Video Killed The Radio Star - The Buggles (Video Analysis)

"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley in 1977. It was first recorded by Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards) for their album English Garden, and later by British Group ‘The Buggles’, consisting of Horn and Downes. The track was recorded and mixed in 1979, released as their debut single on 7 September 1979 by Island Records, and included on their first album The Age of Plastic. The backing track was recorded at Virgin's Town House in West London, and mixing and vocal recording would later take place at Sarm East Studios.

Like all the other tracks from the LP, "Video"'s theme was promotion of technology while worrying about its effects. This song relates to concerns about mixed attitudes towards 20th-century inventions and machines for the media arts. Musically, the song performs like an extended jingle and the composition plays in the key of D-flat major in common time at a tempo of 132 beats per minute. The track has been positively received, with reviewers praising its unusual musical pop elements. Although the song includes several common pop characteristics and six basic chords are used in its structure, Downes and writer Timothy Warner described the piece as musically complicated, due to its use of suspended and minor ninth chords for enhancement that gave the song a "slightly different feel."

Commercially, "Video Killed the Radio Star" was also a success. The track topped sixteen international music charts, including the official singles charts of the group's home country of the UK and other nations such as Australia, Austria, France, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as the Japanese Oricon International Chart. It also peaked within the top 10 in Canada, Germany, New Zealand and South Africa, the top 20 in Belgium and the Netherlands, and barely in the top 40 

in the United States.

The song's music video was written, directed, and edited by Russell Mulcahy, and is well-remembered as the first music video shown on MTV in the United States at 12:01am on 1 August 1981, and the first video shown on MTV Classic in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2010. The song has received several critical accolades; such as being ranked number 40 on VH1's 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the '80s. It has been covered by many recording artists. Trevor Horn has done performances of the song, both at Buggles reunion performances and with The Producers, since 1998.

Production and concept:

The song was put in more than three months of production. The instrumental track was recorded at Virgin's Town House in West London for twelve hours, with mixing and recording of vocals held at Sarm East Studios. The entire song was mixed through a Trident TSM console. "Video" was the first track recorded for the group's debut LP The Age of Plastic, which cost a sum of £60,000 (equivalent to £307,423 in 2014) to produce, and the song had been mixed by Gary Langan four or five times. According to Langan, "there was no total recall, so we just used to start again. We’d do a mix and three or four days later Trevor would go, 'It's not happening. We need to do this and we need to do that.' The sound of the bass drum was one of his main concerns, along with his vocal and the backing vocals. It was all about how dry and how loud they should be in the mix without the whole thing sounding ridiculous. As it turned out, that record still had the loudest bass drum ever for its time."

The song includes instrumentation of drums, bass guitar, electric guitar, synth strings, instruments, piano, glockenspiel, marimbas and other futuristic, twinkly sounds, andvocals. Downes used a Solina, Minimoog and Prophet-5 to create the overdubbed orchestral parts. Both the male and female voices differ to give a tonal and historical contrast. When Langan was interviewed in December 2011, he believed the male vocal was recorded through either a dynamic Shure SM57, SM58, Sennheiser 421, or STC 4038 ribbon microphone, and that four of five takes had to be done. The male voice echos the song's theme in the tone of the music, initially limited in bandwidth to give a "telephone" effect typical of early broadcasts, and uses a mid-Atlantic accent resembling that of British singers in the 1950s and '60s.

The Vox AC30 amplifier was used to achieve the telephone effect, and Gary Lagan says he was trying to make it "loud without cutting your head off", in others words make the voice sound soft. Gary Langan and Trevor Horn also tried using a bullhorn, but they found it too harsh. Langan later compressed and EQ'd the male vocals, and he said that doing the compression for old-style vocal parts was a "real skill." The female vocals are panned in the left and right audio channels, and sound more modern and have a New York accent.

The single version of "Video Killed the Radio Star" lasts for 3 minutes and 25 seconds. The album version plays for 4 minutes and 13 seconds, about 48 seconds longer than the single version, as it fades into a piano and synth coda, which ends with a brief sampling of the female vocals.

The video was filmed in only a day in South London, and was edited in a couple of days. Geoff Downes said in a 2011 interview that he felt the concept of the video reflected on that of the song. Mulcahy asked a friend of his, Virginia Hey, a model and aspriring actress, to play a girl who was dressed "in a silver costume and be lowered via wires in a test tube." There were about 30 takes required for shots of the actress in the tube. The tube falls over in the video, although Mulcahy claims it was not intended to be shown in the final edit. Hans Zimmer can be briefly seen wearing black playing a keyboard, and Debi Doss and Linda Jardim, who provided the female vocals for the song, are also seen.

The video starts with a girl c. 1952, sitting in front of a radio. A black-and-white shot of Trevor Horn singing into a radio-era microphone is altered over the girl by the radio. The radio blows up by the time of the first chorus, and then in the second verse, she is seen transported into the future, where she meets Horn and a silver-jumpsuited female in a clear plastic tube. Shots of Horn and Geoff Downes are shown during the remainder of the video.

Broadcasting and reception:

The video was first released in 1979, when it originally aired on the BBC'sTop of the Pops for promotion of the single, rather than doing live performances. Zimmer recalled in 2001 that the video drew criticism from some viewers who watched it before it aired on MTV, due to being "too violent because we blew up a television." The video is best known as marking the debut of MTV, when the US channel started broadcasting at 12:01 AM on 1 August 1981. On 27 February 2000, it became the one-millionth video to be aired on MTV. It also opened MTV Classic in the UK and Ireland, which replaced VH1 Classic on 1 March 2010, at 6 AM. The video marked the closing of MTV Philippines before its shutdown on 15 February 2010 at 11:49 PM. MTV co-founder Bob Pittman said the video "made an aspirational statement. We didn't expect to be competitive with radio, but it was certainly a sea-change kind of video."

Analysis:

Music videos are indicative of the development of media and culture, and that music videos have similar characteristics to advertising and Jazz music as they were perceived as a negative aspect for our developing society and would affect our current 'Stability' as videos allowed audiences to gain deeper meaning into the motivations behind the producers. Artists and producers were now empowered to express themselves not only through the linguistic meaning and interpretation of the lyrics but through the visual representation of our culture and modern day society. This opened up a new prospect for the music industry and for artists on the global scale as through the hypodermic needle theory, the audience are passed the hidden or sometimes evident ideology. 'Video killed the radio star' by the Buggles was the first music video broadcast on the redefining MTV channel. It is an ironic reflection on the 'Golden age' of the radio' and a unique portrayal of our postmodern society. In post modernistic society the texts main function is to be read by an academic audience who can interpret its metaphorical and literal meaning in order to stimulate an intellectual. 

The television as a medium has been seen as the embodiment of our postmodern society and the song this can be 'ironically' distinguished in 'Video killed the Radio star'. In context, the video is an expression on the cultural view at the time, whereby space travel and the exploration of the universe was becoming more proliferated and at the forefront of the media, and this reflected in the video. Also the video deals with gender issues of the time, and the struggle to live and survive in a postmodern culture. Finally, it deals with the problematic issue that audiences were becoming more disconnected and disjointed from society with the proliferation and advancement of technology.

The title of the song is particularly significant in creating an immediate impression on the audience and establishing the narrative for the music video. 'Video killed the radio star', is an ironic reflection as it is modern day pop song reflecting on the past using a range of different techniques including the use of a futuristic synthesizer and postmodern ideas of the audience using music videos as a way of surveillance and to keep up with the ever changing norms and values. It is also a reflection on society’s social change from the radio being the main medium in transferring the upper classes ideological messages directly to the audience, to the television and videos dominating the ideological control.

The mechanistic approaches portrayed in this video through the different technical elements are reflective of society’s conversion to a digitalised age and a sign of the disconnection with reality. This can also be seen throughout the video as a reoccurring theme for example, the beginning of the video opens with a slow zoom out from a medium shot focusing the audience on the image of the glowing moon, as it appearing in the centre of the rule of thirds over layered with shimmering water. This links into the space age of technological development as the audience are gazing at the moon as a signifier of wonder and amazement in human history. This can be seen contextually in other music artists of this period, of the paranoia and ideology of the space age for example 'The Carpenters' produced a track called, 'Space Encounters' in 1798, which showed the audiences fascination which the new culturally established normality which shows the broad nature and extent of this popular ideology.  

This is also an insight into the of the idealistic view of the 'Golden age' of the radio. The producers are giving the audience a view of the past and contrasting it with the new age of the media. The camera continues to pull out as there is an explosion off centre. This has connotations of the powerless nature of the simplistic, ideology of the world, which is submissive to the technological era. This reiterates the metaphorical meaning of the video that the naturalistic and creative spirit of people has been withdrawn. The initial soundtrack of the video is a soft tempo piano which further reinforces the message that society has become non-traditional and subjective. 

The black and white main character has a mechanised overlay over his dialogue where the vocals have a limited bandwidth. This is symbolic of the idealistic view of the past as a simplistic and individualistic period of time. This is a constant theme in the music video and establishes his importance and power within this music video. The black and white gives the character a nostalgic presence, which contrasts with his initial role as the powerful figure. He acts as a narrator and observer on the change in society, and is resembling of the past and his identity is lost through the development of technology. 

The use of the radio microphone is symbolic of the age of the character and acts as a metaphor for the past. Another example in this media text of the mechanisation of the instruments. There is a medium shot focusing on a male playing the piano. The camera then moves in a diagonal line to reveal television screen, where a drum is hit twice. This is to represent that creative elements for example musical instruments were becoming digitalised. The musicians are disjointed from society. This is seen firstly through the facial expressions of the characters which are emotionless and disconnected from their individualistic natures. Also can be seen through their demeanour as they are robotic in their movements and monotonous. 

The Mise en scene of the characters and also reflects the mechanisation of our society. The main vocal character is wearing a plain white coat, which is a reference to the educated professionals such as scientists or doctors, which refers to creative progress of the music industry which has been reduced and mechanised. It also establishes his authority and hierarchical status in society, which has references to the male domination and to represent is an unequal gender balance. Also the radio microphone attached the glasses shows his attachment to the digital world. The passive characters formed in this music video also reflect the nature of the main culture phenomenon. The characters are wearing silver reflective clothing to represent the futuristic nature of the digital age.

The young female character plays an important role as she is used by the producers as a metaphorical image for the development from adolescence to adulthood and maturity in a postmodern society. Her adolescence has been expressed through her Mise en scene, of the stereotypical apparel, red dungaree. This is typical attire of the time period of a young girl. There is a long shot of the child in the centre of the frame. The character is literally a fractured, broken and pixelated image relating to metaphorical instability in a fracture in a consumerist society where her establishment of individualism is non-existent. The explosions around her reinforce the metaphorical meaning of her fading away from reality and the societal norm. This is coupled, synchronised and combined with the visual representation and the lyrics, “Video killed the radio star” which reiterates the change and fluidity of our ever changing characteristic society. This can also be seen when there is a long shot of the girl changing into adulthood. This transition is shown to be a demystified emotionless process, which is oppositional to society's view. 

The futuristic woman is submissive to the world as her actions and presence becomes robotic. There is also a medium shot of the woman in a test tube which is ironic as the woman is been treated a laboratory test subject. Her emotionless passive nature shows her disconnection from society and her inability to cope. She attempts to escape from the test tube with no hope, which represents her entrapment in our society. It also highlights key feminist theoretical issues, as there is a gender imbalance with the power given to the male characters as they survey and analyse the woman as inferior. This is grouped with the lyrics, “We can’t rewind we've gone too far”, showing that post modernism has taken over our society and the possibility to go back to 'golden age' is unlikely. There is then a reaction shot of the girl looking at her futuristic self. This reinforces her fear for the future and the inevitable collapse of childhood in the digitalised world. The child is then seen at the on top of a pile of cartoon radios which resembles the distant nature of the radio as a medium, as the cartoonist image is used as a signifier of the past. 

The next scene is of two television monitors emerging out of the ground. They are seen as fracturing the studio in a literal sense but are representing wider society and how the establishment of the television is fracturing and dividing our society. This movement is repeated with multiple camera shots to represent the power and dominance is to bring to producers of the future. The lead vocal, follows this sequence with the lyrics, “Pictures came and broke your heart”. This is strengthening the meaning and connotations of the visuals.

There is then a medium shot of main vocals on a television screen, pointing audience. The digital vocals are echoed and sustained, which is over layered with the black and white radio star character. This establishes a link with the past and a reflection on the past and old media mediums such as the radio. It highlights the importance of the past technologies such as the radio and reflects on the ideological age, where the audience establishes their own identity, culture and values. The lyrics are synchronized with the image, “Put the blame on VCR”, which demonstrates the ideology of the artist, as the past is the ideal and the future of our consumerist society of greed and a focus on material goods is dividing and destroying our society. Video Killed the Radio star' is a visual and audio presentation of the degeneration of society through the technological advances of our world. It incorporates post modernistic views and has inspired a generation with its interesting concepts and creativity.

Famous Last Words - My Chemical Romance (Video Analysis)

"Famous Last Words" is a song by American rock band My Chemical Romance. It was released as the band's second single on January 22, 2007 from their third studio album, The Black Parade. It is also the band's ninth overall single. The music video premiered on December 12, 2006 on MTV2 and on December 13, 2006 on the Much Music program, and on MuchOnDemand in Canada.

In the United Kingdom and other territories, the single was released as a two-part square shaped vinyl picture disc. Part one came in a gatefold stickered clear sleeve, with a space to 'slot' part two into.

The Black Parade is the third studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance. Released on October 23, 2006 through Reprise Records, it was produced by Rob Cavallo, known for having produced multiple albums for Goo Goo Dolls and Green Day. It is a rock opera centering on a dying character with cancer known as "The Patient". The album tells the story of his apparent death, experiences in the afterlife, and subsequent reflections on his life.

Four singles were released from the album: "Welcome to the Black Parade", "Famous Last Words", "I Don't Love You", and "Teenagers". The Black Parade has received generally favourable reviews, and the band achieved its first number one single in the United Kingdom with "Welcome to the Black Parade". The album debuted at number two on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart and is also certified as Platinum by the RIAA, as well as a Platinum certification in the United Kingdom and a Gold certification in Argentina by the CAPIF and in Chile by the IFPI Chile. The Black Parade was given the Platinum Europe Award by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for 1 million sales in Europe.

The limited edition boxed set also earned My Chemical Romance a Grammy Award nomination. In the video game Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360 version), the song "Dead!" was added to the game's track list prior to the earlier PlayStation 2 version, and the three songs "Teenagers," "Famous Last Words" and "This Is How I Disappear" are available for download. The Black Parade has sold 1,610,000 copies in the United States as of October 2010, and has sold 3,000,000 copies worldwide. The record was reissued as a 10th Anniversary Edition on September 23, 2016 in celebration of the album’s release.

Gerard Way said in an interview with Kerrang! magazine that the line, "I am not afraid to walk this world alone" played some part in the break up with his then girlfriend, known as "Katmandu." The last lines of the song imply that the patient's lover is in fact the person who has died. "I see you lying next to me with words I thought I'd never speak" suggests that the Patient's lover is lying next to him in a coffin, as he speaks about her during the funeral service. The line "Awake and unafraid, asleep or dead" is further evidence that the Patient is alive and has entered into some new state of self-perception, that he has cleared himself of regrets. However, there is no mention of the Patient's state; whether he has recovered from his illness or not. Though the song is named "Famous Last Words", that term is generally used when someone has died, and they have said their Famous Last Words. My Chemical Romance drummer Bob Bryar suffered third-degree burns on his arms and legs during the filming of the song's music video. 

The official video for "Famous Last Words" was directed by Samuel Bayer and was filmed before the band had even named the song. The music video is a performance dominated video, however, there are aspects of a narrative as the video is a continuation of the story that is featured in the ‘The Black Parade’. So this video is connected to the other music videos from the songs on the album ‘The Black Parade’. The music video shows the Black Parade float that the band performed on in "Welcome to the Black Parade" burning and destroyed. The rest of the background is scattered with burning props from the "Welcome to the Black Parade" video, and fire is seen all around. It becomes immediately apparent that this is a rock music video as the band is presented as rebellious guys wearing black jackets fighting conformity by using a remote location with blazing fires in the background which connotes that they are in danger but could also be subtly implying that these men are dangerous.

The fire is a symbol for the passion and anger that is expressed throughout the song. All followers of The Black Parade have abandoned the band, and they appear to be in a desperate state. Lead singer Gerard Way looks particularly rough, and he seems be dying or extremely ill because of the makeup he is wearing, especially around his eyes. This makeup is similar to that worn by The Patient in the "Welcome to the Black Parade" video. The costumes of the band members are black which is a colour that is associated with rock because of the negative connotations attached to it. 

Way adopts a wide-eyed, insane-looking facial expression. So the video can be seen to be following rock music video stereotypes as over exaggerated facial expression are a key feature in most modern rock music videos as it reinforces the brash and crazy nature of rock music. The facial expressions are highlighted by a sequence of close ups throughout the video. The editing of the video is fast paced and constantly cuts between the different band members playing their instruments to demonstrate their musical ability. There is also a variety of low angle shots which empowers the band members and makes them visually striking. The visuals of the video also synchronise and follow the lyrics of the song, for instance Gerard way emphasises the expansion of his ‘Eyes shining bright’ as he forces them open with his hand and when he lies down and references seeing the patient’s lover (who is deceased) lying next to him however it is implied that she is buried next to him ‘I see you lying next to me’.

Moreover, some of the scenes in the music video are recorded from a handheld camera and so there is a lot of shaking, however, it could be argued that the shaking represents the mental instability of the members which runs with the theme of instability that is one of the main focuses of the song as the song is about the loss of a lover and the emotional trauma that ensues. This is reinforced and expressed via the jump cuts of Gerard’s over exaggerated facial expressions. Chaos then ensues as fast paced editing with cross cutting and jump cuts takes over and out of focus shots shows the flames growing and the band descending into madness for the final chorus. The fact that the shot if out of focus implies that they are losing control. In addition, there is a close up of Gerard’s hand reaching up which suggests that he is calling out for help but no one is answering so he is going to have to go through this on his own, this suggests that he is actually afraid to go through this grieving process on his own and therefore challenges the lyrics of the song as he states that he is ‘Not afraid to keep on living’ and that he ‘Not afraid to walk this world alone’. 

In some parts of the video, he can be seen wearing a mask with a skull design on it. The mask could be subtly hinting towards the demons inside of him that he is struggling to control. This would make the video relatable to the target audience as it is a stereotype that only people who have social issues or depression listen to rock music so this allows the music video to connect with the audience and makes it become more personal to them which establishes a strong link between the audience and the artist. The band's condition deteriorates as the song goes on until they revert to thrashing around in the dirt while performing. At the end of the video, they drop their instruments and run away from the burning float. 

Although this video appears to represent a relatively basic concept in comparison to past videos, it is regarded by fans as by far the darkest video the band has created. In an interview for the music video, Way said that it was written at "the darkest period in this band's career". A shortened edit of the song is used in the video, with one bridge and two chorus repeats removed. The instrumentals at the end of the song continue in the video, with a sustained guitar chord accompanying the last few vocal lines; in the album version, they were faded out by engineer Chris Lord-Alge until only Way's voice and a harmony of other band members can be heard, along with a backing of soft organ chords.

Drummer Bob Bryar sustained second and third degree burns on the back of his legs while shooting the video, yet persisted in staying until the recording was finished. This burn later resulted in gangrene. Way tore muscles in his leg and foot when Frank Iero tackled him while he was in a kneeling position, leaving him in a hospital for several days. Way recalls that, during the filming, they were all "mortified" from the engulfing flames surrounding the set. After the stay in the hospital, the doctors refused to let them perform in San Diego as the band originally planned. Ray Toro fractured his fingers also during shooting and Bob Bryar received multiple blisters around his hand as a result of extreme playing over a long period of time.

The video premiered in the United States on Total Request Live on January 11, 2007. On January 24, 2007, the video reached the No. 1 spot on TRL, and spent nine days at the top of the countdown, before becoming the band's first video to retire on the countdown on March 26, 2007. The US version of the video is mostly the same as the version first seen in the UK, the only difference being that it completely cuts out Bryar's incident with the heat at the end of the video. This version has started to air on British television, or at least on the music channels Scuzz TV and Kerrang! TV. The video has been viewed more than 80 million times on YouTube. As of January 19, it is the fourth most viewed video in the "music" section (behind videos such as their own video for "Teenagers"), and the seventh most viewed video on the entire site.

Introduction to Music Genres

A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Recently, academics have argued that categorising music by genre is inaccurate and outdated.

Pop music:

Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the Western world during the 1950s and 1960s as a softer alternative to rock and roll. The terms "popular music" and "pop music" are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular (and can include any style). 

Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other styles such as urban, dance, rock, Latin, and country; nonetheless, there are core elements that define pop music. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure) as well as the common employment of repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and hooks.

Rock music:

Rock music is a genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the 1950s, and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s' and 1950s' rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources. 

Musically, rock has centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar and drums. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. The dominance of rock by white, male musicians has been seen as one of the key factors shaping the themes explored in rock music. Rock places a higher degree of emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and an ideology of authenticity than pop music. 

By the late 1960s, referred to as the "golden age” or "classic rock" period, a number of distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock, folk rock, country rock, raga rock, and jazz-rock, many of which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock, which was influenced by the countercultural psychedelic scene. New genres that emerged from this scene included progressive rock, which extended the artistic elements; glam rock, which highlighted showmanship and visual style; and the diverse and enduring subgenre of heavy metal, which emphasized volume, power, and speed.

In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted against the perceived overblown, inauthentic and overly mainstream aspects of these genres to produce a stripped-down, energetic form of music valuing raw expression and often lyrically characterised by social and political critiques. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of other subgenres, including new wave, post-punk and eventually the alternative rock movement. From the 1990s alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop, and indie rock. Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop punk, rap rock, and rap metal, as well as conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including the garage rock/post-punk and synthpop revivals at the beginning of the new millennium.

Rapping:

Rapping (or emceeing, MCing, spitting bars, or rhyming) is "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The components of rapping include "content", "flow" (rhythm and rhyme), and "delivery". Rapping is distinct from spoken-word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat (external meter). Rapping is often associated with and a primary ingredient of hip-hop music, but the origins of the phenomenon can be said to predate hip-hop culture by centuries. It can also be found in alternative rock such as that of Cake, Gorillaz and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rapping is also used in Kwaito music, a genre that originated in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is composed of hip-hop elements. Another form of rap that predates hip hop was Muhammad Ali's rhythmic poetry used to taunt his opponents in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without accompaniment. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area between speech, prose, poetry, and singing. The word (meaning originally "to hit") as used to describe quick speech or repartee predates the musical form. The word had been used in British English since the 16th century. It was part of the African-American dialect of English in the 1960s meaning "to converse", and very soon after that in its present usage as a term denoting the musical style. Today, the terms "rap" and "rapping" are so closely associated with hip-hop music that many use the terms interchangeably.

Jazz:

Jazz is a music genre that originated from African American communities of New Orleans in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African American and European American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz spans a period of over a hundred years, encompassing a very wide range of music, making it difficult to define. Jazz makes heavy use of improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swing note, as well as aspects of European harmony, American popular music, the brass band tradition, and African musical elements such as blue notes and African-American styles such as ragtime. 

Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience and styles to the art form as well. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as "one of America's original art forms". 

As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to many distinctive styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style and Gypsy jazz (a style that emphasized musette waltzes) were the prominent styles. Bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging "musician's music" which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, linear melodic lines.

My Target Audience

Overview:

This collection of images represents my chosen target audience for my rock music video. I have collected a variety of images to highlight the age range of my target audience. They appear to be teenagers and young adults ages 15-23. My music video will be targeted towards the teenage and student demographic in order to appeal to the mass market.

Colour and Mood:

The pictures in this mood board that represent my target audience are all dark and moody colours indicating a more mature audience. The dark colours and maturity of my audience will be reflected in my music video through the use of addressing controversial and topical issues like mental health and depression. These issues will make my video more hard hitting and impactful and will resonate with the viewers. The dark colours featuring in this mood board reflect the mood and tone I would like to create in my music video. I plan to use the dark colours to convey themes like regret and stress in my music video. These issues will be relatable to my target audience, so it will create more of a personal connection between the song and the audience.

Potential Themes:

The images within this mood board also highlight potential themes that will appeal to my target audience. Many of these images are in black in white, so a black and white sequence within my video may be worth looking into as it would appeal to my target audience, however it may ruin the theme of continuity so it would have to be implemented in an interesting way. When considering themes for my video I will refer back to this board for inspiration as it will give me ideas that I know will appeal and be popular amongst my audience.

Conclusion:

Overall, this mood board will help me keep in mind my chosen target audience when making my music video, website and digipak. I will constantly refer to this mood board when mentioning my target audience in my work as it will enable me to gain an idea on what would appeal to my target audience. Additionally, I will also ask questions to my target audience so that I know what I am doing right or wrong and whether it will be potentially successful with my target audience as it will help me gain an understanding of what is appealing to them.

Everlong - Foo Fighters (Video Analysis)

"Everlong" was written against the background of the break-up of Dave Grohl's first marriage to photographer Jennifer Youngblood. Having returned home to Virginia for Christmas 1996, Grohl turned the initial riff into a complete song and wrote the lyrics after falling for Louise Post of the band Veruca Salt: "That song's about a girl that I'd fallen in love with and it was basically about being connected to someone so much, that not only do you love them physically and spiritually, but when you sing along with them you harmonize perfectly."

The music video for "Everlong" was nominated for Best Rock Video at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. "Everlong" is the second single released from Foo Fighters' second album The Colour and the Shape, released in 1997. The surreal, satirical video for the song was directed by Michel Gondry. The running time of the video exceeds that of the original version of the song; this version is used only for the video. Although Taylor Hawkins appears in the video as the drummer, Dave Grohl actually plays the drum track on the original album recording, as Hawkins had not yet joined the band. The music video is, in part, a parody of the film The Evil Dead.

The video opens with an establishing shot depicting two shifty characters, who are hiding in a bush, looking towards a house. The camera then slowly zooms in and cuts to multiple pictures of a couple who are the residents of said house. The camera then reaches the stairs and tracks up them revealing a wall of pictures of the couple. The colour scheme is black and white to show that it is not a dream but instead reality as there is more vibrancy and colour in dreams as there is more freedom whereas reality lacks this freedom and imagination so it is presented to be bleak, bland and boring instead. It could be argued that the black and white colour scheme is used to connote the horrific undertones as this music video is a parody of the horror film ‘The evil dead’. The camera is at a high angle and once again zooms in but this time it zooms into Dave Grohl who is asleep in his bed so the high angle portrays him to be vulnerable as he is defenceless whilst sleeping. There is a dream like water effect that transitions the location from reality to his ‘Dream’ which is actually more of a nightmare.

The transition reveals Dave Grohl in his dream and from the mise en scene we can see that his costume is a stereotypical punk rocker outfit as he is dressed in all black which has connotations of danger and evil. The leather jacket subtly suggests that he is a bad guy who is rough and should not be messed with. There is also the iconic punk rocker hairstyle which possesses some negative connotations. Additionally, Dave also wears a lock around his neck which could be foreshadowing the fact that he is trapped in his nightmare. Once the audience enters the dream the colour returns, so it could be inferred that reality is black and white as there is less freedom and imagination so it is deemed boring and bland whereas dreams are fantasy so there are no restrictions or constraints so dreams can be as wild and crazy as things like creativity can reach new levels so vibrancy and colour can exist in dreams. 

We then see a two shot of the villains which can be inferred from their hostile body language towards Dave, as well as their outfits and make-up. The larger fellow on the left is wearing a large red coat and the colour red has connotations of danger, violence and anger whereas the other man is wearing a large fur coat which could be perceived as a hunting trophy which indicates that this is a dangerous man; so these points subtly suggest that both of these men are the villains. Furthermore, the man on the left is seen to have a blacked out tooth/ missing tooth which could have been a result from fighting, which further reinforces the connotations of this man being a dangerous villain.

The setting of the dream is a party and the mise en scene reveals that it is set in the 1970s as all of the party guests are wearing costumes from that era. A close up of Dave Grohl exposes his feelings of and rage and anger when he sees his wife being harassed by the villains. It then transitions using the same water/dream effect to the real world then into Hawkins' dream (The wife). In “her” dream “she” is reading a book, when, all of a sudden, a supposedly undead being creeps up from the floorboard (parodying Evil Dead.). A sequence of long shots unveils the new location which is a shack in the middle of a swamp. Back in Dave’s dream we see his hand grow exponentially, the director of this video, Michel Gondry, used to have dreams where his hand grew to giant size and so he implemented it into the video. This spectacle reflects the unpredictable nature of dreams and how anything can happen in them. 

The proceeding sequence uses a fast pace of editing with reaction shots to show the hero saving the damsel in distress. It briefly cuts to a two shot which shows the reactions of the couple in bed back in the real world, where the wife looks happy as she has now been rescued and the hero is in a fighting stance. A low angle is used to make Dave seem powerful when he throws one of the villains to the floor as the audience is looking up at him creating a sense of status and authority. A large telephone prop is used to reinforce the unrealistic nature of dreams as it is considerably larger than Dave and Hawkins, which is emphasised by the high angle, making the characters look even more insignificant when compared size wise.

Meanwhile, in Hawkins' dream, Hawkins' character tries to fend off the zombies, while Grohl gets firewood. This is presented in a sequence of medium shots showing the zombies getting closer and closer, heightening the tension. Furthermore, one of the zombies can be seen holding an axe and the other a chainsaw which deepens the video as it adds another layer for the fear factor like a typical horror movie. This sense of fear and impending doom gradually build as more and more action shots are introduced to see the zombies start too close in on Hawkins. Close ups of Hawkins reveal fear and terror as “she” calls Grohl for help and cross cutting is used to heighten the tension to increase the dramatic effect as it depicts the zombies closing in. High angle of Grohl trying to wake Hawkins up, the high angle highlights its futility as “she” doesn’t wake up so it presents Grohl as being powerless which makes the audience sympathise and root for him. 

It then cuts from Grohl trying to wake Hawkins up to the zombie grasping Hawkins, the camera shifts from a high angle when Grohl is in the scene to a low angle when it is the zombie to make the zombie appear more threatening and powerful. There is no diegetic sound throughout the video. Non Diegetic sound was used, which was the music that has been overlaid because recording the song whilst shooting the music video would be harder and would result in lower quality. There is a smooth transition from the legs of the seductive women from Grohl’s dream to Wooden logs in Hawkins’ dream. Lighting darkens as day turns to night. Moreover, dark lighting is a convention of rock music videos.

We see Grohl make it just in time to save Hawkins as the build-up of the drums links with the visuals of the video as the movements of the wooden nun chucks synchs with the drums to indicate that a fight is about to occur. Just before the final hand transformation, there are reaction shots from the two villains which shows their concerned faces from a low angle suggesting that they are worried, however they are still a threat due to their weapons. After the fast paced fight sequence occurs, there is a brief medium shot of the defeated villains from a slightly high angle to indicate that they are powerless and ends with two close ups of Hawkins and Grohl looking at each other smiling to signify a happy ending. 

A long shot of the swamp reveals where they are going to dump the bodies. A swamp is a dark location and dark locations are a convention of rock music videos. A close up reveals the lifeless faces of the defeated villains lying under the swamp water, the camera is positioned at a high angle to portray them as weak and beaten. Then a long shot showing the couple from a low angle to present them as the victors of the fight fades to a shot of them in bed looking peaceful to signify that the nightmare is over. Finally, the video ends with the characters transforming via special effects to themselves to end with a performance of the chorus with lots of cross cutting between the members with harsh red, blue and green lighting effects. This music video conforms to a lot of rock music video conventions however it does somewhat challenge the performance dominated convention as for the main part it is a narrative based music video.

Conventions of a rock music video that this video follows:

•  Artist/Band shown throughout the video 
•  Dark locations 
•  Editing is fast paced 
•  long shots 
•  Audience age varies 
•  Usually a performance rather than a narrative 
•  Fast cutting between the musicians playing their respected instruments 
•  Red and black – Key colour themes 

Conventions of a rock music video that this video does not follow:

•  Extreme close ups 
•  Usually a performance rather than a narrative 

Stressed Out - Twenty One Pilots (Video Analysis)

Stressed Out - Twenty One Pilots (Video Analysis)

Twenty One Pilots are a duo from America, formed in 2009. The album Blurryface, which the song ‘Stressed Out’ is from, was released on May 17th 2015 by the record label Fueled by Ramen. ‘Stressed Out’ was released on YouTube on April 28th 2015. The music video is a concept/performance hybrid, as the band is seen performing at several points, but the focus of the video is on the idea of nostalgia for childhood. The music video for "Stressed Out" was released on YouTube on April 27, 2015, directed by Mark C. Eshleman (Reel Bear Media).

In the video, the duo rides big-wheel tricycles to each other's houses to record the song. They filmed most of the "Stressed Out" video at Josh Dun's childhood home in Ohio. Many members of Dun's and Tyler Joseph's family appear in the video. "Stressed Out" was nominated for Best Music Video at the 2016 Alternative Press Music Awards. The video, with over 610 million views and 3.9 million likes as of September 7, 2016, brought it onto list of most liked YouTube videos, but not the list of most viewed YouTube videos.

Stressed out by Twenty One Pilots is a song about desperately wanting to go back to childhood when you had no real worries “Wish we could turn back time to the good old days” and it amplifies this by The mise en scene as the artists are riding around on tricycles whilst wearing backpacks which would often be associated with children and childhood. So props have been used effectively here to add another reinforce the song’s deep meaning. The lyrics of the song are very strongly linked to the visual images of the video. This allows the point of the song to be illustrated effectively. The lyrics point out the pressure of adulthood – “Out of student loans and treehouse homes we all would take the latter” – but also discusses mental health with the lyrics “I was told when I get older all my fears would shrink, but now I’m insecure and I care what people think”, and also features the character that embodies the singer’s illness, Blurryface. 

Symbolic Code is used to present feeling of nostalgia through the band’s use of props and setting – they play in a bedroom, they use tricycles, and they also have a ‘secret handshake’ that they use at the door. The duo acts like children in the beginning with their secret handshake, and then teenagers by staying in bed while their families shout at them. This is all to link the lyrics of the song and their relation to nostalgia back to the visuals of the video. During the choruses the video shows them actually performing their songs, the first one is in the singer’s bedroom and the second is in the drummer’s bedroom which again links to the idea of childhood as they would’ve played in their rooms.

The video begins in a street with the singer on a tricycle, which maintains the theme of the music video following the journey from childhood to adolescence. The lead singer is dressed in all black with a red hat on, the connotation of the black implies that he is insecure and tries to cover and hide his body with dark colours, whereas the red suggests impurity as red is usually associated with the devil and demons so it is hinting towards the darker side of the lead singer’s character called ‘Blurryface’. This sequence is made up of medium and long shots, and the camera is shaky at several points throughout, particularly when the duo is in the childhood scenes. This could emphasise either the mental illness aspect, as it then continues to the scene in the bedroom, which is more a reference to adolescence. Tyler mentions that the smell “would remind us of when nothing really mattered,” suggesting that he wants to revisit that time. 

He sings, “Out of student loans and tree house homes, we all would take the latter.” For him, adult life loses a childhood innocence that comes with feeling safe from worries. Instead of playing, he must work to make a living and pay his bills. The bridge continues the romanticisation of his childhood by describing times that he as a child would “play pretend.”

However, when there are two beds back to back, the camera is steady and is a wide shot to establish it, before it cuts to a close-up of the singer’s face. There are several long shots to show the duo’s families, with medium close-ups cut between to show their faces. However, during the bed scene the duo can be seen wearing red and their beds are white whereas their family members that are shouting at them wear only black, suggesting that Josh and Tyler’s imaginative world may be more lively and interesting than the real world they are being awakened and summoned to and that their innocence connoted by the white is being polluted by the negativity associated by the family members who wear black. ‘You need to make money,’ is suggesting a social pressure to work and earn an income, which may have lead Tyler to leave his childhood fantasies and fun.

In the music video, two versions of Tyler sing this deep-voiced outro. One version is visiting his childhood home, wearing a backpack, and skipping through his old neighborhood. The other Tyler is perhaps the alter-ego “Blurryface” who has red eyes and sings from a dark room. By showing Tyler singing the outro in both personas, the music video suggests that they are two sides of him. One longs for childhood; the other reminds him that he must work and pressures him to keep from returning to his “tree house homes.” The use of jump cuts when Blurryface appears reflects the fragmented thoughts, feeling and emotions that Tyler is going through which can be linked with the theme of mental illness and instability that constantly appears throughout the video.

The camera angles used are generally from a low point of view or at eye level which could be to reinforce the idea that they have grown up and that they are no longer children despite their desperate longing. The lighting of video is generally quite grim and seems to use a greyscale effect which enhances their resentment of growing up which is a result of their unhappiness. However, it could be argued that the video is simply lit to make it look as normal as possible, as the point of the video is for it to look like the adults are trying to get back to their childhood setting. This changes in the moment when they’re in bed with their families standing around them – which symbolises adolescence rather than childhood; the lyrics “But now they’re laughing at our face saying ‘Wake up, you need to make money’ supports this development. The lighting in that moment is bright and white, and when Blurryface is on screen it is entirely dark but for his face.

The make-up involved in this video is a running theme throughout the music videos and tours to symbolise that his mental illness and the darkness that comes with it is constantly present. Joseph wears black paint on his hands and neck in every performance related to “Blurryface” to help channel the insecurity of the character. The black paint on the hands represents the insecurity about the songs he writes, whilst the black paint on his neck relates to the insecurity of his singing as mention in the lyrics “I wish I had a better voice to sing some better words”. So once again there is a strong connection between the lyrics and visuals of the song.

The video ends on the street again where it started, with the singer dancing down it, though this is as Blurryface with the red eye contacts to indicate this, again representing how his mental illness – an aspect that has made this band popular with young people today – is a constant. Overall the song is very relatable as it is talking about the stresses of growing up and that nostalgic feeling when you smell something from your childhood and I think that this video captures the meaning of the song very well.

What Is A Music Video?

A music 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. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to become more than just a song.

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. Combining these styles and techniques has become more popular because of the variation it presents to the audience. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance.

The editing of a music video tends to be quite fast paced. This is because of the 3-4 duration of most songs which ends up being a time constraint when directors try to convey a narrative via a music video. Intertextuality is popular in this postmodern age and some intertextual references tend to feature in a few music videos. Intertextuality allows directors to create different layers of meaning within their music video. 

I intend to create a narrative that follows my chosen song’s lyrics to create a short film within my music video that teenagers can find relatable. The inspiration behind my narrative was from my chosen song’s lyrics. The theme of music videos usually depends on the genre, e.g. rock bands would usually have performance dominated clips. So in this case my music video is challenging the usual conventions of rock music videos. However, there will be some performance clips within my music video. The props and symbolism within music videos is used to create meaning and tends to have connections with the filming location. The cuts involved in a music video tend to follow the song’s rhythm which creates a sense of continuity. However, the sense of continuity is often broken through a music video’s editing through the use of jump cuts.

Music videos developed from clips of performances. Some of these clips were staged with lots of shots of the artist and their audience, others were clips of the artist lip syncing with lots of shots of the artist being in various different locations that relate to the song’s overall mood and tone. The spectacle became a massive hit and quickly developed into becoming a common convention of music videos. This involved the artist looking directly into the camera, as if they were looking at the viewer; this in turn would help build a sense of connection between the artist and the audience. This convention can still be seen in modern music videos. 

Men were often portrayed to be singing for the audience, whereas women were portrayed as a sexual object usually indicated by a seductive gaze. In addition, Directors would cater to the male proportion of a female artist’s audience by making them dress in a provocative manner. Moreover, now male artists are subjected to this objectification to appeal to their female audience. There have been some cases where artists have refused to be subjected to this exploitation though.

In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child”. Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the first step toward music video. In 1926, with the arrival of "talkies" many musical short films were produced. Vitaphone shorts (produced by Warner Bros.) featured many bands, vocalists and dancers. Animation artist Max Fleischer introduced a series of sing-along short cartoons called Screen Songs, which invited audiences to sing along to popular songs by "following the bouncing ball", which is similar to a modern karaoke machine. Early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons. 

In the 1940s The Soundies, produced and released musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to later music videos. In the mid-1940s, musician Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, some of which were spliced together into a feature film Lookout Sister. These films were, according to music historian Donald Clarke, the "ancestors" of music video. Concert films were being released in the mid-1960s, with the T.A.M.I. Show.

Music videos came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, they were described using various terms including; ‘illustrated song’, ‘filmed insert’, ‘promotional video’, ‘song video’, or ‘song clip’. In 1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched, airing "Video Killed the Radio Star" and began an era music on television. With this new outlet for material, the music videos grew to play a central role in popular music marketing. Many important acts of this period, such as Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Madonna, owed a great deal of their success to the skilful construction and seductive appeal of their videos. 

In November 1992, MTV began listing directors with the artist and song credits, reflecting the fact that music videos had increasingly become an auteur's medium. Directors such as Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Floria Sigismondi, Stéphane Sednaoui, Mark Romanek and Hype Williams all brought a unique vision and style to the videos they directed. Some of these directors, including, Gondry, Jonze, Sigismondi and F. Gary Gray, went on to direct feature films. Since the creation and increased popularity of YouTube, mainstream artists use the platform to release music videos. Consequentially, YouTube has been converted into a social media platform for celebrities and artists to market themselves to their fans and audiences.

As the concept and medium of a music video is a form of artistic expression, artists have been on many occasions censored if their content is deemed offensive. What may be considered offensive will differ in countries due to censorship laws and local customs and ethics. In most cases, the record label will provide and distribute videos edited or provide both censored and uncensored videos for an artist. In some cases, it has been known for music videos to be banned in their entirety as they have been deemed far too offensive to be broadcast. The first video to be banned by MTV was Queen's 1982 hit "Body Language". Due to thinly veiled homoerotic undertones plus lots of skin and sweat (but apparently not enough clothing, save that worn by the fully clothed members of Queen themselves), it was deemed unsuitable for a television audience at the time.

Product placement has become evident in most mainstream music videos. One example of product placement is the ‘Beats Pill’ being featured in numerous music videos such as Nicki Minaj’s ‘Pills N Potions’ and Lily Allen’s "Hard Out Here" (2014). Product placement has emerged due to globalisation and mass distribution platforms like the streaming site; YouTube. Transnational Corporations use these music videos to promote their products in order to boost their profits.

Influential artists can enforce and create new norms and cultures to such a point where they become tradition. The most popular artists have been known to create and set new trends that can influence and shift society and culture.

Genre Conventions:

Rock:

• Artist/Band shown throughout the video
• Dark locations
• Editing is fast paced
• Extreme close ups and long shots
• Audience age varies
• Usually a performance rather than a narrative
• Fast cutting between the musicians playing their respected instruments
• Red and black – Key colour themes

Pop:

• Bright and colourful visuals and colour scheme
• Upbeat
• Aimed at teenage audience – Large female demographic
• Close ups to show artist’s beauty and positive emotions/feelings
• Artists dressed in fashionable, stylish and mainstream outfits
• Lyrics normally based around love or relationships
• Bright and bold colours are used to associate the video and music with positive vibes
• Artist dressed in a provocative manner to appeal to voyeuristic audiences

Rap:

• Location is usually a club, party event or run down street
• Frequent shots of Alcohol, expensive clothing, houses, brands and cars
• Shots of attractive women being presented as sexual objects
• Most videos are performance dominated rather than following a story
• Audience age varies, however usually targeted towards teens
• Establishing shots and long shots to show big piles of money