General information on Music Videos

A music video is as the name suggests a video that is produced to go with any particular song. The actual video does not have to be related to the song and can be as creative as possible, however many successful music videos are closely linked to the lyrics of the song and takes many months planning and shooting, an example of this would be ‘Michael Jackson – Thriller’ which was voted as the most inspirational music video to date. Normally an artist would seek external help from a professional whose job is to create music videos; this person is called the director. They would brainstorm ideas collectively for content of the music video then his/her role is to put the pieces together and make the music video possible, however not everyone is able to afford to work with a director as they are particularly expensive but can create equally amazing music videos with a hand held camera.

 

The very first step towards music videos was at 1894 where Edward Marks and Joe Stern hired electricians and various performers to promote the sale of their song ‘The Little Lost Child’, using a magic lantern Thomas projected a serious of still images simultaneously on screen to live performances. One of the earliest videos of a top hit is ‘Jan & Dean’s – Surf City’; produced in 1963 the video captures the vibe and atmosphere of southern California beach.

People always tend to believe that a music video's primary objective is to generate profit however the number 1 reason a music video is actually created is to 'Promote the artist'. The majority of music videos available today would show close ups shots of the artist performing. Depending on the type of music video, the artist could be dancing to a pre choreographed dance routine or even playing an instrument with a band or alone (e.g. John Legend). The picture above clearly shows how the main emphasis is on the pianist as he is located directly in the middle of the shot and he is situated at the front of the orchestra.

A successful music video would first grab the attention of a viewer and keep them entertained throughout the course of the song right until the end, a song that does just that is 'Radiohead - Just'

 The reason I chose this music video is because the narrative grasped my attention from the instance I started viewing this music video, and throughout the whole music video I did not get board and the climax built up until the end where there was a cliff hanger which left me curious; the music video also engages the viewers as the narrative requires you to read subtitles to fully understand what is going on.

Music videos also help young viewers/teenagers find themselves what I mean by this is that by watching music video's they see how the artist is acting within society and they begin developing traits of the artist for instance many youths listening to 50 cent's music will aspire to live the life of a gangster and may join gangs and sell drugs to make money just like he did. Not only can teenagers aspire to be like the artist they can also relate to the artist, a person who likes to express themselves by dressing in a crazy manner may watch lady gaga's music video's and find the confidence the need to dress how they want publicly without humiliation.

Music videos would generally follow forms and convention to construct meaning in media text, codes and conventions are a set of rules or ways of doing something, these could be challenged so that artists can come up with innovative ideas however the scale should not be too great as forms and conventions allow the audience to become accustomed to certain genre's as they get used to seeing certain things. Codes and Conventions can be divided into two categories (Technical & Symbolic). The technical section refers to how equipment and technology is used to construct meaning for instance, the way the camera is moving (pan, tilt, track, zoom), the types of shot used (close up, establishing shot, wide shot, medium close up), the sounds used (diegetic, non-diegetic, Sound effects), and the types of editing used (continuity editing, cross-cuts, flash backs, slow motion, cut away, montage editing). The symbolic section refers to the meaning created beyond what is obvious to see, this can be created using objects, body language, setting, colour and clothing.