Diary Entry 9 - Uploading the footage from Brighton

Today we uploaded the footage we filmed in Brighton and started to edit sections of our music video. Myself and Tyra were pleasently surprised at what we had filmed, plus we are on schedule! We now await to film the performance sections tomorrow, and we are both very excited to see the outcome.

Diary Entry 8 - Filming in Brighton

Today was the day in which my partner and I travelled down to Brighton in order to film the main part of our narrative for our music video. Despite having planned this trip out to the enth degree in advance, we still found problems cropping up in our path. The unpredictable weather for a start, meant we had to film the performance section in the rain! This was very difficult for me as the camera woman and had to make sure an umbrella was above the camera so it wouldnt get wet, as well as film the footage at the same time using a dolly. The next problem was our car breaking down, which was disappointing as it wasted 2 hours of our valuable filming time after having travelled for over an hour, bearing in mind the sun sets at 4 so gets dark very quickly. After our car had been fixed and sorted, we arrived on Brighton beach with gail force winds that was blowing the camera around, depsite being on a tripod and myself holding it down to the ground. In spite of this, I believe that we did extremily well with the footage I filmed and the efforts put in by Tyra! Now we await to upload the footage tomorrow to see what we have produced.

Diary Entry 7 - Start of the filming progress!!

Yesterday, my partner and I filmed the first few seconds of our music video! Myself as the camerawoman and Tyra as the character worked well together in filming what I believe to be a successful shoot! Today in our lesson we started to upload the footage onto iMovie, and downloaded the song 'Lost' that is going along with the footage. It finally feels like we're getting somewhere!

Research on a artist similar to ours

Lana Del Ray

Elizabeth Grant - Lana Del Ray

Elizabeth Grant, born 21 June 1986, better known as Lana Del Rey, is a singer-songwriter from Lake Placid, New York, United States. Del Rey is known for embellishing her songs and music videos with an ‘eerily nostalgic’ vibe heavy on Americana themes, including images of surfing, Frank Sinatra, and Marilyn Monroe. I think that Lana Del Ray is fairly similar to our chosen artist in terms of these themes. Grant released her first professionally produced body of work in 2010, an EP entitled 'Kill Kill', as Elizabeth Grant via Five Points Records with producer David Kahne. It was available for purchase on iTunes for a brief period before being withdrawn for unknown reasons. Soon after, Del Rey released a self-titled collection of songs, Lana Del Ray, for electronic download. In June 2011, Del Rey was signed with Stranger Records and issued the 'Video Games' single, and in October 2011 she signed with Interscope Records.

Sarah Howells - Paper Aeroplanes

History of Paper Aeroplanes

Paper Aeroplanes are an alternative pop band from West Wales who properly formed around 2009, although both members have been playing together since 2003. Richard Llewellyn from Ceredigion and Sarah Howells from Pembrokeshire were both formerly part of the Cardiff-based band ‘Halflight’. The BBC described them as ‘a west coast, easy-riding, folk-ish indie with pop sensibility’. Richard was also formerly a member of ‘Cartoon’, while Sarah was part of a rock/riot girl band called ‘Jylt’.

At the end of 2008, they joined forces with the Autonomy Music Group, where in January 2009 they worked with John Reynolds on two singles that were taken from the album ‘The Day We Ran Into The Sea’, which was released in 2010. Since its release they have made the Radio 2 playlist and supported acts as varied as Ron Sexsmith, Ed Sheeran, Marina and the Diamonds and Chris Wood, as well as securing a live session with the legendary Bob Harris.



Key features of music videos

Music videos generally work around the music, iconography and the lyrics, which are designed to provide pleasure in order to keep the viewers watching and to encourage repeat viewings. Music videos generally fit into 3 categories; performance based, narrative based and concept based. The relationship between the lyrics and visuals can illustrate, amplify or contradict with the music. Andrew Goodwin identified the following features of music videos:

1)      Music videos tend to have genre characteristics shown within the video, for example, heavy metal bands have their music video based as a performance on a stage.

2)      A relationship shown between visuals and lyrics – which can illustrate, amplify or contradict the music.

3)      A relationship between music and visuals – which can illustrate, amplify or contradict the song.

4)      The music video will include a lot of close-ups of the artist or band members, and the artist may develop a visual style across their work.

5)      Music videos will uses the notion of looking through screens-on-screens, telescopes etc. and uses voyeurism (flaunting of the female body)

6)      There will be intertextuality references, for example, to films, television programmes and other music videos.

Research on costumes/make-up and shot types

Costumes and the make-up used within music videos are essential in portraying a certain image or message. From doing some music video research, I found that certain genres of music had a specific style of clothing and use of make-up. For example, rock bands dress in black ‘emo’ style clothes, with thick black eye make-up, whereas heavy metal bands tend to have long hair and a hippy dress sense about them. It therefore made me realise that the way artists dress can also hint to the audience about what genre of music they play.

For example, in Rihanna’s song ‘California King Bed’, which has connotations of a romantic love life, she is dressed in small shorts and a bandeau which is revealing and links in with the meanings behind the lyrics. He red hair represents lust and love, and her subtle but sexy make-up links in with the fact that she’s ‘in bed’ so doesn’t need make up. The bright colours used within this video make the audience aware that she is happy, and the fact that her bed is situated in the clouds suggests that shes in a dream world.

In terms of camera types and shots, it is essential to use a variety of different camera angles and shots, however the use of close-ups and extreme close-ups are essential in order for the audience to be able to identify with the artist, which is common in most music videos. Therefore, my partner and I are making sure that we use a lot of close-up shots in our own official music video in order to make the video appear as realistic as possible.

Star Image - The 3 theorists

Andrew Goodwin:

Andrew Goodwin suggested that in order for the audience to identify with the artist, the ‘stars’ identity has to be created, especially when lyrics lack depth. The construction of stars is central to the economics of the music industry as only the star themselves guarantee a long career. Andrew Goodwin also believes that star loyalty is a key ingredient as fans are loyal to the star, so the star had to be loyal to the fans. He also suggests that many record companies rely on a few big stars or maybe even just one, in order to be stable, therefore record companies is very dependent on ‘stars’ and the image they portray.

Richard Dyer:

The existence of musical ‘stars’ has led to a related phenomenon which are the fans and how they are the result of our modern culture of consumerism. He suggested that there are 4 types of relationships that fans have with their star:

1)      Emotional Affinity- This is the most common, and is when the audience feels a loose attachment to the artist.

2)      Self Identification- When a member of the audience places themselves in the same situation and persona of the star.

3)      Imitation- This is mostly common among the young, when the star is seen as a role model.

4)      Projection- This is the next level of imitation when it becomes extreme. This is when the fans behaviour, clothes, hairstyles etc are mimicking the star.

Richard Griffith:

Richard suggests that stardom is food for dreams and has escapist qualities. He believes that it is all about consumption and the way the wealthy show off the fact that they have money. Stars are considered as both ordinary and special, especially when their behaviours are modelled and their lifestyles desired. He believes that ‘stars’ sell a lifestyle we think is ordinary and achievable, however it is not.

Overall, star image is created out of promotion, publicity, body of work and criticism/comments. The biographer of the star can be individual, multiple, where many authors can be seen in one piece of work, collective, the author is the sum of a team's work, or corporate, where the author is actually the company/business/institutional structure.

Analysis of previous student work

The beginning of the music video starts off with a close up of an electric guitar which instantly makes it apparent to the audience that this is a band. The effects used on the guitar are entertaining and unique and is not often seen in music videos, making this one stand out. However, some parts of the music video I do find tacky, such as the cartoon effect on the footage. Despite this being a creative idea, I think there is far too many effects on the video, making it seem over the top. I also noticed that when the artist starts to sing near the beginning part of the video, her lips are not in sink with the actual song, instantly making this less effective for the audience and therefore unrealistic. At this point, it would be hard for the audience to identify with the artist. I also find the narrative of the music video slightly confusing, and the relationship between the two girls being filmed is not made clear. I do however, like the costume and make up ideas used for the artist, as it represents the rock genre of the song. I think the use of different locations also make the video effective as it keeps the audience watching on. This is because the images are constantly changing through the use jump cuts, so the audience do not get bored of watching the same clips again and again.

Another weakness of this video is the fact that they filmed in a school and in a park. This is common in music videos, therefore reducing the unique feel to the song. I do however think that they picked the right person to be the artist, as she does at some points make the video look realistic and she is giving the performance to the best of her ability. Some parts of the video are also filmed in poorly lit settings, meaning the picture quality isn’t that good, and at one point it is hard to work out what they are filming.

This video also uses a lot of different camera and angle shots. Close-up shots are frequently used, which is a common convention of a music video and low angle shots make the audience look up to the artist, which I believe is a clever idea. As well as this, the camera always seems to be moving which I think keeps the audiences eyes fixed on the video, rather than still camera shots that could be boring. The use of frequent jump cuts as well, keeps the audience entertained throughout.

I believe that this group thought very carefully about the common conventions of rock videos, especially when they used the effect where the artists face goes close up into the camera. I believe that overall they created a successful music video with a selection of good ideas and following the generic conventions of rock music videos, however, some parts made it seem less realistic, such as the cartoon effects that the fact that the artists lips didn’t sink in time with the music. Analysing this video has been a great help for my understanding of constructing a music video, and has shown me what works as well as what doesn’t work. Therefore, I hope to learn from previous students work to try and make our music video as successful as possible.

Our casting choices

Costume ideas

Our mind map of ideas

Diary Entry 6 - Planning ideas

Myself and Tyra have picked the song 'Lost' by Paper Aeroplanes, and are starting to plan our ideas as to what to include within the footage of our music video. We have looked through music videos on YouTube that we believe are similar in terms of the music style to see what ideas we can get from these. We have made progress on our storyboard and have created a prop list of objects we want to include. Can't wait to get filming!

A music video that influenced our work

After Tyra and I spent the lesson looking through current music videos for ideas, we came across this certain music video which really influenced us in our ideas for the production of our own music video. We found that even though the song/artist were of different musical genres, the main narrative of the music video followed the lyrics to our chosen song. We found that the depressing narrative had a major impact on the audience and came across as very poignant and emotional, and thought this would follow the narrative of our music video. We want our music video to have the same impact on our target audience. As our chosen song does not follow mainstream music genres, we thought that by basing our music video on a narrative would be the best way in getting the audiences attention.

How we came to the decision for choosing our artist

Despite the trouble we have gone through with our group and the fact that we have now split into 2 separate groups, myself and Tyra got down to buisness and chose the song 'Lost' by Paper Aeroplanes. We came to this decision by drawing out a minf map of all the potential ideas of songs and artists we could use, and this helped both of us to cut down our choices from the five and to pick just one of the songs to use in our official music video

Firstly, despite originally picking Snow Patrol’s ‘Set fire to the third bar’, we came to a joint decision that this band is far too famous and popular, meaning our individualistic and unique ideas for our music video would be overshadowed and restricted as we would be far too influenced by the band and their original video. We were then, therefore left with four songs to choose from. Our next discussion was on the song ‘Tik Tok’ by Kesha. Again, we felt that this singer/song writer was vastly renowned for the music she produces as well as it being a difficult task to get her permission in order for us to use one of her songs. Regardless of us both liking the song ‘Better Together’ by Jack Johnson, we both agreed that we are more influenced by female artists and can relate to them more, therefore we removed him from our list of options in order to make our music video of a higher standard.

We were then left with just Kina Grannis’ song ‘Valentine’ and the song by Paper Aeroplanes, ‘Lost’. After listening to both songs repeatedly and after a lengthy deliberation, we both agreed that we can create more distinctive ideas and could visualise the formation of our music video by using the song ‘Lost’. .

Lyrics - Lost

Lost like the sun in a summer
Lost like my words to your ears
Lost like the notion of now and forever and like my comfortable years
Took a little long way round to find this out
And it seems you had so much to say and I drowned you out
Shame that we didn’t quite make it
Shame ’cause you know me so well
Shame that we’ll wash out with sensory pleasure when I’m under another spell
‘Cause it’s a long way round to find this out
And it seems you had so much to say and I drowned you out
Love like you’ve never loved before
Love like you’ll never again
Love like you’re lost in some old fashioned movie and it all works out right in the end
‘Cause it’s a long way round to find this out
And it seems you had so much to say and I drowned you out
Took the long way round to find this out
And it seems you had so much to say and I drowned you out
And it seems you sang the sweetest songs and I’m lost without

Lyrics - Valentine

Love, it's a special day
We should celebrate and appreciate
That you and me found something pretty neat
And I know some say this day is arbitrary

But it's a good excuse, put our love to use
Baby, I know what to do
Baby, I...
I will love you
I'll love you, I'll love you

Love, I don't need those things
I don't need no ring
I don't need anything
But you with me
'Cause in your company
I feel happy, oh so happy and complete

And it's a good excuse, put our love to use
Baby, I know what to do
Baby, I...
I will love you
I'll love you, I'll love you

Yeah, it's a good excuse, put our love to use
Baby, I know what to do
Baby, I...
I will love you
I'll love you, I'll love you

So won't you be my honey bee?
Giving me kisses all the time
Be mine, be my Valentine

So won't you be my honey bee?
Giving sweet kisses all the time
Be mine, be my Valentine

Oh, be my Valentine

Lyrics - Better Together

There is no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing, but I can try for your heart
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things
Like a, shoebox of photographs
With sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer,
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
Sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together

Mmm, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at the stars when we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

And all of these moments
Just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they'll be gone
When the morning light sings
And brings new things
For tomorrow night you see
That they'll be gone too
Too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
Into my day to day scene
I'd be under the impression
I was somewhere in between
With only two
Just me and you
Not so many things we got to do
Or places we got to be
We'll sit beneath the mango tree now

Yeah, it's always better when we're together
Mmm, we're somewhere in between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

Mmm, mmm, mmm

I believe in memories
They look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up,
You look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing
We're better together.

The group of us also liked this unique cover of the song. In my opinion I would like to use a female voice to star in our final official music video.

Lyrics - Set Fire to the Third Bar

I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from 'A' to where you'd be
It's only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I'd find your face
My fingers in creases of distant dark places

I hang my coat up in the first bar
There is no peace that I've found so far
The laughter penetrates my silence
As drunken men find flaws in science

Their words mostly noises
Ghosts with just voices
Your words in my memory
Are like music to me

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
I, I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms

After I have travelled so far
We'd set the fire to the third bar
We'd share each other like an island
Until exhausted, close our eyelids
And dreaming, pick up from
The last place we left off
Your soft skin is weeping
A joy you can't keep in

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
And I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

I'm miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
and I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

Diary Entry 5 - Choosing a song

Today me and tyra are planning what song to use in our music video. We are working on separate computers to make the whole process a lot quicker. This time round, we are both looking for more unknown artists, for example, some of those on YouTube so we can come up with unique and original ideas.

Timeline of Music History

1807 - Beethoven completes his Symphony No. 5, which many consider to be the most popular classical work ever written.

1860 - The slave trade introduces West African rhythms, work songs, chants and spirituals to America, which strongly influence blues and jazz.

1896 - Ragtime, a combination of West Indian rhythm and European musical form, is born.

1936 - Electric guitars debut.

1958 - Billboard debuts its Hot 100 chart. Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" boasts the first No. 1 record. Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army

1963 - A wave of Beatlemania hits the U.K. The Beatles, a British band composed of John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, take Britain by storm. The Rolling Stones emerge as the anti-Beatles, with an aggressive, blues-derived style.

1967 - The Beatles release their break-through concept album, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Psychedelic bands such as The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane enjoy great success during this period with songs celebrating the counterculture of the '60s.

1970 - The Beatles break up. By the end of the year, each member had released a solo album.

1977 - Saturday Night Fever sparks the disco inferno. Elvis Presley dies at Graceland, his Memphis, Tenn. home. He was 42.

1981 - MTV goes on the air running around the clock music videos, debuting with 'Video Killed the Radio Star'.

1982 - Michael Jackson releases Thriller, which sells more than 25 million copies, becoming the biggest-selling album in history.

1984 - Led by Bob Geldof, the band Band Aid releases 'Do They Know It's Christmas', with proceeds of the single going to feed the starving in Africa.

1988 - CDs outsell vinyl records for the first time.

1991 - Seattle band Nirvana releases the song 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' on the LP Nevermind and enjoys national success. With Nirvana's hit comes the grunge movement, which is characterized by distorted guitars, dispirited vocals and lots of flannel.

1992 - Compact discs surpass cassette tapes as the preferred medium for recorded music.

1998 - Death of Frank Sinatra. The song ‘I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing’ by Aerosmith becomes the first song by a rock band to debut.

1999 – Mariah Carey becomes the first and only aritst to have at least one number one song in each year of a decade.

2005 – Mariah Carey releases her 10 million selling ‘The Emanicipation of Mini‘, the best-selling album of the year worldwide, alongside the album's second single 'We Belong Together', the year's most successful single.

2009 – Death of Michael Jackson. Mariah Carey becomes the only person since the award was established to have two, and consecutive, Songs of the Decade – ‘One Sweet Day’ for the 90's and ‘We Belong Together’.

2010 - Lady Gaga's music video reaches on billion views.

2011 - Death of Amy Winehouse.

Conventions of a CD album cover

I have picked the album 'Awake my Soul' by Mumford and Sons as an example to explain the common conventions of a CD album cover.

Diary Entry 4 - DISASTER!

The group of us have decided to split into two separate groups, so now myself and Tyra are working on our own and Sophiya and Monica are working on their own. After a long group discussion, we realised that we work better in our separate groups as we had conflicting ideas about what we wanted to include and what we didnt want to include. So now myself and Tyra are looking forward, and are starting from fresh!

Album Digipack/CD analysis

The Beatles - Abbey Road

The first CD album cover I have chosen to analyse is ‘Abbey Road’ by the Beatles. I believe that this is a very eye catching photograph, presenting all the band members walking in a row, crossing Abbey Road. The name of the album cover relates to the ‘Abbey Road Studios’ where they had recorded a vast majority of their albums, so the picture not only looks appealing to an audience, but it also has personal connotations to the band members. The fact that they are walking away from the Abbey Studios suggest that they are walking away from their past, leaving everything and everyone else behind them. The fact that they are all walking at the same pace, with their feet the same distance apart shows the connection between all the band members. I also believe that as the road is fairly quiet and doesn’t have many vehicles driving, it has a sense of calmness and that they are in their own little world. Despite my personal opinions, some people believe that these band members are dressed for a funeral. John is the priest as he is dressed all in white, Ringo is the Paul bearer, George is the gravedigger and Paul is the dead one. The fact that they all have the same neutral facial expressions seems to make that opinion valid.

The King Blues - Save the world get the girl

The main themes apparent to me on this album cover are board games and superheroes. The fact that the album is called ‘Save the world get the girl’ suggests to the audience that a game has to be played in order to get the girl, and that game is by saving the world. The use of the chess board as the back ground image attracts the audience’s attention as it uses bright colours and cartoon figures. The cartoon characters also look as if they are flying out of the game, having connotations that they are flying out of the fictional world and therefore flying back into reality. The song is all about how badly behaved the world is and how no one cares, yet he believes he can sort out all the problems and issues ‘with just one second to spare, I will save the world’. This links in with the superhero cartoon characters on the front on the album that he will save the world.



Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here


The song ‘Wish You Were Here’ is about the detached feeling most people go through life with. It is a commentary on how people cope with the world by withdrawing physically, mentally, or emotionally and I believe that the album cover of this CD entwines with the meaning of the song perfectly. The fact that he is shaking hands with a replica of himself on fire, suggest that the artist is saying goodbye to himself, perhaps because he has given up on life. The use of the fire uses the ‘shock’ method to attract the audience as we all know as a human instinct that fire is very dangerous and has killed many people. Normally when people see fire they start to panic or call for help, however the use of the artists neutral facial expression suggests that nothing shocks him anymore and that he is used to the pain experience in day to day life. The man on fire also gives out connotations that other things control his life, rather than being in control of his own life, and now he has just given up. The fact that they are wearing black suits also gives out connotations of death or funerals, illustrating to the audience that he is saying goodbye to himself.

Diary Entry 3 - Choosing a song

Yesterday, we worked in our groups to get straight to the planning process and to decide what song to choose to use in our official music video. Sophiya and Monica worked on one computer and Tyra and I worked on another computer, working in pairs to write a list of potential songs. We then came together and discussed our options, and we came to the decision that we would use the song, 'Set Fire to the Third Bar' by Snow Patrol. However, after further consideration, we decided that this would not be an ideal song as it would be near impossible to contact the band for their permission to use their track. In addition, we also thought that we would be far too influenced by how they portray themselves and their 'star' image for us to come up with unique and original ideas. We now have to go through the same process of planning again, so we can come up with a more unknown artist to make a video for.

Music Video Questions

1) Do music videos allow for meaning to be fixed?

I believe that most music videos do allow for meaning to be fixed. The reason I think this is because if you listen to a song without the video following it, people may interpret the meaning of the songs lyrics differently to how other people may interpret it. However, if everyone listens to the song along with the music video then everyone will be able to realise the true meaning behind the song. In the rare case that people still get different interpretations of the song even with the music video, the narrative may be disjunctive so therefore the true meaning may not be clear.

2) How far is a brand responsible for their 'brand'/their artistic identity?

I think that a brand is half responsible for the way they portray their artists as they represent them in ways which will appeal to a certain audience. A clear example of this is Lady Gaga. Before she joined her record company, she was an innocent, gentle and natural looking female, however, once her record company made her famous and shaped her image, she transformed into a wild, extravagant and over the top person.

However, more independent artists can shape their own image in the way they want to be portrayed, an example being Rihanna, whos image has not changed dramatically since becoming famous. She still has a innocent but attractive look about her.

3) What effect does knowing visual images are 'polysemic' have?

The word polysemic is defined as something that can express two or more meanings. The fact that we know visual images are polysemic means that people can make their own interpretations of these images or can in fact confuse the audience, so it makes them think hard about the true meaning of the images. The effect polysemic images have may be that audiences watch the video more than once as they get a different meaning each time. The video may also be spoken between people as different audiences are getting their own interpretations of the video, which helps to sell the artist and the image they are portraying.

4) What role does Album Art have in contributing to the star's identity?

Apart from live performance, media coverage, the songs and music videos, the record covers play a very important role in selling the albums as well as the image of the star that they are presenting. Advertisement of the album would be shown on TV adverts, magasines, in store and billboards, for example, so will have a major impact and influence on contributing to the star's identity. Therefore, an attention seeking, individualistic and memorable album cover is essential to draw peoples attention to the stars album. If people remember the front cover of an album, it is more likely to be spoken about, thus spreading the name of the artist around. One of my most memorable album covers is one by Pink Floyd called 'Wish You Were Here':

I find this an extremely clever album art because it is very memorable but bizzare. The name of the album 'Wish You Were Here' also contradicts the picture on the front of the album, as a male is shaking another males hand who is on fire.














5) How far does Album Art provide a frame of reference for interpretation?

I personally believe that Album Art provides a full frame of reference for interpretation as not all album covers represent what the album will be about, leaving it to the audience to interpret what the album will be about. For example, 'Build a rocket boys' by Elbow, the name of the album has nothing to do with the front cover of the album.

Music Videos are not fictional in the sense that real world stars or bands, and the outcomes for them are inextricably linked. Therefore, if a star plays one role, it will have a direct relation or effect on their overall persona.

Key features of music videos

Following my research into music videos, it has been made clear to me that they work around three codes; music, lyrics and iconography (visuals). The way to understand how music videos work is to look at the relationship between these codes. The relationship between them can either be amplified, contradicting (disjunctive) or illustrative. These three are designed to provide pleasure towards to audience in order to keep their eyes fixed on the screen and to excite them, resulting in them watching the video again or perhaps telling another person about this video, advertising the artist to others.

An example of where the relationship between the music and the visuals is amplified is a video by Nero called 'Crush on You':

In this video, the narrative is about 4 girls all having a crush on the same boy. The emotions that the boy is feeling from all these girls having a 'crush' on him is exaggerated and is shown by using a red tint over the moving images, illustrating anger or fear. It also flashes and has lightning effects over the girls with emphasises the power the all the girls have over the male character. These visual amplifies the music of this video.

An example of a music video that has a contradicting relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is one by Basshunter called 'Now You're Gone':

This music video is telling the story of a couple who have just broken up, and the lyrics are sung by a man regretting the break up as he misses the female now shes out of his life. However, the visuals tell a different story. The audience are able to see the female with her friends having a good time dancing in a club, and jump cuts are used to show the man having a laugh with his mates in the same club. Despite the lyrics being slightly depressing and full of regret, it shows both male and female having a good time. At the end of the video the audience get to see the couple kissing on the dancefloor in the club, therefore it is clear that the lyrics completely contradict the visuals.

An example of a music video that has an illurative relationship between the lyrics and visuals is 'Stacy's Mom' by Fountains of Wayne:

In this music video, the visuals go along with the literal meaning of the lyrics. For example, when the lyrics say, 'we can hang around by the pool', there are a male and a female character messing around by a pool. Another example of this is when the lyrics say, 'do you remember when I mowed your lawn?' and as this is sung, a male is mowing someones lawn. In this case, the fact that the visuals are illustrating the lyrics help the audience to understand the story which may be confusing if the visuals were not illustrative. Also, there are sexual parts to the video, which follows Goodwin's theory of voyeurism in music videos, which pleases the audiences and therefore persuades them to watch on.

Case Study of a record label - Rough Trade Records

 

Rough Trade Records is an independent record label, situated in London. Rough Trade was first established in 1978 by Geoff Travis when he opened up a record store in London. Steve Montgomery who was initially a customer of the shop was offered a job soon after it opened and became its co-manager. Geoff Travis and Steve Montgomery were joined by a further employee, Richard Scott, in June 1977.

In 1978, the shop began organising a record distribution network, named ‘The Cartel’, in partnership with other independent record stores in the UK. This network enabled small record labels such as Factory Records and 2 Tone Records to sell their releases nationally.

In 1979, Rough Trade's first album, Inflammable Material by Stiff Little Fingers, reached number 14 in the UK charts and became the first independently released album to sell over 100,000 copies in the UK.

In 1982, the shop parted company with Rough Trade's music-making and distribution activities, after a decision was made to close the shop and staff asked to take it over.

In 1991, the label went bankrupt which consequently ruined many small record labels to which money was owed. Rough Trade was re-launched in 2000. In 2002, BMG bought out this business and in July 2007, Sanctuary Records then sold Rough Trade to the Beggars Group, making Rough Trade independent once again. Since its re-birth, Rough Trade has released albums by artists such as The Strokes, The Libertines, Babyshambles and Belle & Sebastian.

Analysis of music video by Kesha - Your Love Is My Drug

It was one of our tasks in lesson time to work in pairs, analysing and decontructing a music video of our choice which we then had to present in front of our fellow peers. My partner and I chose to analyse 'Your Love Is My Drug' by Kesha, and these are our bullet points we came up with:

 

-  Starts with close-up camera shots and tracking shots to make the audience aware of the setting as well as the artist and other characters.

-  Point of view shots from the artist are frequently used, making the audience feel as if they are a part of the narrative in the music video.

-  Animals are regularly used in the camera frame to emphasise the fact that shes in the wild and perhaps a part of the wild. Also hints that she is in the middle of no where and that the artist is away from normality.

-  Kesha walks and sings to the beat and rhythm of the song, which is common in music videos.

-  When the artist wears the mask, it suggests that she feels like a part of the environment surrounding her, illustrating that she has a love for the wild and animals and doesn't mind being arounf them.

-  The artist frequently interacts with the audience by pointing to the camera, which draws the audience in and again makes them feel more connected to the artist. This helps to sell the artist to the audience, and the image that she is portraying.

-  When the artist sings, 'Your love is my drug', a 'bug eye' effect is used over the camera shot which related to the lyrics of the song about being on drugs and the hallucinating effect it may have. It could also relate again to the environment and the fact she is surrounded by wild animals.

-  There are a lot of jump cuts, but used in the same setting from different view points. These jump cuts are generic conventions of music videos.

-  The outfits and costumes they wear as well as the jewellery represents their 'hippy' style of life. This also connects to the lyrics of the song as it talks about drugs illustrating the hippy way of life that is known as 'live, laugh, love'. The setting also links to this theme about 'squatting' and travelling around, not having a fixed home to live in.

-  The bright colours of the cartoons again relate to being on drugs and the bright colours people can sometimes hallucinate as well as the hippy theme.

-  When the characters themeselves turn into cartoons it shows a sense of being invinsible and that by having each others love, they can fight against the world. This effect also draws the audience in more as the mood of the video is constantly changing and give the audience something different to watch.

-  A star transition is used to swap from the cartoons back to reality. The use of the star again has a hippy feel to it and make the video more fun to watch from the audiences perspective.

-  The use of the sun set emphasises the characters love as it is romantic and shows the audience the connection between both characters. Close up shots are used of both characters being close together, which can be seen as voyeuristic as the audience want to carrying on looking at both characters as it can be pleasing for the audience.

-  The neon paint on the woman at the end of the music video gives the effect that they are in a tribe, reflecting on the setting and that they are in the wild. It also connects to the idea of bright colours and the hippy theme.

Performance, Narrative and Concept based music videos

After researching music videos and studying in lessons, it has become evident that music videos fall into three main catagories; Performance based, Narrative based and Concept based. Below are music videos that relate to each one of the three.

Performance based - Turn Me On (Kevin Lyttle)

 Here is an example of a performance based music video. It is evident that the producer is selling the artist through their performance rather anything else. The audience are kept entertained through the dirty dancing and the sexual content of the video, an example being the females dancing in revealing clothes. In addition, the audience rarely get to see the actual artist singing or the other band members.

Narrative based - Last Friday Night (Katy Perry)

This is an example of a narrative based music video. The audience are able to notice this just by the establishing shot as it is an extreme long shot, not common in music videos. As well as this, the video has titles presented over the establishing shot as if it was a film you would see in the cinema. The actual soundtrack also doesnt come in straight away and you see the artist (Katy Perry) acting out a scence at the beginning, that relates to the narrative of the music video. When the soundtrack comes in, the audience get to see snipits of the artist singing, however the narrative continues throughout. The audience are kept entertained as they want to know what happens to the artist in the end, making this video a very successful one.

Concept based - Innocence (NERO)

This music video is an example of a concept based video, established around the idea of presenting the narrative of the video as a cartoon. These types of videos tend to be fairly unusual as it is based around one idea. Despite this, it also fits into the catagory of a narrative based music video. This is when I soon came to realise that it is very rare that music videos are one set type, but in fact frequently incorporate a mixture of these elements, for example the video above, which is both concept and narrative based.

Timline Poster - Music Video History

Research into voyeurism and intertextuality

Chris Brown - No Bullshit

Goodwin’s theory of Voyeurism are themes commonly used in music videos that help to sell the artists image by expressing a sense of sexuality to the audience. Voyeurism can also be used to make a statement and to also enhance the meaning behind the lyrics. An example of a music video that uses the sex appeal to sell the artist is ‘No Bullshit’ by Chris Brown, where sexual acts are carried out in front of the audience thus sexually pleasing the male audience. 

Kelly Rowland - Lay it on me

An example of a music video that uses intertextuality to make a statement is, ‘Lay It on Me’ by Kelly Rowland, where again the artists body is flaunted to make the point that she is going to make love to the men who are in the video.

Dev - In the Dark

An example of where voyeurism is used to enhance the meaning behind the lyrics is, ‘In the Dark’ by DEV where the female artists’ naked body is being caressed by other males in the video as the lyrics say, ‘Think about it when you touch me there’ emphasising the fact that she is getting felt up by the males in the video and again makes the audience want to carry on watching.

Intertextuality can include many techniques; the most common use of it is through direct or indirect address. Directly addressing the audience is where the artist or band members purposely look into the camera to sing to the audience, which helps them to feel engrossed and a part of the narrative, and indirectly addressing the audience is where the artist or band members do not look into the camera in order to create a feeling of distance and voyeurism. This can be presented through watching something happen from someone else’s point of view, where the audience can watch a story unfold between two characters in the video, without the audience feel as if they are involved within the narrative, instead want to watch on to see how the story unravels. An example of a music video that uses this technique is, ‘What’s My Name’ by Rihanna, where the audience are drawn in by Rihanna’s relationship with Drake and feel the need to watch on the find out what happens to the two characters in the end.

Violet Hill - Still image of music video

Voyeurism and intertextuality can also be encouraged by the use of props in music videos. The use of screens-within-screens is a technique where for example, mirrors, television screens, cameras, telescopes and magnifying glasses are used within the narrative of the music video to present the artist to the audience and also makes the video appear a lot more intriguing so the audience want to watch on. An example of a music video that uses this technique is, ‘Violet Hill’ by Coldplay, where a magnifying glass is used to zoom up on the facial features of the artist, helping to sell the artists image and makes the video appear a lot more fascinating.