Music Videos
Structure
The purpose of the Music Video
Promotes a single and, normally, an album
 Promotes the artist or band
 Creates, adapts or feeds into a ‘star image’
 Entertains the audience
 Sets the ‘meanings’ of a song by the use
of images
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Basic structures
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In 3-4 minutes a typical music video
combines a mix of live performance,
narrative, and other visual imagery including
computer graphics and animation.
It does this to advertise the band/artist and
song
Music Videos
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Often contains a number of different elements:
Performance
 Narrative
 Thematic
 Symbolic
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Performance
 Many
music videos include
performance of the artists as part of
the video
 It was from clips of performances that
music Videos developed
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-Often contain shots of the artists performing
Can be a live stage performance, with shots
of artists and audience
Can be the artists in “real life” situations eg
warming up, talking, fooling around
Often includes lots of close ups of the artist
and there can be a particular visual style that
goes with the artist (a motif) eg particular
clothing, actions, props, type of images.
Often the artist can appear to perform in an
unusual place - all lip-synched eg a field, a
rooftop
Idea of Spectacle
Music Videos may be considered to be
examples of 'spectacle'.
 In this the performers are performing, often
looking directly at the viewer. This is called
“direct address” -where they are directly
interacting with the viewer.
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In the case of men, this involves the look of
the character towards the viewer. The male is
seen to be addressing the viewer directly. He
is supposed to be singing directly for you.
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The female figure is often an object of an
erotic gaze, object of male desire which is a
voyeuristic gaze. A Voyeur is someone who
looks at someone for pleasure. This means
females in music vids are often dressed and
posed in very sexual ways
Narrative
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Often the video tells a story either that features in
the lyrics or is suggested in the lyrics eg girl
dumps boy
This narrative can be like a Mini film, with a
beginning, middle and end
Or it can suggest some links to a story
It can promote a film with clips from the film
included telling a story
Narrative
Because it is only 3-4 minutes it can be
-very fast paced, lots of shots and cuts
-use inter-textuality with films, tv and other videos
-mimic other film and tv genre eg horror or sci fi
-sometimes the story can contradict what is seen for
effect
-sometimes the artist is a part of the story, or an
observer or completely separate
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Thematic
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There are lots of common themes in music videos
Depends on the genre of music
Eg Heavy metal bands go for perfomance
dominated clips
Rap has lots of “street” images
dance routines are common for many female
artist performances
Symbolic
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Use of lots of symbols to build up meaning eg
graveyard…death
Lots of use of montage -lots of images to create
meaning sometimes often contradictory
Lighting often used to suggest mood
Fast paced - often only a few seconds per shot to
build up meanings
Pictures can support or contradict the lyrics
Some Other Codes and Conventions
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Visually stylish – ‘artistic’ mise-en-scene
Cutting related to the rhythm of the music
Intercutting between performance and images or
story
Experimental use of camera/editing (hand held
camera, distortion of colours)
Often break the rules of continuity editing. Can
use lots of jump cuts
Lots of use of digital effects
Types of Music Videos
1
2
Performance Clips
-Concentrate on stage performance of bands
Conceptual clips
Based around a theme or story
a) Narrative “mini film” idea
i)either simple fantasy situation with other
images inbetween eg artist
ii)Or complex genre ‘story’ eg Michael
Jackson’s Thriller
b) Non -narrative often dream like , random thoughts
around a loose theme eg lost love, use lots of
symbolism
 To
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make your Music Video
What is the theme or aim of my music video?
Who will this appeal to?
How can I make it appeal to this group?
What are the lyrics saying?
What do the music/rhythms/genre suggest?
How can I link music/lyrics/images?
What type of video will it be?