What is a music video? -Miss Miller

A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings by artists. Due to the demands of record labels, videos will often include a lot of close ups of the artist or band which will often include a personal style of the artist so that when they occur with another video, the audience will know it's them even if they don't appear in the video. In music videos, mise en scene will plays a large part as a symbolic way of creating meaning because it' a meaning created beyond what is obvious to the audience. Most music videos will use props as the producer will also think deep into the location and set of the music video and whether or not it relates to the song or not. There are many purposes of a music video such as giving the ability to create a relationship between the artist and audience. Furthermore, it also allows the audience to identify a song easier as it can give the audience something to remember. The music video can also give the ability for the artist to express their feelings in which the audience can then understand the song and lyrics in which the audience could then get to know the artist personality. It also attracts a wider range of audience as it can become available to a large range. The audience can also buy into the artist lifestyle as it helps to understand their personality more as an artist. Furthermore, it can also be helped to portray the different genre conventions used in music videos. It can also be use to create a unique identity for the artist/band as they would include their own personal touch within the video to make it more memorable for the audience.

There are three different styles of music videos such as;

Performance: A performance style video is when the artist displays the music video through the form of singing or dancing and displays the video as if the audience can be watching the video live at a concert. The artist tend to display less of a theme and narrative and just deliver their song as if they are performing the song to an actual audience. A performance videos focuses on showing footage of the artist or band either in a casual environment i.e socialising with friends, or performing live performance or staged performance. These videos tend to portray the artist as realistic as possible as it is the only artist they are showing. It is commonly that clips of performances are used to develop the music video. Performance style generally show more footage of the artist than the other styles of music videos.

Narrative:  A narrative style video is when the artist deliver the video through the form of a story being told to the audience so that the audience to engage more within the lyrics and understand the artist feeling/thoughts and build a better relationship between the artist and audience. Often the video tells a story either that features in the lyrics or is suggested in the lyrics. The narrative can also be similar to a mini film, with a beginning, middle and end. Narrative styled videos can also promote a film with clips from the film including telling a story. This style relies on imagery to produce a story for the audience to follow and some narrative videos include clips from films that the song has been featured in as it will encourage the audience to become more engaged and build a better relationship between the audience and artist.

Concept: A concept music video is selling the audience an idea/theme or ideology. Furthermore, it also delivers a moral or message towards the audience to try and help and motivate the audience more. Concept videos are based around a single idea or concept and are usually unusual and obscure, even surreal for the audience. The unusual content is an attraction to many consumers, which draws them in. Concept videos usually are combined with one of the other two styles as the market demands for greater accessibly rather than the somewhat niche that is pure concept art. There are various themes that can be used depending on what type of genre the music video is. Furthermore, there can be a use of a lot of different symbols to build up a meaning or message. There is often a fast editing and montages used as each shot are commonly on a few seconds to help create a meaning.

Within my research, I will be analysing a popular pop song "Girls Aloud - Biology" which was released in 2005 and falls in the genre of girl band music videos.

I believe there are many purposes for this music video such as aiming to attract a wider audience by creating more publicity by promoting their song further. Furthermore, I also believe another purpose is to express their feelings and also try to give the audience a better taste of their personality to build a better relationship and connection with the audience. I also find that the video was created to help display the different genre conventions as it would bring more excitement and interest to the audience. Also, by creating a music video, this allows the video to be available to anyone in the world to view the video which then allows the audience to watch it globally and have more access. Furthermore, by creating a music video, it make it easier for the audience to identify the song and will create a word of mouth which would then increase the popularity of the video. I also find that they created the video to express their unity as a girl band while including a lot of creativity. The music video wasn't made for men to become huge fans of the band but more to gain attention as attention just means more popularity for the band. The song is about the female wanting to be the lead in the relationship and wanting the male to pay more attention to her; what she says, what she does, and how she acts. She wants the boy to notice them in more than a sexual way. There is no clear link between the visuals and the lyrics which is made clear from the lack of males in the video and the strong female lead in the video. This then creates a purpose of the artist wanting to create a message that women are more than icons for sex and that there is more to them also portraying that they deserve more respect. 

I believe that the style of this particular music video is performance. I find that this could be evidently seen through the use of mes en scene, specifically within the costume sector. Throughout the whole music the video, the members are all wearing matching and colour coordinated costumes with only a minimum difference between each member. With each scene comes a different costume change and verse and even when the costumes change, the members are all still looking identical. I find that this portrays the band as being a strong unit and having similar personalities which makes them closer and creates a better relationship between the girls in the group. Furthermore, the use of the colour pink being used represents the girls as being fun and bubbly which contributes to enable the audience to understand their personalities more which means the audience can build a better relationship with the audience. Also, the girls are dressed in these lavish dresses that purposely show of and enhances their figures which could be seen as them trying to gain males attention and they are putting themselves out there to be admired for their physical appearance. 

As I continued to analyse the music video, I also identified another convention which has been followed through the genre of girl bands, dance routine. I identified this by the use of cinematography, particularly a mid shot. The mid shot displays all the group members carrying out a dance routine within a formation. I believe that this convention had been followed to include creativity and the artist's own personal touch as they have choreographed the dance by themselves so it gives the audience something to remember as it is more memorable for them to link the dance to the artist. I find that the use of a dance routine relates to the concept of performance the most as they are performing in time with the music in the background fitting each lyric with a dance move. I find that this helps to engage the audience more and build a better relationship as it creates a more entertaining and diverting atmosphere for the audience to be in therefore increasing the popularity. I also strongly believe that it fulfils the artist own identity more as the unique dance allows the audience to possibly remember the song just based on having the dance included as a memory for them. 

I then continued to analyse the music video even further and identified another convention which is being followed through the genre of girl bands. The convention that I identified within the music video was the use of facial expressions. I find that the use of facial expressions help to engage the audience more as benefits to display part of the artist/group members personality more as it reveals how they are feeling and portrays their thoughts through the use of their facial expressions. Within this particular scenario, one of the group members is displaying a big smile on her face with her teeth exposed to the camera. The smile indicates that she is pleased, pleasured and untroubled. This then helps to engage the audience more as commonly, seeing another person smile tends to make that individual feel happy. Also, it shows that she is very confident with her self which helps the audience to think alongside this female and build up their own confidence. The facial expression that she is representing shows that the atmosphere within the music video is positive and full of happiness and that it is something that she wants to share with the audience. Majority of girl bands commonly create music videos full of fun and excitement which allows the audience to build a more positive and understanding relationship with the artist and facial expression seen within the picture displays the convention being followed as it brings fun and joy to the audience.

I find that this music video is most likely to be targeted at older girls/women. I come to this conclusion as the song/music video is women wanting to be treated as women and not sex objects and wanting men to have more respect for them. The women want to show that they are just as dominant and if not even more dominant and that they want men to pay more attention to do them and see them as people from what they do in their everyday life. I find that song/music video appeals to the target audience as a lot of older girls/women tend to feel disrespected by men and feel that they can only get men's attention by acting sexually as that is what attracts the men to the women. Especially in a lot of marriages, women tend to feel that they are the weaker sex and are only associated with only when it comes to sexual activities. I find that this video is a freedom of speech for all women that feel like this and put the thoughts in the form of a song portraying that men don't do anything and don't give them enough attention. Furthermore, the lyrics 'say you love me and not my dirty brain' is women speaking up saying that they want men to love them for who they and not just for sex. This music video would help to give women more confidence to stand up to men and get the right respect and attention that they think they deserve. Furthermore, it's also showing that women are upset by these actions so for example the use of happy, confident facial expressions being worn on the members will help to give more confidence to women so that they don't have to hide away and be unhappy during their relationships.

To conclude I have learned that you need to be choose wisely of who your target audience is as it will determine the success. The song that you choose to present has to fit in with your target audience otherwise it will become a struggle for the audience to engage and build relationships with the artist which means the music video will lose popularity therefore classing it as unsuccessful. It is also very important that the codes and conventions for a particular genre must follow through otherwise it causes confusion to the audience and they will not be able to understand. There also has to be a consistency as any faults in between sections may lose interest within the audience which means the engagement that was being built up will fail. I also learned that conventions such as setting/locations are very important as where the music video is taking place as the location needs to be ideal for the lyrics and genre being included within the music video. I think music videos are very effective and have a great impact on various audiences. For instance, I find that a narrative style music video contributes to help tell a story and make the story come alive which means the audience are enabled to build better relationships and have more engagement as they will feel more feelings and emotions. I find that a concept style video is important as it has a good chance of gaining huge popularity as the style of video contributes to selling the audience an idea/theme which means the audience will become more engaged and included. If the conventions being used within the video doesn't associate with the concept behind the video then it will be poor and unsuccessful. I find that the performance style video is based more on entertainment and creating a more enjoyable atmosphere and is also vital to include the correct conventions as any incorrect convention will decrease entertainment within the atmosphere. Based on this analysis, I am considering creating music video based on the genre of girl bands using the style of narrative as I find that the narrative includes and engages the audience more and makes them feel more involved and they display their feelings and emotions and now that I have learned and analysed the different codes and conventions being used within a girl band genre, I now know how I could make my music video popular and successful.