Dark Horse Katy Perry- Original Dark Horse- Parody

Parody Music Videos are not released officially by the artist. They are released

mainly by the public via sources such as YouTube to imitate an artist and their

videos. They involve the replication of existing music videos with a humorous

approach.

Parodies are produced via multiple ways such as exaggeration, change of words

in order to mock the video.

Mona Lisa Parody:

Many artists imitate the

famous painting such as

drawing a moustache and

looking like Mr Bean

Mona ‘Moustache’ Lisa Mona Lisa Mona ‘Mr Bean’ Lisa

Sport Relief 2014 saw 5 famous British YouTubers cover the Mcfly song ‘It’s All AboutYou.’ The parody was not targeting the humour directly at the band or song (or video forthat matter) but in fact was targeted at themselves. The members were: Joe Sugg, AlfieDeyes, Caspar Lee, Jim Chapman and Marcus Butler.The music video shows them replicating stereotypical pop band music videos withscenes such as sitting on bar stalls and dance routines. During the video, Marcus Butlerraps about Sport Relief as well as other random things that rhyme.

The band sit on bar stalls singing and

playing the guitar (Black and White

effect popular with pop bands)

Matching outfits and rehearsed

choreography is heavily associated with

pop music videos

With over 9 million YouTube subscribers, Bart Baker is the most popular

parody artist in the world. The video was filmed in a room similar to what the

official music video was. The imitation in this video comes via the

exaggerated portrayal of Justin Bieber as well as the changing of the lyrics.

For instance, the official video showed the new hairstyle that Justin had just

had and as a result, Bart decided to mock this by exaggerating the length of

the hair. Additionally, part of the lyrics mocked how his new album included

questions as song titles.

Justin Bieber vs Bart Baker What Do You Mean was the 2nd

Single off the album months after

‘Where are U Now’ was released

‘i am Other’ is a record company founded by Pharrell Williams and is the

company who released his hit single ‘Happy.’ Around this time, Pharrell was

constantly seen in the media sporting a hat, just like the one in the video. As a

result, the company decided to edit the music video and release a shortened

version of it as a parody with his hat taking up the entirety of his body. Along

with this the #PharrellsHat which became a global Twitter trend including at

the 2014 Grammy Awards.

Official Video Parody Video Media Image

In conclusion, I have learned that parodies are mocks of existing music

videos with the idea of adding humour to it. They are not released by the

artists. With that being said, they attract and hold the audience because they

are aware of the song and would watch it because of the humour involved.

As a result, I feel that it would not be successful if I chose to produce a parody

music video because I feel that I would not be selling my chosen artist in the

right way if I mock the song. The fact that the purpose of a music video is to

advertise the song reinforces this. Additionally, I would have limited

opportunities as to what I could do with the video as I would have to follow

the song and artist in a particular way.