Styles and Conventions of a Music Video.

Conventions of a music video are based on the different techniques used to create and construct a stereotypical music video. With conventions the audience becomes familiar with the genre as certain conventions are used to recognize the different genres of the music played. For example at 1:07 there is a shot of people gambling money holding alcohol bottles in hand, this shows the hip hop genre throughout this music video. It provides a structure for the audience to understand along with the assurance of the lyrics fitting in with the music video, of how we would expect it to be. An example of a hip hop music video with the expected conventions of dancing, women, money and alcohol would be Biggie Smalls - Big poppa.

Performance in a music video. 

A performance music video mainly consists of an artist singing  with a routine at the camera as if the camera is the audience, this creates a feel that you are watching a live show or a gig. It also makes it seem as if the audience is part of the crowd. By creating this atmosphere for an audience member, puts a great impact for them wanting to actually go to the concert of the artist and see them live. A good example of performance in a music video would be Beyonce - Love on top. The video itself is engaging and exciting with the long dance routines at 1:40 and costume changes from 1:42 when she is wearing a leotard and to 1:44 were she is wearing a gold suit, to bring in the audience. By having this style of a music video makes fans want to watch her which means she has more of an income from sell outs from her tour dates, and album buying's. The video itself ends as if Beyonce is in a rehearsal with her back up dancers, this sends out a message to her fans saying if her music video is this good, you should come to a live performance. By doing a performance in front of a camera also gives a range of camera angles which is different from a performance in a concert when you only get one view from where you are standing. One camera angle shown in the music video would be at 2:00 which is a high angle which really shows the establishing shot of the performers and beyonce herself. Another shot but this time with a low angle is at 2:08. This really makes Beyonce look like a powerful figure as she looks much bigger from a low angle.If i were take any techniques from this style, i would take the amount of camera angles that are shot throughout the 3 minute 17 second video to give more of a variety for a viewer to witness. The high angle shot at shot that is used at 0:11 is used really well as you are able to see both the dancers and Beyonce herself. This is a great technique to use as it gives the full image of the dancers in the background, i would try to interpret this particular shot and technique somewhere in my music video to fit in as many visuals as possible without it looking messy. 

Narrative.
A narrative is usually a story line to match with the lyrics of the song which can portray a range of different emotions and opinions throughout the music video. It can also send a message or open the eyes of viewers. Which is a good way to keep the audience involved and engaged throughout the whole music video, this also gets the song heard. An example of a music video with a strong narrative would be Kelly Rowland - Stole. The song itself highlights three different stories throughout. The three stories displayed throughout the video are, Mary, a beautiful popular girl who gets pregnant and ruins her chances of fame, which is said in the chorus at 0:55 "Mary's got the same size hands as Marilyn Monroe she puts her fingers in the imprints at Mann's Chinese Theater Show". A boy that gets badly bullied at school for being a "geek" and eventually kills himself which is shown at 1:05 which really connects to the audience, he kills himself due to other problems in his life which is said in one of the verses in the song, "They're crying to the camera said he never fitted in, he wasn't welcome. Finally a boy who was really talented at basketball which is said in the lyrics "had a try-out with the sixers" but jealous classmates had shot and taken his life away at 2:40.The purpose of a narrative is to portray a lesson, or a powerful meaning to spread to the audience. The video itself draws the audience in as they continue to watch the rest of the video because they want to know what the ending of the video is. The video brings a response from the audience and raises awareness of the reoccurring problems that happen in today's society. The tears shed in this video at 1:24 can really connect to the viewers at home as they could have possibly been involved with something as traumatic as this.  A great thing about this video is that it was released in the year 2002, as it still raises eyebrows of the viewers today. A narrative would be a really good style to put into my music video as it is a great way to engage an audience which is vital to an artist. The narrative i would use would be something that is close to my age range, this is because when showing my music video i would want the people who see it to maybe feel connected to the video. 

Animation 
Animation in music videos are either done with stop motion or they are digitally animated. By using animation the music video itself comes across as different and unique with different styles of animation. The use of animation keeps the audience engaged and into the music video. A really good example of a video that has used animation successfully would be Kanye West - Good Life. Throughout the video the words said in the lyrics are often put on the screen in funky literal ways which amuse the audience keeping them on their toes and intrigued. An example of this is shown straight away in the video at Kanye himself spells out "The Good Life" at 0:01. The animation used throughout the video is very cartoon like and exciting, with the lyrics on the screen, the music video is also like a lyric video as the words appear at 0:33 which makes the audience want to sing along to the easy and fun lyrics. The music video is very literal, an example of this would be when Kanye says "Now throw your hands up in the sky" as soon as he says this, there is an animation of people putting their hands up at 0:28. Even though the video may have been very time consuming using other aspects such as green screen, it definitely had been pulled of well with an outcome of a successful music video. By having such a good music video with animation, Kanye has set the bar for this career when it comes to music videos which means he has set himself a good reputation when it comes to releasing new music videos. Although animation is a good style to have as it can be creative as you want it to be, it is very time consuming, because of this flaw i wouldn't be able to add in any animation as the ethos for my music video will have to be shot and edited within 24 hours. This is a shame as i would of loved to add in some kind of animation to put my skills to the test to make the video the best it can be.  

Intertextuality as Pastiche 
Intertextuality as pastiche in music videos is where one media text refers to another one. Loads of artists has used this specific style in their music videos to keep reference to significant events, people or photos. By refering to other bits of media in their music videos make their own videos well known and popular, as the audience would want to see the artists take on the reference they are making. A good example of this style would be Material Girls - Madonna. In this specific music video Madonna makes an obvious reference to the iconic Marilyn Monroe in 'Diamonds are forever' from the way she is dressed at 0:49. The whole location and setting of the background also represents the idea of Marilyn Monroe. In the original footage Marilyn is wearing a pink dress along with Madonna wearing a similar dress in her own music video. Also there are men in suits around each woman holding love hearts at 1:03. Because Marilyn Monroe was so big through the 50s and 60s the audience straight away know that Madonna is using her video as her muse. Intertextuality also adds the humor side to the music video even if the artist themselves aren't actually mocking the video intentionally. 

 

Intertextuality as a Parody. 

Intertextulaity as parody in music videos is when another artist or someone decides to take the original video and make their own much more funny version. By making the original a parody, there is extra humor added from the changing to the lyrics or completely adding new lyrics to mock the original artist. An example of a parody that has gone viral with currently 12, 814,642 views would be Miley Cyrus - Wrecking ball. The lyrics have been completely changed to gain the funny aspect to the music video. An example of this would be at 0:08 where he says "Remember when I was a 10, and did not look like a guy". In the original version Miley actually says We clawed, we chained our hearts in vain"  He completely takes the simplest things Miley does and over exaggerate them to make the song and video much more funnier. The shots used throughout the parody are very similar to the original for example we see in the beginning of the original video a close up of Miley's face at and in the parody we see a close up of the man pretending to be miley, singing into the camera like she was at 0:01. The parody has completely copied Mileys Image in the original even though the person who is pretending to be Miley is male, he is still wearing the red lipstick, fake eyelashes as shown throughout the whole video. This makes the video funny too because he is a man pretending to be a woman. Parody's get a lot of media attention as it is engaging to watching rather than watching the boring video. The purpose of a parody video would be to entertain and humor the audience which is done successfully in this video. Even the video can only be aired on YouTube mainly, it still did very well with over 11 million views. Although parody is very successful with grabbing the audiences attention it is very hard to pull it off at the same sucess which is why i wouldn't personally want to do a parody music video. 

Parody.

Original.

Interpretative In Music Videos. 

The whole point of a interpretative music video is when the music video takes what is said in the lyrics and is put directly into a story. This can be done through a narrative, animation or special effects. Many artists choose not to use this style as it may be very simplistic and basic. Rebecca Black - Friday is a good example of an artist using this style in her music video. At 0:29 says the words "Got to get down to the bus stop", when she says this straight away there is a literal sign that says bus stop on it. Another literal line she says in the song would be at 0:15 where this is an alarm clock saying 7:00am, as soon as we see this Rebecca says "7 am waking up in the morning"The music video is targeted at a much younger generations as the lyrics relate to the life of a teenager. The lyrics connect with thus age range as Friday is the best day of the week for them as they get to come home for the weekend. The song itself is really catchy and gets caught on much quickly than other songs because of the lyrics and the upbeat tempo of the song. By having the song repeated, Rebecca Black became well known and even appeared in the Katy Perry song TGIF (Thank god its Friday) 

Impressionist in Music Videos

Impressionist music videos means imagery that matches the pace of the song but not necessarily the lyrics. An example of this concept Kanye West ft Rihanna and Kid Cudi - All of the Lights. This video style uses elements of surrealism or animation at 1:09 which is then  meshed into one to make the music video much more edgy and interesting. The elements involved in the music video match the atmosphere of the song, however some clips do not. In the beginning of the music video there is a little girl at 0:23  seen walking alone outside the building into the streets. The black and white effect makes the shot look miserable and dark bringing the mood down along with the acoustic version of the song being played from 0:00 to 1:08. This scene has no relevance whatsoever to the lyrics because its about what Kanye has been through in a metaphorical way. The lyrics "cop lights" and "Strobe Lights" present the police and the good side to the lights such as cameras flashing from the paparazzi. Even though the beginning has violins setting quite a downer on the mood too the music video fools the audience into thinking its going to be about this little girl. This straight away brings the attention of the audience to wonder why Kanye had done this in this music video. It leaves a sense of mystery behind it making the viewer watch it more. The whole video is vibrant and very flashing which represent the concept of the song "All of the Lights" 

Surrealism/ Abstract Music videos

Music videos with surreal or abstract footage often hold an element of surprise as all sorts of different and strange things can happen. The visuals and the lyrics are usually not matched, which makes the video seem out of place leaving a sense of mystery. A good example of this style would be Portugal The Man - So American. The video itself is very strange with lyrics that don't even match what we see. The video begins with a man dressed in all white sitting in a chair at 0:13 which shows that he is quite powerful, however he is also disabled as he is missing an eye. The next shot is of children digging and then suddenly men appear with guns, which could possibly represent child labor at 0:58. Closer to the end of the video the men evaporate and then in the guy in the white chair from the beginning of the video has somehow transported to the real world and end with a half naked man going into a pool of milk which the children made at 3:27. Overall this video is very peculiar as raises a lot of eyebrows with thoughts of confusion running through the minds of the viewer. The lyrics that are repeated throughout the song is "There is madness in all of us" this could show the mental side humans could possible have even if they are not aware of it. The artist is trying to send this message to the audience by repeating it over and over so it sticks in the audiences head. Surreal music videos raise a lot of awareness and attentions to the audience as it definitely keeps them watching to see what happens in bizarre and strange videos. The artist gets much more recognition though videos like this and the institution would love to continue videos like that simply because of the publicity the artist gets. 

The beginning of the video, the man without the eye.