Research- What is a music video?

What is a music video?

A music video is a short piece of visual movie which assists the song being played in the background. Music videos are used by the artist to portray their thoughts and opinions, as well as for entertainment, marketing purposes allowing the soundtrack to be promoted and raise the purchase of the new album.

Purpose of a music video
The purpose of a music video is to entertain and make the audience aware of a specific subject, most artists use music videos to promote brands, singles and upcoming albums, this will help them gain popularity and gain a larger profit. Keeping the audience entertained is one of the main purposes though as its evident through the use of Mise En Scene, the dancing, the singing and the format of the narrative.

Classic Conventions

Music Videos tend to contain a number of different elements, the conventions of a typical music video are...

• Dancing - Beyoncé, Single ladies, Beyoncé is known for her eccentric dance moves and her upbeat songs, in one of her videos Single ladies she is surrounded by two dancers who are dancing alongside her and within the beat of the soundtrack, due to the dancing being catchy and eye catching, fans and other viewers have been copying her dancing and creating it into their own allowing the dance and video to gain more viewers, thanks to this Single ladies was able to gain 420,463,659 views on YouTube.

• Glamorised - Fergie, Glamorous, Artist enjoy to showcase their glamorous lifestyle in their videos, through the use of  Mise En Scene which allows the audience to grow an obsession with the artist and idolise them, due to the fact that they have what the audience can only dream of having.

• Special Effect - Kanye West, All of the lights, through the use of editing and improved technology over the years, artist have been including special effects in their videos, wanting to keep up with the latest trend, artist have decided to use technology to their advantage and make their videos more interesting.

 

 

• Narrative - Rihanna, We found Love, the use of narratives has been popular in videos recently one of the ones that stands out, is Rihanna, We found love, showcasing the ups and downs of a relationship. Artists use narratives allows the audience to gain an insight on the artist lifestyle and also can be intimate for most viewers as they are able to relate.

                               

•  Lyrics - Michael Jackson, Earth Song, Lyrics are use to evoke emotions from the audience, because it allows the audience to relate to the song in a deeper way, also words stick to peoples minds which will then get the song to be stuck in the persons mind allowing them to eventually fall in love with the song. 

    

 

• Performance - One Direction, Best Song ever, songs that include performances are used to entertain the audience.

                               

 

• Symbolic - Justin Timberlake, Not bad thing, love is something that people are mostly interested and evoked by, most songs hold a symbolic meaning behind love, which is used to evoke the audiences feelings.

                              

 

 

 

Synergy

The music industry as a whole has a relationship with a number of different other medias and for different purposes...

 

1. The radio

The music industry has been teaming up with radios since the beginning as it was a way for music to be played and broadcasted on the go. It has been used  by music companies to release their new single and let people know about their upcoming album.

2. Television



Television over the years has also become a very important part of the distribution of music, MTV a world wide know channel has been purposely created to showcase music videos, and showcase upcoming artist and their talents, over the years other channel similar to MTV where created allowing more and more music from all sort of genre to be created and showcased to the world.

 

3. Print Media



Magazines have also started to showcase famous Artists, such as Beyoncé who has recently become the first black woman to appear on the front cover of the September issue of Vogue Magazine, This has allowed not only her popularity to increase but also has allowed her talent to be showcased, over the years magazines only based on certain genres have been created as there is now Rock music based magazines which showcase rock bands and lots more.

4. Film
Films need soundtracks, the more popular the soundtrack the more popular the film and vice versa, the music industry and the film industry has been working very closely alongside each other, films such as ‘The Body Guard’ which includes songs from the famous Artist Whitney Huston has allowed not just Whitney Huston to become more popular and gain a bigger fan base, but it has allowed the movie to  be advertised in her music video which has allowed them to then gain a fan base and viewers before the movie was even released. Same thing goes for the recently released ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’  where they used artist by the name of Ellie Golding, The Weekend and Beyoncé to sing and create a song for the soundtrack has allowed both the artist and the film to gain credit and notice by the world.

 

 

5. The Internet
Ever since the internet was created it has been used to download and stream music and music videos, the internet has taken over lives quickly and drastically allowing people to access things pretty fast and on the go. The music industry has used this to their advantage allowing apps by the likes of YouTube and Spotify  to be created where it is easy to get hold of whichever track you want and their video. Artist are able to share their thoughts and feelings through the internet where they have a loyal base of followers who will be able to know when and which music video is being released. The internet has also allowed Artist to start release campaigns on social media where they have countdowns or create hash tags about their new single, for example Justin Bieber recently released a new single called ‘What Do You Mean?’ after weeks of campaigning about it and getting other celebrities to also join in this allowed him to start buzz around his new track so that by the time it was released he would already have anticipation and people willing to view it.

6. Audience Impact
Music Videos have big impacts on the audience, music videos give the audience more of an insight on the artists thoughts and feelings, it allows the audience to develop an understanding on the artist and to relate to him/ her. Videos are often anticipated by the audience which then allows the video to either be received well or badly.

 

 

7. Technology advancements
The advancement of Technology is causing an impact on the audience and artist. With phones and tables and computers being advanced, it’s easier than for the audience to just listen to music on the go without the need of the music video, this has created a barrier between the audience and the artist as the artist is not able to express his or her feelings towards the audience using moving images. But others may say that the advancements in technology has allowed the artist to create videos which really portray his thoughts and feelings due to the big verity of editing techniques and cameras.

 

  

Conclusion
Personally  I believe that the future of music videos is going to be a positive one, as there is more channels dedicated to music videos have been created, that has allowed for there to be a platform for music videos, also the better the technology gets the better and more advanced music videos are going to get, and soon possibly there will be more music videos that will allow audience interaction similarly to Trey Songs music video which allowed his fans and audience to pick which of the female characters they wanted in the video.