I have created a survey on www.surveymonkey.com - to do research into the demographic that watches music videos and how they consume them. This will be useful when it comes to promoting my music video at a later date and when we have to make a digi-pack for our chosen song.
I will psot this on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit and other forums it for 4 weeks before collecting, analysing and collating the results to be posted on this blog
The Specials are a Ska/2 tone band from Coventry, England and were at the height of their success between 1977 and 1984. This is an analysis of the music video for their song "Ghost Town" which was only ever released as a single.
The video focuses on the band all driving in one car, around an empty city, which fits with the title of the song. And we get a lot of shots looking at the band in the car, singing along to the lyrics of the song. In the case of this promotional video, i think the aim is purely to promote the band and their message (which i will come to later) and get it out to people rather than tell a story or entertain people.
The main focus of the video is on the empty town and the lyrics to the song. the song is about the themes of urban decay, unemployment and violence in the inner cities, it is a piece of social commentary as it also references the recession that the country was experiencing at end of the 70's/beginning of the 80's. therefore the central idea of a ghost town is actually a metaphor for what is happening to the inner cities at the time. this song and by extension the video, which looks at the effect of these and shows the band exploring the ghost town, is voyeuristic and has intertextuality.
In terms of keeping with the conventions of a music video, this does well. there are a lot of close ups of the artists to promote them, as well as a lot of genre specific iconography. the band is mixed race, and they are all wearing "mod style" outifits, which were common, suits, loafers, pork pie hats etc, which are all black and white. the video is shot in colour though.
There is also a link between the music and visuals, with most of the cuts in the visuals happening on the beat of the music. also the music is quite dark and serious, so the visuals reflect this, with a lot of shots of concrete tall buildings on a grey day or in the evening to make everything more serious.
Album cover from The Specials self-titled first album
RUN DMC are an early rap/hip hop group from the late 80's. This is an analysis of the music video created to promote their single "Mary Mary" ( a song originally by The Monkees) from the album "Tougher Than Leather".
The video is created to promote the band and the song, as well as to tell a story, the story seen in this video is of an angry mother who thinks that RUN DMC has a bad attitude and their lyrics are "poisoning America" and so has gone to a show to protest against them etc.The video cuts between this comedy and RUN DMC's performance at the show that Mary Mary has gone to protest. However, this is had been made into satire and instead of this being a serious video, it is more a video about RUN DMC rejecting the notion that they are bad and promotes their good side instead.
Nevertheless, as the song is by a hip hop group there are certain things we expect, stereotypes to be seen etc. so we do still see the band in their Adidas clothing and trainers (the band even loved the brand so much they wrote a song about Adidas), gold chains and a DJ deck in the centre of the stage with a large percentage of the audience being African American. We also see the promotional video follow the conventions of a music video and we get a lot of close ups of the band , as well as a voyeuristic look into their show and to the "story" that is happening in conjunction to this.
Mary Mary tries to show that the band follow the conventions of a band in the late 80's with "sex, drugs and rock n roll" and we see her try to prove to a "documentary crew" that is following her that RUN DMC promotes sex and drugs, and instead we see this turned around and with each example something else is offered - a van in the parking lot that looks like someone may be having sex inside, instead turns out to be people exercising, and they say "no Mary Mary, RUN DMC promotes a healthy body, we're aerobecising", the same happens when she approaches a smoke filled car expecting to find drugs, but instead finds monks who are lighting incense and say "no Mary Mary, RUN DMC promotes a healthy mind, we're spiritualising". This is how the band rejects the bad notions that people have about them (which when put in context with the time, were quite significant as i will discuss later) and instead promotes them as a good example.
There is a link with the lyrics music and visuals as well, all of the lyrics are about mary and her attitude etc, something we see reflected in the portrayal of Mary's character in the video, and with the music, we see visual links such as fireworks that go off at the same beat as the drums etc.
As i mentioned earlier this video means a lot more when put in the context of 1980's America, as it has intertextuality. In the late 80's a group got together called The Parents Music Resource Centre, a.k.a The Washington wives (after the women that set it up) and it aimed at censoring music and getting music banned that was deemed inappropriate, bands were attacked and accused of poising America's youth with glorification of violence, drugs, sex, the occult in some cases. this may seem normal as this still sometimes happens, however this was a major event in the late 80's and RUN DMC's video is not only a promotion of them, but a counter attack against the PRMC who devalue the name of musicians who are just trying to make music
Nirvana are a band from the early 90's, exploding out of Seattle with their mix of metal, punk and melody that made them one of the defining bands that created grunge music. Kurt, Dave and Krist became icons, but it wasn't to last, as Kurt committed suicide in 1994.
This is an analysis of the music video released to promote the single Lithium from their second album Nervermind
The video made up entirely of live concert footage (as opposed to "live" footage shot in a studio or a dramatised sort of video with a story etc) we can assume that this would have been shot on their most recent tour and not only promotes the song and the band, but also their live shows, which are a major source of income for the band. The video shows the energy and tremendous presence of the band and their show, inviting people to come and experience this themselves.
Keeping this in mind then it is easy to see that there is actually very few links between the lyrics and the visuals, apart from the obvious, singing of the lyrics, and seeing Kurt Cobain singing them into the mic. However, there is one instance where a link can be made, with the lyric "I'm not gonna crack" in the bridgewe see Kurt going wild and smashing up his equipment and guitar as well as the drum kit and smashing his head against the amplifier, being at odds with the lyrics on the level of " i will not go crazy (i will not crack)" and on the level of the equipment will not crack and break despite the abuse.
Instead of a link lyrically, there is a link visually, with the slower sections like the verse having long holds on one person or slow cross-fades between shots, whereas the more aggressive, energetic sections such as the chorus have faster cuts and more jolting and quick camera movements, with shots of the crowd as well, however, interestingly these shots have all been put into slow motion, or at the least, played slower than they were originally recorded at. Giving an odd and surreal feel, which may link to the meaning of the lyrics.
Being a video for a rock band, there are genre specific things we expect to see, and this video fulfils those, with the band being what you would expect, long haired male musicians, playing instruments on stage rather than a recording or synthesised songs, with a large and also mainly long haired crows. The macho element of rock music is unashamedly out on display in this video. The video also has a lot of close ups of the artists, to promote them as much as possible and so you know about them.
The video has elements of voyeurism as well. Because a concert is usually an event in which you must purchase a ticket, only a select few can see them at any one time, however this video lets everyone have a look and watch in on elements of their live shows, enticing them to pay money to see them live and it also gives a clue as to what they might expect should they pay to see the show.
For my preliminary task I had to work with a group to create a music video for Annie Lennox's A whiter shade of pale. This was part of a 2 day workshop that we undertook at school so that we could learn the basics of videography and how to properly construct a music video with all of the technical elements as well. This would mean that our preliminary task could have more focus and we could learn more from it, rather than attempting to make a video that although would teach us about the technical elements of using the camera, composing the shot, lighting etc. It would be lacking in context when trying to evaluate what we had learned and applying it to a music video, which is a very niche area with several key components.
before we created our video, we were taught the key areas which often always appear in music videos, they are:
a link between the lyrics and visuals
a link between the music and visuals
genre specific iconography
close ups of the artist(s)
voyeurism
intertextuality
Our group spent the first day brainstorming ideas, creating a treatment, then story-boarding the video, as well as creating a list of necessary locations and props. the remainder of the day was spent beginning the filming. On the second day we finished filming and then began editing our video.
I found the 2 days very useful. The knowledge we gained about the theory of music videos was and will be invaluable in creating an authentic music video and my group paid close attention to this, making sure we got all of the elements into the video.
Working in a group was useful also, i had not previously thought about making a music video on my own when i had heard that this would be the coursework, however after the preliminary task, i found that it would nigh on impossible and the benefits offered by working in a group, far outweigh the cost of doing this alone. When working in a cohesive sensible group allows for increased organisation and a greater pool of ideas from which to choose from, thus giving better creative and technical freedoms. it also means that more than one thing can be done at once and giving more momentum to your work, getting it done to the same quality but faster. However this relies heavily on a group that can work together and get along without clashing of egos and having the ability to be able to compromise.
I have also learnt about the technical side of videography, about framing a shot, lighting and how sometimes we have to deviate from the story board sometimes, either because the shot doesn't look good, is not possible, or because we have thought of something else to add/alter while on location/set. Labeling your tapes is also a crucial thing that i have learnt and then leaving them somewhere safe so that none of your footage is lost in the time between finishing filming and downloading al of your footage onto the iMac.
As well as learning about the cameras, i also learnt about Final Cut, the program that we will be using to edit our footage. i have already used an iMac so that was not a problem, but Final Cut was important to understand, i feel that i very quickly picked up how to edit the clips in a way i wanted them. however adding effects to clips, such as making them Black and White (B&W) is something i need more practice on, and if necaesary i will ask someone with more knowledge than myself to help me.
Overall I felt that I have learnt a lot from the preliminary task, but I still have much more to learn and improve, thus improving my work too.
to do research into the demographic that watches music videos and how they consume them. This will be useful when it comes to promoting my music video at a later date and when we have to make a digi-pack for our chosen song. 
