What is a Music Video? By James

Taylor

Peter Fraser defines a music video as:

‘A short, moving image product, shot for the express purpose of accompanying a pre-existing music track and used to encourage of sales of the music in another format.’

Sven E Carlsson says that:

‘One of the most common methods of analysis is to break up the music video into black and white boxes. Almost everything is then perceived as opposites – trash or art, commerce or creativity, male or female, naturalism or antirealism, etc.’

Music Videos

For our A2 Media course we have decided to create a music video.I believe a music video is a short film which matches a song with imagery. The purpose of music videos are for promotional purposes and to get word of mouth spread about the song, artist and video.A typical music video features imagery of the artist performing, with a storyline following the lyrics and rhythm of the song. Music videos will vary depending on the genre and pace of the music. They are most commonly seen on music TV channels and websites such as YouTube and Vevo.

LyricsLyrics commonly affect the location and goings on featured in the music video. An example of this would be Rizzle Kicks’ music video ‘Down With the Trumpets.’ The song regularly includes the word ‘trumpet’ and the instrument is often displayed in the video. Rarely however will a music video illustrate the lyrics word for word.

VoyeurismVoyeurism is often featured in music videos of many genres. It is the idea that humans gain erotic pleasure by looking at a sexual object (preferably when the object is unaware of being watched). Voyeurism is one of the key aspects so many people watch music videos. An example of this would be Miley Cyrus’ music video ‘Wrecking Ball.’ Here she is featured naked swinging on a wrecking ball. This attracted attention in the media and on social networking sites. Miley has done this to promote her image and attract the male audience. This has attracted much controversy to promote herself

Music

The pace of the song will affect the way the music video is edited. A fast paced song will normally have lots of cuts, whilst a slow song would have less cuts. The instruments being played will also affect the video because these regularly feature in music videos.

Our Choice

We have chosen to create a music video because we believe we can show off our talents more than if we shot a short film. This is because we have already shot a thriller film and look forward to the next challenge. We believe this is more of a challenge because of the lip syncing and fast paced editing involved with creating music videos. Also, we understand we will need many locations and costumes. We are looking to show off our talents in another area after achieving a successful thriller opening in Year 12.