Research: Diverse music videos

Diverse Music Videos

What are diverse music videos: Diverse music videos are very different to the mainstream music videos. They are usually made by artists who have very niche audiences that like the artists music. The videos are mainly concept based so this means the video is more focused on ideas rather than a story or the artist/band. Genres that make diverse music videos are mainly the less popular music genres such as electro, dance, rock and alternative.

Cunningham music videos

Aphex twins - Come to daddy


This video was made for the aphex twins it is a very strange video that can not be really understood by the audience the general feel for the audience is that it creeps them out and makes you feel uncomfortable so it is hard to watch.

Aphex twins - Window licker

This video was also for the aphex twins it is also a very strange music video that is also very hard to understand but is clearly taking the mick out of one of the biggest genres in music R&B. It also makes the audience feel uncomfortable and confused by the way the video is made.

Bjork - All is full of love


















This video was made for Bjork but you can clearly see it was made by Cunningham as it is very abstract and different and makes the audience confused and uncomfortable.

Christopher Cunningham's credits: Cunningham has won many awards including the golden pencil award for Bjork's all is full of love video and also won a MTV music video award for breakthrough video and a Grammy award for the best short film.

Conventions of Chris Cunningham's music videos: A Chris Cunningham music video can be clearly seen if he created the video you will know by the diverse concept themed videos that he creates for his artists. His videos are made to make his audience feel uncomfortable and confused when they watch the video. distorted humans, low-key, obscure images

Opinion of his work: My opinion of Chris Cunningham's work is that he does what he makes his videos for but I don't not like the videos he creates as they make me feel very uncomfortable when I watch them.

Gondrys music videos

Gary Jules - Mad World


















This video is extremely simple and only uses one camera shot throughout the entire video. There is no start image the artist only appears in small sections of the video. The simplicity of the music video makes it hard for the audience to understand.

Kylie Minogue - Come into my world
















This video has very complexed editing and is very unique which engages the audience to watch more of the video. Since its very unconventional it makes the audience want to watch more. It has a lot of star image as it is performance based and is focused on the star.

Daft Punk - Around the world

















This video is very diverse and concept based music video it is fun with allot of dancing to entertain and engage the audience. It uses allot of colours but has no star image throughout the video.

Gondrys Credits:
Won an Oscar in 2005 for best writing and screenplay. Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. Nominated for a BAFTA award 2004 Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA nominated 2005 for Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. Bodil Awards Nominated for Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. Bram Stoker Awards Won for best screenplay 2005.

Common conventions of his work is repition in the music videos.

In my opinion Gondry's work is very original and it is very intellectual in the way it make the think in order to understand the repetition theme an why this is being used however the narrative is much easier to understand and does connect wit the audience.

Advantage of diverse music videos:

• Diverse music videos allow the artist re-invent themselves to their audience and loyal fans.
• Videos being strange and unique creates a buzz so makes people want to watch the video.
• The video leads a lot of profit and will make the artist succesful if it becomes popular.
• Will allow the artist to have a niece audience.

Disadvantage of diverse music videos:

• The music video may be censored.
• If censored may have to make new video.
• The audience response may not be good.
• limited audience.

Diverse music videos should stay away from mainstream music culture? 

I think that diverse music video should stay away from mainstream as they have their own audience and fan base that they appeal to so they dont need to conform to the mainstream to stay succesful.

Conclusion: 

I have learnt that music videos dont all have to conform to be succes even if that is the easy route for most artist. I dont think my music video will be diverse at it is easier to be a succes if the video is mainstream.

Research: Music Channels

Music Channels

Intro: Music channels are important because they provide a platform for music channels to be seen on TV. Channels provide the audience with a wide variety of choice of the music they are looking for on the channel each mainstream genre will have a music channel dedicated to that genre of music so views are guaranteed.

Music Channels today: There are  a lot of music channels on today's TV to suit the tastes of most people they have become more popular as time has gone on and technology has improved this therefore made music go from very little channels to many.

Examples of music channel:

 
• MTV and its sister channels.

• Channel AKA

• Kerrang

• Chart show TV

• Kiss TV

•  Starz TV

• 4  music

Under representation of music channels:

There are many genres of music that are not largely represtented on music channels for example:

Folk and country are underrepresented because in the UK since they are more populer in the USA.

Religious music is not represented well due to a decline in the amount of people who are religious in this day and age.
Advantage of music channels:

• Direct way of targeting the audience individual audiences.
• Markets and promotes of the artists music video and their new song to make them more succesful.
• Satisfies the fans as there is a demand for music videos are in high demand by fans.
• The music channel shows the audience that the artist wants and to the target audience of the music video.
• Aire time for artists and their music.

Conclusion:
I think my music video would play on MTV as it will be very mainstream and appeal to a large audience that already had a big following.

Research: History of music videos.

History of Music Video

Music videos:
As the years have past by music videos have changed greatly over the year and got better and better and more technological. Once video were just a add on to a song but now they are part of what makes a song a succes they used to be very short and cheap but now most are around 4 minutes with a high budget. Music videos appeal to everyone in the stars target audinence and are mostly made for the fans to satisfy them they are mad to cause a buzz a to promote the audience to give them a wider audience. 

Music history Timeline:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/interactive/2011/jun/11/history-modern-music-timeline

This is a interactive timeline of the history of music videos.
My timeline with key/significant dates and achievements:

  1920: 

The key events in  the history of music videos.

• 1920- when Bessie Smith the video can not regarded as a music video as it has no editing and doesnt follow the conventions of music videos.

•  During 1920  film were accompanied  by the moving image, especially animations.

1940:

• 1940- Disney  'fantasia ' was animation film  about classical music.

 1950:

• Tony Bennett -1956  was filmed walking in  Hyde park London for 'stranger in paradise' it was aired on English and American TV.

1960:

• 1964-The Beatles set out basic visual vocal for todays  music videos. A simple motion picture accompanied by music.

• 1966-TOTP- Artist had to create competitive videos to complete for air time on TOTP. But the show mostly performance based.

• 1968- 'The Monkee's had their own TV show and a special segment that was made to accompany their song.

1970:

• 1975- Queen 'Bohemian Rhapsody' set up modern music video era. They mad the first music video that they used to replace a live performance. It was made specifically for the song to be played on TV.

• 1970-1980 Music videos became the norm and every artist had a video to accompany their song. It was qucik and easy and made artists get populer quickly.

1980: 

•  In 1981 MTV launched the first video to be aired and this was Buggle's 'video 'killed radio star.

Change of music videos over time:
Music have changed a lot as history of music video has gone on. Music videos are now a esential part of artists succes. As time has gone on more and more is expected from music videos quality of them has to be great now compared to the first queen music vidoe. All genres have different types of music videos that will appeal to their audience. And lasltly now technology has advanced a lot more technology and affects are used to make music videos a lot better.

Conclusion:

This post has made me realise how music videos have changed over time and how they are now very popular and essential and what makes them popular in this day and age.

Research: Audience

Audiences


What are audiences: Audiences are the people that artists target to try to sell their music and try to make sure it caters to their target audiences tastes. Its important to know your target audience so that you know who you are trying to target and you know what kind of music they like so it will make sure they like your music.

How are people categorised: The ways that audiences can be categorised are:

 Age 

Gender 

Race 

Class

Location 

Income       

This information is taken with other information like what kind of worker you are to put you a audience in to certain categories.


Advantages of categorising audience:

• You will know what your audience is interested in.
• Can make content specific for your audience.
• You know the budget of your audience.
• Use the information to encourage companies to advertise on your radio station.  

Disadvantages of categorising audience:

• People in the same category may like different music.
• Only considers income and status not the peoples interests.

Different genres have different audiences:

Rock - Rock has a original audience just like other genres the people have their own views on life and tend to be anti conformist and wear dark clothing and fit in categories of E, D and C2.

Hip-Hop - On the other hand this genre of Hip-Hop has very conformist views on everything and wear very conformist clothing however they tend to fit in the categories of  E and D just like Rock.

Audience reactions:

Audience reaction in relation to Goodwin, Dyer, Hebdige:

Goodwin - Goodwin said that starts are manufactured in a certain way to make them appeal to a audience.

Dyer - Dyers says that companies turn these stars purely into products used to make money and manipulate a audience.

Hebdige - Hebdige says that someone background and social class determines what kind of music they will listen to.

Conclusion - This has helped me to understand the different audiences there and what they listen. The audience I will be aiming at are E, D, C1 and C2 ages 15+.

Research: Popular music theory

Popular music theory

Introduction: It is important that we know each theory and know who made each theory because these theories show us how music videos work and how we can make the video successful. It is important we know this information as it is key to enabling us to make a successful music video.

Popular culture: Popular culture is all the mainstream and conformist  ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images, and other phenomena that there are that people follow in todays culture. What is popular culture is hugely influenced by the mass media so they control what is popular the culture for the masses. As this is controlled this can also relate to what music is popular at different times as if it becomes popular culture then it will be seen as something that makes you cool and in turn will make that form of music popular culture.

Antonio Gramsci and Hegemony: Antonio Gramsci introduced the idea of Hegemony this is when ruling class values and ideas are dominate what we see. The control of media influences everything we see such as what shows are on TV an which are cancelled and what news stories are covered and not covered on the news. This is done so that everyone who watches the shows and the news will be seeing the same thing so will have the same ideas and wont question the dominant views in society. This had been challenged through people being able to create their own music and videos on media formats such as YouTube and sound cloud as mainstream media cant control them.

Frankfurt School: Frankfurt school believe that popular music is the end product of a production line where everything sound similar. This means that the music that we listen to is manufactured the way that the mainstream media want it to sound so they control what we see as mainstream music so they can control what we like.

Adorno: Adorno was German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt school of critical theory he argued in 1903-69 that capitalism fed people with products of a culture industry. Adorno is the one who brang the argument up that the music we listen to is manufactured to the way that mainstream media want it to sound. by doing this they can make all of us think the same way by the way they want the music to sound so that we will all have the same ideologies and they can control what ideologies they want us to have.

The Birmingham school: A group of theorists from Birmingham England who wanted to challenge the Frankfurt school and said the audience are more active than passive. It says the Frankfurt school is making the audience seem very passive than it really is the audience are more active as they choose the type of music they want to listen to and what they listen to is the in demand so then that music will got more backing so will  become more popular.

Dick Hebdige: Hebdige said that Adorno's theory is very one minded and is saying that people are easily manipulated. consumption is the different ways that people consume a product. He says that the audience would be free resist the consumption of larger products. This will then cause there to be different sub cultures which the media will then cater too to make sure that their tastes are satisfied as well. The audience can then continue to resist and not consume the products or conform with their sub culture they have been given. This then shows that the audience are the more active ones as they control what the media are doing.

Conclusion: In conclusion all the theories have their points and they can be seen to be true in many ways. In my opinion I do swing more toward the Birmingham school as their theory makes more sense and sounds less like a conspiracy theory. I will make sure that my artist will appeal to large audience so that I will  be more mainstream so that it will make it easier to be successful.

Research: Dyers star theory

What is Star Theory:

Star theory is a set of meanings constructed around a music performer in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.

Richard Dyer:
Richard Dyer is an English academic who specialises in film studies. 

Dyer said: "Star image is coherent, that it is incomplete and open", "The star must be simultaneously be ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer", "The star must be simultaneously be present and absent for the consumer"

Performer and Pop star: 

There is a distinction that can be made between a pop star and a pop performer:

• Performer: Pop performers are performers who are promoted by their management to give them the title of a pop star.

Pop star: A pop star is a star who is instantly significant as soon as they come into the pop scene and is very expierienced and conformist with allot of fans.             

Stars and construction:

A star needs to have a unique selling point that will make them different and successful if the artist does not have one then one is made for them which is called an artificial image this is made usually by a mentor or management.

Industry and audience:

Stars are made to make money clearly by the company they are signed to they become and product of their company.

Ideology and Culture: 

Artist need to have their own moral values and cultural values and promote their own views and create their own group of loyal fans that will follow the artist.

Character and personality:
The stars provide audiences with the focus for the ideas of what people are supposed to like.

Control artists brand and star image:

Artists brands have a massive impact on their star image as they are known for their branding when they have reached the top in their industry it is the brand name that they are known for.

Conclusion:

I will be usinf the star theory in my video as it shows how the artist can become popular and make the video successful gaining allot of fans.

Research: Mulvey's male gaze

What is male gaze:

Male gaze is shown in music videos from the perspective of a heterosexual male and the way they look at women in the music video. The male gaze explains how women are seen more as sexual objects than actual people and how they are degraded by this.

Mulvey's Male Gaze:
Lura Mulvey was the creator of this theory she is a feminist who said that it can be seen in three different ways which are the following:

1. How men look at women 
2. How women look at themselves
3. How women look at other women

Lura Mulvey said that the camera is a man and it is shown how men look at women for visual pleasure and men are active and women are passive when they are watching.

Example of Mulvey's male gaze:

Nelly - Tip Drill:
This video is a perfect example for Mulvey's male gaze because the video degrades and objectifies women to be nothing the sexual objects that can be bought and used for the pleasure of males and puts across to the audience that this is the norm.

As shown in the picture above he is throwing money on a semi naked to show that he can do what he wants with her by giving her the money putting across to the audience she is a sexual object.

Here he is shown bragging to the camera as he is grabbing the womens thong with his mouth doing what he want to her like she is a object to be played with.

Here it shows the women in the video where they are being degraded and made to look like object conforming to it and doing sexual things with eachother which sends a very bad message across.

Criticisms of the theory:

The critisims of the theory are that it only provides the view that women are being objectified when men can also be objectified in music videos.
Another critisim of the the theory is that it does not provide views for homosexual or biesexual men and women only hetrosexuals.

Conclusion:

In conclusion i will not be using male gaze in my video as it appeals only to a small audience when i want my video to appeal to everyone so it will be as successful as possible.

Research: Star Image

Star Image

Intro: Star image is the way a star appears to their audience and how they represent themselves. The way this is shown is through a music video which will go to their international audience.

How can music videos help boost a stars career: The music videos that artists create can define who they are and also the define how successful their career will be here are way that a music can help boost a artists career.

• Popularity: Music videos can greatly increase a artists popularity as this is showing the artists views and look to their fans so that their will be a buzz around them and the album they are going to release.
• Financially: Music videos raise allot of money for the artist which increases the artists income which then will allow them to make more videos and more music.
• Music deals: By far this is the most important thing that music videos do for a artist as getting more deals adds to the artists credentials and makes them more attractive to getting signed by a huge record label.

Star image of existing artists:

Star image sexual

Some artists use their star image to appeal to their audience in a sexual way an example of this is Beyoncé.

Beyoncé - Drunk in love                               

















In this video Beyoncé clearly uses her good looks and nice body to attract a male audience using her sexual star image to become more successful.

Star image political

Some artists use their music videos to put their political views across to their audience an example of this is Eminem.

Eminem - white America


















In this video he puts across his views on the problems still in America with discrimination for the colour of your skin.

Star image moral

Some artists use their music videos to show their audience the lifestyle they live and certain ideologies that they follow someone who does this is George Michael.

George Michael - Outside

In George Michaels video it show his ideologies and lifestyle because he is showing the audience a situation that actually happened to him in real life when he was lured into a bathroom by a male police officer and then being arrested by him and his public humiliation as it then brang out to everyone that he is homosexual and it was not on his terms.

Conclusion: Star image is very important as without it they will be less appealing to the audience which will then make it harder for them to be successful. I will be using star image in my music video because it will make the artist more appealing to the audience so will make the video more successful.

Reasearch: Goodwins Theory

Goodwin's Theory

Intro: Andrew Goodwin was a theorist who looked at the way music are made he said that the majority of mainstream music videos have a certain way they are set out and made. Goodwin said that music videos have 8 clear characteristics that can be scene when the video is being watched.

8 characteristics:

• Genre characteristics
• Star motives
• Technical elements
• Notion of looking
• Performance narrative
• Intertextual reference
• Relationship between lyrics and music
• Relationship between lyrics and visuals

Relationship between lyrics and music:

Relationship between lyrics and visuals is the way that the lyrics to the song have a relationship to the video and how they are explaining what is happening in the video.In this song you can clearly hear from the lyrics that it is relating directly to the video the lyrics in the song explain to the listener what is happening so is showing the direct relation between the lyrics and visuals.

Relationship between lyrics and music is the way the lyrics and music are linked if the music is uick and upbeat the music will also be quick and upbeat and will have a dierect link between them.

 Intertextual refrence is the way the video will have links to something that is not in the video to increase the popularity of the music and the video.

Performance and narrative is the way the video will be set Goodwin said that the video will either have a narrative and tell a stroy or will be performanced based and focus on the maker of the music.

Notion of looking is the way sexs are represented to attract the opposite sex to the video so it will make the video more popular to a certain sex.

Technical elements are mise en scene ,cinematography and the editing used in the video.


Star motive is the way the artist publicies themself in the video and focuses the camera on them to increase their own popularity and fame.


Genre characteristics are the conventional characteristics that will be shown in the vidoe of the genre that the music is based on.


Importance of following generic conventions of music videos: This is very important as the genric conventions of music videos is what will make the video popular as it is what has made all the past music videos popular to the public.


conclusion: In conclusion i will follow Goodwins theory in my video as it can be seen in most music videos I have seen even in this day and age so is proven to make music videos successful.

Research: Intertextuality

Intertextuality

Intro: Intertextual references are the links to forms of media that are not necessarily to do with music. Goodwin said that intertextual references are the links to films, TV programs or other music videos etc.

Music videos with intertextual references:

Eminem - Without me:

Throughout eminems without me videos he makes refrences to many things ranging from other famous stars to reality television he does this in a very controversial way that he does to try to make his sudience luagh and also could be to increase his popularity.


Michael Jackson - Thriller:

In Micheal Jacksons thriller he refrences the horror industry throught the werewolf theme and zombie theme and refrences to rea life when he is in the cinema the music video is much like a short film so this also refrences the movie industry.



Foo Fighters - Learn to fly:

In the Foo Fighters learn to fly video there are many refrences to real life situations that they put over to the audience in a funny way this also makes it seem like a comedy movie so refrences also to the movie industry.

Advantages of intertextuality: Using intertextuality in a music video could make the video more appealing to a wider range of people so could gain the artist fans. This would therefore make the artist make more money and make them a bigger star.

Disadvantages of intertextuality: The issue with intertextuality is if the people who like the person or thing you refrence dont like the way the artist represents them this could cause the audience to not like the video and then not like the artist so they will lose fans and lose money.

conclusion: In my video i would use intertextuality if it fits however if it does not and it is there for no reason i would not use intertextuality in my video because it would not make sence.

Research: Media institutions

Media institutions
Media institutions are  companies who pay for the production of  the music videos for artists or bands. Not all popular artist and band are signed by media institution which supports them this can make it harder for them to gain success but when the artist is by themselves they get all the money that they get from the production of the music video and song.

The four main media institutions:
EMI

Sony Music Entertainment

Universal Music Group

Warner Music Group 

Media institutions:


  Artist/bands signed to EMI Music :

• Beatles
• Snoop Dogg 
• Tinie tempah 
• Lloyd Banks 
• Cold Play 
• Daft punk 
• Mcfly 
• Lil Allen
• Kylie Monogue 

Its the one of the worlds leading media institutions it has labels  Angel blue note, astralnote  and capitol.Music signed to them. It is a world famous national institution.


















Artists/ bands that  have been with Sony Music entertainment:

Beyonce 

Chris Brown 

Estelle 

Paramore 

James Blunt 

Alicia Keys

Miley Cyrus 

Usher 

Sony music entertainment works with international superstars they offer hip hop country,classical, gospel, pop rock. Their record labels include, artist  records,Columbia records and RCA records.

Artist/bands that have been with universal Music Group:

• Busta Rhymes  
• Mariah Carey 
• Justin Bieber  
• Akon
• Nicki Minaj 
• Cheryl Cole 
• Rihanna 
• Adele
• Mary J blige

World's  largest music content  company. The recorded music business discovers  and develops recording artists and then markets, then promotes their music. Universal  has many international success. They provide one of the largest array of music in the business.



Artist/bands that have been with universal Music Group:

• T.I
• Flo Rida 
• Wiz khalifa 
• Wiley 
• Jason derulo 
• Bruno Mars

Warner is the least popular of the international institutions, Record labels include Asylum Atlantic,Cordless East west and Warner Bros.They provide artists long- term  creative and  financial success.

Conclusion: This reasearch has allowed me to understand the way instutions work and who is who in the music world it provides me with insite into which institutions suit me most and which id want to be signed to and promote my music video.

Research: Genres

Genres

What are genres: Genres are the different categories of music there are in music world. They allow music to be defined by the way that it sounds so that the audience will always know what they are listening to.

Genres: Indie, Rock, Punk, Country, R&B, Dub step, Garage, Soul, Pop, Techno, Rap, Afro jazz, House, Alternative, Heavy metal, Hip-Hop, Grime, Classical.

Genres characteristics:

Rock: Rock is known to be dark with strange camera angles and camera movements. The bands/artists are known to be no conformist and rebellious with dark clothing sometimes leather, piercings and spiked hair. They are also known to be angry people but have a very loyal fan base that will stick with them.



Pop: Pop music is bright and lively uses high key lighting to exaggerate every image it uses simple edits and simple camera shots but notion of looking is used a lot more to make the music more popular to males or females. Bands/Artists will wear sometimes revealing clothing to make themselves more popular to a certain sex they are very conformist to promote what is popular so they are in with the in crowd and are no one to have very loyal fans while popular.

R&B: R&B music is  very lively and can use high and low key lighting depending on what the artist intends their video to be like. Notion of looking is used regularly in this genre to make males or females more attracted to the video. artists will wear very conformist clothing and promote brands in videos. They tend to not have very loyal fans they will only listen to songs that they like by the artist.

Importance of following generic conventions in music videos: This is important because it is making sure that the video is going to be successful for the target audience and their fans because that is what they are used to.

Conclusion: This has helped me understand which genre id want my video to be based in and what that genres conventions are to make the video I make a good one.

Research: Purpose of a music video.

What is the purpose of a music video

Intro: This post will be about what a music video is and its purpose.

Purpose of a music video: A music video is what a artist will uses to promote him/herself and her new music video to the general public. They also use the music video to entertain their fans/audience through the performances in the video such as dance routines. Also music videos are used to put the message they are trying to send through the lyrics into a narrative that will be seen and will make it easier for the audience watching the music video to understand.

classic conventions:
Visually stylish: The video will be made to be stylish and entertaining so that it will gain a large following and a large audience so will guarantee that the video is going to successful.

Rhythmic: The video and the music will always match pace so that the video will not look strange.

Experimental: This means that artists tend to have very experimental music videos that can either be very controversial or technologically advanced. This is to ensure more success for the music video which will give the artist more publicity.

Fast paced: Music videos are always very fast paced and exciting so that the audience will enjoy it more.

Focus on the artist: A music video is always focused around the artist or their message they are trying to put across so that their fans and audience will enjoy it and will publicize the artist more.

Mix between narrative and performance: The to main types of music video are performance  and narrative. Performance focuses on the artist and narrative is a  story told through the  video.

Synergy: There are many ways a artist can publicize their music video a few examples Radio, Film, TV, Print media and the internet this will make sure that people will know about the video and will help create hype as the video is coming out for the general public and fans.

Audience impact: A music artist can have a great impact on their audience  and fans so are encouraged to put a good message across  to the audience as if the music video is bad it could influence them to do bad things.

Technological advancements: Technology has advanced at a rapid pace and has changed the music industry an example is dub step it has only recently developed and also is allowing the artists to experiment with technology like cgi or green screen.

Conclusion: In conclusion this has help me understand why music videos are  made and what  makes them popular to the public and will help me to develop my own in a way that it will be popular as well.