ANALYSING MUSIC VIDEOS

• House music is a style of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. House is up-tempo music for dancing, although by modern dance-music standards it is mid-tempo and the tempo for house music tended to be slower in the early years of house.

• The music videos for House music tend to have messages about dancing, love, sexuality, and drugs all underpinned with repetitive arrangements and a steady bass drum beat.

• Another convention of a house music is that it will have a shot where a lot of people are dancing in a club, and the DJ is performing this is usually a reference to the home of dance/house music: Ibiza.

• House and Dance music videos also tend to contain provocatively dressed women dancing; they are usually the perfect example of Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory.

SAVE THE WORLD – SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXpdmKELE1k

• This is my favourite music video of this genre. The video features several characters being victims of crime. One is sitting in his car when a man comes up, smashes the window and carjacks him, another is working in a diner when two robbers armed with baseball bats storm in, smashing the tip jar, and another is a woman who gets her handbag violently stolen in the street. A dog witnesses the woman being mugged and barks, calling other dogs into action. While one dog comes over and comforts the woman by licking her, another dog chases after the robber and pushes him through the glass pane at a bus stop. Two more dogs arrive at the shop, and while one pulls on the trousers of one of the robber, another dog jumps up, bites the jacket of the robber and slams his head onto the countertop. Multiple dogs chase the man in the stolen car, who crashes the car after swerving to avoid hitting two puppies sitting in the street.

• I think I like the music video so much as it is so different to all of the other ones of the same genre. It contains literally none of the codes and conventions mentioned in the earlier slide.

• I think the audience of this video would either be fans of Swedish house mafia, or house music in general because the song is of that genre. Although because of the nature of the video and the fact it doesn’t fit the norms of it’s genre, it probably appeals to people who just like the video and it has introduced them to the song.

• Although the video may not fit the conventions of its specific genre of music, it does, however, conform to the expectations of music videos in general.

• The visuals do relate strongly to the lyrics. The chorus of the song includes the lyrics “Who's gonna save the world tonight? Who's gonna bring you back to life? We're gonna make it, you and I. We're gonna Save The World tonight.” Although audiences may have expected these lyrics to be some kind of metaphor for themselves (the people listening to it, maybe in a club) they have clearly related the lyrics to the dogs acting as heroes.

• The images are edited quite fast paced too, to the beat of the music. In the opening scenes, the images are edited to slow motion – to build suspense and create tension – and again to show details of the events unfolding. The video has a very epic feel to it and the slow motion really emphasises, firstly, the awful things that are happening and, secondly, the entrance of the dogs.

• Wide shots, long shots, and multiple clips of the dogs edited onto the screen an once were other techniques adopted by the creators to add emphasis to the narrative and characters.

• The video is entirely narrative based as there are no shots of the group singing or of a DJ. This, again, is rare for a music video of this genre.

• Close up shots are also exhibited in important parts of the video, to emphasise what is happening. The mise en scene – especially the costume – are very simple and stereotypical. This is probably because it is extremely hard to tell a whole story (or many, in this case) in only a couple of minutes and my –for example – dressing the burglar in a black balaclava, it makes the narrative much simpler to understand.

• Swedish House Mafia are a very well established house group. They were placed at number ten on the DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ Poll 2011 and in 2012 Swedish House Mafia won an EBBA Award. I think it is for this reason that they chose not to stick to the conventions of their specific genre. They already had the fan base and their audience had the knowledge of the group, so therefore they had the artistic space to release a more creative video. The video actually resembles one you might find alongside an alternative music video.

THE KOOKS NAIVE• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkaMiaRLgvY

• The Kooks are an indie/ alternative rock band. Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include indie pop, jangle pop, C86, and lo-fi, among others. Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt rock or simply alternative) is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s. Alternative rock is a broad umbrella term consisting of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots

• The music video is predominantly narrative based with lip-synching during the narrative by the lead singer of the band. The music video tells a story of a girl that is cheating on her boyfriend but he is afraid to leave her because he believes that she can change therefore he is the one who is naïve. He does not want to ask if her cheating is true because he is afraid of the answer: ‘true or false it may be’. The music video conforms to Godwin’s theory in the way that it is iconographic of an indie genre in the way that is simple and the lead singer is usually present in the narrative. ]

• I think the audience for this video would be young people who are either fans of The Kooks, or of Indie Rock music. The video sticks to the codes and conventions of the genre so it probably wouldn’t appeal to many others.

• This music video conforms to Godwin’s theory in the sense that there is a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. This is done in many cases throughout the music video’s narrative… for example when the lyrics say ‘pretty face’, the girl is presented to the audience. The girl steps over a person lying on the floor, which is a stereotype of ‘the night after the party’. Again the video is including stereotypical images to make the narrative easier to follow.

• Lighting is used in this video to make the video clearer. For example, there is bright lighting during these frames, showing it is the day after the party. Where as the lighting when the lead singer is looking for the girl at the party is darker, showing that it’s a flashback. The contrast of lighting also demonstrates to the audience the different periods of time. The use of the dark lighting on the singer at the beginning also reflects his miserable mood.

• The camerawork starts with the camera tracking the lead singer as he walks to the party. This makes the audience feel like they are moving with him and encourages them to feel part of the video and share the experience. The camera tracking is also slow like the pace of the song. There are a lot of close ups throughout the video and the use of a point of view shot when he sees her coming out of the toilet after she cheated on him, allows the audience to feel part of it, as though they experiencing what he is experiencing. This allows the audience to connect with the lead singer and possibly to feel empathy therefore encouraging them to empathise with the lyrics.

• The editing of the music video is slow paced, resembling the slow pace of the song and also the sad mood of it. When the lead singer is looking for the girl, it is almost as if it is slow motion this emphasises his mood and the overall tone of the song.

ED SHEERAN – THE A TEAM• ‘The A Team’ is an acoustic/ pop/ alternative song. Acoustic music comprises music that solely

or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means. The retronym "acoustic music" appeared after the advent of electric instruments, such as the electric guitar, electric violin, electric organ and synthesizer.

• This music video uses narrative structure throughout the video and there is no band performance. The narrative is told in a circular way, the video starts at the end. It is told from another perspective, a person watching the girls life. The song is actually written about a real experience Ed Sheeran had with a young lady he met at a youth hostel, and he has based the video from his POV.

I think the audience for this video will mainly be under 25s, who are Ed Sheeran’s main target audience.

• Within the video there are many close ups of the protagonist. This creates a feeling of sympathy from the audience towards the protagonist because the lyrics link to what they are seeing. The video is very serious and deeply moving, the audience are supposed to feel great sympathy for the protagonist throughout the narrative and the close ups achieve this by showing in great detail the emotions she is feeling.

• The lyrics in the chorus also focus on the girls physical features: “lately her face seems, slowly sinking wasting, crumbling like pastries.” The close ups therefore relate to the lyrics as they both focus on her face.

• The music begins when it has been established that drugs have killed the girl lying in the room – a good example of the fact the music doesn’t always have to start when the video does. I think the effect of this is that the audience understand exactly what the metaphorical lyrics are about before they begin – strengthening their understanding of the

• The shot when the music does start is a long shot of a girl lying on a bench with a sleeping bag. This expresses that she is unfortunate and doesn't have a place to live or sleep. This puts all focus on the protagonist as the audience want to know more about her and they ask questions about why she is there and what has happened to her. Therefore the long shot showing her physical position is working as a hook – something generally found in the opening scenes of films, books and plays – to draw in the audiences attention.

• The mise en scene also suggests that the girl is unfortunate because the costume she is wearing. She is wearing ripped tights and also a mans coat which is too big for her. Along with this she has thick make up on. The video shows she has turned to prostitution and thus entices the audience to sympathise with her.

• The lighting is very natural all the way through the video which makes it realistic showing the reality of the events the video demonstrates.

PITBULL – BACK IN TIME• Armando Cristian Pérez (born January 15, 1981), better known by his stage name Pitbull, is an American

rapper, songwriter, actor and record producer. Pitbull’s music fits mostly under the genre of hip hop.

• Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, or rap music is a music genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beat-boxing.

• There is never really a narrative storyline in Hip Hop videos it is more about a massive party with attractive women in skimpy outfits and lots of expensive things such as cars, houses and gadgets. The colours in the video are often quite bright which usually emphasises all of the expensive things like jewellery and brand named clothing. Other key components include:

-As the setting is usually a party there is often lots of people dancing and alcohol is usually present.

-Close ups are used to show the artists assets like expensive jewellery and also to show them singing the words.

-Mostly wide and long shots are used so that you can see a lot of expensive things.

- Fashion is usually a key factor in hip hop music videos.

• I think the audience for this video would either be fans of dance/ house music, or of the movie Men in Black 2.

• Back in Time does fit the conventions of its genre’s music videos as (pictured left) there are shots of the artist with women dancing around him in what resembles a club/ party.

• However, the song features in the 2012 film “Men in Black 2,” and therefore, as opposed to a narrative video edited between the artist lip syncing, there are intertextual references to the movie in the form of clips from the film.

• As well as clips of the movie being shown in the music video, the mise en scene for Pitbull’s shots connotes the movie too. For example Pitbull is wearing a black suit and tie with black sunglasses, a similar outfit to that worn by the actors in the film.

• There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals in many parts of the video. For example when the lyrics says “you’re the one,” Pitbul has a lady under his arm and points to her. Later on when the lyric “back in time” is repeated over and over, different wide shots of families in their living rooms are shown – but the families are clearly supposed to be from back in time.

• The costume and mise en scene are used in these shots quite stereotypically to make it clear that the families are not watching in 2012.

COLDPLAY - PARADISE• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G4isv_Fylg

• Coldplay are a British rock band who were formed in 1996 by lead vocalist, Chris Martin. The band’s genre has also been described as alternative rock and pop-rock. Coldplay are hugely successful; for example their 5th studio album, Mylo Xyloto, topped the charts in over 34 countries when released in 2011.

• The band has won a number of music awards throughout their career, including seven Brit Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, and seven Grammy Awards from twenty nominations. Coldplay have sold over 55 million records worldwide, making them one of the world’s best selling music artists.

• Coldplay have been an active supporter of various social and political causes, such as Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign and Amnesty International. The group have also performed at various charity projects such as Band Aid 20, Live 8, Sound Relief, Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief, The Secret Policeman's Ball, and the Teenage Cancer Trust. They also performed a large set list at the closing ceremony of The London 2012 Paralympic Games.

• Their video to “Paradise” is one of my favourite music videos of last year and has 150,993,185 views on Youtube.

• This video was directed by Mat Whitecross in 2011 and was filmed in South Africa and London

• The music video is narrative based and follows the tale of an Elephant (or more accurately, a man in an Elephant costume) who escapes from the zoo and is trying to find “paradise” – the title of the song. There is no performance from Coldplay in the video (apart from very end – but this is part of the storline) and it is entirely narrative based. I think Coldplay can do this as they are already so famous, people will immediately recognise their song and their work. The use of the narrative works well as it will make audiences talk about the video, as well as them wanting to re-watch it for the story.

• The establishing shots of the music video includes a sequence of titles including the production company and the band name – this almost gives it the feel of a movie. The effect of this shows how big Coldplay are as a band and how commercialised they have become. The location is in Africa where part of the music video is set. The establishing shot is followed by several other wide angle long shot location shots of Africa with the sunset which helps establish the narrative and location.

• Close up shots and wide shots are used often to show the journey (the theme of the video) the Elephant makes and to show the change in location and the storyline (as there is no dialogue.) The editing is also quite fast paced and quirky to keep the viewer interested – this also matches with the beat of the song.

• The video does contain some genre characteristics of rock, for example the band playing at the end in front of an audience. However, the story of an elephant escaping from a zoo isn’t generally seen. Coldplay have included humorous and sentimental values in the music video.

• I think the audience for this music video wouldn’t only be Coldplay fans, as because of the nature of the video, it would have had an almost viral effect. Considering it has over 150 million views on Youtube, over 738, 000 likes, and only 11, 000 dislikes, it is generally a popular video.