~ Jade Doy ~
9070
A2 Media
G324
Advanced
Portfolio
Thursday 4th June
To begin my research into music videos I'm going to look at five music videos of different genres to analyse the typology used in each genre. In order to get a better view across genre and typology, my group will also be looking at five different videos of the same genres and I will compare across our work.
Genre 1. Rock: Bon Jovi - It's My Life (2000)
Bon Jovi is well-known rock band. This video is a mix of performance and narrative, the video highlights the message in the lyrics (amplification)
"It's my life, it's now or never and I ain't gonna live forever"
These lyrics send the message that people should live every day to the fullest, a message reinforced in the narrative of the video; a young, male adult running through town (performing potentially dangerous stunts) to get to the Bon Jovi concert. This would appeal to the target audience of a popular rock band as rock is generally a genre for a younger generation due to the loud instruments, intense lyrics and 'bad ass' image rock bands generally have. This would also reinforce the idea that Bon Javi is 'bad ass' since their fans are willing to run through town and even through traffic to see them live.
The lyrics would also appeal to the young audience because Bon Jovi sing at their audience during the verses "this is for ones who stood their ground" this would appeal to a younger audience because they tend to idolise their favourite bands/singers and this would make them feel more directly linked to the band since they address their audience.
This promotes the artist as the male running to get to the concert presents the idea Bon Jovi is important and worth making a fuss over. This also shows the band is different from other rock bands as they're having some kind of semi-secret show in a tunnel, this presents a uniqueness in Bon Jovi. This also presents a different style since the majority of rock bands would perform on a stage in a stadium/arena making Bon Jovi seem more special than other rock bands. This gives them a kind of unique selling point and will appeal to audiences who don't want generic rock bands, they want a more personal touch to music to help them relate to the band and their music (Uses and Gratifications Theory: Personal Identity).
Bon Jovi also self-promote themselves as popular (Richard Goodwin 1992) by filling their tunnel concert with lots of adoring fans who are yelling, dancing and reaching out to try and touch the lead singer. This shows Bon Jovi are a likable band and have lots of fans (although this is apparent due to the fact they have the money to make a music video).
Genre 2. Dance: Snap! - The Power (1990)
This music video is performance, with the band lip syncing and dancing along to their song, there are also some people who are doing some kind of dance routine throughout the video. The video is largely illustrative of the lyrics with band members stood at some kind of podium when they're singing/rapping their parts of the song. The podium obviously signifies power since only people with power whether it be in a small group or otherwise will stand at the podium and be listened to, and people will only stand on a podium (or other raised platform) if they have something important to say.
The video is shown to be illustrative again towards the end of the song as they have certain words that the male is rapping pop up on the screen written in white on a black background. This emphasises the effect of these words, examples include 'power' and 'attack', they're quite harsh, violent words for a dance song/band however people are still smiling and dancing to the song.
This would appeal to the fans of Snap! because despite the seemingly harsh lyrics the video is still very upbeat with the use of flashing lights and close ups of the dancing people. This would appeal to their target audience because their fans would obviously like dancing and be impressed at the dancing shown in the video, it would also appeal to them because it makes the band seem younger if they're dancing around and since their target audience is people who like dance music they're likely to be the younger generation since the older generation is unlikely to dance like those in the video.
The video for 'The Power' presents the band as quite a young, 'hip' band since they're wearing what at the time would've been 'cool' clothing and they would've looked fashionable to their fans. It also promotes the band and the song lyrics as being quite important as they're stood on podiums whilst singing, presenting the lyrics as an important message and something that their fans should listen (and dance) to. This is also reinforced by the camera flashes going off during the video, this also shows that the band is popular and/or well-known as paparazzi are taking photos of them, signifying again that they're important people.
Genre 3. Pop: Michael Jackson - The Way You Make Me Feel (1987)
This music video is both narrative and performance however the performance of dance and singing by Michael Jackson is worked into the narrative. The narrative of the music video is Jackson dancing/singing to and for a woman because he finds her attractive. The video amplifies the lyrics "The way you make me feel" is shown through Jackson's need to sing and dance (show off) to the female he's seen because of the way she makes him feel.
This would appeal to Michael Jackson's fan base because the females lack of interest in him makes him seem more similar to the single people (primarily the males) that would listen to his pop music. By having difficulty getting this woman he aligns himself with the working class who would make up the majority of his fan base, this would make him more likable and also help audiences relate to him and form a relationship with him through both the music and the music video (Uses and Gratifications Theory: Personal Relationships/Identity).
Despite the struggle he does get the girl at the end of the video presenting him as (eventually) good with ladies, this presents him as attractive and desirable to women as he has the talents (singing/dancing) to get a woman. This also presents him as quite skilled in terms of his singing/dancing although he was known for his skill in dancing (the moonwalk) and obviously singing since he gained the title 'King of Pop'.
This video makes Michael Jackson seem desirable to women since he does eventually get the woman in the end, it also presents him a perservering and determined since he doesn't give up on the woman at any point. The men taunting him at the beginning of the clip present him as unimportant and unable and by proving them wrong it makes him seem stronger (and 'manlier') than those who were taunting him.However he may not be percieved as strong as originally thought because his male friends do help him and join in with what he's doing. This represents him as a popular person/someone with a social support group. This represents him as a likable person and will attract his audience as they'll want to know him more personally and music videos are an easy way to connect to an artist.
Genre 4. RnB: Missy Elliott - Lose Control (2005)
Music Video Analysis
'Lose Control' is a RnB song from RnB artist (and female rapper), it's a performance song for Missy Elliott, Ciara and 'Fatman Scoop' to display their singing and dancing talents. The song is somewhat amplification as the females 'lose control' of themselves dancing madly in what appears to be a desert scene. However it also displays contradictory meaning or disjuncture as some of the lyrics have no relation to what's going on in the video.
This would appeal to Missy Elliott's fans because hip hop is a genre in which both the song and the tune of the song are important, generally hip hop songs you can dance to or have some kind of dance accompaniment which this song does. It would appeal to her audience because it uses two forms of entertainment to attempt to reach out and satisfy her audience.
This video presents her as more of a skilled person than someone focused on meaningful stories or narratives in songs (such as pop songs that usually have some clear meaning or narrative in the lyrics). This presents here as talented (her common value, Richard Goodwin's star theory) and focuses on her music (since she's also a producer of music) to keep her audience happy. She's a multi-talented artist who writes, sings/raps and produces her own music, this would impress her fans. Displaying this talent in her music video would promote her as skillful (Andrew Goodwin 1992: Music videos are promotional not a commodity) and through this she's attempting to create longevity as an artist.
Genre 5. Rap: M.I.A. - Paper Planes (2007)
'Paper Planes' is a single by rap artist M.I.A. the music video shows her working in various places that are considered quite low skill jobs (working in a food van/shelf stacking). She's seen sitting in a few what looks like store rooms and behind some kind of food bar. This is neither performance not does it display a clear narrative, leaving only concept left. The music video does fit this typology as she displays many images of city life/scenes (traffic, store fronts, a sign clearly saying 'discount'). This would be symbolism for the concept of reality as her lyrics are very contradictory as she talks about her skills 'you come around here I make em all day' this heard as audio alone would signify some kind of reference to sex or drugs however the visuals show her making sandwiches. The lyrics and visuals provide different meanings and give the audience more than one way to interpret the song.
This promotes her as still a regular person despite her fame. 'We pack and deliver like UPS trucks' (again referral to sex/drugs) She aligns herself with the working class by showing herself stacking shelves in some kind of corner shop, despite the lyrics presumed meaning (drugs). This would help her fans relate to her more easily as well as still keeping up her 'gangsta' pop star image through the lyrics.
This would appeal to her audience because she still maintains her pop star image whilst managaing to relate herself to her audience (Dyer's Paradox;Both present and absent) so they feel more personally connected to her and can relate to her and feel as though they know her like she's a friend and not an artist who doesn't actually know her. (Uses and Gratifications: Personal Identity/Relationships)
Conventions of Genre
After looking at the five music videos I analysed, I went to Steph's and Jemma's websites to take notes on the music videos they had analysed in order to get a wider view of genre conventions I'm going to compare across the videos we did.
Genre 1. Rock
The videos compared for Rock were; Bon Jovi - It's my life, Limp Bizkit - Boiler and Guns N Roses - Sweet Child O Mine. All three videos had some performance in, however different levels of performance. Guns N Roses was entirely performance whereas Bon Jovi was equally split for Performance and Narrative and Limp Bizkit had small amounts of performance in a primarily narrative focused video. This shows Performance is large part of rock music videos as it's a genre primarily focused on the talent and skill of those in the band.
The link between lyrics and visuals was also realtively varied, with two of the videos choosing contradictory visuals to the lyrics and the other using visuals to amplify the lyrics and add extra layers of meaning to them. Despite this variation all three videos featured the rock artist promoting themselves as talented, popular and some variation of 'bad ass' and cool attitudes.
2. Dance
The dance music videos I'm comparing are; Snap! - The Power and Avicii - Addicted to you, there is not a third as at the time of work Jemma had not put up her dance music video. The Snap! video was entirely performance, with the band members singing and dancing on camera to show off their skills however 'Addicted to you' was entirely narrative, telling the story of a lesbian version of Bonnie and Clyde. Both videos had strongly linked visuals and lyrics, 'Addicted to you' visuals amplifying the lyrics and 'The Power' has very literal interpretations of the lyrics illustrating them almost exactly.
Both videos use their videos to promote their youth and skill (bank robbing is a skill, not a necessary skill but a skill nonetheless). In The 'power' they present themselves as important and hip however in 'Addicted to you' it's more about living life on the edge and enjoying it while you have it.
3. Pop
The three videos I compared for pop were; Michael Jackson - The way you make me feel, Lana Del Ray - Blue Jeans and Taylor Swift - Bad Blood.
All three videos featured some element of Narrative in them, 'Bad Blood' was entirely narrative with her revenge plot against Selena Gomez, Michael Jackson was partly performance with some focus on his dancing and singing skills which he utilises to woo a lady he meets in the street. 'Blue Jeans' was slightly more complex, featuring some concept in her video as she portrayed the male lead in the video as a kind of drug (amplified by the visuals of blurred him presumably blurred because of the lack of control she has over her mind).
All three videos displayed amplification of the lyrics using visuals, in each video the visuals showed a deeper meaning of the lyrics. 'Bad Blood' using visuals to amplify the bad relationship she's talking about, MJ using them to show him purusing a woman because of how she makes him feel and 'Blue Jeans' using visuals to create a different layer of meaning to the lyrics using editing effects when she looks at the male character.
4. RnB (Rhythm and Blues)
The songs I'm comparing for RnB conventions are Missy Elliott - Lose Control and Dr Dre ft Blackstreet - No Diggity. At the time of work Jemma had not put up her RnB video so there is only two to compare.
Both music videos are largely performance and amplify the lyrics using the visuals featured in their videos, this is probably due to the fact RnB artist often pride themselves on their talent in the music industry. Specially since both these songs feature rap as a part of them a genre hugely focused on the skill of the rapper in their song writing and performance.
5. Rap
The videos I will compare for rap are; MIA - Paper Planes, Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby and Eminem ft Rihanna - Monster.
All three videos feature some element of performance, only one however (Ice Ice Baby) is made up entirely of performance. His video is made up of him rapping and dancing with (presumably) his friends. Whereas the other two video both have elements of other types of music video, Eminem features an element of narrative (looking back through at his life and performance, a theme of reflection) and also concept (he's trapped in this life, watching everything play out with no input from himself). 'Paper Plane' also features some concept.
Vanilla Ice and Eminem both feature amplification of the lyrics using visuals however MIA's lyrics and visuals don't match, they're very contradictory. This shows that rap music videos can be varied depending on the artist hugely specially since rap is usually very political and race fixated since it originally was a type of music for those of ethnic minority. Particularly black Americans.
In all videos the artist promote themselves as having some kind of negative image, presenting themselves as strong and tough despite what life has thrown at them. Vanilla Ice particularly tries to establish his 'gangsta' image.