Research - Purpose of a Music Video

What is a music video/what is the purpose of a music video?

A music video is a short piece of visual image that accompanies a song. A music videos purpose is to share the thoughts and opinions that an artist has within themselves, promotes an artist’s work (album or feature in a film) and also promote the single that the music video is accompanying. Also, the artist can use music videos as a method of gaining publicity. For example, Rihanna’s music video ‘We Found Love’ had many mixed reviews and opinions due to the portrayal of drugs and explicit imagery. Whereas, Kanye West’s music video ‘Heartless’ gained good publicity as it was thematic and unique compared to all of his other music videos. Music videos can be very lucrative for artists. Artists who have long breaks from music promoting and making, music videos are sufficient for their ‘comeback’ into the music industry.

Classic Conventions.

All music videos usually contain some of the same classic conventions. Conventions include glamorised/expensive look to not only the artist but to the set the music video is filmed in, dancing, lyrics expressed through imagery and artist usually features in the video. Another convention is that visuals rely massively on the genre of music, for example, 50 Cent’s music video ‘Candy Shop’ featuring Olivia portrays the genre of hip hop immensely due to the fur coat 50 cent wears, the grooving, the attractive woman dancing seductively, fancy set and props such as; cars, furniture, etc.

Conventional music videos should so do at least one of the following;

·         Performance.

·         Narrative.

·         Thematic.

·         Symbolic.

All areas of Mise En Scene is used adequately to make the set and artist of the music video look visually stylish. Glamorised music videos are shown by every artist from at least half of their music videos. The editing (whether its fast paced or normal paced) and cinematography usually matches the pace of the song. Conventions including the use of cinematography illustrate lots of experimenting with camera shots, sizes and movements which focus mainly on the artist. For example, Chris brown is the main focus in all of his music videos due to his attractive look and amazing dance moves which he takes advantage of on camera. Whereas, Ed Sheeran is an unconventional artist as he hardly stars in his music videos due to him not having a conventional look of a ‘star’. People love to watch Chris Brown perform but love to hear Ed Sheerans voice as his talent lies in his voice. 

Synergy.

The release of an artist’s music video is often only one strand of their multi media campaign of their promotion. One reason for this is because the single that is accompanying the music video is released usually to promote an upcoming album, the music video is used to gain publicity. The music industry has a strong relationship with many different other medias for different purposes, such as; TV, print media, radio, film and the internet. For example, Wiz Khalifa’s music video ‘See you again’ from the movie ‘Furious 7’ was not only promoting his new single but was also promoting the film. The single was also promoted in adverts, concerts and social media websites so audiences were not only attracted to the song, but also was interested in watching the film. Due to the films popularity, this gave Wiz Khalifa and his feature in the song Charlie Ruth a lot of publicity.

Audience Impact.

Music videos create impact for all audiences who come across the music video on the internet. Audiences are attracted to not only the artist through music videos, but their upcoming album following from the music video too. The audience are entertained by creativity in the music videos and gain attraction for the artist and their music personally. The way the artist is portrayed in the music video also creates a strong opinion of them from the audiences, for example, Mike Will Made-its music video ‘23’ featuring Miley Cyrus, juicy j and wiz khalifa characterizes former Disney channel actor Miley Cyrus as a drug using, promiscuous female as she reveals a lot of skin and acts seductive towards the camera, which is the complete opposite of how she started off her career. This impacts the audience opinion of her as she shows a drastic change, which isn’t very positive for her look. Also, music videos give the audience a fresh opinion/meaning towards the instrumental and the lyrics. This can also link to a music video introducing important morals for audiences if there is a strong narrative which can affect a spectator personally. The artist consider appealing to their audience in many ways, however, it all depends on the target audience in which they are appealing to. For example, if an artist which is a 25 year old female was appealing to teenage/young adult males, they would act promiscuous in their music videos and would also show explicit imagery to pleasure their male dominated audience/

Technology Advancements.

The biggest advantage for mainstream and independent artists is the most famous music video website ‘YouTube’. It allows everyone from across the globe to stream videos they make and thousands to millions of people can view them daily. The fact that it’s so easy allows the public to easily access their favourite artist’s music videos with good quality. Ipods/iphones are threats to music videos due to the easy access to music that audiences love to listen to on a daily basis.

Current threats…

·         Censorship is becoming much harder.

·         New websites which are being made by famous artists which are charging to use every month is causing conflict between artists and their audiences. For example, Jay Z and Beyoncé brought the website ‘Tidal’ to the World Wide Web. They charge audiences to access the website which is inconvenient for the majority of their audiences. However, Tidal offers improved quality in imagery and sound compared to what YouTube has to offer.

·         People listen to music on phones and MP3 whilst they are out and about, so music videos aren’t needed as they can just listen to the songs. ITunes and Spotify are a massive threat to YouTube.

·         Independent artists usually cover or remix artists songs and audiences may prefer their versions, making audiences recognise independent artists more than the mainstream.

Positives of Music Videos…

·         Loyal fans will remain to supporting their favourite artist’s music videos regardless to new formats being introduced.

·         Independent artists can easily create and broadcast their own music videos to the world because it doesn’t cost much to do so.

·         Technology has improved over the years which ensures that music videos are made in a more improved and easier way.

Conclusion.

The music video industry will always remain popular across the world for all audiences. YouTube allows all audiences to easily watch music videos. Music videos generates love towards artists from audiences and allows artists to show their thoughts, morals and opinions to the world around them, conceding them to express themselves in many ways. The future of music videos may change by censoring behaviour in which the public may see as too inappropriate for some audiences. The future holds more creative ideas for music videos which give off important morals and may help people in need, for example, music videos can demonstrate situations in which certain groups of people can relate to. The artist SZA shows suicide awareness in her music video ‘Babylon’ and the lyrics really show deep meaning of thoughts which may relate to many struggling teenagers. This is positive as this shows teenagers that they aren’t alone and they can get through hard times and not give up. Artist who express themselves in such deep topics like SZA has achieves great publicity due to reaching out to audiences. I believe more artists will make moral based music videos to grab audience’s unguided attention. Music speaks to people, so being able to express lyrics visually is very sufficient to audiences personally and the music industry. This research has helped me find what artists appeal to larger audiences and how easy an artist can appeal to an audience through gender and actions/themes in their music videos. For example, from my research, young female artists can easily appeal to audiences by being sexual and promiscuous in their music videos as it pleasures audiences. This has made me think that having a female artist who is quite young for my music video would be easy to attract an audience by making them promiscuous on camera.