Media language (notes)

Music videos are separated into three different types of style:

• Narrative Based
• Concept Based
• Performance Based

Andrew Goodwin suggests (in Dancing in the Distraction Factory 1992) that there are a few features within a music video that are:

1. There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals.
2. There is a relationship between music and visuals
3. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g dance routine for girl/boy band or stage performance in metal video.)
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc)

Andrew Goodwin 

The reason to why I have re-visted Andrew Goodwins theory is too compare and see what content will appear in my music video. My music video will be based around a narrative and a performance from the artist and I have not gone against stereotypes of RnB because the narrative revolves around love. In my video there will be a a direct link between the lyrics and visuals as well as a direct link between the music and visuals for example as the beat gets faster so does the action (argument scenes in fast pace music). 

There will be lots of close up shots of the artist in order to promote himself and develop a motif across all of his work. Fans also may feel closer to the artist as it will be direct in the way he sings to the camera. My music video will also include some notion of looking for example shots of the male character running through the woods seen from outside the forest.

Representation (notes)

What is representation?

  In my music video I have featured a trendy stereotypical male pop star Oliver Stone singing a song called 'Wonderful'  and in the video I have represented a story of two young adults who are very much in love but they also have a very intense and volatile relationship which sees them arguing very heavily before ultimately realising that they are in love and making up with each other. I have represented the two main characters in a fairly equal way showing them both to be strong willed, passionate but also with a loving and sensitive side to each of them.
  The video begins with a representation of a fast moving train and clips of lots of people walking around a station showing the world to be a fast moving and sometimes confusing place to figure out which sets the seen for the introduction of the main characters and their loving but volatile and often confused relationship.
  Joe is represented as a strong, handsome and stereotypical young male character. In various scenes he is in seen as being a little volatile, passionate and intense in his arguments with his girlfriend and someone that can lose his temper quite easily. The boxing scenes as well as his running through the forest show typical young male physical strength and these energetic scenes show him relieving himself of his anger through his physical exercise. The video also represents Joe as being romantic, loving and sensitive and there are a number of scenes of him with his girlfriend having fun and being as the song title suggests wonderfully in love and he makes the first move to text his girlfriend to make up with her.

  Issie is also represented fairly equal to Joe in the video and less stereotypical of a young adult female in the sense that although she is beautiful she is also very strong willed and in the video is seen to give as good as she gets during her arguments with Joe and to be very much his equal. She deals with her own frustration in a different way to Joe by smoking and kicking the wall during one scene which is less typical of a female character. She is also shown to have a loving and sensitive side to her in many scenes where she is having fun with Joe and enjoying being in love with him and the scene where she is looking at his picture lovingly shows her more feminine soft side.

Narrative (notes)

What is a narrative music video?

A narrative music video is a type of music video which shows an account of connected events also known as a story. The story lines are often fragmented and presented in a non linear order to make them really interesting for the audience to figure out the story.  This often leads to them watching the video over and over again. The video allows the viewer a more varied access to the performers and gets to see them in different scenes with the effect that the characters are portrayed to be highly interesting. The music used in the video also strongly complements the storyline and is critically important in making a successful video. In classic pop music video's the interplay between the music and storyline are important in a successful outcome and often dancing is used as well.  Steve Archer's comments in 'Teaching Music Video's'  summarise the above well "music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the 'repeatability factor"

My music video will be made up of both a mixture of performance and narrative based footage. I am including both because generally in the genre of music I am working with music videos are often based around the performer and a story to do with their lives. In my video I  have taken a different approach due to the fact my performer Oliver Stone is a completely different person to the young man Joe who is actually the main character acting in the video. Narrative music videos appeal strongly to the target audiences because the audience typically likes to follow a storyline while at the same time enjoying the music and seeing the performer at various points in the video. In my video the music is high energy and tells the story of a young adult man Joe who is in love with his girlfriend Issie although they have a intense and volatile relationship and argue heavily before getting back together. The title of the song is called 'Wonderful' which describes the feeling of a passionate and loving relationship and how great life can be when two young people are in love. I think the story line and the interesting scenes shown during the video keep the audience keenly engaged in the story and the interjections to different scenes of the performer singing are highly important in capturing the audience attention and this interplay between the story and the performer strongly add to the repeatability factor of the video.
  I have used a linear set of clips in the video to make the story clear to follow for the audience with a number of injections of the performer singing the song and dancing which add to the likelihood of viewers wanting to watch over again.

Gwen Stefani- Cool is a prime example of a narrative and performance music video because it has a clear storyline from beginning to end and also has a good direct link to the lyrics. It shows a real life situation which the audiences will be able to relate too very well and the dancing adds to the the entertainment factor and likelihood of people wanting to watch over again.

Analysis of still

I have taken this still image from Nicki Minja's performance based music video to the song "Superbass" which is one of her biggest selling songs so far. I am going to analyse this image and I do believe that from this still shot you can tell a lot about her character. The stills conotation makes it looks as if she is siutated in a type of heaven with the blue skys and clouds set behind her in the backdrop. Nicki Minaj is the only female figure in this shot surrounded by men in not very much clothing showing her dominance and how powerful she is. The man in the pool with Nicki is staring at the star as if he is in love with her and admires her whilst she looks directly at the camera with her hand on her hip showing attitude. This goes against the stereotype that men are the more dominate figure in society today. The contrasting colours in this shot are very bright and girly. The costumes used in this shot are also very revealing  showing lots of skin and making Nicki Minaj a sexually attractive character which will draw audiences attention when watching this video as she has lots of sex appeal to both genders.

My favorite director

Melina Matsoukas
Born: January 14th, 1981

Melina is a very famous American director of music videos and commercials who is from a Greek, Jewish, Jamaican and Cuban descent. She is a graduate of the American film Institute and New Yorks University Tisch school of the Arts. She started out at Black dog film, then the Gorilla Flix film production company and is now working as a director at Prettybird which she signed to in 2011.

She has made a number of music videos with a range of artists from Rihanna (RnB/Pop) to No Doubt (Punk) and has made videos for a huge range of very well know artists like Whitney Houston and Beyonce.
Matsoukas videos are known as "chalk full of bright colours or crisp black and white images, smooth spotlights, and tasteful retro video models."Melina Matsoukas believes that you do not need expensive equipment in order to make a good quality video, she quotes that "A good video has the right visuals, a well conceptualised story and should be exciting and elicit reaction." 

Two of my favourite videos which are We found love and You Da One both sung by Rihanna were directed by Melina so here below are some links to my other favourite music videos directed by Melina Matsoukas.

Beyonce-Why Dont You Love Me
Neyo- Do You
Beyonce- Diva
Eve- Tambourine

Top 100 music videos and My favourite top 5

After re-searching I have come across a couple of different websites that are specifically aimed to show music news, reviews and has a dedicated section to music charts and videos.

http://www.nme.com/

http://www.theenemy.com/

http://vimeo.com

http://www.billboard.com





On the following link Nme Website it shows the top 100 greatest music videos of all time.

Below our my top five favourite music videos of all time.

1. Rihanna- We found love

Why is this my favourite video? I think that this music video is very edgy and was not a safe move from Rihanna. Involved in this video is a lot of explicit scenes involving drug, alcohol, and sexual content which I believe was risky to release to the public. Throughout the whole video, the action captures my attention and amuses me for the whole 4.36 minutes that is playing for.

2. Beyonce- Single ladies

The reason to why this would be my second top video is due to the Beyonce exquisite dance routine throughout the whole of this video. I also loved the fact that there was a great audience response to Beyonce's hit single in which many of the public made their own versions of the song. Above is an example that members of the public imitated Beyonce dance routine.

3. Macklemore- Thrift shop

I love how random this video is and how mad the artist comes across. It is very much performance based and I like that the lyrics directly relate to the actual image on the screen. I also like the fact that even though Macklemore sings the song in the video it isnt all about him. There are other factors and things we focus on for example the many people in the background and even his clothing is outrageous. 

4. Justin Timberlake- Senorita

As well as loving Justin Timberlake I also really enjoy his music video,  it grabs my attention the whole way through. I believe that towards the end of the song when Justin asks the audience (ladies and guys) to join in with him singing it makes us as the viewers really get ourselves involved in the video.

5. Lady Gaga ft Beyonce- Telephone

This is one of my favourite music videos due to how controversial it is as well as its format and its style of a movie. Another reason to why I really like this video is due to the use of colour throughout as the video is very bright and uses many different colours which really captures the eye and is aesthetically pleasing.

Rihanna-You da one

Lastly I would like to mention another one of my favourite videos which is You Da One by Rihanna mainly due to its brilliant editing and filming. I think this video is good mainly due to the black and white effect which has been carefully styled with the items and clothing to make the video bright. Also throughout the clip we see Rihanna in the background with lots of different styled text poping up on the screen infront of her which is very modern and trendy.

Comparison (Old/New)

Old vs. New

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen released 31 October 1975 is a very well known song as well as the band being very popular at the time. The genre of music is rock, which we can tell after watching this 5.55 long music video due to both the sound and mainly the costumes. Throughout we see a stage performance which usually is an indicator that shows this song is this specific type of genre. There does not seem to be much of a relationship between the lyrics/music to the visuals. There is no reference to notion of looking or any credits at the end of the video. The video does not have many special effects, but does have lots of different lighting making it more interesting to watch, also lots of fade out's were used in editing the video. The camera shots and angles are very basic, slow paced and are repeated throughout most of the video.

As Long As You Love me is a song by Justin Bieber which has recently been made and distributed. This contempory video differs a lot to the Bohemain Rhapsody s music videos mainly because it is performance based and visually and vocally tells a story. The lyrics and music interlink very well with the visuals that have been shown in this video. It shows a typical love story and is really like a mini film compared to an actual music video. The camera shots and angles are very varied throughout the song and changed at quite a fast pace but record labels include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist develop motifs which reoccur across a lot of their work (a visual style). A dance performance by Justin Bieber is also put into the middle of the video which is typical in contemporary music videos. Notion of looking is also involved in this video as this is a popular trait in modern music videos nowadays. Costumes, makeup and special effects are also much more concentrated on and developed to make the present day/current music vidoes more realistic.