Styles, Conventions & Techniques

Styles Conventions and Techniques of Music Videos

Styles

The styles of music videos will normally depend on the genre. 

Think about the use of colour, location, choreography, narrative, sexual/violent content, image of the musician, representation(gender class age) humour, editing and lighting.

Video 1 - colourful, shot in a park/beach,  friendly, girly, teenage, female middle/upper class, bright

Video 2 - sexual content, shown to be gangsters, brightly, streets and beach, 

Video 3 - dark colours and lighting, horror violent content

Types of Music Videos

• In-Concert and As live footage
• Animation (stop motion/digital cell)
• Illustrative, Uses literal lyrics as a basis for the visuals
• Interpretive, encourages the audience to speculate as to the deeper meaning of the song by using a narrative that is not lifted literally from the lyrics
• Narrative, the way a story is told in this case we are talking about how a music video communicates its message
• Surrealist, surrealism is an art movement which aims to break down the boundaries between fantasy, dreams and reality. In music videos this means using bizarre and jarring imagery creating a dream like quality 
• Pastiche and Homage, where one media text for example a music video references another in an affectionate way as a tribute 
• Parody, where one media text imitates another the key difference is that a parody does this mockingly whereas pastiche does it as a tribute 

Conventions

• Lyric interpretation
• Extending or consolidating song's meaning
• allusion - making reference to other things (pastiche homage & parody)
• Links to other artists (collaborations)

Types

• Cutting to Beat
• Visual Effects,
• Miming and Lip-sync
• Chroma Key

Assignment Task 29.1 - Purposes of Music Videos

Increasing the range of media an artist is active in

French Montana No Shopping ft. Drake

This video fits the purpose as it was made to showcase the artists acting and comedy skills in a positive light so they could possibly go into different avenues. The use of the accents and the moustaches throughout the video is to show how versatile the artists are and show they have a sense of humour

The publicity the video will receive also will also help increase the range of media This is because a lot of French Montana and Drake fans will see this video and will want to see more of them acting so theres already a target audience a lot of companies will see it and could lead on to the rappers possibly getting acting roles.

Promotion of Artists New Album

The Weeknd - Starboy ft. Daft Punk

This video fits the purpose of promoting the artists new album because the artist released the song as a single and the song has the same name as the album he has coming out soon. The video was a preview for what to expect in the new album and to build anticipation for it before release. Also the video included a few controversial things one of them being kidnapping. In the video The Weeknd was tied to a chair and he suffocated in a plastic bag. 

Also he was smashing items up with a bat the shape of a cross this is controversial as some people may believe this has something to do with religion which is always a controversial topic. This is why many people will watch the video to see what the music video is about therefore gaining exposure for The Weeknd and his new album.

Increasing the Income for the Record Company

Kanye West - Famous

This video fits the purpose of increasing income for the record company because Kanye owns the label GOOD Music and the label houses many artists including Kanye West himself. This means that all the revenue from the music video will go to himself. This is why Kanye West made the video so controversial. The video included celebrity lookalikes completely nude in bed with him and Kim ranging from Donald Trump to Bill Cosby to Rihanna. This increased income for the record company as people were going out of their way to watch the video and download the song. Also in the song Kanye addressed things such as Taylor Swift and Ray J which propelled the music video even more which helped the record company gain even more money.

Promotion of an Artists Change in Musical Direction

Skrillex and Diplo - Where Are Ü Now with Justin Bieber 

This video fits the purpose of promoting a change in musical direction because it was showing that Justin Bieber had matured and was trying to generate a more mature audience. He had decided that he didn't want to go down the generic pop root anymore and had decided he wanted to be himself more and show his true colours. The song and music video were more upbeat to his previous songs and showed he had changed a lot since he first debuted. 

Promotion of a Particular Song

Drake - Hotline Bling

This video fits the purpose of promoting a particular song as at the time the song was released Drake was already well known so the video was to promote the song further and get it higher in the charts. The song was already catchy so Drake made a video that people would enjoy watching and would trend on social media.

Promotion of and Synergy With Another Media Product 

 

Skrillex & Rick Ross - Purple Lamborghini

This video fits the purpose of promotion of another media product because the song was made for the movie Suicide Squad. The music video features The Joker from the film to promote the song but also the Suicide Squad Soundtrack Album. Many people heard the song and as it was linked in with the film they wanted to see the film. Overall the video helped gain a lot of exposure for the Suicide Squad movie.