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 became popular in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip".
Music videos use a wide range of styles of contemporary video 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, music, and live action. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video
Some examples of modern music video stations include: MTV, Kerrang! TV, 4Music, NME TV and Viva.
Codes and conventions of music videos
Editing:
Jump cut is the main editing technique used within music videos. This allows a sudden change from one scene to the next, since music video’s only last between 2 - 3 minuets long. Similarly, transitions are used to fade or dissolve.
Lighting:
Depending on the mood or tone of the video, lighting can be dark or bright in order to reflect the song. Some use artificial lighting to enhance the look or link to a songs theme.
Sound:
Mainly the vocals and score/soundtrack of the song and the artists voice. At times, certain sound effects are used depending on the situation and location.
Props, Costume:
Depending on the themes, narrative or mood of the song props can be used to make it look more visually appealing as well as sounding appealing.
Colour:
Different effects can be use to change the look and colour of the video, depending on the songs themes and mood. For example, rock music has darker colours and lighting than pop music which is more bright and colourful.
Camera:
Mainly close ups of artists singing, mid or full body shots are used to show body language. At times if there’s a setting there will be establishing or long shots of the scene. Camera movement contains mainly pans and tracking of the artist.
Characteristics of a music video
Music video’s demonstrate a genre’s characteristics:
This is important in establishing an artist’s target audience as it must be clear from not only the song but the video to highlight this. For example, a pop video maybe brightly coloured, contain remix music, might sound soft and might emphasise the location more than the artist itself. Where as rock music can focus on the band performing as a group and have a lot of dark themes and colours.
Relationship between lyrics, music and visuals:
This is usually a reflection of the kind of person the artist wants to illustrate themselves and the type of audience they want to attract. For example, Lady Gaga can be outrageous and at times controversial. This shows she wants the publicity to further her status and with recent videos make her look different, unique and artistic.
Types of Music videos
Narrative:
- Often the video tells a story either that features in the lyrics or is suggested in the lyrics eg: a relationship is broken, love struggles or showing either sad or happy moments
- This narrative can be like a Mini film, with a beginning, middle and end
- Or it can suggest some links to a story that the audience or artist knows
- It can promote a film with clips from the film included - telling a story
Since it is only 2-4 minutes it can be:
-Very fast paced, lots of shots and cuts to a different scene as it needs to get the narrative within 2-4 minuets
-Use inter-textuality with films, TV and other videos
-Mimic other film and TV genre eg: horror or sci fi
-Sometimes the story can contradict what is seen for effect
-Sometimes the artist is a part of the story or an observer or completely separate
Performance:
Many music videos include performance of the artists as part of the video. The performance is briefly shown to mix in with the visuals but it depends on the certain genre. For example, Rock videos contain more performance in showing the band playing. Some of the conventions of a performance video are:
- Often containing shots of the artists performing
- Can be a live stage performance, with shots of artists and audience
- Can be the artists in real life situations eg: warming up, talking, being with friends
- Often includes lots of close ups of the artist and there can be a particular visual style that goes with the artist (a motif) eg: particular clothing, actions, props, type of images.
- Often the artist can appear to perform in an unusual place - all lip-synched eg: a field, a rooftop
Idea of spectacle: Music Videos may be considered to be examples of 'spectacle '.
In this the performers are performing, often looking directly at the viewer. This is called “direct address” where they are directly interacting with the viewer.
Thematic:
- There are lots of common themes in music videos
- Depends on the genre of music eg: Heavy metal bands go for performance dominated clips
- Rap has lots of “street” images, dance routines are common for many female artist performances
- Pop is mainly about love
- Indie can be based on a lot of themes not just love or relationships
Symbolic:
- Use of lots of symbols to build up meaning eg: graveyard = death
- Lots of use of montage - lots of images to create meaning sometimes often contradictory
- Lighting often used to suggest mood
- Fast paced - often only a few seconds per shot to build up meanings
- Pictures can support or contradict the lyrics
- Usually most music conveys an artists feelings or events in there lives
From this research it has given me a general view of common music video characteristics that has allowed me to think about my own music video, and what kind of conventions are possible to use. Also the research has given me an insight into how (depending on the genre) it represents a song and it's artist.
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