Friday 15 July 2016
History of music videos
History
of music videos
Why
are music videos made?
§ To
help the artist’s and band’s tracks be heard globally, on a mass scale.
§ To help
promote the band, providing a visual representation of the band.
§ To ensure
people remember the song and video
§ Music
Videos are a platform for film makers – film makers associated with artist
§ To invoke
a reaction
§ To provide
the audience with an incentive to see the band live
§ To lead
to more sales and longevity of the artist
§ They’re
used for an extension of income, keeping the artist or band in the public eye,
after the album release. Ideally racking up sales of their album.
Most
Expensive Music Videos
|
Title
of Music Video
|
Cost
of Music Video
|
|
Michael
Jackson and Janet Jackson — “Scream,”
|
$10.7
million (originally $7 million)
|
|
Madonna — “Express Yourself,”
|
$9.4 million (originally $5 million)
|
|
Madonna — “Die Another Day,”
|
$7.9 million (originally $6.1 million)
|
|
Madonna — “Bedtime Story,”
|
$7.7 million (originally $5 million)
|
|
Michael Jackson — “Black or White,”
|
$6.9 million (originally $4 million)
|
5
Most Viewed Music Videos
|
"Gangnam Style" – PSY
|
2.60 Billion
|
|
1.87
Billion
|
|
|
1.72
Billion
|
|
|
"Hello" - Adele
|
Goodwin's Theory
Goodwin's Theory
Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
There is often inter-textual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc).
Not Afraid Analysis
Not Afraid Analysis
Visual Codes
The music video looks like it has been set in major American City/State such as New York City or Los Angeles. This connotes that it may be a city, which is associated to Eminem himself (i.e. Town he grew up on etc.) This point is valid due to the fact the music video is telling the story about how he has matured during his life and has been able to come out of a bad place when he was a young boy. In the song one of the lyrics is “now some of you may still be in that place but trying to get out, so follow me.” This is suggesting that he wants his audience to look up to him and use him as a role model to turn their life around. During the course of the video, Eminem is always wearing black clothing. The clothing may signify the dark place he was originally at. It also makes him stand out against the colourful backgrounds of the city to suggest he did not fit in with the normal people living normal lives.
Nearer the start of the video, we see Eminem hold an old song lyric up towards the camera, he then proceeds to scrunch it up. This implies he does not want those old times to be mentioned and wants to move away from them.
Some shot compositions that stand out are the continuous shots of the Nike trainers Eminem wears. This is probably a sponsorship deal related to the artist causing more people to buy the specific shoes or to advertise Nike as a company to people who aspire to be Eminem.
At the start of the music video, low key lighting is used to show Eminem in a dark place. It represents him being in a bad place and is unable to break free.
Once Eminem is breaks free it suddenly becomes a lot lighter and therefore contradicts the low light and dark place he was originally in. This brightness changes the mood in the song.
Genre
The genre of this music video is Hip Hop/ Rap. This is easily identified by looking at the genre of most of Eminem’s songs, they are all Hip-Hop/ Rap apart from certain songs he features on. The typical narrative for this video would be the fact it tells a story of how Eminem was able to come out of a bad place and has able to overcome this and be as successful as he is today. . A thing that would be subverted in the video would be a shot of him showing what he actually looked like when he was in the bad place as this could cause audience viewers to want to be like he was in his past life. However, he does this in a clever way as he looks through a variety of mirrors and breaks them. This connotes that he no longer recognised himself and regrets doing so. An intertextual reference for this video would be the small dark room a lot of the video was filmed in. This room was also used for another music video called ‘Stan’. The fact he filmed in the same room and wrecks it may mean that when he wrote the song called ‘Stan’ he was in previous bad place and doesn’t want to look back on it.
Technical codes
This bird’s eye view shot is very important within this piece as it gives the audience an even better view of what the artist is doing. He is standing on the building to show that he is not afraid. This shot shows that there is a vertical drop in front of him once again adding to the fearlessness the artist is representing. This ones again helps back up the meaning of the song as Eminem is very clearly “not afraid” of the height of the skyscraper and the vertical drop in front of him.
The editing in this music video is extremely fast paced, as almost every shot is no longer then 2-3 seconds. The audience do not realise this but due to the fast rapping and the fast editing it gives an added effect to the music video. This fast paced editing forces the audience to concentrate more on the video as they only get a short time to view each scene.
Narrative
The story line of the video is showing the progress of his life. He is showing how he was in a bad place but has now overcome this and come out of the other side a better and stronger person. The lyrics reflect the video as they are performed by the artist. For example, near the beginning of the video he says. "You can try and read my lyrics off of this paper before I lay 'em". During the period of him staring this, we see Eminem screwing up the paper and throwing them at the Camera.
Organisations
Throughout this video there are multiple product placements.
Nike is one of the most visible brands in this video. Nike have paid to be in this video as Eminem is world renown and therefore people will listen to his songs. They know that if they can get a product of theirs in the video and have Eminem wear it people will see it and will want to buy the product. Viewers are inspired by Eminem and want to be him and therefore will buy the same products and clothes he wears and uses.
Nike trainers are usually bought by people who are street smart and buy the trainers for reputation. Eminem is a rapper and is therefore streetwise and enjoys having a reputation. The people who buy these trainers are likely to be the type of people to listen to this type of music.
The beats By Dre speaker brand being in this video is not a surprise. Dr Dre boosted Eminem’s career in the early stages and Eminem is now an ambassador for the Beats By Dre brand. To get the image out and the brand advertised to millions of people for free is a no brainer. Like the Nike trainers people will see that Eminem is associated with the brand and uses them and therefore, due to them wanting to be like him, will go and buy a pair of Dr Dre beats. The type of person to watch this video is the type of person who will like bass boosted headphones.
Eminem has one of the largest music channels on YouTube so therefore millions of people can watch his music videos free. This means that the organisations that are advertising their products in the video would have to pay a lot of money to the record label that Eminem is signed to.
Audience
The target audience of this video would be male teens aged 14-25. This is made clear by multiple thing such as the product placements and the selection of shot location such as the gritty basement.
The additional use of CGI in the video could be appealing to male teens as well as they may think it is admiring and may feel that the technology behind it is extremely clever.
The main location to view this video will be online video sites such as YouTube. The advantages of YouTube are that it is free, however people will tend to listen to the song more times than view it, the song cannot be legally downloaded from YouTube meaning people have to be connected to the internet to watch/listen. People are therefore moving towards music subscription services such as Apple music and Spotify. Apple Music now include a Music video subscription within the standard subscription, this means that Apple Music is becoming more popular as people can view the music videos as well as listening to the music on its own.
Representation
Representation of a younger audience is shown as he is a young male artist reaching out and trying to teach people a lesson. The bad place he was in will be seen to be a big event in his life and he wants to be able to share that experience with his rather audience and fans. It stated issues that occurred to him which his audience members will be able to relate to and is located in s major city where he grew up and drugs are most accessible to. The stereotype shown is a young male boy, also seen to be part of a gang, doing drugs from a young age. During the video we see him mature as an artist and come out a better man and role model. Eminem is seen to be a celebrity and everyone should follow in the footsteps of him.
Friday 1 July 2016
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