Music Video introduction blog task

This week's work requires Media Factsheet #69: Music Video. You'll need to log in to Google using your Greenford Google account to access this. Read the factsheet and answer the following 10 questions:
1) What is the purpose of a music video?

• The purpose of a music video is to sell products

2) How has the digital age changed the production and distribution of music videos?

• the development of new media technologies meant that music videos, and the songs along with them, were more widely available at any time.

3) Which three major record labels are behind VEVO? What is VEVO and why was it created?

• Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Abu Dhabi Media

4) What are the key conventions of a music video?

• Movement (Moving the camera, people moving/dancing or speed of editing)
• Narrative (May relate to the song's lyrics and illustrate what is being said or be independent and tell its own story.)
• The band or artist
• lip syncing or playing instruments

5) How can narrative be used in music video? Give an example of a music video that uses a narrative.

• The storyline may relate to the song’s lyrics and illustrate what is being said or be independent from the song and tell a different story. For example, I Was a Teenage Anarchist by Against Me! features a loose narrative which links to the song’s lyrics. The video features a young man running along Venice Beach trying to avoid the police who are chasing him, indicating that he is a rebel or ‘anarchist’.

6) What examples are provided in the factsheet for intertextuality in music videos?

• The Blink 182 video for All the Small Things makes references to videos by pop artists such as Back Street Boys (I Want it That Way) and Christina Aguilera (Genie in a Bottle) by directly copying scenes.
• The video for My Chemical Romance’s Teenagers features ‘alternative’ cheerleaders, which is reminiscent of the cheerleaders in the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.

7) Why do audiences enjoy intertextual references in media products?

• Audiences enjoy intertextual references as when they recognize the reference they feel pleasure and are able to discover a deeper meaning of the product that a general audience may not understand.

8) Read the music video example analysis on page 3 of the factsheet. Select a music video of your own choice for each of the following headings and explain how each one links to the heading:

Conventions (movement/narrative/artist)

Dua Lipa - Training Season

• Throughout the music video there is constant movement be it through the background actors surrounding Dua, the set spinning or the camera rotating around her, all of these things also lead to Dua being the main focus of the video as everything seems to revolve around her. Furthermore the video shows a narrative of different men trying to get with Dua who seems uninterested linking to the lyrics about how "training season's over" showing that she's looking for a more mature person.

Intertextuality

 MISAMO - Do not touch

• This music video features references to many famous paintings such as The Birth of Venus, The Swing, The Tree of Life and The Starry Night, all of these references link to the lyrics of the song as they are all things that you can only look at and aren't supposed to touch.

Representation

beabadoobee - Take A Bite

• The music video takes place in a city and so features many of the people and things you may see in a city e.g old people, people of different races, cafes, cars etc

Audience

 Porter Robinson - Everything Goes On 

• This music video was made in collaboration with Riot Games for their game "League of Legends" and so features characters from the game as they would be something that the intended audience is familiar with and so will draw in more people to watch the video.

9) Watch the video for Ice Cube's It Was A Good Day (1993). How did this video set the conventions for later hip-hop music videos?

• The music video shows some key conventions that are still seen in the hip-hop music genre to this day like low camera angles and the artist being surrounded by a group to reinforce the idea that they have a lot of power,  references to money and violence and crime are also seen in this video which are all things that have become prevalent in the hip-hop music genre. Furthermore there is the objectification of women for the male gaze 

10) How important do you think music videos are in the marketing and promotion of music artists today? Are music videos still essential to a band or artist's success? You need to form your own opinion here.

• I believe that music videos are more important in modern day then they were in the past as they are one of the main ways that audiences are exposed to new songs as they can be shared on different platforms allowing new people to be exposed to the song that they might otherwise have never seen before, music videos can also help build hype for an artists new album or upcoming release