Pop music video genre analysis

Pop music video analysis 1

Ellie Goulding - Burn


Ellie Goudling, Burn is a conventional pop music video, this is because it contains many of the conventions of a pop video, to begin with, we see that her costume is urban wear such as shorts and shirt, trainers and gold chain. These are all stereotypical teenage wear. The costume designer has specificaly chosen this outfit because it suits the genre of pop as it's colourful and modern again allowing teenagers to be able to relate to this type of fashion, Also within editing you can see that it is in time to the music, again this is extremely conventional of music videos under the genre of pop. The camera work mainly shows close ups on Ellie Gouldings face, enabling us as the audience to see her face to see her facial expresions to show that it's a happy song, this is important when making a pop music video, firstly because they are mainly happy and up beat however you also want the artist within the music video to appear happy, otherwise the music video won't come across happy.

For example here you can see that she is wearing shorts, jacket and trainers. Again these
are fashionable well known clothing brands, and likely to inspire
her audience on wearing similar items of clothing.

Below you can see an example of editing on the beat of the music, this is a common feature through out the whole music videos.

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Furthermore in the music video you can see other uses of camera work, such as eye contact. Eye contact is important. Eye contact is the only chance the artist has to connect with the audience, and again make the audience feel as though they are part of the music video. Again with editing, the eye contact is normally on screen for a long period of time so it is editing to the beat of the music and has alot of on screen time. Below you can see an example of the eye contact and it's on screen time in comparison to other clips.


                                    


Lastly mis-en-scene, the setting for a pop music video must be chosen carefully, pop videos are normally set somewhere bright or scenic, for example in Ellie Gouldings music video she is on a field (we can see this through an establishing shot at the beginning) then leads onto a air port run way, however in this music video the locations are exotic and stand out among others, again making this a common convention of music videos. Below you can see some examples of this.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin - Dancing in the distraction factory


Andrew Goodwin had a theory that there are three types of music video, Illustration, Amplification and Disjunctive

Illustration - This is where the music video is always cut on the beat of the music, the images in the music video illustrate literall meaning or feeling of the lyrics and the band members are likely to be in the music video singing. This is mainly shown in pop videos, below there are some examples: Taylor swift - you belong with me. Katy Parry -T.G.I.F and Avril Lavigne - what the hell. All the videos have use of illustration where they are singing and dancing around to the lyrics.

  
                          Taylor Swift - You Belong with me  


   
                                        Katy Perry - T.G.I.F

  
                               Avril Lavigne -  what the hell


Amplification: This is where the music videeo cuts on and off the beat for emphasis on the lyrics. Imagery is used to amplify the lyrics and narrative, The band members are likely to take on a fictional role. Videos such as this are done normally by Indie groups but also known bands, the examples ill be using are from the 1975 - Robbers and Maroon 5 maps. Both of these music videos are not clear without a music video as the audience have their individual interpretation of the song. However the music video is their to create more emphasis and understanding of the song itself.

   
                                          Maroon 5 - Maps

    
                                   The 1975 - Robbers
                                                                   

Lastly, disjuntive editing. This is where the music video is cut off time (however not always) you have to be carefully as it can come across as a badly edited music video. The imagery isnt related  to the lyrics. This technique is normally used by well known bands, the bands image can be shown as nothing to what they are like. The examples here will be Daft punk - Da funk (in this music video there is no main narrative, its a clear example of disjunctive editing) and wont look back -Duke Demount.


     
       
                                        Daft Punk - Da funk


        
                                    Duke Demount - Wont Look back

Carol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis - The kindest cut

Carol Vernallis analysed editing in music videos and Hollywood film, she identified distinct approaches to each.

In comparison, music videos have incomplete and obscure paths where as Holly Wood has single clear paths. This means that in music videos we normally see them in multiple places where as in Holly Wood film it has to be in the correct order otherwise it wouldn't make sense to the audience watching. Furthermore the order of shots in a music video aren't in any particular order as we can cut between shots of the lead singer in different locations. However in Holly Wood film it's normally in chronological order and making sense as you can't cut between shot locations, again as it wouldn't allow the film to make sense.

Above you can see an example from the Chris Brown music video New flame where the location changes, however if you was to this in a music video it would not make sense.

Furthermore, in music video there isn't a unity of time space or character. This means that there's no specific role to the video such as the lead singer can play take on any narrative or role at once, however if this was to be in a film there is a set role and narrative and wouldn't make any sense to the audience if they was to watch the film, again emphasising that there is more of a open area to music video in comparison the HollyWood films. There is also an element of Discontinuity in music video Vernallis said that pop videos draw us away from the narrative by foregrounding. There for taking us away from the fact that it's not realistic, with having the music and the celebrity. However within film there is continuity. The film is created to draw a narrative and make people want to watch it because of this reason.

Lastly, for music videos there's visual hooks creating continuity, there is then non continuous shots linked by a single feature such as shape, figure, colour and setting. Sometimes all elements are equal however some are more dominant than others (only music video specific) and example of this would be in pop videos where they have multiple bright colours to emphasis happiness.

Here you can see a screen shot from the pop video Taylor swift - you can see use of bright colours however it's of the night, where as if you was to have a movie it would likely seem more realistic by having darker colours.

Overall Carol Vernallis showed that there is a clear difference between music video editing and film editing, as you don't want your music video appearing as though it's a film, so it is important that you have an understanding of the different ways both film and music videos are edited.

Brief

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