What is a music video - Miss Miller

What is a music video

A music video is a short film or video integrating a song and imager, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Most music videos are made for a marketing device to advertise the sale of the song and the artist. There are many different reasons why the artist creates a music video, these are: To tell a story (narrative), To show more about the artist (express themselves) , To build up a relationship with the artist, To buy into the artists lifestyle and to promote the artists song further.

There are three different types of music videos and these are:

Narrative  A narrative based music video mainly consists of a storyline relating to the lyrics and genre of the song. This is used to help the audience build a relationship with the artist, through gaining a better understanding of the song that artist has produced. It is also used so the artist is able to express  their thoughts and feelings through the storyline. A narrative based music video consist of a story, that is formed from the lyrics matching the visuals. The style relies heavily on imagery to produce a story for the audience to follow.
A narrative based music video helps the audience to understand the meaning behind the song. This is because sometimes a music video can have a hidden meaning or a message that is not clear. Therefore to ensure that the audience understand what the artist is trying to portray, a narrative based music video is used. An example of a music video that is easier to understand after watching the music video is '21 questions by 50 cent' once listening to the music video I personally had a small understanding of what the artist meant, but after watching the music video, I gained a much further understanding of what it was about.

Performance  Performance based videos features the band or artist performing to either the camera or an audience. The artist will usually mime the words of the song to show the audience a performance that they would expect to see live from the artist.  A typical genre that is performance based is the rock genre. It is also commonly seen within all genres but in parts of other based music videos, for example a video that may be narrative based, may also include some performance scenes. This is evident in the music video ' Miss independent by Neyo' . This is usually Incorporated to show the audience professionalism and so that the audience see the artist as a role model and idolise them.
Performance based music videos are Usually seen in the rock genre, this is because in the rock genre the artist or band, are usually very entertaining just in the way they play their instruments and sing, therefore do not need to construct a concept or narrative to entertain the audience.

Concept Concept based videos are sometimes unusual they are based around an idea.  They often concentrate on a specific editing technique. Most concept based videos will not just consist of one concept, there will be a few different concepts through out the music video. A concept video will keep the audience entertained and constantly looking at what or who is involved in the music video. A concept can be anything, an example concept is in the music video from 50 cent - 21 questions, the concept involved here is living the criminal lifestyle. This is shown to the audience through the prison scenery and large amounts of cash the artist is hiding from the police. The concept keeps the audience intrigued and interested through out the whole music video. A concept music video is used to allow the artist to express themselves, as it the concept is normally something the artist is interested in or has been involved in. This then allows the audience to be able to understand more about the artist lifestyle and past. Overall concept based music video lets the audience build a relationship with the artist. 

Storm Queen - Look Right Through ( MK Remix ) Official Video 

The video i will be anaylising Storm Queen- Look right through (MK Remix), this song is from the deep house, dance genre.  This music video is a performance type and narrative together. The music video is a short film which includes dancing to the camera which the audience are able to relate to as they expect a performance type music video from this genre,  the audience expect there to be dancing and singing to the camera in a performance based music video, especially in the dance genre.. In this case there is no singing to the camera due to the artist wearing a mask, the mask connotes to the audience that the artist wants to hide he's identity. This is relatable for the audience as they may have been through similar circumstances, where they have wanted to hide their identity. The masked artist dances which is key to show to the audience because it is a conventional performance type music video. It also includes a slight narrative within the music video. The narrative is a short story: the story is a man waking up after, what the audience expect to be a one night stand, then putting on a front e.g the mask, and going back out with other girls, dancing and kissing. This story line was used because the target audience is 16-25 which this sort of situation is clearly understood and made aware of in the age group of 16-25. Therefore this narrative is very relatable for the target audience, this leads to the audience being able to build up a relationship with the artist and understanding the story line easily.. 

The codes and conventions within a dance genre music video are:

•  Dancing
•  Party lifestyle
•  Fun
•  Energetic
•  Relationships
•  Disco
•  Strobe lighting
•  Fast editing 

During the music video Storm Queen - Look Right Through
The majority of the codes and conventions for a dance genre music video, are present through out. A specific example is the (screen shot I have of the mans lower leg/ feet). The artist dancing to the camera is used to entertain and show to the audience that the artist is multi talented. The audience then look up to, and idolise the artist, because the artist is multi talented and they want to be like the artist, therefore idolise the artist and see the artist as a role model. This leads to the audience building up a relationship with the artist.

Also the disco type and strobe lighting was used once the song had reached the main chorus part of the song. The disco setting was dark and club like, which is what the audience can relate to, because the audience to this genre are people who go clubing and bars, which are stereotypical dark and disco like. There is fast paced editing to keep up with the fast beat of the song. This is so the song matches the music video and is easily relatable for the audience to be able to feel the speed and energy off the music video. Also the face  paced editing connotes to the audience that the artist lives a faced paced life style, which the audience respect and look up to because of the difficulties of managing a faced paced lifestyle.

In conclusion I have learnt a lot throughout learning what a music video is, which was unexpected as I didn't relies how many different types of videos there are, e.g Narrative, Performance and Concept. I also now understand the different codes and conventions of the different types of genres which we expect to see in music videos, as they all are fairly similar if they are in the same genre. Finally from analysing a dance music video I think there is a small possibility of making a dance music video within my group, if the nominated artist/band are willing to conduct a performance of dancing and singing to the camera, which is probably quite unlikely.