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
- 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
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