CJ - Music Video Essay

“Music videos are simply a tool for promoting an artist”. With reference to two music videos, how far do you agree with this statement?

• Music videos are the selling point of the song, and are a dominating factor in success or failure. Music videos are used to entice audiences into giving the artist a chance, and further more gaining their interest for the future. Music videos can be of many different natures and styles, however the vast majority of music videos involve the singer being depicted as a supernatural and almost ‘extra-ordinary’ character, in which people should look up to. 
• The theory is regularly present throughout the mainstream music industry with big artists such as Rihanna and Beyonce releasing videos in which are used to sell both the song and the artist themselves. The idea that music videos are merely a tool for promotion however is not the exact case, however the main purpose of a music video is to help advertise the song released and gain public recognition.
• ‘Work’ by Iggy Azalea is a common example of a fetishistic music video in popular culture. The video is used to sell the artist through the process of sexism and depicts an artificial character in which is used as a commodification for male consumption. Dismemberment is used throughout the video to help gain the attention of audiences especially male, and highlight key areas of the artist in which are shown to be perfect and sexy. 
• Theorist Andrew Goodwin (1993) studied the theory of conventions linked with music genre’s and the video style used. ‘Work’ supports the theory that music video’s contain conventions in which are associated with a particular genre; The artist and song are largely mainstream with the song being of a pop/rap genre. 
• This style of song usually involves a music video containing girls in skimpy costumes with artificial looks e.g fake boobs, big bums etc. The woman shown are also given the directions to display feminine touches and are set in function rankings so that they are given a stereotypical, passive role in order to please the male audience. ‘Work’ by Iggy Azalea is conventional to that of its genre and posses all the qualities and features in which would be recognised with the type of artist.
• ‘Somebody that i used to know’ by Gotye (ft.Kimbra) is that of a completely different genre and style compared to ‘work’ by Iggy Azalea, However both songs where successful in the mainstream line-up. 
• ‘STIUTK’ is traditionally from the Indy genre, however due to the nature and the projected popularity of the song it does not completely follow the basic framework of other Indy products. ‘STIUTK’ is matched with a simple, however artistic music video, allowing for a fairly unique and original idea in which helped embrace the audience.
• Many Indy genre music videos pose innovative twists and are known for their simple yet unusual features. 
• The conventions shown throughout the video contrast significantly to that shown in ‘Work’ however unusually both appealed to the same mainstream audience.
• Structuralist, Roland Barthes came up with the idea of narrative codes and proposed the idea that audiences were in-fact active and would have their own ideas on situations. The narrative throughout ‘STIUTK’ is constructed through semic codes, with the story having a simple meaning and the video posing helping to concentrate the audiences attention on what the lyrics said mean.
• The statement “Music videos are simply a tool for promoting an artist” is extremely broad considering the many genres and styles, however describes the basic purpose of a music video. Artists use music videos to promote themselves, their beliefs, values etc and it all adds up to give them recognition for the future and to help them grow in the music industry. 
• Some artists are more interested in selling themselves through their videos where as others are concentrated on making their video special and unique. As different as all music videos are, their basic meanings all add up to the same purpose off selling the product and gaining the artist a higher status.