History of a Music Video

Music videos are often produced for promotional purposes in order to engage their audience with visuals as well as sound, primarily aimed at their target market. In fact, they are often known as 'promos' due to their main function.

Music videos are crucial in the music industry particularly to the audience themselves as they are being the chance to impress the public with not just their vocals but also with their looks and their moves. We can see that since the first music video was produced, the intention of creating a music video may have been different.

Looking at Bessie Smith in 1929, and even later at Queen's famous Bohemian Rhapsody, there weren't many places music could get promoted other than on TV. There were no social media networks, music channels and not everyone owned a television.

Music videos have always been important for the artist themselves: they are an extension of their income! The performing rights society is an organisation that collects royalties from radio, shops and music video websites for the artist. So, each time a music video is played on TV the artist gains money. This just means that an artist tries to create a music video that fans will ultimately enjoy watching, as people will play it more frequently, gaining more royalties. Not only can you download an artist audio track , but also the video, which of course costs more, gaining more income for the artist.  

Nowadays, artists can win awards for their music videos. The VMA Award allows the pubic to vote for their favourite videos with categories such as, video of the year, best art direction, best cinematography, best editing etc. Time and time again, these awards give the artist great publicity ad often boosts their sales. 

Studying the history of music videos show how prominent the Internet has become. Not only can anyone watch any music video, but they can also be advertised on websites such as social media. People comment on youtube, Facebook, blogs and therefore publicity spreads! Unsigned artists can also use videos to gain publicity by uploading their own videos to sites such as Youtube. For example, Jessie J and Justin Bieber, two of the worlds most successful pop artists posted youtue video's of themselves, and now they are known world wide. 

Inspiration: colours, scenes and costumes

I have decided that I want to make a music video that is concept based. This means that the visuals do not nesseciarily have to have anything to do with the lyrics. This is why I have created this moodboard. I want to have random scenes of every day life as my music video. People walking down the street, playing instruments, graffiti, rain, ambulance, skateboarders, people drinking, laughing. Just things that we would see everyday! Here is my first ideas, as a moodboard.

Whilst thinking about this, I also want to think about the range of camera techniques that I could use of certain images.

Pans
Eye line 
Low angle- create a sense of dominance
Establishing shots-for the beginning or end of a scene
                                              Slow motion effects

Analysing Music Video- 'Of the Night' By Bastille

I next analysed another music video 'Of the night' by Bastille. The reason I chose this was because it is of a different music genre to Kesha and Bastille are quite indie themed as a band, and this is something that I want to develop in my own video. 

It is a narrative-based video, and tells the story of a detective who has to deal with death each night. 

Although the screenshots are not overly clear, this image shows the beginning of the video,  where the title of the band and the name of the song come up in the centre of the screen. This is effective, as there is an fast moving image underneath, and whilst the audience are concentrating on the font, the image is continuously moving, making it visually exciting for the audience. 

The band do not feature in their own video and instead, they have actors. I think that there are pros and cons to this, as whilst the actors are able to tell an effective narrative, the band do not feature in it themselves, which I think is very important, due to the fact that the audience will want to interact with them, because they are the ones that produced the song. 

The video is set during night time and therefore it is dark. This makes the blue and red police siren more vivid when it is projected against the side of the characters face. 

As the man is walking to the crime screen, different camera angles are used to show his face from different angles. This is really effective, as the audience want to no what is happening. Who has died? Therefore, we are able to see many of his facial expressions, which build our suspense even further. 

The high angle looking down on the dead body suggests vulnerability and weakness. 

There is a slow zoom on the dead corpse. This is a powerful and practical edit as the audience are able to focus on the devastating effects of what the song is about. 

There is a pan of the spectators is powerful, as the audience get to see the spectators reaction. The fact that there are also many people viewing the scene suggests that it is a big deal, therefore our suspense builds. 

 There is a low angle of looking up towards the detective. This shows superiority and dominance towards him, suggesting he has an important and prominent job. 

 A POV shot is used throughout the video to show the streets. This lets the audience no of the setting and location of where the video is set. 

 The video ends with a fade out sequence with the audio. THis brings an end to the video peacefully rather than abruptly. 

Saint Era by Castlelights

SAINT ERA BY CASTLE LIGHTS

This is the song that I have chosen for my Music Video.
I chose it for many reasons.


Castlelights.

Why I chose this Music Video? My actors (Molly and Andy0) will work well being featured with this song.

The Genre: Indie

I asked some of my target market, both boys and girls and 87% said that they liked the sound of the song.

The beat is upbeat and can relate to the music video that I am going to create.

Fits with my idea of having a concept-based video.

Why I chose this Music Video?

My actors (Molly and Andy0) will work well being featured with this song. 

The Genre: Indie

The beat is upbeat and can relate to the music video that I am going to create.

Fits with my idea of having a concept-based video.

Lyrics to Saint Era by Castlelights

Oh the state things are in.
Walked alone through the Cold Catacombs.
I’ll find my way out
These empty streets are snowed over; they fill my heart and mind.
With their memories, ohh oh oh.

Oh Saint Era, Oh Saint Era.
I’ll wait by the sea, to hope that my heart will come back some day.
Oh Saint Era, Oh Saint Era.
I’ll wait by the sea, to hope that my heart will come back some day

Broken glass along my feet, boarded holes and wandering souls.
They’ve got their peace.
And empty swings they pierce right through, everything they had a chance to do.
They’ve got their wings.

Oh Saint Era, Oh Saint Era.
Ill wait by the sea, to hope that my heart will come back some day.
Oh Saint Era, Oh Saint Era.
Ill wait by the sea, to hope that my heart will come back some day.

Positives Lyrics Analysis

Looking at the lyrics of a song can sometimes be quite deceiving! This is what I found out when I researched the song 'Positives'.

The song 'Positives' is written by the new-up and coming indie folk band from Oxford.
Analysing the Lyrics, We realised that this song had quite a negative message. It seemed that the themes of the song, for example

• Smoking " Cos smoking my mom's black builds the dirt on my new shoes"
• Drinking "And all those  heavy drinking nights have painted my mind black"
• Cancer/illness "Cos every smile that cancer in you's all a bit too cold"
• New beginnings "I've been working on those dreams I've always had"

Then we listened to the song...
https://soundcloud.com/#emptywhitecircles

What sort of genre are they? Indie Folk is what we thought. The song however is a completly different mood to how we read it. The depressing feelings that we had were note portrayed in the song, and instead it was uplifting and focusing on the positives ahead!

Looking at the video:

Our ideas certainly didnt fit our intial impressions!
This shows how a visual performance can completely change the feelings and emotions of th song! Thats how powerful visuals are in the music industry!

However, they are not always misleading! Sometimes visuals fit the lyrics exactly and actually ake the lyrics feel more real and memorable as you have the visuals in your mind!
An example of this is 'Love the way you lie' by Eminem featuring Rihanna. Take a look at the lyrics:

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn
But that's alright because I like the way it hurts
Just gonna stand there and hear me cry
But that's alright because I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie

[Verse - Eminem:]
I can't tell you what it really is
I can only tell you what it feels like
And right now it's a steel knife in my windpipe
I can't breathe but I still fight while I can fight
As long as the wrong feels right it's like I'm in flight
High off a love, drunk from my hate,
It's like I'm huffing paint and I love it the more I suffer, I suffocate
And right before I'm about to drown, she resuscitates me
She fucking hates me and I love it.
Wait! Where you going?
"I'm leaving you"
No you ain't. Come back we're running right back.
Here we go again
It's so insane cause when it's going good, it's going great
I'm Superman with the wind at his back, she's Lois Lane
But when it's bad it's awful, I feel so ashamed I snapped
Who's that dude? I don't even know his name
I laid hands on her, I'll never stoop so low again
I guess I don't know my own strength

[Chorus - Rihanna:]

[Verse - Eminem:]
You ever love somebody so much you can barely breathe
When you're with 'em
You meet and neither one of you even know what hit 'em
Got that warm fuzzy feeling
Yeah, them chills you used to get 'em
Now you're getting fucking sick of looking at 'em
You swore you'd never hit 'em; never do nothing to hurt 'em
Now you're in each other's face spewing venom in your words when you spit them
You push, pull each other's hair, scratch, claw, bit 'em
Throw 'em down, pin 'em
So lost in the moments when you're in them
It's the rage that took over it controls you both
So they say you're best to go your separate ways
Guess that they don't know you 'cause today that was yesterday
Yesterday is over, it's a different day
Sound like broken records playing over but you promised her
Next time you show restraint
You don't get another chance
Life is no Nintendo game
But you lied again
Now you get to watch her leave out the window
Guess that's why they call it window "pain"

[Chorus - Rihanna:]

[Verse - Eminem:]
Now I know we said things, did things that we didn't mean
And we fall back into the same patterns, same routine
But your temper's just as bad as mine is
You're the same as me
But when it comes to love you're just as blinded
Baby, please come back
It wasn't you, baby it was me
Maybe our relationship isn't as crazy as it seems
Maybe that's what happens when a tornado meets a volcano
All I know is I love you too much to walk away though
Come inside, pick up your bags off the sidewalk
Don't you hear sincerity in my voice when I talk
Told you this is my fault
Look me in the eyeball
Next time I'm pissed, I'll lay my fist at the drywall
Next time? There will be no next time!
I apologize even though I know its lies
I'm tired of the games I just want her back
I know I'm a liar
If she ever tries to fucking leave again
Im'a tie her to the bed and set this house on fire
I'm just gonna

You can sense that this is quite a sullen song, filled with mistakes and viloence. You expect the visuals to be the same, violence, low lighting to suggests uneasiness, danger, perhaps fire.

I then looked at the video:

I saw that the visuals fitted perfectly:

• Fire represented the danger and the heat of heir argument
• Eye contact between the audience and Rihanna shows the hurt and pain that she is going through
• Domestic violence is shown with short takes to create suspense and shows the quick actions each of them make. 
• It shows crime, which again represents the feeling of despair that the lyrics also showed.

Analysing my first Music video: Tik Tok

I am analysing Kesha's Music video of 'Tik Tok' directed by Syndrome . 
This music belongs to the pop genre as well as dance, electronic and hip hop.

• Type: Narrative. 
• Genre: Pop/R&B

• Camera shots:

-Aerial shot: Shows Kesha laying in the bath tub, suggesting that she is unaware of her surroundings. 
-Extreme close-up- Makes the visuals more personal, we can see what she is thinking. The audience feel like she can develop a relationship with them. 

• Camera Movement:

-Hand-held camera: The camera which is hand-held does a vertical tilt upwards. This is to represent staggered and uncontrolled movement, showing she is still drunk. 
-Low angle: shows that she is disorientated, allows us to understand the story. 

• Editing:

-Fade in: At the beginning, the image fades in. It is an interesting way of introducing the performer to the audience. 
-The video jump cuts to the scene of a club the night before, which is filling in part of the story. 
-Eye line match: We are at eye-level with Kesha. This allows the audience to make a connection with the audience, as Kesha is speaking (singing) to them.
-Jump cut: Cuts from different places of the room. This again suggests her disorientated nature and adds interest to the visuals with quick editing. 
-Slow motion-emphasises her movement. Kesha is wild therefore her actions are heightened and adds movement, which catches peoples attention. 

• Postproduction digital effects:

-Black and White filter colourisation: makes the visuals more interesting, different colours could potentially make the video more memorable.

• Lighting:

- Bright natural light is used, as it is narrative based, it shows that its not a performance, where there would be artificial lights etc. 
-During the club scene, the scene is darkened and blue spotlights are used to create effect. 

• Mise-en-scene:

- Kesha's casual attire represents her care free attitude. 
-The extra's in the video are also sporting casual attive, showing a care-free vibe .