Music videos-LIIAR

The purposes of music videos

Language- Language is used to communicate to the audience through cinematography, lighting, mise en scene and clothing.
In music videos close up shots are always used on the artist so the audience is aware of who is singing the song. This is important because the audience expects to see the artist on screen in order to give them voyeuristic pleasure.
A lot of music videos also feature at least one of the aspects of performance, narrative, lyrical interpretation, abstract and lyrical representation.
It is very typical that an artist will use performance in their video a they tend to mime in their videos, which is an aspect of performance.
Some music videos will also have a narrative in that they tell a story like in 'Run Away Love' by Mary J Blige.
'Sledge Hammer' by Peter Gabriel is a good example of lyrical representation as the words in the song are represented by images used on screen. It is also an example of abstract video as it creates a sense of feel and mood.
Artists in videos are always wearing fashionable clothes for the simple reason that audiences will then want to imitate and also to get a sense of what the artist is like and the genre of their music. By this I mean that if the genre of the music is heavy metal it is likely that the artist will be wearing black clothes and dark makeup around their eyes as this is iconic for artists under this genre.
Lighting is also used to set a scene as in the video 'Trust', which I analysed as in one scene the lighting is faily dark and the mood is sad which is portrayed by the artist.

Ideology- The aims and ideas of music videos is to allow the audience to be able to view their favourite artists on screen. This is to give the audience satisfaction of viewing the artist without having to be at a live concert. However they are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. They are also used in able for the artist to ‘show off’ their skills.

Institution- A music video is made by the record company of the artist in order to promote the new song and make money.
Black eyed peas are signed to two record labels; Interscope records and A&M records, although A&M is merged into Interscope. Interscope was formerly known to be a label which dealt with hip-hop and R&B music, however nowadays they have broadened their genre in music in order to attract a larger target audience.
A&M was an independent record label and became the worlds largest independent record company. Over the years, A&M added specialty imprints: Almo International for middle of the road; Omen Records (1964–1966) for soul; Horizon Records for jazz (1974–1978); AyM Discos for Latin-American; Vendetta Records for dance music (1988–1990); and Tuff Break Records for hip-hop music. This also broadened their target audience as these labels introduced different genres.
The Black Eyed Peas are a very famous group and are known world wide and have had many number one singles. The record company is also having great success in promoting their artists songs through music videos.

I have decided to change my song choice to 'I don't wanna be' by Gavin Degraw who is an aritist of J Records and Sony Music Entertainment which is the parent of J Records.
SME is one of the major four labels along with Universal, Warner and EMI. It was founded in 1929 and has many subsidiary labels. It is a very successful record company hence why it is one of the four major labels.
Gavin Degraw is a singer-songwriter and muscian who is most known for his single 'I don't wanna be', which is featured on the US hit drama 'One Tree Hill'.
He is an artist of both SME and J Records. He has also had success with other singles which are also featured in films.

Audience- I think music videos have a fairly small target audience because they tend to reach out to a certain age group. I would say music videos reach out to people aged between 15 and 20, because at this age music artists are looked up to similarly like a role model. Music videos are very modern in that they use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action. This is why I think music videos appeal to a younger audience because the effects and graphics are so much more advanced than when music videos were first introduced, and much more explicit. Therefore they don’t appeal to an older audience because the effect and graphics don’t interest them as much as younger audiences because they have lived through music videos of their time.


Representation-I think music videos have many different representations of people including their gender, age and race, depending on the genre of the music. For example:
In hip hop and rap, many of the lyrics and images portray women of all ethnicity's as sexual objects. The image of dozens of semi-naked women dancing provocatively around a rapper has become standard in music videos.
Ludacris’ song and video “Pimping All Over the World” is a good example of hatred towards women in hip hop. The lyrics list women off like possessions: “The fancy cars, the women and the caviar.” Further, the singer dismisses the woman’s protests that he uses her for sex by saying that he takes her places.
Also the women in hip hop music videos are always young attractive women, with very little clothing on. This isn’t a true representation of women because not all women in society look like women in music videos.
On the other hand in music videos by female artists like the Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears, Beyonce and much more, they often wear revealing clothing. This therefore increases the representations of women portrayed in hip hop music videos, because female artists also portray themselves as sex symbols by wearing inappropriate clothing in their music videos.
Also in some music videos ethnicity is represented in certain ways. Jay-z’ video ‘Run This Town’ has a majority of black people if not all. The video I think influences gang violence as it features mobs of gangs holding large sticks on fire, with the lyrics ‘Who’s going to run this town tonight’. This portrays them to be violent and indicates gang violence within America, as this is where the music video takes place.