LF: Music Video Analysis

Sam Sparro - Black and gold:

Institution and Audience:

• how might the video be consumed? the song was very popular in the chart music category and many people downloaded the track. This means the video will be consumed on T.V channels.
• It is a Pop song so the channels will be very up to date and the younger audience will be consuming the video.
• The video could be consumed with authenticity because the artist is present in the video and is lip syncing the lyrics. It is in slow motion and the lyrics are synced meaning the filming was filmed in a faster mode and slowed down.
• the viewing of the video is very ambient, but you can see a lot of effort has gone into the video. The iconography makes the video look expensive and the costumes are all identical. It is ambient because there is no narrative to the text and so you can pick up the video from anywhere and you don't have to watch it the duration of the time.
• the record label of the video would try to grasp as bigger audience as possible. From the video you can see there are bright lights and a lot of special effects and editing work that has gone into the video. Therefore it is promoting the artist in a special way that seems unreal and making his star image seem even more unreachable to people looking up to him. Even though the artist is an ordinary character in the video a lot of the time, the background and the clothes and mise en scene present in the video make it seem extraordinary.

DJ Fresh Ft. Sian Evans - Louder:

Genre and Narrative:

• Goodwin produced a theory on Genre Characteristics, and relationships between different aspects of a music video. Also in the theory is the notion of looking (voyeurism).
• This music is high tempo dance music, so you don not expect that of a heavy metal video that would be performance, but here we have a disjunctive and in some places amplified approach to a music video. Amplified actions such as the roller blading fast, when it says 'gotta move faster' is an example of an amplified action. the characteristics of the film reinforce the genre of the music.
• the relationship between music and visuals is apparent. The fast music and the fast cutting rate correspond and the action of the characters in the video to relate to the lyrics sometimes.
• There is no voyeurism in the text, it is as though the characters are being filmed like it is there own life, from a invisible camera POV. the music video does not 'break the fourth wall'
• This video could be considered art because there is a lot of talent in the video and the camera work respects the characters in the video.
• It could be considered commercial because the visuals represent the themes and ideas of a young generation. The young audience that will be watching the video - because they are related to the genre - will see this as art, because they enjoy the actions occurring, but the older generation will see it as a disjunctive video.
• It could also be considered art because all the movement will be very hard to capture, and will all the different camera angles, shots and distances, the producer has managed to fit in all the actions coherently and make a successful video to the audio. Some of the shots include a 180 pan, tracking shots (of the characters on skate boards and roller blades) and many establishing shots

Clean Bandit Dust Clears  

Media Language and Representation:

Media Language

• The message or purpose of the video – I believe the social message is that there are no limits on how far you can go, and in terms of this video they have represented that in the different locations they have gone. The extreme locations include an ice covered lake where a man in ice skating and a cliff edge. Therefore present an image to the audience that you can go to the edge of reality, close to the unreal.
• Matt Hansen believes that music videos are an art form and it is a place where ‘visual and narrative experiments can be distilled into a populist short from.’ This video can be seen as an art form because of the camera work and the minimal if not any special effects but still the video looks unreal due to the location and camera work of the silhouette of the ice skater in front of the sunlight.
• The camera is used to reinforce this, there are many longshots which establish the location and give the audience a clear understanding of the message that is being portrayed.
• The mise en scene and visual techniques are used to put the message across as the iconography involves the people playing violins in the outside and scenic location.
• Simulated performance like the drums being played on the ice. The slow motion on this scene allows the audience the to understand the freakish behaviour that is being done to promote the message of uniqueness.
• There are references to popular culture when the start of the video is set in a workshop where they are manufacturing the instruments they play later in the video. This is an everyday workplace and the audience can relate to this, and then cross cuts to the unique locations which some of the audience will don’t recognise as a popular culture. This creates a meaning because the same people are in the workshop as the strange locations and this reinforces the message that even if you are a normal average person, there are no limits as to where you can go or things you can do.

 Representation:

• How are the band/artist represented? The artists are present in the video which gives an authentic feel to the music. This improves their meta-narrative as the audience respect them for being there and not just letting the audience enjoy the music, but let the audience understand the artist is passionate about the music they produce.
• There are not many different social groups apart from the family that is present sitting around the dinner table. Here the lyrics are matched with the visuals and the lip syncing is acted by all the members. It is effective because they are all holding hands which show they are a close family and represents the family social group as close and unbreakable, which is what a ideal family is.

   Ideological discourse:

• The dominant idea that equality is important is reinforced by the music video as gender is shown equally by the use of both genres skating on the ice. This is a privileged action as it is in a beautiful scenic area under the sun, and not only the male gets the chance to skate on it but the female shows her talents when dancing on the ice. This is a dominant ideological discourse.
• It is the males and females in the workplace which further reinforces dominant ideology discourse that females are able to do as much and the same work as males in contemporary society. This ideology will be received by the audience positively and supports the message of the video that anyone can achieve anything, as in residual ideologies females would never be expected to work in a manual workshop and would never think they could.