Lesson 1 - 13/09/12

What is the point of a music video? 

• To create a recognisable image that will appeal to a target audience.
• Marketing tool for the Artist/Band. 
• To increase airplay of the song,
• It creates more interest within the album.
• Sells Singles/Albums and the Artist.

Media Theorist:

• Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin was a media theorist in who wrote about music videos and suggested that basically all of them follow certain rules/ codes and conventions.

The Codes and Conventions:

1. The record company's demand for exposure of the artist will mean a lot of close-up shots of the singer/band.
2. There will be a relationship between the music and the video
3. There will be a relationship between the lyrics and vision. 
4. Genre characteristics will be shown for example rock music videos show live perormances, hip hop videos show images of wealth and a 'gangster' lifestyle and boy bands will feature dance routines.
5. There will be references to the notion of looking, for example - TV screens, mirrors and people looking at the audience. (Voyeurism)
6. The video will include some form of a inter-textual reference.

Ways to analyse a music video: 

• Performance
• Narrative and other visual elements
• Genre characteristics
• Cinematography
• Mise en scene
• Editing
• Notion of looking
• Intertextual referencing 

A lot of the above will overlap, it will be easier to analyse the video chronologically.

Jay Z- 99 Problems - Analysis

• Scopophillia is not used that frequently therefore the visuals are portraying a relationship to the song. 
• Shows a typical 'thug life' through the use of narrative and genre characteristics - Hip Hop.
• Close ups of street signs to create awareness of the location.
• Relationship between visuals and lyrics ''I got 99 problems but a bitch aint one'' zooms into a woman.
• Jay Z always features a notion of looking as he looks directly at the audience.
• Relationship between lyrics and visuals 'Talks to the lord'' Zooms into Jesus.
• Hip Hop genre shows typical characteristics; graffiti, police, criminality, style, chains around neck, baseball caps, big jacket, baggy jeans, derogatory treatment towards women 'Bitch' -focusing on a dog and then cuts to a woman, women in bikinis, illegal dog fighting, prison fences, set in Brooklyn, run down, basketball courts, balaclavas, gun shoots, murder, street dancing. 
• The black and white effect represents a ghetto style and maybe contradicting old American films that make everything seem perfect - The American Dream. It also creates a more dull and run-down effect.