Music Videos Structure
The purpose of the Music Video Promotes a single and, normally, an album Promotes the artist or band Creates, adapts or feeds into a ‘star image’ Entertains the audience Sets the ‘meanings’ of a song by the use of images
Basic structures In 3-4 minutes a typical music video combines a mix of live performance, narrative, and other visual imagery including computer graphics and animation. It does this to advertise the band/artist and song
Music Videos Often contains a number of different elements: Performance Narrative Thematic Symbolic
Performance Many music videos include performance of the artists as part of the video It was from clips of performances that music Videos developed
-Often contain shots of the artists performing Can be a live stage performance, with shots of artists and audience Can be the artists in “real life” situations eg warming up, talking, fooling around Often includes lots of close ups of the artist and there can be a particular visual style that goes with the artist (a motif) eg particular clothing, actions, props, type of images. Often the artist can appear to perform in an unusual place - all lip-synched eg a field, a rooftop
Idea of Spectacle Music Videos may be considered to be examples of 'spectacle'. In this the performers are performing, often looking directly at the viewer. This is called “direct address” -where they are directly interacting with the viewer.
In the case of men, this involves the look of the character towards the viewer. The male is seen to be addressing the viewer directly. He is supposed to be singing directly for you. The female figure is often an object of an erotic gaze, object of male desire which is a voyeuristic gaze. A Voyeur is someone who looks at someone for pleasure. This means females in music vids are often dressed and posed in very sexual ways
Narrative Often the video tells a story either that features in the lyrics or is suggested in the lyrics eg girl dumps boy This narrative can be like a Mini film, with a beginning, middle and end Or it can suggest some links to a story It can promote a film with clips from the film included telling a story
Narrative Because it is only 3-4 minutes it can be -very fast paced, lots of shots and cuts -use inter-textuality with films, tv and other videos -mimic other film and tv genre eg horror or sci fi -sometimes the story can contradict what is seen for effect -sometimes the artist is a part of the story, or an observer or completely separate
Thematic There are lots of common themes in music videos Depends on the genre of music Eg Heavy metal bands go for perfomance dominated clips Rap has lots of “street” images dance routines are common for many female artist performances
Symbolic Use of lots of symbols to build up meaning eg graveyard…death Lots of use of montage -lots of images to create meaning sometimes often contradictory Lighting often used to suggest mood Fast paced - often only a few seconds per shot to build up meanings Pictures can support or contradict the lyrics
Some Other Codes and Conventions Visually stylish – ‘artistic’ mise-en-scene Cutting related to the rhythm of the music Intercutting between performance and images or story Experimental use of camera/editing (hand held camera, distortion of colours) Often break the rules of continuity editing. Can use lots of jump cuts Lots of use of digital effects
Types of Music Videos 1Performance Clips -Concentrate on stage performance of bands 2 Conceptual clips Based around a theme or story a) Narrative “mini film” idea i)either simple fantasy situation with other images inbetween eg artist ii)Or complex genre ‘story’ eg Michael Jackson’s Thriller b) Non -narrative often dream like, random thoughts around a loose theme eg lost love, use lots of symbolism
To make your Music Video What is the theme or aim of my music video? Who will this appeal to? How can I make it appeal to this group? What are the lyrics saying? What do the music/rhythms/genre suggest? How can I link music/lyrics/images? What type of video will it be?