There are various different styles and conventions within music videos, not all of them are done for just marketing reasons a lot are done because the artists them self want to bring out essentially a piece of 'art'.
One of the many styles of music videos are in- concert or 'in concert' footage, these are done almost as something for the fans because it gives them the feeling that they are there themselves. It can also be done to advertise the band/brand by showing what they look like and how they perform, making people feel almost like they should attend one of their concerts.
An example of an 'as live' music videos is The Smiths- What Difference Does It Make? The music video shows them performing in what seems like a small venue in front of hundreds of fans. This was their new single from the album so was done for advertising but also shows off the brand of the band themselves and helps the fans feel more connected to them.
An example of an 'as live' music, is Hey-ya by Outkast the start of the video shows the band preparing for a concert, in a green room etc. Then they are all performing on a stage but it is obviously been set up to recreate something like a concert, you can see the difference between the smiths one and this one. The Smiths one is obviously a real creation with the way its filmed being shots from just within the crowds, and the Outkast one being a recreation and showing families and people at home watching dancing etc.
A narrative music video is a music video which will follow a narrative structure, this can show a story or a visual to what the lyrics mean. Artists someone do this to portray a certain message whether it be personal or political, a lot of them will follow for example a set of characters or one specific person throughout a journey usually relative to the lyrics.
An example of a music video which follows a narrative is Just by Radio head, the music video follows the journey of one man starting from his house where he gets up and gets ready for the day getting dressed etc. It then has cut away's with the band performing in an apartments he eventually starts walking down a street, then we see his emotions change as he stands there in shock and falls to the floor all whilst we hear the lyrics 'You do it to yourself, you do'. A guy trips over him and then they have a conversation but we don't hear it as it all has subtitles whilst Radio head continue playing in the background it carries on the man refusing to say why he is laying on the floor, 'And that's what really hurts is that you do it to yourself' continues to play in the background'
Interpretive music video are music videos that take a literal expression, the lyrics of the song will compliment what is happening in the video for example if a lyric says 'I fall over' the performer in the music video would literally fall on the floor. An example I found was Rebecca Black- Friday in the video it shows her waking up, getting ready for school and the journey there etc all the time whilst she is singing what exactly is happening '7am waking up in the morning' and we have a zoom in of her alarm clock reading 7am whilst she shoots out of bed.
Surrealist music videos are the ones that will often look abnormal and different, they will be absurd and won't usually follow any kind of narrative having weird imagery that confuses and disorientates viewers at times. They can have an artistic feel to them sometimes looking as though as a piece of art, containing mixes of live footage and animation.
An example of an absurdist and surreal music video is by the artist Marilyn Manson, it shows him and a variety of people doing odd acts such as people on big stilts with no faces and no hair. Also the people featured all have some kind of props added on to give them a surprising and shocking look to them, odd metal harnesses of types that attach to mouths and body parts as well as neck braces, goggles etc.
Another example of a music video which could be interpreted as absurd is by Leningrad, a Russian rock band the video shows the events of a circus but it has been done in reverse order and shows all the disaster unravelling and how each thing leads to the other. Apart from being rather brutal and gory it is also absurd, with a tiger eating on a women's leg a mans head being amputated and people dying in brutal ways. The lyrics having little to no correlation with the music video instead singing about a 'tattoo artist' with lyrics such as 'tattoo my eyebrows, tattoo man. In memory of big love'
Impressionist music videos are done often to give across a certain emotional tone, they're meant to make the audience feel a certain way and will often use abstract and deep shots to bring this theme across. This is instead of using a literal meaning of the lyrics, it makes them seem more artistic such as how it makes the artist feel rather than accurately recording the world itself the style usually focusing on colours, objects and any kind of scenery. An example is the music video Beautiful by Christina Aguilera it features her and various shots of people who could be considered 'different' crying and seeming distressed. The shots are all dimly lit and take place in run down places, the depressing tone of the song almost being shown through the use of the scenery a common theme within impressionist music videos.
Intertextual music videos are videos which will refer to other subjects either choosing to shed light on a certain subject/product or can have reference to certain films or acts themselves. They can also allude to other media texts such as historical events, a certain character or cultural reference, they can also parody which are often made of existing songs poking fun at the artists song/style.
Using a certain product or even direct clips from the films themselves this is synergy it uses two or more forms of media to promote something like a film for example a song can be done exclusively for the film. A music video would then be released and will include direct clips from the film, this is done to promote both the artist's song and the film itself, an example is Happy by Pharrell Williams this song was used to promote Despicable Me 2 and in it we see references such as dancing minions the main characters and the voice actors throughout.
Referencing in music videos is when they reference another media text, an event, a person or some other historical or cultural reference, this is similar to an homage or a pastiche they each reference and pay some what of a tribute to something else. A music video that references a music video is Iggy Azalea's Fancy, directly copying scene to scenes from the 1995 teen hit film Clueless. The film being a popular and famous teen rom com of it's time it is still spoken about today and the outfits from the film, being popularised and worn today.
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| The main characters in Clueless |
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| Iggy and co star in Fancy music video |
A pastiche is the respectful kind mimicry of a particular artist, style, director. It will aim to pay homage to the style, director, artist. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is a mini horror movie the video doesn't just mimic another video, but a whole filmmaking style. The time it was released (1982) films such as Hell of the living dead, An american wearwolf in London, The evil dead and loads of other films containing zombies, gore and other worldly scaring creatures were shown on the big screen. You can see the direct emulation of that style of filmmaking and work I've put in some direct examples of the films and the music video itself to show the correlation.
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| Hell of the living dead (1980) |
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| Evil Dead (1981) |
A parody is very similar to a pastiche but will mimic something in a more funny matter and sometimes pokes more fun at it, mocking the video itself and/or the creator. An example is Blink-182's All The Small Things it parodies popular boy bands and pop music videos, it features them parodying The Backstreet Boys, N'Sync and 98 Degrees as well as parodies of Britney Spears' "Sometimes", and Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" videos.
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| Blink 182 |
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| 98 Degrees |
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| Backstreet boys |
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| N' Sync |
Paying homage is when a band or artist pay's respect to the artists or the directors, they can also pay homage to a film or existing piece of media this makes it very similar to a pastiche and referencing. An example is a music video from the X Factor the finalists done a rendition of Heroes and done it specifically for the charity 'Help For Heroes' the video features all the finalists singing as well as clips of soldiers in the war and the acts themselves meeting and interacting with them.
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| Wagner a contestant with a previous soldier |
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| A women soldier at a tribute wall. |
Animation music videos are videos which are wholly or partly animated in some way, it is a cheap and more convenient method sometimes as it only takes a software to produce them and you can bend and morph whatever image or creation you want with more creative flow available not having to face any budget issues. It is usually done to make the narrative that is being shown is more interesting and draws in a wider audience, with kids taking an interest in all things animated. An example is Tame Impala with Fells Like We Only Go Backwards, the video looks like it has come from hand drawn pieces and painted work that has then been digitally uploaded the directors are also directors of the popular distorted psychedelic piece 'don't hug me i'm scared' the video reflects the band's 'trippy' and 'psychedelic' like style of their songs.
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| Screen capture from music video |
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| Screen capture from the music video |
There are different types of animation stop motion and digital, the Tame Impala music video is all digital animation whereas other videos use stop motion where parts are live footage and they morph or transform into animation of some kind. An example of this is Bruno Mars- Just The Way You Are he starts by taking the reel out of the tape recorder and moving it around to spell out words and eventually her face and then himself and they start moving his animated character singing along to the song.
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| Bruno Mars animated |
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| The animated piece can be seen in the background. |
Techniques
There are various techniques used within music video productions things such as lip synch, different editing techniques and post production effects. In music videos a video in which the act is performing will usually require the artist to mime the lyrics so they are synched to the track, even sometimes singing them out loud on set. An example of a lip syncing is the music video for Rockstar by Nickelback it features celebrities and members of the public in different locations all lip syncing along to the track this will be done to usually directly promote the band and song.
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| member of the band kiss |
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| women standing at the holly wood sign |
Sometimes the piece can be sped up or slowed down for various reasons such as having a fast paced video with normal paced audio, this is done by having the artist to sing the song at half of the speed for the video then doubling the footage speed so it synchs up, it can be done to fit in with the lyrics or the beat of the song. An example is A- Punk by Vampire Weekend they have really fast movements but their singing is still synched up to the speed of the song, this gives a fast paced and energetic feel.
Editing is used in music videos but can sometimes be used to edit things in an interesting way, sometimes even challenging the conventions of a classic continuity a popular one is cutting to the beat it is where shots of the footage are cut to match the beat of the music, it helps establish a rhythm to the edit.
An example is The White Stripes' Hardest Button To Button every time the drummer in the video hits the drum it is cut along with the drum beat in the song, it also moves forward and has been cut to move to each drum beat.
Post- production effects refers to the use of visual effects in a music video, they're used for a number of reasons can be to enchant and impress the audience into watching it or making it more memorable and stand out from other music videos. You can also attract a wider audience because if the effects are mesmerising or iconic people who don't particularly like the song or artist could still choose to watch due to the visuals. An example of a music video which has a large amount of post-production effects is E.T by Katy Perry for the first half she is portrayed as an alien like figure obviously CGI imputed and it's been transformed to sing along with the track. The song being about an Extra Terrestrial being it makes sense that the whole video takes place in space, effects such as space ships, planets and moving robotic things, the music video won the MTV award for Best Special Effects in 2011 so it is clear the reception and production was well received.
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| CGI robot and background |
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| CGI spaceship with Kayne in. |
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