Prep work

Artist name : LK

Genre: Rap
Gender: Male
Age:17

Task 1

Drums: in terms of drums, we could hear the snares and Hi-Hats being used, there is a repetition of this throughout the music video, when the next artist comes on the drums pause then resume after the drop. This could suggest the drums beat in patterns, and there is no actual formation.

Vocals: The vocals are very masculine, this suggests that even though these rappers seem to be young, they could be carrying a lot on their shoulders, maybe we could determine this through the deepness of their voice? Could also suggest that they’ve been through a lot which is reflected in their tone and speech. Vocals are not soft; the lyrics are expressed meaningfully with gestures and the stress of each word on their lips. When I say the ‘’stress on their lips’’ this means they are 

exaggerating their words to get their points across loud and clearly.

Instruments: piano, drums, synthesizer. The piano I think is the most significant instrument in this list, because I believe it sets the mood and creates an atmosphere. During some part of the music video for example 47 seconds or there about we can see the piano is muted for a hot second then gives that drop and resumes a second later, it makes the music video exciting and gives it some sort of affect that makes it interesting. They could have incorporated more instruments or just made the instruments they used sound more complex for example adding reverb  or add the gain of the drums.

Task 2

Locations: The music video in my head is an example of progression. So basically starting from the bottom then reaches the top? Or their achieving dreams. Starting out in an estate or in a skate park with multiple graffiti in the background on the walls and floors, possibly the subway and underground tunnels. Underground tunnels because during the time the music video is shot is during night, and during these times there are no people around, so a bunch of lads in the shadows of a subway tunnels sets of an atmosphere. Because of some lyrics I have visualized the ending with them achieving their goal and living in big houses with multiple sports cars, also designer cars and other things. But in their everyday life they would be represented by 2 colours only black and white, this is because I believe what they did to get to where they want, isn’t the right way of making money, which gives them the black label, the white label because there is still some good in them so they aren’t completely a hazard. I did not want to incorporate any hype reality because this is not a hip-hop music video.

Characters and costume: 3 characters who express themselves through their music and lyrics and also their gestures. I would have the 3 main characters stand out from the rest of the other characters in the music video who are not rapping. They would be wearing not extreme designers but top designers so that they stand out from the rest, and this will indicate to the audience that they are progressing and also their lyrics also reflect the way in which they dress and act. Because with rap it’s all about how you dress and how much racks of money you have.

Colour and lighting: in terms of lighting I thought about using lowkey lighting at the start from the music video to around the middle section because I don’t want to give them too much recognition straight away, after the middle section might add a blue tint to portray that these guys are cold, and also reflect that the lyrics are frosty. As I said before there will be a mixture of black and white to give off different ideas, it’s almost as if the characters want the audience to figure out who they are? Since they are giving off mixed signals.

Editing pace: The music video would me at a mid tempo so the editing pace would have to go with the flow of the music video itself. There would be sections where I would like to use a quick editing and cut also with quick transactions to reflect the lyrics, almost trying to show a contrast of what they have now and what they want, lets think of it as a flash back and a flash forward.

Camera movement: Going to incorporate loads of tracking shots, to follow the objects. Also an interesting one would be Tilt movement, as I said just another way to reflect that they are on a wonky path and they might drop of if they make the slightest mistake. I’m trying to show the same thing but just in different ways so the audience would be able to pick it up and think of it as a interesting way of showing one thing or getting across one meaning in multiple ways.

2b iii

Hyper reality

Hyper reality is something that is incorporated a lot in music videos, especially hip hop videos. Hyper reality sells a fake image about the artist to the audience, but because the audience believe everything they see these days on the internet they would believe for example if they saw 50 cent with ‘’ 15 girls all over him at the same time’’ they would believe that that’s he’s actual lifestyle. We can see there is use of hyper reality in this music video because we can see the artist flying across the city as if he was some sort of super hero. Hyper reality is very effective because the visuals that we see can relate to the audiences Imagination, so it’s a approach of being creative. Hyper reality is significant because it sells the artist, but on the down side it gives them a fake image that would be the disadvantage of using the convention.

Animation

This is a very artistic approach in terms of making a music video with characters and anime visuals rather than using an actual person. The use of animation can illustrate the lyrics and the visuals to give the music video a meaning. For example in this Gorillaz music video we can see that its Animation all throughout the music video and using anime characters allows the audience to be creative and imagine things in their head by the lyrics they are listening to, it would almost make them go into their own world. The negative thing about this is that, people may not be able to relate it to reality because as we know in reality there are no animation characters or people walking around the world.

Parody

Parodies are music videos which are used to make a music video which already exists but the twist is, they would always over do the lyrics or the music video its self in order to mock and violate the artist in many different ways, by doing this it makes the music video go viral and that way it attracts from attention from the public. Parodies also appeal to people who have some sort of humor and wouldn’t mind having a laugh. Parodies are made not to get recognised or anything like that, they are made because their aim is to make the music video viral, this also means that they get a lot of views, which will bring them a lot of money from YouTube. We can see that in this parody they are basically mocking Justin Biber and giving hints with real life events which have happened and incorporated it into the music video.

Referencing

Referencing is when a music video is, making reference to another media works.   For example if there was a music video which incorporated key aspects of things which where featured in ‘’ attack the block’’ then the main music video would be making reference to that film. Even products as well, if an iphone was featured in the music video, the music video would be doing the advertising for the company.

Pastiche

 pastiche, means when someone else takes another persons work and imitates the style of it, but its not like parody where the video is used to mock the artist, this is done in a style of respect. we can see that Miley cyrus has incorporated  close ups at the start of her music video and she has tears as well coming down from the eye, this is an imitation from Sinead o Connor's music video ''nothing compares''. Pastiche is used more or less to respect another artist's work and to show it off so it gets bigger recognition.


Homage

Homage is when an artist shows respect towards another artist, this could mean that they have been inspired or saw something they liked so they decided to show the music video but in their own ways. for example this is an Homage by ingrid Michaelson whom was inspired by Robert palmers '' simply irresistible. we can see that she is showing dedication to his music video and she is showing a lot of respect towards it, by portraying everything in the original music video.

Intertexuality

This means when a music video gives a reference to something that already exists and it could be a Tv show or a Game or what not. This is an example of intertextuality as we can see that the artist is making links to a video game. When you listen to the instruments playing in the back ground suck as the drums and kick drums we can see that behind each aggregated beat there would be a visual of the game playing and someone being killed, this could suggest that this artist is very dangerous or could just be reflecting his pain and anger.

2bii styles

In- concert and ‘as- live’ Footage

This is a rock band called Metallica; we can see that they are performing on a stage. Why? Because they want to give their audience an insight into what It would be like if they came to one of their performances and watched it live. Now a music video like this would help to generate loads or a decent amount of money for the band and for their company, because when their fans see how good a music video like this is, they would then think about how it would actually be like if they were there in person, this then makes them buy a concert ticket and therefore money will be generated. If they where to sell this online we know that barely anyone buys music online so they wanted to distribute 

their music through concert performances.

Interpretative

This is a interpretive music video, this music video is by O.T. Genesis. There is something called styles which we use to describe music videos, the main one that links to this music video is Illustrative. Illustrative simply means when you see something on screen and is portraying the lyrics which are being said by the artist. At 3:50 he says ‘’ I’m in love with the COCO’’ and on screen visuals is reflecting the lyrics by showing the coco which he is talking about, so there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals which we see/audience. Because he is actually showing what he is talking about lets the audience understand that there’s more to what he’s saying and allows them to try and unruffle the purpose behind the music video

Narrative

Narrative music videos always have some sort of story line, it might be obvious or blunt but it will always have some sort of story line. Artist who sand this song are Dr.Dre and Eminem. We can see that there is some sort of story being told in this music video, as the music video shows the contrast between the two artists, another way to measure a music video for narrative is also by listening really carefully to the lyrics. There is no performance in this music video so it backs up my point even more about it being a narrative

Impressionist

This is an example of a conceptual music video, because one we don’t even see the artist featuring in her own music video, and there is a reason for that. The music video is by Sia – Elastic Heart Feat. We can see that there is a small girl and an older man locked up inside a cage, which shows that they are both trapped together. When we watch the music video we can see that the man is very aggressive, and expresses his anger and masculinity by climbing the cage and his quick pace movement. In conclusion this music video is demonstrating two sides of the artist; she wanted them to focus on the two talents so they would get the meaning behind the music video hence why she did not feature herself inside it. This then goes on to create deeper meaning.

Referencing

Referencing is when a music video is, making reference to another media works.   For example if there was a music video which incorporated key aspects of things which where featured in ‘’ attack the block’’ then the main music video would be making reference to that film. Even products as well, if an iphone was featured in the music video, the music video would be doing the advertising for the company.

Allusion 
This music video is an example of an Allusion because we can see the Artist referencing himself, then we can see that he implicated multiple versions of himself almost as though he is trying to confuse the audience as too which one of the slim shady is him.

Intertexuality

This means when a music video gives a reference to something that already exsits and it could be a Tv show or a Game or what not. This is an example of intertextuality as we can see that the artist is making links to a video game. When you listen to the instruments playing in the back ground suck as the drums and kick drums we can see that behind each aggregated beat there would be a visual of the game playing and someone being killed, this could suggest that this artist is very dangerous or could just be reflecting his pain and anger.

Task 2A

PitBull – Fun ft. Chris Brown

The purpose of music videos is to use some form of hyper reality, which is used to portray the artist in a specific way. The music is a representation for the artist

This is an example of a pop video. In terms of pop not all pop videos would be the same, there are sub genres of pop, for example this could be electronic pop or country pop which would mean the purpose and theme would be different for each sub genre. In my opinion I would say this is a performance music video. Performance music videos are supposed to show the experience of what it would be like when the audience comes to watch it at a live performance, also performance videos remind the audience that the sound track is important. Now when we look from 2:16 to about 2:23 we can see that the vocals are stopped and we only hear the sound track, this is where the choreography comes in, to just reinforce the importance of the sound track. From 2:16 we can see that the Colours have been introduced, the colours can be used to suggest a atmosphere of emotions or moods. We can suggest that the people in the music video wearing different colours are expressing their feelings through a colour they wear, and the flashing of different lights describes the atmosphere. Most pop music videos are very colourful and the colour is always used to describe an object and has a purpose behind it. When we are talking about editing this is very significant and it’s the game changer for a music video. 

The use of the fast pace editing fits with the tempo of the sound track this allows everything to flow. Also because the title of the song is ‘’Fun’’ and the use of the fast pace editing allows the audience to see how reflective the title is in the music video, this allows the audiences mind to move in time along with the pace of the sound track. We also have cutting to the beat, we can see that from 1:10 to 1:27 cutting to the beat allows a visual and rhythmic flow to be more interesting for the audience, and this also keeps the audience engaged. Also the fast pace could give us an insight into both artist life as their life could be moving at a fast pace, it’s almost as if the use of pace was used to convey a type of message about the artists. We can see that the Location could be very expensive because it looks like a mansion with a pool area and a posh drive through, this could suggest that they are showing off their budget expenses, they are portraying to the audience that you can’t really have fun and have so many girls unless you have a mansion, so this is imbedded into the audience mindset and will then want them to go and watch these artist live when they are performing, because as we know the younger generation don’t pay for music anymore. 

Transitions again were very fast, especially from one location to another. The artist changed their costume depending on the location they are in, if we check 2:07 they are on the sea on a sunny day, we can see Chris Brown wearing all white this could be used to signify because the sun is shining it’s a happy day, on the other hand Pitball is wearing white and blue to show the contrast between the water and the skies. 

Camera movements we can see the use of tilt movement various times, an example of this is from 0:30 to 0:34, the purpose of a tilt movement is to show an object from bottom to top, or top to bottom. The tilt movement was used to focus on his dressing epically the shoes, this was used to show the fact that he has money and is able to afford expensive things. There were loads of closes ups used; I picked up on one specific close up, at 0:56 we can see that the camera zooms into the bum cheeks; we could say that this music video incorporates voyeurism, as it’s trying to portray women as being just a sex tool or an object. There are many close ups which focus on parts of the women’s body. But with the use of fast pace edit they quickly shifted the transition so that the audience would not think of it as anything much. There was always use of high angels an example of this is when they are on the boat 2:01. In terms of lighting from the start I would say they used natural lighting, but from 20:18 I would say they added a faded blue tint just to give it that extra atmosphere.

I will now look at 2 other pop videos so see if there are any similarities.

Duke Dumont won’t look back

This is another type of pop music video. I would say this is a narrative music video but has aspects of conceptual. It’s clearly a narrative as it shows a sequence of events happening, its telling a story of how men robbed stores and what happened to them at the end, but also we can say its conceptual because we don’t see the artist in the music video, so there is a conclusion here that he is selling the music video other than himself. He may be apart of the armed robbers but we won’t know because they have masks, this tells us that the artist is very mysterious. 

If we compare this type of pop to the Chris Brown and Pitball they were trying to sell the soundtrack rather than the music video its self, so we can see that pop music videos don’t always have the same goals. In terms of colour there isn’t a variety of colours compared to the first video, this video is more dull and simple, maybe the artist is trying to portray that pop music videos do not have to include expensive things and fast cars. It’s almost a form of creativity. Another significant thing I picked up on was there is no voyeurism in this music video, so we can tell that the artist has no interest in young girls who are half naked, and he respect women and doesn’t portray them as objects, like the first music video we looked at did. We can see that the story line has links to TV series such as breaking bad, prison break and etc. when we look at location, it does not look very expensive or effective, just a corner shop and an local area with loads of houses, so we could maybe come to a conlusion of saying that the music video budget was not as high as the first music video we looked at. There were a series of close ups to highlight the significance of the object or location. This music video also has uses of Tilt movement.

Task 1C individual

To Sell A Song

When it comes to selling a song, there are different ways in which this can be possible. An example of this would be making a viral music video, with different techniques which will would the music video interesting. In this music video Meek Mill & Rick Ross we can see that this music video has gone viral hitting over 55 million views, this is because one of the techniques they used was hyper reality. Hyper reality means when something is not real an the artist is selling a fake image of their  lifestyle or themselves. Purposes of a music video could be to sell yourself or to tell a story, which in this case in this music video the two artist are basically talking about how they came from nothing to something, and now they are Bosses and have people who work for them. This music video also has lots of expensive vehicle's and jewellery.

Promotional for the Artist 

A few years ago, Miley was making normal and clean music videos. only recently did she start to change her image and make an icon for herself. Before this music video she was rather pure, in other words less active with her body in her music videos. Now in this music video we can see her using her body more as a sexual object, this is because her audience have grown older and are more wilder, so she wants to upgrade herself by doing things which her fans would like. we can see her swinging on a wrecking ball with no clothes on, which tells us she is sexualising herself, because of the trend where women have been sexualising themselves so she wanted to change her image and join the trend.

Exposure and Expansion for Artist

when it comes to exposure for an artist regardless of if its a new or current artist, their image is very significant. depending on their image and how they sell themselves that is what will attract the audience. most artist create an image for themselves by using '' Hyper reality'' which simply means selling a false image to the audience, they do that because they know their target audience would believe anything they see on the internet. This is an example of a hyper reality music video, because one man would not be having so many girls in reality, they do this because they know the audience is gullible therefore they would believe that is that actual lifestyle.

To sell a song, invoke reaction from audience 

inorder to sell a song and making a wild impression on the audience you would have to be creative and come up with new ideas by doing something different to other music videos. For example in Gangnam Style, it wasn't the music video which made the song the viral it was the dancing which was incorporated into the music video. This then made the song memorable so people would keep on revisiting it, therefore the music video went viral.

Giving the audience a better understanding 

The lyrics would have to corporate or interact with the audience for them to be able to understand and feel the lyrics. For example with the Eminem music video i'm not afriad, we can see that this is a sort of expressing/emotional music video in terms of the lyrics. He is expressing himself and talking about how he is not scared to take a step in life, he then says '' everybody come take my hand we will take the step together'' that is reffering to the audience, people who want to quit or life, he is calling on them to take the step and to not give up. we can see that the lyrics have a big impact on the adueince becasue there will always be people who are always going to be able to relate to the lyrics.

Product Placement

Product placement, is when an artist features a brand in their music video. In this music video Miley we cant stop. We can see that beats speakers and Lip Balm are featured in this music video, she is basically advertising these brands which will then bring in more recognition therefore this will bring in more money for the artist and for the brands.

Product Placement

Product placement is where you are selling or even promoting another company's product where the audience may possibility be see it on the music video that has been released in which the major label use this in the way that they gain more profit although they would need to ask the company if it can seen within the video for which there needs to be an agreement between both sides but if the artist uses the product without asking for permission then it is possible that the company could sue the major label for using the product. An example of a music video that uses product placement is DJ Khaled's Do You Mind which it was promoting the new alcoholic drink of Ciroc Mango, Beats Headphones, two Gucci bags and the e-cigarette of K Galaxy as well. 

   
Promotion for music and Album

When it comes to promoting of artist's music or even their album, it is regarded as extremely important because it needs to be successful when it comes to selling the product to the public, so the music video will need to be remembered by the target audience that the artist makes the music for, so they will go back to the artist to listen to them again or there is a possibility that they might forget of them in the near future. An example of music video is promoting the music and album at the same time is Kendrick Lamar's Alright which is off his recent album of To Pimp A Butterfly because not only that the song is positive, the album has dark and light concept in terms of the subject matter being told.

   
Synergy

The definition of the word Synergy is where two products are combine to make a music video in which it is used as platform in different areas give it more success but it could be a soundtrack for an film that is getting promoted because they must have contacted the artist to allow the film get notice more. A good example of this is Linkin Park's song New Divide which it is one of the soundtrack was made and promoted the film of Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen which it released back in 2009.

Promotion of Film

For music video, the song is made to represent the lyrics through the visuals which the modern era audiences are interested more of the visual representation rather than the soundtrack being heard. Although for some music videos, they have an artist to make a video where they would some visuals from a film to create a short film or even have narrative being seen like for example: Whitney Houston made a music video for a single 'I will always Love You' for the soundtrack from the feature film of The Bodyguard.   

Promote festivals

For the last decade, festivals and world tours have become very important to the artist mainly because they can get a wider exposure and possibility and even a bigger fan-base through having new fans and old one who have been following that particular artist from the beginning when the artist started to make music but the reason why the audience would care is mainly because just say for example: if the artist is actually performing that particular festival in the location like London, then it is possible that the artist's fan-base would go on the festival's website to go and see them in person.

      

Opens up new markets

A music video allows opens up brand new markets for the artist and different record companies which it sells the song by promoting their image and by the use of synergy, it creates a bigger fanbase with the use of print and digital media due to the change that the general public consume media today. So it does increase in outlet of YouTube to becomes more likely for the song being heard more by the audience who are watching the video for the first time which in a way, it becomes more successful in the near future when it does go viral on Social Media although these new markets can include endorsement as well. An example of a video that does this is Coca-Cola and the artist of Rita Ora worked together to launch their brand new and improved Coca-Cola Zero with Zero Sugar. 

Generates new market for Record Company

With different major labels of Universal, Sony and Warner Music Group will use music videos that is created by the production crew to create an wider extension of income from the track that the artist made because they want it to be accessed through different outlets like for example: on YouTube, an advertisement that is seen in the music video will get the artist $2 for every 1000 views which it is a use of monetisation which it is a way of making money. So this will allow the artist's image to go viral but most of the money will go to the major label while the artist will get 10% of it and an example of a music video has generated an new market for an record company is LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem where it has been viewed 1,206,850,475 on YouTube as it went viral through the choreography being seen in the video.

Selling an Image

The artist will often sell their image or even their looks mainly because they would want to keep up with the audience and their fans at the same time since today with music videos, the modern era of our audience are more focused with the visuals representation of it rather than the soundtrack that is being used to promote the song. A clear example of the artist selling their image is Miley Cyrus when she released her video of Can't Be Tamed in 2010 where she was trying to move away from the Disney days of Hannah Montana but in this video, it appeared that she was in the process of changing her image so it allowed sales of her music to go up and the song becoming even more successful.