1. What is the purpose of a music video?
By Millie West

2. Promotion of Artists
Promoting artists means making the public aware of who they are and making them recognisable. This can be done in many ways, for example the artist's appearance; the way an artist dresses can promote them and make them easily noticed e.g. by the clothes they wear, the jewellery, colours and facial expressions. This is one of the reasons music videos are needed, so that the audience and public know what the artist looks like and they can be recognised for a song, album or feature. An example of an artist that stands out by the way they dress is ‘Lady Gaga’. Below is her single ‘Bad Romance’.
One of the benefits of promoting an artist, is that not only do they become increasingly popular, but the record label and company that they are assigned to become more well know too. Secondly, the promotion of artists can have a positive effect on audiences, because it can give them someone to aspire to be like. To give them hope and drive to be successful and motivate them to work hard in life. In contrast, one disadvantage of promoting artists, is that they could be seen in or portrayed in a negative light. They could become famous or well known for the wrong reasons. For example, Amy Winehouse was widely recognised due to her big hair and her thick, black, winged eyeliner. Although she was well known for her incredible songs and voice, later on in her career she became increasingly known for her drug use. Therefore, this creates a negative promotion of the artist. In some scenarios, although there are many positive connotations to an artists name, there can also be negative connotations, and these can sometimes out way the positives, in turn meaning that artists are well known for the wrong reasons. This can have a negative impact on audiences as they may copy their ‘idols’, yet they may be doing so for the wrong reasons.

3. Promotion of Record Labels
The promotion of record labels is important because it can gain a label viewers and increase its size and popularity. This means they get more money for creating new music videos and getting new artists onto their label. One of the ways in which labels aim to promote themselves is by incorporating their logo or name at the start of a song. This means that when the labels are searched, they have connections to other artists having a multiplier effect promoting both the new artist discovered and the label itself. (As shown above).
Featured artists get promoted. This is because when a song including a feature gets released, the smaller artist can become well known for being in a more established artists piece of work. In turn, this means that they can become bigger stars and can then get signed to a record label. Therefore when new songs get released record labels can promote themselves by including their logo at the start of their artists music videos. Here is an example of promoting an artist, it’s Iggy Azalea ft. Jennifer Hudson.
One of the benefits of promoting a record label, is that not only do they themselves increase their chances of becoming more popular, but the artists assigned to the label do too. This can have a large effect of audiences as they will be able to both associate a logo with a company name and that name with an artist, or an artist with a record label. In all cases, this increases the popularity and potential audience of both the record label and the artist. In contrast a disadvantage of promoting record labels, is that if as previously mentioned in ‘Promotion of Artists’, an artist is seen in a negative light, then the record label may be at risk of being blamed for their actions. Therefore, in turn the label may loose its popularity and reputation.
Record labels can become well known for certain types of music genre. This can have a large effect on audiences as they become familiar with the record label and the genre artists that they produce. This means that if there is a new artist for a specific genre of music, that is assigned to a label that specializes in that genre, it is likely that both the potential audience for the artist increases, as current audiences of the label are introduced to a/ many new artists, and current audiences of the artist are introduced to other artists alike, that are already signed to that label.

4. Representation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYSVMgRr6pw
Representation
The definition of representation is "The reconstruction of reality". This means that when a music video is created, it tries to tell a story, or reconstruct a specific point in time. This could be personal to the artist or part of a story line. Its very common to watch a music video and feel like it is a short movie, because it’s not just about the lyrics, it’s about what they mean. Storylines can be created by the use of colour, clothing and facial expressions to represent emotions and feelings. An example of this, is take me to church. As it is in black and white, the dark and gloomy colours affect the mood and atmosphere of the music video. The links are shown above.
Another example of the use of representation is in Hip Hop music videos. In some music video instances the artists lifestyle is exaggerated. As well as this, the artist may be represented is false manor, for example their demeanour, may not be realistic and their perceived possessions may also be misleading. An example of where false representation may be used is in ‘I'm the One’ by DJ Khaled ft. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper and Lil Wayne.
Over exaggeration and misleading artists can have a large effect on audiences. They may believe that that is their true lifestyle when it may not be true. This can also impact the way that audiences live their life as they may be influenced by the way their role models live or are known to live. Although messages within representation may try to enforce that by working hard you can achieve anything you want, it may create the wrong impression on audiences as they may believe that what they have isn’t good enough, or never will be good enough.

5. Synergy Katy Perry’s 2014 world tour poster - “Prismatic”
Bob Marley’s Detroit concert tour poster from 1975
One Direction’s Movie poster - “This is us”
Synergy is making money from different platforms to attract different audiences. This could be by advertising songs, artists and albums on big screens. Synergy could also be used for printing posters or leaflets, as well as making adverts. Using a song in the background of an ad to both promote the advert as well as the song and record label is a common use of synergy. This could then lead to the release of singles, albums and soundtracks, when popular this could also lead to an artist doing tours. There are many reasons media institutions use synergistic techniques, such as to increase a brand, label or artist, the create loyal customers who want more of the product produces as well as to gain money from the popularity of the product. A prime example is Katy Perry who promoted her world tour in 2014 after using synergistic techniques like selling singles, albums, she then went on to doing a tour. Some artists, write autobiographies, which them get turned into movies, one direction is just one of many examples.
One benefit of using synergy, is that it allows all artists, songs, albums or any other forms of media to generate a large potential audience through the use of promoting it on different platforms. Secondly one form of synergy can lead to another, for example, singles can lead to posters and advertisements which promote albums, and albums can lead to tours. Therefore the forms of synergy are ongoing. One limitation with synergy is that even though there are different forms of it, if it begins to get repetitive, the opportunity to gain a large potential audience decreases, as they may begin to get bored.
If a reggae artist such as Bob Marley used forms of synergy such as posters, covers, singles and albums, which promoted non idealistic images, words or teachings, then this could have a large effect on audiences as they may not realize that an artist is promoting and influencing negative behavior. Using synergy may create the wrong role models for audiences, impacting them, and consequently possibly having negative implications

6. Album sales All I want - Part 2 All I want - Part 1
All I want - Part 2
Album sales
Album sales are extremely important in the music industry. As previously mentioned, music videos are like short movies, these are sometimes left on a cliff hanger, and so more than 1 part is created. Songs can be made up of different parts to increase album sales as audiences want to buy the next part to the song. That is why music videos are so important; not only do they promote artists and record labels but sometimes they also tell a story which is told across 1 or more songs with music videos, as one song can lead to another. One example of this is Kodaline’s “All I want”. Album sales can be promoted just by the music video. If an artist creates a memorable music video, that people enjoy, the sales of that album are likely to increase.
Similarly the band ‘Slipknot’ is a rock group that wrote the song ‘Vermillion’. It is a two-part track, where the first song leads into the second one. Part 1 and 2 are shown below.
An advantage of album sales is that by creating albums that audiences enjoy, it increases the chance of the artists popularity, and the amount of album sales. As previously mentioned, by creating a 2 part song, the chances of rising potential album sales, increase as people enjoy both parts of the song. By creating a 2 way collaboration such as that of what Katy Perry and Rebecca Black did with ‘Last Friday Night’ and ‘It’s Friday’, where they featured in each others song and promoted their own work at the same time, the chances of each individuals album sales selling well increased. Although a disadvantage of them, not that there are many, is that they have risk of being repetitive, and this can become somewhat boring to audiences.
Album sales in general have a positive effect and impact on the audiences that are targeted. This is because, they get many songs and deluxe playlists from desired artists for reasonable prices at a high quality. The increase of album sales are not only beneficial for audiences, but also for the artists who create them, and the record labels that support the artists and help them to produce likeable albums, which boost both the artist and record labels popularity, and status.

7. “The male gaze theory”
The male gaze theory was created by feminist and film critic Laura Mulvey in It is the theory of using women as visual pleasure for male audiences by acting in a sexual manner and wearing promiscuous outfits resulting in objectification. Key examples of artists are Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj. (Shown above in their music videos)
A song that represents the male gaze theory is “She’s so lovely” by ‘Scouting for girls’. Examples of lyrics that used that enforce the male gaze theory include “I love the way she fills her clothes” and “She looks just like them girls in vogue”. I personally am completely opposed to sexualising women in music videos or any other type of media for 2 reasons, these are also major disadvantages. Firstly, women should not be sexualised and used as objects for male pleasure. They are humans and deserve more respect than that. Secondly, women watching other women, who are most likely photoshopped to look like the “ideal woman” can become very self conscious and make them feel as though they are not good enough or not sexy enough, when this is not the case. The way media portrays women as sexual objects is wrong and can have a massive effect on the way other women who are just as beautiful see themselves.
In other circumstances, in many hip hop videos, the main focus artist/ artists are most likely to be surrounded by women who are sexualised through their bodies and the choice of clothes that they are made to wear. For example, in Drakes “Started From The Bottom”- linked below, the use of women, enforces the male gaze theory , and as mentioned, it can have massive implication. Using the male gaze theory, can hugely impact women and other audiences. This can be in a number of ways, such as by audiences dressing the way the see celebrities to make the feel like they are worth something, otherwise they may feel that they aren’t good enough which isn’t true. It may also influence other audiences as they may also feel that if their bodies don’t live up to celebrity standards, then they aren't good enough, and their bodies aren’t right or perfect, which again, is untrue. I personally do not think that there are any benefit to the male gaze theory, but others (including men) may think differently.