UNIT 29 - Styles of music video

NARRATIVE MUSIC VIDEO : Payphone - Maroon 5

A narrative music video tells a story with the visuals and goes along with the lyrics and/or can be acted out within the video. The style ensure the viewers have a story built up in their head so it can either make the lyrics seem clear. It can be used in songs to promote the story of the song itself and can also be used to promote the artist and their music in story form.

The visual style of a narrative music video usually looks like a film, this adds to the whole "storytelling" effect. depending on the genre of the music the props will vary, for example in the music video 'Payphone' by Maroon 5 there was a need for guns, explosives a wrecked car and fire. This adds some quality to the music video as it looks more professional. If the music video consisted of bad editing and green screens instead of the actual thing on a song like this, then it wouldn't appeal a lot to audiences who are into this genre of music. The camera follows the two main characters in the video to show what they're going through whilst cutting to the aftermath, an example of this can be seen at (1:41).

This shows how the character got to where he is now in present time whilst telling the story. the lighting is mainly natural as most of the video is filmed outdoors in a police chase, the beginning of the video started off in a bank so the lighting may have been adjusted to focus on certain people and parts of the building. The Location was based in America in a city bank, this was an advantage as the musician is American so most of the viewers will mainly be american, this means that they will notice or recognise the area and then they could relate to the surroundings thus making it more appealing to audiences. The costumes the actors were wearing suited the environment they were in (a bank). smart suits and dresses for the workers, police uniforms for the police and finally masks and hooded jackets for the robbers. This added more realism to the music video and made it seem more entertaining, this will boost the musicians popularity as the more people like the more views it would get be it a platform like Youtube or on the TV.

As seen before the story consists of a man saving a woman playing superhero. This was an obvious stereotype as it has been done before many times. However there was a twist instead of the two (man and woman) living happily ever after, the man cant get a hold of the woman after he had saved her and is left hanging.  There is also a lyric which indicates that this does not have a happy ending as it is said at (2:01/3:11) "all these fairytales are full of shit" so again there is a strong link with the music video and lyrics. This also links in with the title of the music video 'Payphone' as the man is trying to call her via payphone, again linking with the lyrics "i'm at a payphone trying to call home" throughout the song, the impact this has on the audience is that they will or should be able to identify the link as it is very simple. This will give them some sort or form of satisfaction. The editing in terms of speed sped up as the song went along and then came to a slow end as the stories mood wanted to reflect that. This would in effect control the mood the viewers should be feeling do the right message is given off.

PERFORMANCE MUSIC VIDEO : MAGIC! - Rude

A performance video focuses on showing the band/artist performing or in a casual environment in sinc with the music playing, they can be doing anything from driving, partying socialising or the obvious, dancing. The majority of the video is focused on the musicians, band members are often miming to words of the song and then later it is edited with the music.

The lyrics of the song g together with the performance and visuals as the main lyrics are "why you gotta be so rude", this is because in the video he is trying to get approval from this girls father and he says no. The rest of the video switches from the band performing/ going along with the story. So from watching the video the viewers can see the link with the lyrics and the visuals, this shows a clear illustration of the lyrics also linking back to the name of the song, and again giving off some form of satisfaction. The music tempo is kept laid back and calm with a reggae mix to it. The visuals don't go too fast for the visuals or too slow, this is vital as it comes off more appealing for the viewers and it will seem more pleasing to see and listen to. The cut to the beat is on point and on time so it is appealing to watch as as well as listen to. Examples of this can be seen throughout the video. The genre of this video would in my opinion come under "Romance reggae" as it has a mix mash up of both. I chose this as the genre as the sound had a reggae base to it and the visuals and some of the lyrics were very romantic, as seen in the first (0:08) into the video (visuals) and the reggae style base was played in most parts of the song. The camera work of the music video followed the musicians when they were in the "story"of the lyrics and also when they were performing as a band in the garage. This can be seen at (1:06) for example when the camera was focused on the whole band more specifically the main band member who was singing. The camera angle represented the band in opinion as hyper and full of energy as i never stood still in one position and followed them around or tilted left and right. The viewers would maybe think this too as the camera language was very strong in showing that.


CONCEPTUAL: THE FOO FIGHTERS - (Best Of)

Conceptual music video is a style that is based around concept or an idea, it is neither Narrative or Performative based which are very stereotypical. It is very unique and there tends to be a specific editing, filming technique to capture the visuals. This makes it very unique and comes more from the artist. It can be understood by some but not many as it is that specific from the artists mind. The artist can be free in the lyrics as this format gives them entire freedom to think and show what they want. This can be creative but then again not many people will show the same reaction as it will differ.
An example of this can be seen in the band "The foo fighters". The concept behind this music video that I inferred was that this was a visual from the artist themselves, the message from this music video is all positive energy and happy thoughts so this would most likely be the concept behind this video.They are very unique as all their music tends to be under this style and format, this gives them the creative freedom most artists want as they can express themselves in whatever way they want.



INTERPRETATIVE:WILL.I.AM & CODY WISE - "It's my birthday"

Interpretive music videos consist of when the lyrics of the song match the on screen visuals. There is no need for interpretation as everything is happening in front of you. It is very simple and easy to understand. These types of music videos are common in some artists but not many, the main form of music videos these days takes more of a narrative or preformative format as the artist/s has more of a chance to be creative and or send a message through a story.

An example of this would be "Birthday" by Will.I.am and Cody Wise. This song had a simple message and was portrayed that way as well through visuals throughout the video. Starting off with the lyrics "Its my birthday, Its my birthday", this is repeated through most parts of the video and the visuals show that the guy is celebrating his birthday with others around him. This again shows the link between the two and the lyrics match the visuals. Another Lyric is "I'ma turn up, we can turn up" (turn up meaning get hype) as singing this in the video the visuals show them getting more hyper and having more fun. The viewer would see this and this could have an effect on them and possibly get them in the mood to party. The lyrics and matching on screen visuals are inviting and sends a message to the audience who will be more likely to remember the music video as well as the lyrics as the lyrics help us to remember what happened in the video.

In terms of music and editing the videos cutting to the beat is very on point, this is because the music style is the type to party to so it wouldn't be suitable if the music was slow and off beat as it would put off viewers.When cutting to the beat in the music videos it was a quick and smooth transition to each scene as well as going along with the music, by doing this the video will be more appealing and look better when playing. The genre of the music video would be Pop/R&b, This genre of music usually is aimed towards the younger generations or young adults as the content of music like this has the aim of making the listener/viewer energetic and wanting to party. The camera movement was still but fast showing how lively the artist is, again linking to the younger audiences. Performance wise there was a lot of dancing in the video from the artist themselves and other popular stars, by including this it would make the popularity of the video increase as their are familiar and known idols in the video. This shows some intertextuality as the music video consisted of many stars from Vine, as Vine is a very known platform and the stars on the app have over 60 million followers on various social media altogether this would be beneficial to the music video as fans would see their favourite vine star in the music video and then listen to it, therefore creating more attention towards the is and more publicity.

ANIMATED: KANYE WEST - "Heartless"

Animated music videos are made up entirely of animation. These types of video hardly show the artist in real life as it is in animation, however the big difference within this type of video and any other is that the artist has more of a variety in terms of imagination to do what they want to in the video. This is because it is easier to show anything on animation rather than do it in real life. Plus it is way cheaper than actually doing it in real life as fort example making a car flip over would take experts time and resources which takes money, whereas in animation someone can just either draw or create with computer the graphics which is more simpler and cheaper. Animated video tend to appeal to certain audiences as many prefer to watch real life.

Artists can decide to do a animated music video to save them some money, if they want to expand their imagination and come up with new ideas. For example in the song "Heartless" by Kanye West the entire video was made up of animation. The video consisted of Kanye in cartoon form going through the city and walking, as well as being in some form of galaxy background. This had been done easily on computer and would have been difficult to do so in real life. This type pf music video would catch eyes of Kanye's fans as this isn't his usual way of showing his music. This saved Mr West a lot of money as he didn't need to buy any props or get a green screen to do some of the effects.



SURREAL

Surreal is an absolute type of music video where the narrative and message isn't very clear. The message of the artist isn't clarified with these types of videos as they show different visuals to what the lyrics are saying. It is often described as random and weird because not many people understand it. The visuals of surreal music videos usually consist of a lot of editing and CGI to be used as everything in the videos can only be done via computer. This is what makes these videos stick out from others. An example of this can be seen in the music Up&Up by the band Cold play. This video consisted of different CGI editing and computer graphics throughout the entire video, this video stood out amongst any as it was very unrealistic and weird which caught the eyes and attention of many. As said the computer graphics and use of editing can be seen anywhere in the video but an example of this can be seen at (1:01) where it showed some people jumping off a plane into a large bowl of pasta. This gave the video a surreal look and made it out to look like an alternate universe. The camera language and angles changed in different parts of the video to show specific views, so there wasn't really one the video stuck to. The sound was mainly covered by the lyrics and we couldn't really hear any of the visual sound effects. This again made it look as if the viewer is hallucinating in my opinion.