What is a dance music video?

By Chloe Carman

“Music Video is not primarily a commodity form but a promotional one.”- Andrew Goodwin, 1992

A music promo video is a artistic image product to accompany a pre-existing piece of music to encourage sales of the song, artist and albums. The video constructs an image for the artist/band performing the track as well as marketing their other existing products and giving them a fan base. The style and content of the music video generally fits the brand identity of the band/artist.

• Music videos can be divided into three sub-genres:

• Narrative- tell a story

• Performative- shows the band/artist performing

• Conceptual- There is no story as such but the video follows a theme or abstract concept.

Performative/PerformancePerformative- performance is when the video consists mainly of the artist continuously performing the song in the video, but there is no narrative to it or any other scenes in the video. This style of music video isn’t as common, as music videos that solely dedicate to the performance are not as popular due to the target audience struggling to engage with the song or video. A good example of a Performative video is Beyoncé's ‘Love on top’. This example consists of Beyoncé dancing and singing along to her song along with other dancers. There is no narrative with in this video, however they used costume and lighting to display the performance in a creative way, making it more interesting to watch.

NarrativeNarrative music videos follow a story line that either matches or relates to the lyrics of the song. There are two types of narrative: Linear and Fragmented. A linear narrative follows the basic story structure of a beginning, a middle and an end, and flows through the story as the song progresses. A fragmented narrative is one that jumps from scene to scene and doesn’t follow the same structure. The order of the scenes are usually mixed around, for example you could see the end before you watch the beginning. An example of a Linear music video is Katy Perry’s ‘Thinking of you’ as it follows the story from beginning to end.

ConceptualConceptual is when there is no story line to it, and the video itself is quite abstract in the way that you have to work out what’s happening in the video. An example video is Tinnie Tempah’s ‘Pass out’ video, as the choreography, the song title and the setting don’t match up.

MixtureA mixture is combining two or more sub-genres to create a unique and more interesting style to a music video. This can include performative and narrative, so you have a story happening, but it cuts to the artist/band singing the song, or have a conceptual piece with no narrative, but on the odd occasion cut to the singer. An example of this is Kelly Clakson’s ‘Since you been gone’

Dance music videoA Dance music video can be a cross between the sub-genres depending on the content. If the video has the artist performing in the video along side other dancers than its performative, however if its just a dancer and the artist is not present (for example Sia's ‘Chandelier’) then it comes under the sub-genre conceptual. The benefits of making a dance music video conceptual is that the audience has to work out what’s going on, and they have to think deeper into the meaning of the song.

Cameo

Cameo is another style of video where the artist features in the video, however they do not perform in it. An example is Drake and Rihanna’s ‘What’s my name’. They are both in the video, but at no point do they perform.

Camera TechniquesThe way the camera is operated is essential for the production and the style of the video. Different angles, shot and movements can give the video a different effect and style. Generally music videos contain a variety of techniques to make the video more interesting to watch, and to make each video unique and to fit the genre and the artitst/bands style.

Camera shots

Music videos feature various shots to connect the audience with the mood of the video. Camera shots include:Very wide shotWide shotmid shotMedium close upClose upExtreme close upOver the shoulder shotCut in

Camera anglesThere are many different angles used in the production of music videos to convey different meaning, and to make the video more aesthetically pleasing to watch. Angles include:Eye-LevelHigh AngleLow AngleBird’s EyeSlanted

Camera movementsThe camera moves to follow the artist or to follow the story so the audience know what is happening. Movements can include panning and tracking. A director can chose between following the narrative wit a series of cuts, going from one shot to another, or to move the camera with the action.Pan- The camera scans a scene horizontally. The camera is on a tripod, which operates as a stationary axis point as the camera is turned, often to follow a moving object which is kept central to the frame.

Dolly/Tracking- The camera is mounted on a cart which travels along tracks for a very smooth movement. Also known as tracking.

Editing TechniquesFinal cut pro is a music video editing software that we can use to edit our music videos. Other software’s include iMovie.

Editing is the middle process of production that puts together the shots and cuts to create the final product. The transition between the shots is edited to make the whole video run smoothly. During editing you can add effects, cut down clips and add the tracking to create an aesthetically pleasing video to watch.

Mise-En-SceneThe Mise-en-scene for a music video include: lighting, setting/location, props, costume, hair make up and colour. These elements are affected by the genre of the video. For example a Punk-Rock band would use dark colours such as black, deep reds, in their clothes and backing to match their image. They are used to convey the importance of people and their style.

Lighting- how the scenes are lit portrays the mood of the song.Location- the setting of video enhances the narrative of the story and tells the audiences what the video is about.Props- the props can often symbolize the mood of the video.Costumes- what the artist/performer is wearing is key to promotion as it gives the artist an image that they can sell.Hair and make up- enhances the artists image.Colour- matches the artists style/image and gives that artist a look.

Notions of looking- stereotypingNotions of looking elaborates upon stereotypes and lables that you may associate with a certain artist or group. The stereotypes are usually taken advantage of in many videos in order to appeal to specific target audiences.

A good example of this is ‘Knock you down’ by Keri Hilson ft Kayne West, Ne-Yo. This questions the dominance of females. Towards the beginning, we see an intimate hug where the man leans away portraying a cool and steady stance, while the female looks vunerable. This ideology allows males to idolise masculine behaviour as it guarantees a form of supremacy, this is enhanced as Keri lies seductively on the bed which questions whether she is a sexual object that that lures in the male audience.

Nevertheless, this perception is altered when Keri is the result of male confrontation. Keri stands tall by maintaining her posture that women idolise. This is then reiterated through the lyrics, the fact that its written in past tense signifies the end of the relationship. Her dominance is then shown, this is followed by demonstrating her resilience and power to change her current circumstances. From these levels, it is clear in saying that Keri is more commandeering as she looks down upon her partner.