Styles and conventions of music videos

Styles and conventions of music videos

Andrew Goodwins rules is a theory that has many parts which categorizes different  music videos by different rules that distinguish from conventional or no conventional.  His ideas are that there is often a relationship between the visuals and lyrics, either by illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics or music. Andrew first presented and brought up his theory in a book called 'Dancing in the distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture.



Intertextuality/referencing



The song called Survival by Eminem is a rap song that was made to help promote and advertise the upcoming game called Call of Duty Ghosts because of a partnership between the two studios, there are many references to the game that they are trying to promote in the music video denoted there is a shot of a dog that looks like a German shepherd at 2:22 in the which is a direct link and reference to the game as in the game, COD Ghosts there is a German Shepard called Riley who is a companion to the main protagonists in the game. More Denotations in the video depict lots of shots of green screens with in game footage form the video game in the video with Eminem standing in front of it at 3:03  this helps To help promote the song as the Eminem's audience is more of the age of young adults and the COD franchise also has a very similar audience making the coalition between the two studios create much more publicity and even hype, giving much more attraction to the artist and the game, also throughout the video there is more footage and props that were made based on the real game showcased at 1:17 which is a use of intertextuality as its referencing external material for example wearing a mask from the game in the music video, which became an recognised symbol for the games release. Mainly throughout the video there was huge direct references that even passive audiences would detect, making the games marketing campaign fairly large if a major rap artist with a huge fan base, makes a deal with the studio. Overall this creates a more positive effect for the audience as it creates new content for, such as songs and games for them to experience, also the content is a t a higher budget so mainly the quality of the product will be significantly better than a lower budget game, which gains more money for the artist to product higher budget music videos and songs making the audience much more satisfied with the products they are presented.





Interpretive - Amplifying/illustrating



Next is a Song called I need a Doctor by Dr Dre which is a rap/pop song and this music video is a narrative based and illustrates and amplifies the lyrics as in the song the lyrics 'I need a Doctor' is mentioned many times and the visuals visually represents the lyrics by showing doctors  2:22 and a hospital making it illustrate the lyrics, this isn't the inly time when the visuals represent the lyrics on screen. For example when the lyrics mention 'To bring me back to life' the video visual depicts a girl in a white dress  who is floating who is slightly transparent who is commonly associated with death and angels at 3:03 while this is all happening denoted is the heart beat sensor, producing the continuous death note. To support this at 5:18 denotes Eminem yelling at Dre's body in a tank and the lyrics mentions his angry of him loosing Dre, and the visual performance continues to illustrate this this as the live performance illustrates his him having aggressive body and facial reactions on Eminem which illustrates the lyrics of the video. Another example is at 5:48 when the lyrics mention 'To bring me back to life' again, Dre wakes up from being dead, which is another example of how the lyrics continue to be illustrated by the visuals. Overall this song is targeted more towards to the casual passive audience because of the use of lots of illustrating the lyrics by the music video, but there is still some elements of deeper meaning within the music video as there's a backstory that can be further analysed by the audience, which is more for the active audiences that want to discover the deeper encoded meanings.










Narrative


The music video denotes a clear storyline, the music this is either illustrated by the music video or it tells another story but, in Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran, it clearly denotes a clear story line from start to end about how Ed Sheeran starring as himself childhood and how it changed throughout the years it also acts as a short film itself. The narrative of the music video clearly denotes Todorovs narrative with the use of the equilibrium and the new Equilibrium at the end, throughout the video we clearly see denoted at the beginning Ed's Childhood which the lyrics illustrate at points with elements of live performance and throughout the music video there's a contrast cross cutting between the present and past of when he was a teenager and to what he is now 3:05, this creates a juxtaposition between the two events as in the past he had many friends and had a fun childhood while at 4:00 it denotes him walking alone and the lyrics mention hoe his friends one by one had slowly dissipated and that only a few had remained and this is visually represented at 4:33 as he's denoted with 4 other people sitting where they used to grow up, giving a sense of nostalgia as a genre, and that they were the only ones to make it through the whole process. Todorovs narrative works as the disruption was when they began taking drugs and the slowly got under bad influence, and eventually their friends dissolved from problems and only some remain as the last survivor's making and creating a new equilibrium. For my music video I would like to include a sense of narrative to the video as it creates a much clear and engaging connection between the audience and the artist and it also helps increase the mood and style of the video as there's a sense of story giving more depth to the iconography and style to the music video.







Genre subverting




The song Duality by Slipknot is a rock/heavy metal song and has is a live performance song with lots of crazy elements  within it such as 0:14 denoted here  the mise-en-scene depicted is a bunch of crazy people running towards a desolate house and breaking in like savages and they have tattoos all over their bodies, this connotes that it could also make it an abstract song as it has very little narrative if any and its primarily a live performance with and the way the camera language used in the music video is that it has many close ups to represent the artist and it compliments the music as its very crazy and the visuals are also very hectic for example at 1:28. The music video also mainly non conventional apart from some conventions such as the use of lots of close ups of the artist and it goes against the typical ideologies and signs that make up a music video such as the use of Goodwins rules and the Todorovs narrative as there's no clear distinct use of the narrative such as the equilibrium, defying the audiences pre-judgement. This creates a disruption in what the audience expects from audience theory and this results to them either liking the change or disliking change because they expect the overall same structure with some changes distinguishing the song from nay others but, this song is vastly different from the typical music video, mainly because it was made from a different period where music video convention's weren't as common or set as the foundations back at the time. Songs that follow this typical style of non conventional music videos are generally Rock and heavy metal such as Slipknot as perfect example, this lack of conventions in these music videos creates a more original style that isn't seen as much.








Impressionist


This song by Wiz Khalifa 'Black and Yellow' is a impressionist style video which is where the visuals fit the mood and the pace of the song. Denoted at 1:45 in the music video is Wiz Khalifa in an urban style environment that is stereo-typically denoted in films and games in L.A as gangsters commonly referenced as the 'Hood' and behave very aggressive to anyone that threatens their way of culture and life, this is depicted in games such as Grand Theft Auto San Andreas which is a direct link between the game and the music video ,which continues to solidify this ideology of gangsters acting aggressive and hard. Continuing on there music video also has lots of Black people in low riders which just continues this stereotype but in contrast, instead of them acting very aggressive and hostile that they are commonly denoted to act and behave like, they are dancing and partying at 2:50 which goes against the stereotype of them being very aggressive but it fits the style of the song because of the pace of the party vibe and the use of everyone dancing creates a party atmosphere. Later on as the music video progresses we see that it contains a live performance elements in it as we can see at 1:16 a shot of the actors lip syncing the song that is being play, giving the elements of the live performance, and there is more throughout the music video as well, this  helps illustrates or compliments the lyrics because of it being represented on screen instead of contradicting the lyrics. This music video also unique and is unique when compared to the previous music videos as it has a very realistic tone and feel to the video as it has very little visual digital style added in keeping the whole sequence very realistic. The music video has many meanings meaning that its very polysemic because it has many different ways it can be decoded and interpreted. For instance the dancing of the gangsters could because they want to have fun and have a moment to enjoy themselves or it could a uprising against a certain part of the community as a threat.














Distortion of perspectives/genre



For Eminem's Rap God its genre is clearly denoted as rap as it follows all the ideologies of rap and conventions of music videos, the common signs of rap is the typical aggressive nature of the audio and visuals which this music video clearly denotes. He uses many screens which references the film called Clock Work orange because of the use of the screens and the distortion of the perspectives which is links back to a theory of  interpretive in Goodwins rules.

E.g The chair Eminem is tied down to, and the screens at the beginning.










Animation

Animation is mainly used as a cartoon or a stop motion in music videos as a low budget but some can be quite expensive for more mainstream music videos. From example in Eminem's song called collapsed it is a narrative based song that has animation and many other conventions that make a music video. Firstly the animation Denoted right at 0:08 seconds of the music video we can clearly see robots that are getting ready at conventions preparing to fight at some sort of areas, and the style and build of the robots have a clear industrial and gritty design of what looks like old part parts and other steel components that have been welded together in a scrap yard, while at 2:17 in the music video we can see that there are also other robots that have a much more clean and finished design which gives it a much more advanced and futuristic design, and what these can connote is that the robots might be the representations of the people within the music video such as the kid owning the more rusty design while in contrast the more clean and futuristic design of the robots are owned by the more prestige professionals. Additionally to this point the music video also has many different types of lightning such as denoted at 1:21 it is much more high key lightning while in contrast at 3:29 there is much more low key lighting which can connotes that that the low key lightning can symbolises the kids struggle against the more menacing and advanced professionals, while the high key lighting connotes that the kid is much more victorious and the light depicts his victories accomplishments. Overall the animation has and abstract/surreal feel as there is robots fighting against each other in ways that would be nearly impossible in real life. The music video also plays a homage to boxing matches and transformers and has the intertextual references to Star wars with the pod racing but instead with this music video it is with building robots.








 


Parody

Parody music videos use the backing track of the original songs while remaking the music video and tend to make the video with more humour added. The sole intention of parodies are to mock and make fun of various songs such as the Parody of DJ Khaled I'm the one' made by Bart Baker, because of this humorous approach of music video parodies this allows and create popularity for parodies creators such as Bart baker, and also allows for industry artists to also a sense of parodies into their music videos but at a much milder extent, sometimes with a lot of music videos tend to follow a lot trends set by the audiences that watch them such as the use of the 'Dab' in music videos, in this music video continuously it continuously mocks and makes the original artist into a laughing stock for example at 1:03 there was continuous jokes thrown at Dj Khaled for example the video keeps referencing how bad the music is and he continues to eat, its intended to be a joke and not to be taken literally. Not only is the artist mocked but also anyone in it and even the setting such as Justin Bieber at 2:30.Even the locations and mise-en-scene 0:33 are denoted to be mocked and even manipulated to create a entertainment factor for the audience from the uses of gratification's which mainly makes the audience enjoy the content that is produced making parodies very popular.

Homage/Pastiche

For Homage is Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars as denoted throughout the music video we that Bruno Mars has a similar style to Michael Jackson form the way he sings and the movements and body language. The style of them music and the mise-en-scene is a homage to Michael Jackson and Bruno Mars is commonly associated with the modern version of Michael Jackson this is denoted at 0:38 because of this common themes and style of Michael Jackson many fans of him will like the style of Bruno Mars and will listen to his music as its very familiar to what they are used to as its very nostalgic for the audience, The clothing in particular is very similar the 'funk' theme of music videos such as 2:18 where they all wear hats and glass or shades which is very similar to the 1980's style.

 








How it will affect my music video

For my music video, I would like to use some of the conventions used in music video such as animation as this will have a direct impact on my video because of the of the surreal and abstract nature of the music video itself. Another type of conventions that will affect my music video is the use of distortion of perspectives and a narrative, as it allows me to create many creative crazy views of the visuals such as the TV within a TV and the narrative allows for a story line to be created which adds depth and engagement to the music video.