Music video - Owl City 'Fireflies'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4&ob=av3e

This viedo by Owl City is really simple in terms of what it contains. Its filmed in one room with natural lighting and just a simple button saying 'Magic' turns all the lights on to light up the room, the lighting still looks natural though like there is no more lighting other than what you can see being lit up so it is still very natural.

Slowly there are different shots of anything that emits light turning on and lighting up the room. This makes the music video a concept based one.

From then on it is just lots of shots of the toys moving and lighting up and as the music speeds up the shots speed up also. Then as it slows down it simply goes round and turns everything off.

I like how the simplicity of the shots contrasted with the rasmats of the tune and volume of the song makes the song stand out over the video as sometimes the video can distract from the song.

The video is entirely performace based except the close ups of the little toys but the audience knows they are still in the same room and can still imagen that he is still playing.

The video goes against Lura Mulveys theory as she says that men are big strong and the hero and women are sexual objects or a house wife in everything. This video has only one person in it and he is a man in a room playing a keybord with toys all around him and no women or pictures of naked women around the room.

Concept based music video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDJpf2mQ0w4

This is an example of a concept based music video which means that the video doesnt really have any relevance to anything it is just random, in this case its falling pencils and toys and things. I am going to use this in my video as is is simple and breaks it up more.

l.i.f.e.g.o.e.s.o.n

I like the darkness of this video and the way it seems to show emotion even though nothing is really being implied by the song or the video. The lighting is always on the person in the background and not the performers in the foreground. This would of been achived with a spot light behind the two foreground singers pointing onto the person behind them.

Music video - Escape the Fate 'something'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH2OkPf4rMI&ob=av2e

The establishingshots of this video are beautiful peices of cinimatography and set the sene for where the band are playing. like the nickelback video they are playing along with a story or narrative which is shown with a dream like effectaround it so you can seperate the two as the singer is also the person in the narrative.

The band are all shown playing in the video and on the more prominant guitar parts there is a close up on the istruments.

It does use random effects at a few points duing the video, like blurring and moving of the camera to make it seem less boring but i think this makes it look tacky and not as good, I think they should of just put more shots in it to make it less boring as that would of looked better.

The lighting in the video is all from behind and looks almost to bright however i think it works well as the background is all bright and over exposed and the foreground is just the right brightness which makes the light behind almost highlight them.

This video fits in with goodwins theory as the demands of the record label are to wear certain clothes and play the music in a certain style. There is also a narrative base in the video which is something else in the theory.

Music Video - Nickelback 'someday'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VMFdpdDYYA&ob=av3e

I loved the way the story links to the song and it is another mini narrative going on in it however still shows the band though it. The contrast in the video is very high and the white balance is slightly off to give it a grey tone to it, however this is only applied to the story and not when the band are being shown.

The parts where the band are performing is a if its in like a garage or something similar which helps them connect with their fans that are playing in garages and basements.

The camera shots of the story are very basic and just show whats going on in a single frame so you imediatly know whats going on in the narrative. The shots when they are singing, are eaither showing all of the band members then then close ups on each individual member one at a time and keep alternating between them and all of them.

The transactions between the narrative and the band at the begining are slow fading which helps sofen what would be a really harsh cut otherwise at the begining of the song. Then when it gets heavyer the transactions are removed to make it fit with the song more and be choppyer and faster.

It fits in with Goodwins theory as there are links between the lyrics and the visuals like when it says 'and unpack your suitcase' the girl is putting the suitcase on the bed and the lip syncing with the band fits with the music which shows that the visuals backing up the music.

Conventions of music videos through different genres

Different music genres have different general ideas for music videos. I looked into different genres and found some things in each one that are widely used throughout that genre.

Rock.... (E.G Nickelback, the calling and aerosmith)

When i looked at rock videos there was an obvious simalarity between them which was that they were almost always dark with a very high contrast level so most colours are dark and things like skin and lights stand out and look alot brighter.

Most rock music videos are also very performance based with some videos being entirely performaces although the videos that caught my eye were the ones that told a story or some kind of narrative and switched between the story and the artist performing (Nickelback and The Calling). I also noticed the narrative of the videos always has something to do with the song and is usally done to make the emotions of the audience stronger than they would be if they were just listening to the song alone (like watching a short film).

Rap.... (E.G Eminem and 2pac)

I looked at rap music videos and found them to be like rock in the sence that there is alot of performance in them and usally a narrative to them however, unlike the rock genre, they become entwined rather than being two seperate things going on (Eminem- 'When im gone'). I also found the mood of the lyrics in rap music would influence the video, like if the mood is dark and deppessing then the video would be dark and have low contrast levels and when its rapping with no real message just about sex drugs etc. the tone of the whole video is alot lighter.

Alternative.... (Green day, Escape the Fate)

These music videos where alot like the rock genre however the actual artists had more of a steryotypical look (lots of eye make-up, black clothes) they also the editing is also alot more choppy and to go with the usally fast paced music and alot of movement in the camera.

Pop star theory

A true pop star is 'brand aware' amongst a wider market over a period of time, for example Madonna who has constantly changed her image from bleach blonde 80's hairstyles to a more glaorous look today, she is very brand aware.

Stars and contructions.

Stars are contsructed, artifical images, even if they are being represented as being real people experiencing real emotions.

This is true for pop music as the consturuction of bands and artists isnt even hidden from the public.

Industry and audience.

Stars are manufactured by the music industry to make money from an audience who respond to elements of a pop stars persona by becoming a fan and buying records.

This is applied to the music industry as the purpose of any artist is to make money.

Stars will represent a certain ideology and culture. Audience intrests in these values strengthens their 'star qualitys' and it is though thier beliefs and opinions and general lives away from thier music that creates their star persona. E.G A star could start a fashion trend by fans copying their clothing and hairstyle.

Charater and personality.

Stars begin as a 'real' human with gender and race charateristics and exsiting against a socio-historic background.

The star tranformation turns them into a construct which has foundation to the real person. We see them as not totally fictional, as being very much of their time and culture, the product of a particular generation. Stars give audiences a focus of what they are 'supposed to look like' E.G Thin and beautiful. They may support hegemony by conforming to it (being thin) or by providing a difference (being bigger and still loveable)

Goodwins theory

Goodwins theory is based on 8 main princaples
he says that all music videos have all or at least some of these things.

-Links between lyrics and visuals
-Links between music and visuals
-Genre characteristics (E.G hoodies for rap)
-Intertextual reference
-Notions of looking (sexulisation of women)
-Voyeurism
-Demands of the record label (representation of the artist)
-Performance based, narrative based or concept based.

Laura Mulvey's theory

Mulvey was a feminist and she thought that every woman portrayed in the media is eather shown as a madonna (a housewife) or a whore (a sexualised object).
This is true in music videos as most women nowadays are singing about sex and have to dance/dress accordingly this is more shown in the R&B and Pop genre. E.G Shakira 'Hips Dont Lie' she is wearing a very short skirt and a tight top which shows the video is focused on her sex appeal over everything else. Also Lady Gaga's 'Just Dance' shows her wearing next to nothing and this is for the male audience.
However the Rock/Indie genre does go against this is some cases E.G Avril Lavigne 'Skater Boy' she is wearing a baggy top and jeans and looks how most teenagers do that arnt slags and is associated with boys also there are lots of low camrea angles which show that she has the power over the men as she looks higher.

History of music videos

The first step towards music videos is actually the same time as sheet music in 1894 George Thomas would use a lantern to project still images while the sheet music was being played live. This is the first step towards music videos.

In 1926 due to the arrival of talkies many short films were made which featured artists, bands and dancers.

In the early 1930's cartoons were put along to music alot like in walt disneys fantasia which features cartoons of many kinds along with the sound of an orcestra.