done with effects. I would like my music video to shower a message through the video of how the nowadays generation act. I like the indie pop/rock genre and Wild Belle's music video made me choose my genre because the music video is very stripped back in glamour; just like how my music video should hope to look like.

Genre

~ I have decided to choose the indie pop/rock genre and I want to create a simple yet effective music video to get across a message about the younger generation and what most of our generation gets up to. The indie pop/rock genre is a recently new subgenre in the music industry and has become its own by the amount of one-hit wonders and teen starts making it big in the charts from the past 10 years.