Music Video Analysis

Shannon Jezzard

Music Video Aims and ObjectivesMusic videos are a form of promotion of the artist/band who are able to entice people into listening to the song. It uses certain conventions that will help the video appeal to the artist/band’s target audience, for example the actors that are used in the video and the mise en scene, focusing on elements such as setting and costume. Product placement is also frequently used within music videos to advertise certain products to the target audience for the artist to gain more of a profit. These products have to be aimed at the target audience as they would be what they would usually purchase. For example, in the video to What The Hell by Avril Lavigne product placement is frequently used of her perfumes, which is a product her target audience would be interested in.

What The Hell Love The Way You Lie Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing

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Music videos also represent the target audience as they feature actors of a similar social standing or gender etc. They also may have messages within them be it political or social to get the artists view across on something that they feel strongly about. Sometimes actors can be well known. An example of this could be Love The Way You Lie by Eminem, as it features the actress Megan Fox and also deals with the issue of domestic abuse.

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Music videos are a popular way of being able to display the band although there are various types of music videos where it’s actors that play out a story in relation to the video or shots of the actual band playing, or they could be a mixture between the two including things such as special effects, still images or stop motions to entice their audience into watching.

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In some cases music videos can be an example of synergy if the song in the music video is featured in the movie. Then clips from the movie will be featured within the music video, giving the featured film and the artist/band’s promotion. An example of this could be Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing by Aerosmith featured in Armageddon.

The Bucket – Kings of Leonhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWaFVvVoj4o

Kings of Leon released Indie Rock song The Bucket as a single from their album Aha Shake Heartbreak that was released in 2004. The music video features the four members in a studio and has up to 16 screens showing the band at a time. The shots frequently alternate between showing the setting of the music video (the studio the band are in), and the band. Also during the video there are different shots of things such as fireworks, flowers (which could relate back to the cover of the single, which features a flower), and several close up shots of the instruments the band are playing, this is focusing on an action as the song is fast paced and therefore the close up shots reflect this as we are able to see the speed that the band are playing their instruments.

…The lighting within the studio is also quite a natural lighting, enabling you to clearly see what’s going on within the music video.

It also comes across as a natural practice or performance because all member of the band are in casual attire, making the music video feel at a more persona level, as it’s allowing their fans to seem them how they really are.

The synchronization of the music and the video is matched up perfectly, this could be due to the cost of production. The end of the video shows a microphone standing on it’s own, signifying that the song has now ended.

This video has a linear narrative and it is single strand, as it solely just focuses on the band performing.

Say You Don’t Want It – One Night Onlyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF1WzzrLmpk

One Night Only released the single ‘Say You Don’t Want It’ off of their second album ‘One Night Only’ in 2010. The music video features a linear storyline of the front man of the band, George Craig, and his girlfriend at the time, Emma Watson, wandering the streets of New York, with several shots of the band playing on a rooftop of a building. The music video appears to be quite saturated, to make the lights and colours stand out upon the night that the video was filmed in. It has a twist at the end of it, as the two characters turn out to be dogs in a ‘Lady and the Tramp’ type situation, as the female character belongs to a wealthy lady and the male character is a stray dog that the female character dog came across when she was accidentally separated from her owner.

…The music video frequently shows situations where it could relate to both of the characters being dogs, for example at one part George lick’s Emma’s face, and another when the male character comes across a group of people he’s familiar with, and the female character looks scared and intimidated. The mise en scene of this music video also reflects the story line, as George is wearing a simple black casual trouser suit and Emma is wearing a more formal outfit, with jewellery and a fur jacket. Landmarks around New York are shown frequently within the music video, and a hot dog branch ‘Grays Papaya is a predominant feature among the story line, making the characters within the video seem more like everyday citizens of New York, and removing their status as a well known musician or actress to make the video seem a lot more authentic.

Album Cover and Album Release Magazine Advert Aims and Objectives

Album covers have many purposes when it comes to promoting the band, as the artist who’s album it is would want the album artwork or image to reflect the genre of their music, drawing any potential listeners into downloading, streaming or purchasing the album. The album normally contains an insert, which is usually a little booklet featuring lyrics of the songs featured on the album, or images and a letter of thanks to let fans have an insight into artists life. Digipack’s also encourage the purchase of a hard copy of an album.

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Magazine adverts also have the same objectives, as they are to encourage listener’s and the artist’s fans to purchase the album. They often contain a release date, informing listener’s as to when the album is coming out, and often the style of the magazine advert is reflected within the album cover, so listeners can make a correlation between the two, with both media forms using either the same image or text, or shows a picture of the album.

Aha Shake Heartbreak Album ReleaseAlbum Cover(s)

Aha Shake Heartbreak was released with RCA/HandMeDown Records and produced by Ethan Johns. It had two different release dates for the UK and America, being released in late 2004 in the UK and early 2005 in the USA, featuring two different album covers, one for it’s UK release and one for the release in America. The UK release of the album shows a very simple and contrasting image of a white, brightly lit flower on a black background, with a quite ornamental font, that cold be quite difficult to read from a distance due to the exaggerated serifs and italics. As the flower featured on the cover is quite close up, digital manipulation was probably used to make the surface smooth and unmarked.

…The white colour of the flower could connotation the purity of the album on which the album was made, and the openness could reflect the topic of song within the album, and that within the songs featured they were messages the band wanted to get across to feel a connectedness to their fans. The album cover conforms to the general conventions of the product, as it features the title of the album, the band’s name and has a main image.

The USA’s cover for the release of an album sticks to a similar arrangement of the UK release, although the background is white and the text is black, with a different flower being used as the main image. The use of the two different covers of the album could relfect how they want to appear to be shown within both continents, with the USA release being a lot brighter, as it’s the band’s home country, and the UK release a lot darker and contrasting.

Tribes Album ReleaseAlbum Cover

Baby by Tribes was recorded at The Motor Museum in Liverpool and released on the 16th January 2012 on the label ‘Island’. It reflects an Indie Rock genre.The layout of this album is quite simple, with a clear image of the band members as the main focus within the cover. The text to image ratio is quite uneven, with only a small text just under the band name displaying the album title. The band use a white background behind their name in a bold sans serif font, drawing attention to the text. The album cover also features the logo of the record company they released the album off of in the top right corner, which is not conforming to traditional album conventions as the record company’s logo is usually found in the bottom at the back of the album, along with the track list.

…The main image of the album cover features the band sitting on a bench in front of a brick run down, plain wall. The outfit choices of the band members and the plain background that they are sitting in front of creates a juxtaposition, as the member’s of the band are dressed quite eccentrically, in a way that would reflect their album’s genre. Each of the members also have an uninterested or distant look on their face, which is often a common convention of images within the Indie Rock genre (see for example, The Libertines magazine advertisement). The album cover reflects the music on the album, and the characters that the band represent, as it’s displayed that they each have their own style and that this album is different to a lot of other mainstream products, with a 90s vibe about it as displayed within the mise en scene of the image featured.

Magazine Advert (New Album)

This magazine advert is for Kings of Leon’s 2nd studio album ‘Aha Shake Heartbreak’ that was released in November 2004 in the UK. The album reflects an Indie/Southern Rock genre. The image of the flower on the magazine advert is also featured on the UK cover for the album. The advert for the new album features a black, mostly plain background, other for what looks like a smoke/water effect at the top of the page where the band’s name is. The focal point of the poster is the close up image of a white flower, as it contrasts with the dark background and really stands out on the page. In terms of image manipulation, the image is very clear and therefore the brightness may have been enhanced and any blemishes or unneeded marks upon the flower may have been removed as the image is a close up and everything would be visible upon it. The image to text ratio of this advert is relatively even and the text featured is a simple, plain white sans serif font which doesn't’t distract away from the main image of the advert. The further the text gets down the page the smaller it gets, and there is also more text featured at the bottom of the page than the top.

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This contradicts the research that when reading text the eye falls to the top left of the page first as, with this advert the eye would tend to look to the album name and release date first with the way that the advertisement is laid out. The very bottom of the adverts has the band’s webpage in very small text, so the people that are interested can go on the website and find out more, but the advert isn’t absorbed by this text as it’s a very simple advert. The connotation of this advert could be that it reflects the simplicity and pureness of the album that’s featured within the advert, so readers get a sense of what type of genre album this will ne without already knowing of the band.

Overall this magazine advert is a very simple one that gets straight to the point and doesn’t use lots of special editing within it, and it also reflects the genre of the band/album.

The Libertines Album ReleaseMagazine Advert (New Album)

This magazine advert is for the release of The Libertine’s self titled album that was released in August 2004 in the UK. The album reflects an Indie Rock genre. This was the Libertines’ 2nd studio recorded album. It features an image of the two front men of the band with clear lighting, so you are able to see their facial expressions, which seem quite distant. The image used within the magazine advert is also the image that’s used on the album cover, so along with the band’s logo the advert is very distinguishable of the album. The photo within the magazine advert shows the two front men displaying their ‘Libertine’ tattoo, reflecting the member’s passion to the band and the close relationship that has been formed.By the magazine advert naming a well known song that features on the album, it draws potential listeners in because, if they liked the song mentioned on the advert the may be More inclined to see what other music they have to offer.

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For this magazine advert, the outfits and hair style and general mise en scene of the image is very natural, and doesn’t come off staged, as if the artists have intended to look a certain way. This is often a common convention for this genre of music. It appears that this magazine advert for the self titled album gets straight to the point in displaying that the album is already out, and the image and type face used within it greatly reflects the type of album that is being promoted, therefore potential buyers can get a feel of what they will be listening to before they actually do. As this album was released in 2004, just 3 years after broadband had been released to the public it does not mention the formats that the album is available in, which is a common feature in more modern adverts.

Conclusion

From my research of certain products from the Indie Rock genre, I have found more often than not they take a simplistic approach, not focusing too much on the album artwork, but much rather the name of the band and the title of the album or song. This shows the importance and actual emphasis of music within the indie rock genre, rather than just focusing on the exterior of the band’s image.

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For my own ancillary products, I will take this into account and make the main emphasis within them on what the product is all about, although I will use an obvious main image within my products that do stand out to make sure that I catch my audience’s eyes, making them more inclined to find more out about the band or even by the album.

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For the two music videos I looked at, they both had shots of the band playing, which appears to be a typical convention of this genre. Although, in my music video due to the technical ability of my actors, I will substitute these scenes for more shots of story line, which is a common feature in One Night Only’s music video, I am therefore challenging the conventions somewhat.