I selected this music video to analyse because I think it is unique and at the time when it was launched it was highly controversial due to the explicit scenes of drug taking and sexual viewing. I think these two factors and the overall storyline were the unique selling points to this music video as well as Rihanna being a world leading artist. This electro house and dance pop song also featured the world renowned DJ Calvin Harris who makes an appearance in the middle of the video and adds to the appeal of the target audiences for this video who would be people around the ages of sixteen to twenty eight. The video is a story of two people who are passionately in love but experience extreme highs and lows through their roller-coaster volatile relationship. There are scenes of the lovers taking drugs and having sex and also having good times together and like drugs it seems like Rihanna has an addiction to loving her man. However they are also shown to argue and have difficulties in their relationship created by the wild drug taking and partying lifestyle. After showing these wild scenes Rihanna decides to overcome her addiction of wanting this man who is not good for her and leaves him. At the start of the video there is a long voiceover which gives a brief explanation of love and how they feel which then leads into the video that is very fast paced. I think the voiceover is very effective and allows the audience to understand what the video is about with reference to hopeless love and I am now thinking about the possibility of adding a voiceover when it comes to making my music video. The video consists of mainly straight and jump cuts but also throughout the video the camera shots and angles change constantly and are enhanced by many close ups, mid shots, high angle shots which all add to the appeal of the viewer. We Found Love by Rihanna contains no dialogue apart from the start but contains many special effects like strobe lighting and backdrops synchronised in the video. This video was made by Def Jam music group and distributed by Universal music and video distribution is a mixture of narrative but mainly performance based.
This music video is very different from both of the other two videos that I have analysed not only because it is an electronic rock and RnB genre song which was and still is very popular but also because throughout the duration of the video we see the main character as a person dressed up as an elephant whose identity is not really revealed until the later stages of the video when his character meets up with other characters who we can logically tell are Coldplay's band members. The video shows an elephant character escaping from a London based zoo and travelling to Heathrow airport and smuggling himself on an aeroplane to Africa to find paradise, which is a clear reference to the song lyrics and title "Paradise". After a long and often lonely journey the lead elephant character stumbles into three additional elephant characters and they play their music in the paradise sun backed desert The video ends with these characters (members of the band) performing on stage at a Coldplay concert. The pace of this video is fairly slow compared to The Used and Rihanna videos but still there is a range of camera shots and angles. We see lots of straight and jumps cuts as well as towards the end seeing a fade out. The main shot we see tends to be long shots and extreme shots and throughout the video it is very scenic with all natural lighting. We also see a direct link between the visuals and the lyrics as the character holds up pieces of cardboard in the video with the actual words on. Also not like the other two videos I have analysed, this video does not have special effects apart from the lighting in the concert scene, no dialogue or voiceovers but do have credits right at the start of the video. I believe that the reasoning behind why the bands faces do not really need to be seen in this video is due to their popularity and how well known they already are. I think the target audience for this song and music video is from the age of sixteen upwards and that the unique selling point is the upbeat and intriguing nature of the story combined with the music and the fact that the band are as popular as they are.
scenic shots
Alternative rock, post hardcore and pop punk is the genre of this song which differs from the other two videos that I have analysed because this band is not as popular as Rihanna and Coldplay and their music is aimed at a niche, different market. Although this song has a completely different sound to the other songs I have chosen it still has a mix of a narrative based video and also performance based. We see the main band performing throughout the video as well as them acting and this is more typical of the codes and conventions from this genre to feature in a music video. The song and music video produced by John Feldmann with the record label Warner Bros and Reprise describes a strange, messed up boy who comes across as if he is haunted. At the start we can hear lots of people talking as the band are signing autographs but you can not really here the dialogue unlike the We Found Love video where it is clear what is being said. The shots are changed constantly like the Rihanna music video and is again fast paced with mainly the same shots , close ups and mid shots of the artist enhanced by special effects like speeding up the shots, rewinds as well as many zoomed in and out shots. In the video there is notion of looking when we see shots through the hole in the door which fits in with this horror theme of the video as we see voyeuristic treatment to one of the main characters. I think the target audience are people who are interested in the rock genre of music aged from around eighteen to thirty five and the unique selling point would be the band itself. Unlike Coldplays song and Rihanna song there are no credits at the end or the beginning of this music video.
Summary
Apart from the obvious difference of genres all three of the above music videos share some similarities and differences. They all have very different stories behind each one of them as one tells a love story, another shows a journey to paradise and lastly one shows a scary horror story. We Found Love and Paradise are aimed at a more general target audience and a lot of the average population compared to The Bird and The Worm which is only aimed at people who are into the heavy type of music. The camera angles and shots vary throughout each video from simple close up shots, to point of view shots and many more. Also the angles are mainly long shots, medium shots or close ups but the pace of Coldplay's music video is slightly slower then the other two. Rihanna's and Coldplay's song also both have credits, one at the beginning and one at the end unlike The Used song most probably because of the expense put into the video and popularity of the band/song.
All three songs fit Andrew Goodwins theory of music videos because each video have genre characteristics like Coldplay's and The Used rock genred videos having stage performances included. There is also a great link and relationship between both the music and lyrics with the visuals seen on screen. In Rihanna's video we see lots of close up of the artist which would be a major demand from the record label compared to the other two videos maybe because they both are bands instead of one single artist. We also see frequent notion of looking and do see voyeuristic treatment of both the male and female bodies in the "We Found Love" and "The Bird and The Work" music videos. Overall I think all three song had a successful music video to advertise the song and have had millions of viewers.
As of the 22nd of october the figures of views on Youtube of each of these songs are:
Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris- We Found Love 214,300,301
Coldplay- Paradise 158,840,292
The Used- The bird and The Worm 12,637,155
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