Music Video Analysis

•Music videos often contain a number of different elements:

– Performance

– Narrative

– Thematic

– Symbolic

•In  3-4 minutes a typical music video combines  a mix of live performance, narrative, and other visual imagery including computer graphics and animation.

•It does this to advertise the band/artist and song.

The Purpose of music videos:

–Promotes a single and, normally, an album

– Promotes the  artist or band

– Creates, adapts or feeds into a ‘star image’

– Entertains the audience

– Sets the ‘meanings’ of a song  by the use of images.

•Many music videos include performance of the artists as part of the video

•It was from clips of performances that music Videos developed

•Often contain shots of the artists performing

•Can be a live stage performance, with shots of artists and audience

•Can be the artists in “real life” situations eg warming up, talking, fooling around

•Often includes lots of close ups of the artist and there can be a particular visual style that goes with the artist (a motif) eg particular clothing, actions, props, type of images.

•Often the artist can appear to perform in an unusual place - all lip-synched  eg a field, a rooftop.

Examples:

Music Videos may be considered to be examples of 'spectacle'.

•In this the performers are performing, often looking directly at the viewer.  This is called “direct address” - where they are directly interacting with the viewer.  

Examples:

•In the case of men, this involves the look of the character towards the viewer. The male is seen to be addressing the viewer directly. He is supposed to be singing directly for you.

•The female figure is often an object of an erotic gaze, object of male desire which is a voyeuristic gaze.  A Voyeur is someone who looks at someone for pleasure.  This means females in music vids are often dressed and posed in very sexual ways.

In this video above, the male gaze is mainly shown due to Miley wearing a lack of clothing, therefore being revealing which attracts the male audience. Barthes Enigma Theory is also used, for example the symbolic code due to her red lipstick, connoting love and lust.

Narrative

•Often the video tells a story either that features in the lyrics or is suggested in the lyrics eg girl dumps boy

•This narrative can be like a Mini film, with a beginning, middle and end

•Or it can suggest some links to a story

•It can promote a film with clips from the film included telling a story.

Examples:

•Because it is only 3-4 minutes it can be

-Very fast paced, lots of shots and cuts

-Use inter-textuality with films, TV and other videos

-Mimic other film and TV genre eg horror or Sci-fi

-Sometimes the story can contradict what is seen for effect

-Sometimes the artist is a part of the story, or an observer or completely separate.

 Thematic

•There are lots of common themes in music videos

•Depends on the genre of music

•E.g. Heavy metal bands go for performance dominated clips

•Rap has lots of “street” images

•Dance routines are common for  many female artist performances.

Example of Rap


Example of Rock

Symbolic

•Use of lots of symbols to build up meaning e.g. graveyard…death

•Lots of use of montage -lots of images to create meaning sometimes often contradictory

•Lighting often used to suggest mood

•Fast paced - often only a few seconds per shot to build up meanings

•Pictures can support or contradict the lyrics.

Examples: