Music, Video and Style

Genre

A genre is a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by distinctive style, form or content.  We have different types of music videos to add variety, so all videos arent the same.

Animation/Homage

Animation as a genre is described as the use of of images/animations instead of actions  to illustrate the lyrics and meaning of the song.  However a homage is a acknowledgement of something from the past, normally well known or famous things. In the 8 bit world video these two actually link up, the video uses animations to illustrate the meaning of the video, which is about everyday life and its complications. It links with homage because the video itsself is directly linking to popular arcade games from the past which we see throughout the video. We see the likes of 'Mario', 'Space invaders' and 'Pacman'. So its clear its giving a homage to all famous games from the past by using animations.

Narrative/Performance

The narrative genre is best described as just telling a story, they normally have a certain message also behind the video, a hidden meaning also. Also most narrative music video's will also have an extended version for it, this is to help develop a plot or character. An example of narrative music video. This video is about a couple that go through all the stages of a relationship, the hi's, lows and finally the breakdown of one. However adds different irregular elements into it also such as domestic violence, which you get the sense is telling her own story with the recent accusions of violence that Rihanna's boyfriend inflicted onto her. It also links into the performance genre of music video's. We see rihanna actually performing and singing this song during little snippets of the video.

As Live

The 'As live' genre of music is songs that are sang 'as live' usually in a concert venue. A way to to recognise and 'As live' music video is they are normally infront of a live audience from past performances in big Concert venue's. Sometimes they will be singing in sync with the music, however sometimes it may just show different snippets of concerts and the music playing over the top of the video. Chasing status- Hypest hype is performed live infront of a big audience with them and tempa T on stage, this is identified as a 'as live' music video because all it shows is snippets from when they have performed the song live.



Pastiche/Parody

A pastiche music video in simples terms is an imitation of another media product, the message will normally be promoted in a tongue in cheek way. This means it will be quite silly and funny but not directly mocking it. However a parody music video directly sets out to mock another media product; its soul aim is to make fun of an original piece of work through the subject matter, the author or the style. They are quite similar styles however they are not to be confused with each other there is a clear line between each of them. In the Foo fighters video 'walk' it imitates the film 'falling down' with michael dougles, we see the fun side to the video when it changes all the bumper stickers from serious things we see in the film to humourous ones such as "we love you justin bieber". This is a prime example of how they make it tongue in cheek without directly mocking the other media product. Also with a pastiche music video which is similar to the parody genre, without the other media product the video would never make sense. They are based around that certain product. On the other hand an example of a parody music video is  Weird al' yankovic's "just eat it" music video. Here we can clearly see him mocking the Michael Jackson song "Beat it". Always with parody style music video's they will change the lyrics of the song into quite funny or mocking lyrics to turn it into a funny video and song. An allusion is simply a reference to something, for example in the foo fighters song it alludes the Micahel Dougless film "Falling down"by basically copying scenes from this.

Influence of commercials

Influence on commercial is the style of genre that use of advertising strategies to communicate a certain message. A way to indentify a influence of Commercials music video you would see things that the media and commercials use to make people buy and do things. For example in Kanye west's "Gold digger" we see the advertising strategies of magazines. It shows how magazines use provocative images to make people buy magazines, it shows attractive women in certain poses on the front cover of magazines. Another example of this genre is the black eyed pea's song "where is the love, in this video is shows how people use media products to get serious messages across the the world such as tv, radio and public landmarks.

Abstract

An abstract music video Is something that the audience would find hard to believe happening in the real world, things that don't happen in everyday life or sometimes don't ever happen Effects can be added to create a ‘dream like’ meaning. The main way of identifying an abstract music video is simply just to look for things that are out of the ordinary being the continuos theme of the video. For example in the Radiohead song 'Street spirit', we see very unusual things throughout the video. One of which being a man jumping backwards of a caravan, this has no meaning at all alongside other things. They could be doing this so the audience can interpret it any way they like, but really it has no meaning. By having no clouds or space in the background it creates a dream like feeling to the video, creating this abstract feel to it.






Interpretive 

An interpretive music video is very simple, it is just a visual interpretation of the lyrics. Which means they it will show you what the lyrics are actually saying. We can see this in the lonely island song "im on a boat". Which is quite self explanatory, during the song they sing "im on a boat" at this time the visual side is showing the lonely island and T-pain on the boat. This style is normally used to create a humour to the video because it is so obvious, however sometimes they can be serious representations of the lyrics. The lyric interpration is just using visuals to enhance the narrative, an example of this is when Rihanna sings "just gonna stand there and watch me burn" and in the background is a house on fire, this just enhances that line and makes it stand out. Also they have links to other artists in the Lonely island song, it shows T-pain during the video which is linking him and promoting. However there are other ways simply by mentioning the name of an artist is linking an artist. 

Impressionist 

An impressionist style music video is an artists take of another style, genre or theme. So it really does come down to the artists way of thinking, which makes them quite difficult to spot. However the way they can be identified is that they will be solely be focusing around one main thing, which they will normally be doing in tongue and cheek. This allows the artist to get a message across about the certain genre, style or theme. We can see this in the Beastie boys song "sabotage" this music video has taken on the theme of 1970's detective work and their take on this. We know this because it shows the 1970's style cops driving round recklessly and stupidly throughout the whole video, which is the Beastie boys take on what it was like being a cop during that era. It also can seen as a homage to 1970's set films such as hawaii 5-0 and Starsky and hutch.The video extends the songs meaning. For example in the beastie boys video we can see the use of text to extend the meaning of the song. We know the song is called sabotage but they use text to extend this.

Cutting to the beat/ Lighting  

During a song there will be a certain beat that is kept throughout the song, or it may change slightly to be faster or slower. In most music videos the scene will be cut to the beat of the drum/guitar etc. This is done to make it more effective when they change the shot, angle or even scene. A prime example of this is the Tinie Tempa video of "pass out". On the beat of the drum the shot will change to something else or a different angle. We can also see in this video a type of lighting, the Low key lighting,this is used to make a more moody or serious type  of video/atmosphere. There will be more shadows and darker sets.

Effects

Effects are used in music videos to add to the narrative. Used mostly in major record labels tend to use them because they can afford, however indie or self promoted artists most the time cant actually afford to do these sorts of effects or create a certain effect. In the Dr Dre “I need a doctor” where he writes of his Ferrari to add a action sense to the video, adding narrative to the video. It is also used to create a certain seriouness about the video and give the effect of a movie style video.

Miming and lip syncing

Miming and lip syncing are when the music will be played over the actual artist or people and they make it out as if their singing it. Almost every music video uses miming, some videos such as “Rockstar” by Nickleback, they just use random people and they mime the words to the song. They do this because if they were to do the video live on some occasions it would take a lot longer time getting it correct, when they can just record it in a studio where the sound is a lot better and the effects are easier to add.

Camera, shots, angles and movements

Close up- To capture the emotion of artist or characters in the video.

Establishing shot / Tracking

They are used to establish and set a scene,for example in the coldplay song they have an establishing shot of the city at the very beginning of the video, this is where the rest of the video takes place. Also at 0:48 in the video Chris martin runs towards the camera and the camera moves backwards with him tracking him as he walks.

Green Screen
The green screen is used to layer to things together, they use a green screen behind the person/object and project an image behind this. Weather often use this, by projecting the weather table behind the presenter. Chroma key is used to do this, also in the lil wayne video theyuse green screen by projecting the purple locker room behind lil wayne and nicki minaj.

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. There never used to be a way of showing music video's, the first ever 'music video' was shown at the cinema. It was called a 'hard days night' which was essientially a film but intregrated all of the beatles song into it. The first ever music video shown on Tv was bohemian rhapsody. Now 37 years on they are everywhere.

Music Channels

MTV is an example of a music channel that is there to help artists promote their songs and albums. They do this by putting their own videos onto youtube and try sell themselves, maybe to be noticed by chance by a record label. They give exposure 24/7 so viewers can watch it at any time during the day, the music channels show songs day in day out, so at any time of the day a viewer could tune in and listen to their favourite artists or new songs that have just been realased.  The channels are funded by subscription and advertising. For example before a top 40 programme a client will put their advert in before this specific show , so the viewer watching this music vdieo will have to watch the advert.  Outcomes of this are he channel, artist and record companies will make money. The channel from advertisers that pay for their adverts to be shown during the add breaks , advertising on their channel. The artists and record companies will make money from all the sales of the Cd's and tickets which  allows artists to become better known in the industry, the more known they are the more sales they will make.

Youtube

Unknown artist can post their videos on YouTube and self promote themselves to viewers, not only through their videos they now can create their own personal profile where they can sell themselves also to people to create a relationship with viewers. Anyone can use YouTube and hit a mass audience, with millions of people using Youtube every day the artists can use it to hit a big audience and give themselves the best chance of being noticed and is easily accessible to everyone with a computer or Smartphone. They now have apps that allow people to go on youtube anywhere they go, which also adds to the chance of being noticed or gettin them much needed hits and views. Youtube also can be used for well known artist, so their fans can watch the videos online at the click of a mouse, it increases teh platform and audience that they can spread the music too.  

An outcome of this is that unknown artists could have a chance of being noticed, for example Justin bieber started out using Youtube to post his video's after around 20 video's he was found by fellow artist Usher and Record Producer L.A reid. He is now the biggest teen sensation in the world selling millions of records worldwide. Another outcome of this is that Youtube will make money from companies advertising at the beggining of well known artists videos and they have a small tab on the side where companies can advertise. Another outcome of  this is that the artists and companies can monitor how well they are doing via the hit/views tab, this allows you to see how many people have watched your video and also how many people have liked and disliked it also. Also viewers are able to comment on the video and the channel that the video is on can comment back, this gives communication between the viewers and artists.

DVD

The purpose of using DVD is mainly promotional, Can be used to put actual music videos on them and maybe give them away with a CD single, which is another demonstration of promotion,  by using a DVD also they can include live concerts or music videos on them to convince the audience to purchase the DVD. Normally a ploy to get the audience to get the audience to buy, by offerering them a free DVD which is simply irreressistable. The outcome The artist, companies and retailers can all make profit from the sale of these or the promotion of the CD.

Itunes

Another promotional aspect, all the money made from the downloads goes to the record company, artist and iTunes. It is available to anyone with a computer to download. All songs will from Artists will go onto the online Itunes library and are easily accesible for the owners of Itunes to buy these songs. Also full albums are put on Itunes for the buyers to purchase and instantly listen to without going out and having to buy the single or album. The money from this will partly go to the artist and some to itunes. The outcome of this is Allows you to purchase albums, songs and videos whenever you want. Also can monitor online sales by using iTunes in one go.

Social Networking 

It doesn’t cost anything to view or post the videos. Like YouTube it is a way of self-promoting. Just by simply uploading there video, they can show it to a wide audience and get theirselves out there. Fans can interact with the artist or record company, by commenting on the videos and giving them likes and dislikes.  The outcomes are they allow the artist to monitor the progress of their videos and songs by the hit count that will be shown under their video and tells them how well they’re doing. Also is money made through advertising, the more popular your videos, the more advertisers can charge.

Synergy

Synergy comes from the Greek word that means to work together. In media it is used to explain how different products can work together using the same concepts for example, film soundtrack and video game. For example in the film twilight, Paramore have incorporated the film into their video.

There are 3 types of artists, the first are those under a major record label which are usually owned by multinational corporations. Labels such as London, island polydor sign artistes they think will have mass appeal and therefore make lots of money. They will look to use music videos as part of a wider marketing strategy that includes things such as radio play, press reviews, TV appearances and an expensive website. Paramore being a example of this. We know this from the video, when they are in the big forest on the picture below, they would of had to corden of this section of a big forest and then transport all the camera's, equipment to the location. This tells us they would of spent alot of money on this.

The 2nd type is indie record labels which are smaller independent record labels such as domino, have much smaller budgets and the artists they sign generally have more niche appeal. This means the marketing strategy is different as they can’t rely on radio and TV for promotions. Music videos are sued although they will be much lower budget and accessed mainly through the internet, a prime example of these are the Artic monkeys. In the Fluorescent Adolescent video we can see this when he throws a blow up doll into the river which is meant to be a actualy person but they couldnt afford to hire somebody to do this, which shows us that it is a indie record label.

Finally is artists who self produce and are not signed to a record label tend not to have much of a budget for music videos. Their videos tend to homemade and posted online receiving  very few hits. Midnight beast are a example of this, they are only on youtube trying to promote themselves at the moment. We know that it is self produced because its just 3 guys sat in there front room with a standard camera filming them performing and then they would dub the music in after using simple software.