Key Influential Music Videos

Having considered the variety of music videos and their codes and conventions, we decided that the song we would be creating our music video for would be Natalia Kills' "Wonderland". This is the current music video for the song, with a rocky edge to the Alice in Wonderland concept. We really liked how the artist twisted the story of Alice in Wonderland, which clearly links to the lyrics, and we felt that we could be inspired by this in our own music video. Having decided that Alice in Wonderland would be a theme within our video, we began to consider what other videos would be influential for our project. We noted down the main elements that we thought were successful in the original artist's video, as we felt that maybe we could incorporate some aspects of the original into our own. However, we were very keen to create our identity within our music video, and so we didn't want to copy what was already in this music video, we used this as a starting point for planning our own ideas.

Listening to the song, we decided that we wanted out video to be a concept based music video, with a fairytale theme to accompany the lyrics, although telling a slight story of Alice in Wonderland, and having aspects of narrative in it. A key influential video that I felt would be useful to study is Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland film, as it has an unusual and slightly mad style, something we would like to achieve in our own music video. We researched the key elements within this film, and noted down what we felt was important in identifying this story, to help us later when producing our own music video.

This film is full of unusual perspectives and interpretations of Alice in Wonderland, and we could reflect on Tim Burton's style of interpreting the Wonderland theme when creating our own video. There are particular aspects of the story that we could take the concept from when creating our own video. There are many famous scenes from Alice in Wonderland, and we are interested in is the Tea Party scene as something we could develop into our music video. This is partly because it is easily recognizable as a scene from Alice in Wonderland, and therefore effectively fits with the lyrics, but also because it is quite flexible in the way we can interpret it. The lyrics in the song we have chosen are quite rocky, so we could create a quite rocky edge to the Tea Party scene, and as the Mad Hatter is involved in this scene, we can use this to create a fairly mad and crazy atmosphere, which would also make it less narrative, as you don't quite not know what is going on, and express the slight insanity of Wonderland, showing that fairytales don't always have a happy ending.

We next looked at the horror film genre as we felt that it would be a central theme in our video, as we wanted our video to have a creepy atmosphere to emphasise the message of how good things that happen to you don't always have a happy ending. We looked at a variety of horror genre films to gain and understanding of what creates the eerie atmosphere, and began looking at lighting and perspective as we felt that these were particularly important. In many horror films, darkness creates a fear of the unknown as the audience don't know what is around the character, so I think minimal lighting will be key within our music video. A good example of a horror film which uses lighting effectively in this way is 'The Possession'. It uses a mixture of both dark lighting and dark coloured lighting to create the mood of fear, which is what we would like to portray when creating a video for the song 'Wonderland' by Natalia Kills. The use of dark red and blue lighting exaggerates the horror genre and creates a creepy and mysterious atmosphere.  The trailer for 'The Possession' demonstrates their use of lighting well as most of the colours are quite dark and they aren't very colourful, which is what we will consider when making our own video.

Representation

Representation

Representation is often used within media texts to give the audience an impression of something or someone, for example, gender. Often, particularly in music videos, women are portrayed as a sexual object, which depending on how they are represented can be both positive and negative. Also, in music videos, women often take on the typically ‘sexy’ roles, with many dancers in music videos being women. Women are also known to sometimes dress up as characters which are stereotypically female. Britney Spears is an artist who often portrays herself as a sexy blonde in her music videos, and deliberately makes herself a sexual 'object', as a way of selling her music. Examples of her taking on typically female occupations in her videos is her portrayal of an air hostess in her video 'Toxic' and a secretary in her video for 'Womanizer'.

Voyeurism and Exhibitionism

Voyeurism and Exhibitionism is often a convention seen within representation in music videos. Voyeurism opens questions for the audience, and gives the audience a feeling of watching through a keyhole, as if they are intruding, and almost shouldn't be watching. This can be used effectively within music videos, as many can have an insight into more personal things such as relationships, and it feels as if the audience is watching a personal journey of some kind. Exhibitionism is an opposite, and can link well to the example of Britney Spears in a number of her music videos. Britney Spears exhibits herself as a sexy female, with many of the shots including a hardly clothed Spears dancing explicitly. She does this to promote herself as a sexy female. It is her way of promoting both her music and her profile, and exhibitionism is a common form of representation.

Intertextuality

There are many music videos which feature intertextuality, referencing other texts, such as film and other music videos within their own video, by either taking style or imagery from another text of making a parody type of video. 

Intertextuality can be interpreted differently. It can either be done respectfully, or in a spoof/parody style. A good example of successful intertextuality is Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’. Within this video, Madonna takes a scene from the 1953 film ‘Gentlemen prefer Blondes’ taking inspiration from Marilyn Monroe’s character, by dressing in the sexy pink dress with the classic Marilyn curled blonde hair and surrounded by men, as seen in the film. Within this music video, Madonna is not mocking Monroe or the film, as she has recreated the famous scene in a respectful way, as she knows it is well known and will be referenced to the original scene. The song lyrics are about living in a materialistic world, and Madonna has used this intertextuality as a way of conveying the meaning of the song, as 'Gentlemen prefer Blondes' is also about a very materialistic character.

However, not all artists use intertextuality in this way. Eminem is an artist who is well known for doing mocking music videos, which are known as parodies. Eminem’s video ‘Without Me’ is a mocking video of the Batman and Robin comic strips, using effects which highlight the comic style, with the use of bright colours and over-exaggerated facial features, also using the comic text on the different scenes. The artist has created a spoof video, by dressing up in the Robin costume and pretending to be a superhero and having actors dress up as well known characters, but done in a mocking way.

Intertextuality is a good way of conveying meaning, as you can reference other texts in a respectful way and show that you like and consider the ideas of other directors and artists. When planning our media piece, intertextuality is definitely important, as we are considering an 'Alice in Wonderland' themed music video, and could take reference from Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' and other similar themed media texts.

Institutional Issues

Independent and Major Labels:

The main difference between independent and major record labels is that independent, or ‘indie’, record labels are not funded by large organizations, whereas major record labels are rely and are part of a huge international media group. Many music artists begin working with an independent record label and sometimes move to major record labels when they become more successful. More and more artists are now beginning in home studios, with home recording technology and are becoming Internet sensations before moving into both independent and major record labels.

An example of an independent record label is the American label ‘Fueled by Ramen’ who have produced the music video for Panic! At the Disco’s ‘The Ballad of Mona Lisa’. The label have also worked with artists such as Gym Class Heroes, Paramore and Travis McCoy but also have many inactive artists. The video is clearly made by an independent record company, as there is one location, with inexpensive set, and there are very little special effects, and nothing of great expense. 

An example of a successful music video lead by a major record label was Katy Perry’s ‘E.T’, which was produced by the major American record label ‘Capitol Records’. The song featured American rapper Kanye West, and the strong special effects in the video illustrates the difference between independent and major record labels, as was clearly an expensive video to make. The inclusion of a world famous American rapper also indicates that it comes from a major record label, as again it would increase costs in production.

How is meaning created and conveyed within a music video?

When studying how meaning is conveyed within music videos, I looked into analysing "You and Me by "Lifehouse" as a way of portraying how meaning is created through the footage in the music video. I considered aspects such as mise en scene, camerawork and editing to highlight the important elements that make up a successful music video.


Mise En Scene:

Within this video, there is separate footage of the band performing, and a narrative story being played out, and therefore the mise en scene conveyed lots of meaning.

Location and Setting: There are two main locations in the video, the location used for the band performing and the location used to perform the narrative based part of the video. There is a clear divide between them, the band performs on a hill top surrounded by hills and blue skies, whilst the narrative footage is filmed in a busy train station. By using two completely opposite locations, it shows that the band is not performing within the narrative.

Lighting and Colour: Again, a clear divide between both the performance based and the narrative based footage is illustrated through lighting and colour. The band performs with very neutral colouring, with blues and greys, showing that they are neutral to the storyline, whereas the narrative story for the song is made up of very warm yellows and oranges, which also matches the lyrics as it shows the warmth and love this man feels for the woman.

Character Blocking: The band is performing within some of the song, however it is clear that they are separate from the narrative, as the story is performed by actors and not the band. In the shots of the band performing, the lead singer and guitarist of the band is standing in the foreground, with the other members standing fairly far into the background, which makes him seem more important, and his lyrics are more heard. In the story, the two characters are never in the same shot at any time, as the man searches for the woman he is afraid to lose, and towards the very end of the track, they finally come together in the same shot, to show they are reunited again.

Costume and Props: The band are generally wearing quite neutral colours within the video, which usually blend into the background, which shows that they want their lyrics to be heard and are not part of the narrative. When performing against the blue background, the singer wears blues and greys, and when performing in the station, he wears browns and yellows, to match the colouring for the station scenes. The characters are actually wearing fairly similar clothing, both wearing black and white on their tops and blue denim jeans, showing that they are similar and meant to be.

Camerawork: 

Within this music video, the use of camera work and shots has been used effectively to illustrate the man in the narrative’s desire to be reunited with his true love. The use of close up shots are used to convey the emotion felt by the characters, and there are many tracking shots of the male searching for the woman. One particularly good shot is a tracking shot of the woman walking through the station, and the camera passes a pillar and we see the man taking the same route, suggesting both that he is going to find her, and that they are meant to be, as he knows which direction she is going.

Editing: The editing within this video, with the choice of both colour and shot length/transitions plays a big role in this video. The colours are necessary to define which part of the video is performance based and narrative based, with the neutral blues showing the performance based, as it is disconnected from the narrative. Within the narrative based performance, the editing is quite fast pace, to demonstrate the urgency this man feels for finding his love, with fairly slow pace editing on the performance, again showing the divide between both types of footage.

How is meaning conveyed?
Having studied the different aspects within this music video, I have found that mood and meaning is dependent on how the video made. This video conveys the anxiety felt that this man will lose his love forever, displayed with fast cut editing and close up shots to show emotion. These are all aspects we must consider when planning and shooting our own music video.

Concept Based Music Videos

Concept based music videos usually have no storyline, and sometimes have little or no relation to the meaning of the lyrics being sung or the artist singing them. This style of music video usually are based around a certain concept, and is usually surrounds one idea, however the footage does not have to make sense to the audience. Concept based music videos are both popular and successful, because audiences usually remember them for being so unique and unusual. Not only does a concept based music video create an unusual and memorable video, which promotes the song, but sometimes the artist does also feature within the video, which promotes the artist as well as the song. A successful example of concept based music videos is Mika’s “Happy Ending” which in my opinion is memorable for its eccentric and completely out of the ordinary video.

Performance Based Music Videos

 Performance based music videos are generally made up of footage of the band of artist performing their track, although sometimes in different settings, such as a gig or a studio setting. This type of music video features the artist performing their song ‘live’ for the duration of the video. Performance based videos are perhaps the cheapest of the three to make, as they require less setting, and all that is really needed is a suitable location for filming. Another purpose for performance based videos is for promotion, as it promotes the band or artists live performances and/or tours, by creating the atmosphere of a concert and showing the audience to be having a good time, therefore tempting audiences in to buying tickets for their concerts. Well known examples of performance based music videos is Saving Aimee’s “Fresh Since’88” and Green Day’s “American Idiot”

Narrative Based Music Videos

Narrative based music videos are videos which have a storyline, and they often follow that same storyline throughout the whole video. In music videos that are narrative based, the footage will tend to tell the story that matches the lyrics, but occasionally they don’t. The videos include actors that will help tell the story to the audience, and mise en scene to match the genre of the music video also plays a vital role. Sometimes, directors use footage of the artist singing the lyrics, in order to create a connection between the artist and the audience. In narrative based videos, the footage may relate to the lyrics in some way, however sometimes they it may not. In my opinion, narrative based music videos are a good way conveying the message within lyrics, and is a good way of telling the artist's story. Generally, producers who create music videos which are narrative based feature the artist singing the lyrics. This ensures that the video promotes the artist as well as telling the story. Good examples of narrative based music videos are Aha’s “Take me on”, Bon Jovi’s “Always” and Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night” 

The history of The Music Industry

Unfortunately, sales of recorded music to consumers began to decline throughout the first decade of the 21st century and by 2009 consumers of recorded music were spending half the amount they had 10 years previously in 1999 with the introduction of internet music distribution. The iTunes Store was launched in 2003, meaning the people were able to digitally download music legally, and by 2012 the popularity of internet music distribution has topped the physical sale of music. This complete and sudden change in the music industry and increased popularity of downloading music from the internet has changed the 20th century balance between artists, record companies, promoters, retail music stores and consumers. Recording artists now rely on their live performances, tours and merchandise to fund the majority of their income, and they become more dependant on promoting their music and the internet to increase their popularity, with the aid of sites such as Ticketmaster, Facebook and Twitter. In the music industry today, many newer artists no longer see a record deal as an important factor in their business at all, but can now use inexpensive recording software to record their own music in their homes and can easily distribute it over the internet to a worldwide audience. This development now means that recording studios, producers and audio engineers are now finding it difficult to find work, and so this continues with the development of technology.

However, in the 21st Century music sales have been rapidly decreasing, which means that promotion of music is even more important. Music videos have become just as important when promoting both the music and the artist themselves. As we progress throughout this project we will have to consider promoting our product using both a digi pak and magazine advert, however the music video will be equally as important in promotion which we must keep in mind throughout production.

The history of The Music Industry

In the late 19th and early 20th century the music industry was simply the publishing of sheet music, however by the middle of the 20th century records began production and increased in popularity becoming the largest player in the music industry, becoming known as ‘the record industry’. The ‘record industry’ soon replaced sheet music publishing, however many record companies died out as quickly as they had formed as further developments were already taking place. Soon, the development of recording introduced a new commercial side to the business, and by the 1920’s widespread radio broadcasting of music began, changing the way music is heard forever. Opera houses, concert halls and clubs continued producing and performing live music, however radio allowed a range of bands to become popular on a huge scale.

A2 Media Studies

This year, we have started our new coursework project for our A Level course, where we are looking at music videos, and creating additional pieces, a promotional poster and digi pak. But I firstly must research the history of the music industry.