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Music video theories

Music video theories

Michael shore’s theory
Michael shore criticized music promos with a number of different criticisms for music promos and to some degree he is correct with his theory. For most of the criticisms he has identified we could find many examples of his criticisms which proves his theory is correct in some ways. Michael shore’s theory does work when referring to Plan B’s single ‘She said’. The adolescent male fantasies are one of the criticisms that are used in the music promo with the use of girls wearing little clothing helping to prove this criticism is true. The clichéd imagery is also present from the cheesy and cringe worthy dancing that exists in most music promos. It is present in the Plan B music promo when the jury begin with the dancing in the courtroom. Soft-core pornography is also present within this music promo as the use of girls wearing little underwear and showing women being objectified by portraying them as a bit of fun for the man in the music promo.

Laura Mulvey’s theory
Following on from Michael shore’s theory and some of his criticism being present in the Plan B ‘She said’ music promo it helps move onto the Laura Mulvey theory with the way women are used in the music promo. Laura Mulvey suggests that women are objectified by the media and are used as either an innocent or a ‘whore’ character. In this case the latter is the one used and is a true part of the ‘male gaze’ statement that Laura Mulvey refers to, this means that all women are represented in the media as how men would expect/like to see women to please all males and this helps adhere Michael shore’s criticism of adolescent male fantasies.

Barthes theory

Barthes theory entails the use of enigma codes and action codes for the audience to think about during the music promo. The enigma code is referring to something that is unexplained that will cause the audience to raise questions. The action codes are the answers to these questions and occur as the music promo goes on and reaches its climax. A good example is by Coldplay ‘The Scientist’. The enigma codes are him being homeless and also the promo being in rewind. The action codes are the lyrics of ‘we’re going back to the start’ and also the car crash right at the end. As for the Plan B music promo the Barthes theory does work. The enigma codes at the start of the promo are interesting to look at; the questions the audience will be asking will be why is he in the prosecutor’s box? Why is he being questioned by police? Why are two different women being shown?  The action codes help answer this questions as the music promo goes on, the lyrics are an action code with the lyrics ‘she just feels rejected’ meaning that he rejected one girl and she has had him done for rape. The bedroom scene helps back this up as the male character looks disappointed when the ‘victim’ is trying to get round him again.

Binary Opposition

Binary opposition refers to the contrast/opposites that exist within the music promo’s to help boost narratives. The opposites can be visual or even lyrical, the visuals that are important to look out are things such as love/hate or good/evil. The Plan B music promo portrays good binary opposition. The good/bad and also love/hate is used because we see the good guy pleading his innocence when we see the evil woman getting the male character done for doing nothing wrong. The love/hate is also used because one minute the pair of character are making love and then we see them falling out after what looks like a one night stand and hate seems to be present.

This still shows a sexual attraction between a male and female character and the use of the lift blocking the audience view is a good use of mise-en-scene and creates the message of should this be hidden? This is an example of an enigma code. The costume choices are also interesting, the white shirt of the male represents his innocence and the dark clothing of the woman is used to represent her evil side. An example of binary opposition.

This image shows the male character now in prosecutors box and the use of costume again is important, the grey suit provides the audience with the message of his innocence being partially taken away but not using a black suit is effective for the lyrics as he’s pleading his innocence to the jury but isn’t truly innocent as he has cheated on his girlfriend/wife.

 

This is the female character seen in the lift with the male character and the facial expression and mise-en-scene is important here. The facial expressions provide a guilty look upon her face as she won’t look the male character in the face and the black dress represents her danger and the red lipstick to represent this and he evilness.

 

This still is the example of the Michael shore’s theory with the clichéd imagery in music promo’s, the cheesy dancing that exist is present here and this is a criticism we would expect to see in this type of music promo.

This still is of the male characters real girlfriend in the gallery and the use of a white costume and her placement on screen helps represent her innocence and angelic look. She has been cheated on but is still standing by her man by being there for him.

 

This still represents the binary opposition with the love/hate , the male character realises he has done wrong where-as in contrast the woman  is still loving and wants more from the male character.

Genre

Genre

Genre is the different categories that certain types of media are split up into and in this case it stands for the different types of categories that music are split up into such as a pop genre or a rock genre. The song we have chosen is called ‘Animals’ by an artist named KYKO. The genre of music that KYKO associates himself with is Indie pop and Indie Pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the1980s. It is a sub-genre of Indie Rock and the music is a lot calmer within the lyrics and the tone of the music used and is described as a less rough sub-genre to Indie Rock.

The Indie Pop genre has a softer side to it and the lyrical content usually consists of a sense of depressing nature from the love and heartbreak nature of the music and lyrics used. The lyrical content is more aimed at everyday people that they experience in their lives and is a very popular genre of music because of this as people can relate to the lyrics and really get into the songs that the Indie Pop genre produce because they can relate themselves to the situations within the lyrics. When watching a music promo in the Indie Pop genre the typical expectations are a storyline that link to the lyrics and tend to be more narrative rather than performance based which is an example of amplification and we will include this into our music promo by adhering the conventions of Indie Pop.

With Indie Pop the main vocalist gets all the attention, we found this when doing our research as they will always be the main actor within the music promo and always made to be the leader of the band. We will include these conventions in our music promo when creating our band image with the music poster and also adhere these conventions in the music video with the main vocalist taking a leading role. An inspiration our artist took was from Bastille and they are very similar in style.

The image above is of the band ‘Bastille’, the band that are an inspiration for KYKO and his music. The lead singer is on the far right and is portrayed in the foreground, where-as the other band members are seen to be behind him in the background. This portrays the conventions of Indie Pop and what the audience expect to see. The lead vocalist taking a leading role and is the most important aspect. The lead vocalist being in the foreground and getting most of the attention creates a sense of authority and the power the vocalist has over the other band members and this is seen in most Indie Pop groups. The reasoning behind this is because of the audience that follow Indie Pop. Indie Pop is known for the lyrical content to attract it’s audience and listen to the words to relate to them and coming from the main vocalist the audience will be focused on him and his emotions portrayed through facial expression within the music promo and music posters, this helps create messages about the band style and lyrical meanings.

Ideology means a range of different beliefs or ideas a group or person has over a specific topic. Ideology is important in music because it can helps bands/artists understand what people expect to see within their genre as genre is always changing through the audience and producers dictating this change. Within this genre the lyrics are important to the audience because they are always meaningful and give the audience a chance to relate to them. If the audience feel connected then the band/artist know they are doing well so the song writing part of this genre is crucial for attracting audience members. Also from the research we have been doing we feel the narrative within the music promo is important to attract audiences for this genre. We feel the use of body posture and gesture and also facial expressions help attract audiences. This is because audience members can relate to the feelings of the band through the way they portray the lyrics through body language and expressions to help create meaning and add emphasis to the meaningful lyrics.

The target audience is important to Indie Pop because of the lyrical content being a driving force to attract a larger audience. The target audience tends to be around 16-28 years old as the lyrical content reflects the lives of people that age and refers to the depressing or problems people of that age come across in everyday life, with the ugly side of love being a common factor for the target audience to relate to and appeals to both genders because it relates to both genders and is appealing to listen to from time to time. The typical audience member would be an older student and who will be having relationships and having a high work load with school or college work and problems can mount up and become stressful. This is where Indie Pop is useful as the calming nature of the music helps people escape from their troubles and relate to the music as a way to escape or even offer advice through the lyrical content.  

Camerawork

 

The camerawork within the ‘Flaws’ music promo there are a lot of close ups used which is a good technique and a conventions for the Indie Pop genre as it gives the audience a chance to get a closer look at the main artist. The other convention that I touched on earlier is also present here as the main vocalist is taking the leading role and shows his importance to band image and attracting audiences over the other band members.

Editing

The editing in this song is used effectively to cut to the beat of the song which is effective as it provides continuity throughout the music promo. The editing is rather slow paced which is typical of this genre because of the slow tempo that is associated with this genre and the editing is used to reflect the mood of slow and calming influence to help the audience understand and relate to the lyrics and music promo as the song goes on.

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene within this music promo is effective and also effective for the audience. The song is about flaws that people have and the use of make-up for this music promo is important as it makes the girls look as though they have flaws from the make-up or they look different. The main singer doesn’t let these flaws bother him and this is effective as our audience can watch this and they know no matter what flaws they have they will be accepted from a person like him. This is important for attracting members for their audience as it creates the impression that the lead vocalist is the good guy and will accept anybody, no matter what they look like.

Narrative/Performance

 

The narrative and performance is also effective within this music promo as from the image above we can see the main artist singing in an everyday location for the general public. The watching audience that look normal have gathered to watch and creates a sense of normality around the band and portrays to the audience that they are normal and the audience can relate to the band from this normality.

Audience profile

Chosen artist/Song: KYKO - Animals

Genre: Indie Pop

The genre of music that KYKO associates himself with is Indie pop and Indie Pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the1980s. It is a sub-genre of Indie Rock and the music is a lot calmer within the lyrics and the tone of the music used and is described as a less rough sub-genre to Indie Rock. The Indie Pop genre has a softer side to it and the lyrical content usually consists of a sense of depressing nature from the love and heartbreak nature of the music and lyrics used. The lyrical content is more aimed at everyday people that they experience in their lives and is a very popular genre of music because of this as people can relate to the lyrics and really get into the songs that the Indie Pop genre produce because they can relate themselves to the situations within the lyrics.

Artist Genre: The track that KYKO sings called 'Animals' is a track that adheres the Indie Pop convention causing it to be associated with that genre. The conventions that are present are the melody and similarities that are seen with the band 'Bastille' a band that KYKO takes inspiration from. The song mainly focuses on the vocals and gives the audience a chance to really listen to the lyrics and the meaning of the lyrics. KYKO's voice is the most emphasised sound used in the song and this creates messages about the importance of him and this is similar in many of Bastille songs. This is a convention that exist with the Indie Pop genre, the main vocalist has most of the attention and is the driving point behind the sale of singles and attracting audience members. 

Appealing to the audience: When referring to demographics and doing research into our chosen genre we found that the typical age that would listen to this type of genre would be around the ages of 16-28 due to the genre's lyrical context that refer to problem people of this age experience and gives them something to relate to. As for KYKO's 'Animals' is creates a sense of freedom and referring to the younger days of your life and just being about making mistakes with lyrics 'we get it all wrong' and also of 'wanna take it all', these lyrics are portraying that at a young age it's all right to make mistakes but have no regrets because life gets harder and more confusing with the lyrics of 'I don't know where were heading now'. This is effective lyrics for people of that age to enjoy their freedom and have no regrets and do what they can at a younger age. theme relating to freedom in your early ages. Overall this age range would relate more to the music. As for the socio-economic status we feel that C2 or E would be best appropriate for this artist/song.  This is because these status' are usually referred to as people of the demographic age and aimed at students who are still finding their way in life or part-time workers who have yet made a decision in life and the lyrics of Indie Pop songs can help relate to people in these situations and a way of freedom from the many problems that people of that age have.

Vox Pop Analysis

Vox Pop Analysis

From our Vox Pop analysis we obtained information from the general public about their favourite music and their favourite genres and also what they like in music promos. We asked about the genre which our audience prefers and this helped us as we got a range of different genres which our audience are interested in. From this we could study into the different genres that are audience are interested in and look at the conventions the chosen genres use and try add these conventions into our music promo if the genre suits our chosen song. 

A good question we asked of our audience was for their favourite music video. This was important to know what people said was their favourite as we could look at the music videos and take ideas from these music videos and potentially incorporate some of the good ideas in these music videos and transform them in a different way and use them in our music promo. This way we know we have tried to take the ideas from our audience and tried to please them from incorporating favourite and interesting features from music videos they are interested in. 

We also asked our audience what they expect to see in a music promo and we got a good range of answer which will help us when developing our music promo as we can ensure these features are thought about and produced to help please our audience. A couple of people came up with the asme answer of good editing techniques and for it to be engaging. We have listened to our audience and made the decision that our music promo needs to produce good editing techniques and this will interest our audience and automatically make it engaging from the exciting editing techniques we plan to produce. There were answers of action and humour that our audience likes to see but our genre we have chosen of 'Indie Pop' isn't a genre associated with humour and more serious nature because of the lyrical and calming nature of the genre, we have justified this problem and humour may not be a feature we may introduce.

Amplification was the most frequent answer that we received when we asked what type of music video our target audience likes to watch. Amplification means a key idea or image is used from the lyrics and that key theme is developed into a concept to make an exciting music promo. It means that a link will always remain between the lyrics and the promo. Our audience likes amplification so we will evaluate our songs lyrics in detail and pick out key ideas to develop to make our music promo amplification so we can please our audience and create a music promo that our audience will enjoy to watch.

Detailed Analysis of a Music Video – Coldplay Paradise

Detailed Analysis of a Music Video – Coldplay Paradise

Camerawork

 

 

 

Editing

 

 

Mise-en-scene

In this music promo from Coldplay they used quite a few different locations to conduct their filming. One of the locations that were used was the Paradise Wildlife Park in London which is used to show the elephant escaping from the zoo. This was one of a number of locations used and another location used was in Cape Town, the Klein Karoo in the Western Cape. We do see an aerial shot of Cape Town and then later on see the elephant (Chris Martin) wandering around Johannesburg as we see him walk past Nelson Mandela bridge. The locations used have been very well thought about and we feel they have been used very effectively as they help the narrative of the lyrics. The locations also portray a sense of reality and the sad truth about wild animals trapped in cages/zoos. The locations used show the difference of a poor life to ‘paradise’ for an elephant. The locations have been used to create the message about caged animals and that animal in the wild (shown on the plains in Johannesburg and Cape Town) elephant are happiest because they are with their families out in the wild.

 

 

The main costume that is used in the Coldplay Paradise music video was the use of the elephant costume throughout that the main character Chris Martin wore. The use of the elephant costume is effective because it represents the truth surrounding elephants and any animals stripped of their freedom. Although Coldplay has portrayed the song in a comical way with the costume but the story behind shows the views of Coldplay and the harsh truth of animals in zoos and represents animals being out in the wild as being their ‘Paradise’.  The lighting in the Coldplay Paradise song isn’t that effective as it hasn’t been used to indicate or create any messages. Although at the start of the music promo there is a sense of low-key lighting and represents a dark, gloomy day in the London setting zoo. Then by the time the elephant reaches Johannesburg the low-key lighting is no longer seen and the natural light represents happiness and as he has reached his paradise this creates the message of happiness for animals in the wild.

Intertextuality is portrayed in this music promo and uses Todorov’s narrative theory in the narrative for Coldplay Paradise. There’s equilibrium used in the promo and this means where everything is balanced. The link with intertextuality is with Coldplay’s own song called ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’. In the Paradise music promo the lyrics “every tear a waterfall” are used and is a reference to one of their other singles and can get the audience to think about that single and then could get the audience to watch the music promo for that single afterwards – a good way to promote their songs/music promos. The meaning behind ‘Every Teardrop is a Waterfall’ is when people are in a negative situation and turning it into a positive. The use of the lyrics in the Paradise music promo helps portray the elephants story because the lyrics come when the elephant is entering the bike shop and this represents the elephant being negative before by a way of getting to his Paradise being hampered because he can’t get their but the positive turn is the bike shop and getting himself a bike to get to his ‘Paradise’.

The lyrics ‘Every tear a waterfall’ is heard across these two shots.

Narrative/Performance

 

The performance/narrative as a whole is very impressive, it uses a variety of locations to help show his travel from the paradise zoo in London to the plains of Africa where he meets his fellow Elephants (other members of Coldplay).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the shot to the left we can see the elephant in the zoo wants to be reunited with the other elephants which will later connote to his happiness when he is reunited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As seen in the shot to the right we see the Elephant has reached his paradise with the other band members and his happiness. Therefore the Narrative of the whole song is the Elephant trying to reach his paradise. 

The majority of the song is Narrative based until around 3:20 in where we see the Elephants reunited and start playing on the African Plains but then it cuts to them performing on stage so the last 1 minute is performance based. This is good as it keeps the variety and does add to the narrative as it shows the "Elephants" as being happy to be back together.

 

The performance is quite strange as when they perform on stage they're still wearing their costumes; this is a pretty clever idea as it makes the audience remember their music video but also adds a comical element. The narrative however is performed all over the world this adds to the video as it shows the trip to paradise and his journey, furthermore it offers a variety of locations which keeps the video interesting which would of not been possible if it was only shot in a couple of locations and it would of also weakened. The narrative is used to amplify the song lyrics; they do not directly relate to them like illustration but do have some relevance as the Elephant tries to reach paradise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this screenshot it shows one of the many narratives based shots which help amplify the lyrics as it talks about "Paradise" and we see him travelling to paradise.

As music video's go, Coldplay’s Paradise is pretty strange but is very memorable. The use of the costume really helps bring out the narrative as we see the struggle for him to get to paradise. It's not typical for a music video to be nearly all narrative and for us to see very little of the artists but it work well as the locations help to immerse the audience into the song. The performance at the end is strange as they perform in the elephant masks which for the audience are quite a weird site but again it helps relate to the narrative and tie them together as we could connote that Coldplay's Paradise is performing on stage.

 

 

Vox Pop Music Promo

Band contact

Chosen band/song - KYKO - Animals

Our chosen artist to used is called KYKO, originally as known Scott Verril and he is a 19 year old from London. The artist falls into the Indie Pop genre and has a real resemblance to Bastille in the way he sings and the lyrical content of his music and he is also inspired by The 1975. We found our artist KYKO via SoundCloud and found his song 'Animals' a very good song to use as it filled us with great hope and ideas for creating our own music promo. The Indie Pop genre gives us many ideas from the calm and smooth style that's portrayed. The song 'Animals' certainly adheres these conventions as the song is chilled out but the lyrical content and rhythm constantly changing means that ideas really flow for us and giving us a greater chance to achieve something great.



Music adverts - Magazine and film (Different to genre)

The conventions of a music poster advert are as follows:
- Main artist/band member used - this it to help with people recognising them and remembering them
- Tour dates are very commonly used on music advert posters
- The colours usually reflect the type of genre the artist/band are, e.g. black is represented to gothic/rap music because of the depressing/violent representations the colour black has
- A music advert poster usually has rating from music magazines, explaining what the act is like, this helps sell the artist because they are being recognised from a wide audience

Adverts for music are very similar to movie adverts and this is the same for a film or magazine advert. The conventions of the advert are similar because of the adhering of the convention such as the main actor/artist leading the advert. This is usually the main vocalist in the advert whether it film or magazine. The difference that exist between a film and music adverts is that a film advert is to portray a story to attract audiences where-as music adverts are used to attract audiences instantly through short snippets of sound or eye-catching images. The difference in a magazine advert is also the music advert will have information about album releases and tour dates and in contrast to this film adverts are used to give information about the storyline to really pull their audiences in, a way that music adverts could use to increase popularity/sales.

The images above are both examples of adverts from magazines and they both show the similarities and differences that were clarified above. They both adhere the conventions of using the main actor/artist. The differences are important because the music poster (example on the left) could be representing the genre of music the artist is. The dark colours for the image may have been used to indicate what the artist is as a person and the type of music the artist creates and adhering conventions the artist would be a rap artist because dark colours are associated with rappers because of the violent stereotypes that exist with rappers. Although the typography could suggest that the artist is subverting the convention represented to rappers and could suggest the artist adheres the alternative genre conventions because of the mixture of colours. Although the use of red refers back to the violent representations because of the colour red being strongly linked to blood and danger. A convention that exist with the rap genre is the seriousness of the facial expression in music adverts, whether it be a poster or a film advert. This is a useful convention because it can reflect the type of artist a rapper is and the artist 'Example' adheres this convention from the serious look on his face. The serious look can reflect the lyrics and person the rapper is and it is useful to known an artist by looking into one still image.

In contrast with the movie poster the typography is very little compared to that of a music poster advert, that is because they will want to create a message around the image and not give too much away about the storyline. I think the big difference in the two types of advert between music and film posters/magazines is that the film poster work harder to sell there work as the two poster above prove. The importance is the typography, such as the words on the Johnny English poster 'A little intelligence goes a long way' this is a creative piece of typography because people will read this and try develop a storyline in there heads and will be eager to watch to see what one little slogan was all about. That is a disadvantage for music poster, the typography is busy with the tour dates and not busy pulling in there audiences with exciting slogans to help attract more members to like there artist. This is why as a group we will try incorporate this into our music poster.

Prelim Task