1617 A2 Group 2: October 2016

GENRE: Pop (Solo Male)

MICHAEL JACKSON - "THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL" -- Laurie Ellis

Costumes

Michael Jackson is wearing casual clothing including

an undone-up denim shirt
black jeans
white shirt

Jackson may be wearing this to appeal to the average person or even working class people. This is because these are kind of the sort of clothing that the average working class person is wearing.

Props

The props include:

Old & worn-down cars
Litter
Graffiti

These props are used to further make the street look more dirty, run-down & almost abandoned.

The props also help the narrative of the music video. Jackson uses a couple of cars.

He stands on one to show off his dance moves in a bid to try & impress a girl. It also shows off his dance moves to the audience & possibly reflect a sense of superiority.
The girl that Jackson is stalking crawls through a car, Jackson follows her. This could be to make Jackson more cheeky & playful.

Location

The music video is set in a run down & quite poor urban area. The area is:

Dark & gloomy
Empty
Dirty

The reason for this could be to further appeal to working class people as they could be living or growing up in the sort of environment shown in the music video.

NICK JONAS - "CLOSE" -- Steven Hance

Costumes:

Nick Jonas is styled in this video to be wearing modern style themed clothes by having boots, khaki coat and a grey jumper. Which also helps blend in with the location of filming also.

Tove Lo's costume is also very simple in terms of colour, it also resinates with what Nick jonas is wearing which is the colours Kahki and Grey. and like Nicks costume, It fits in with the location as well.

Close to the Ending of the song, Nick Jonas and Tove Lo get into different costumes which is still fitting for the Song. But they get gender appropriate clothes to wear and its meant to symbolise how a relationship progresses.

Location:

The Location of the Music video is filmed in an abandoned military air hangar with only the two people ( Nick Jonas And Tove Lo ) this makes the video more focused towards the performers making the audience watch them so they get to know both their talents more than they did prior to the video.

Props:

The only prop used in the video is a steel chair that drags Nick Jonas and Tove Lo backwards and forwards to resemble their attraction to one another. its minimal in props but the way they use the chair is symbolic.

Conclusion:

This music video is very simplistic but can still portray the couple feeling close but having boundaries. The Chair in the video is used efficiently for the music video to work, being used ominously.

Part 1:

Performance

A performance is where the artist or band performs the song

Boney M. – “Rasputin”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16y1AkoZkmQ

Genre: Euro disco, pop

The group performs their song live on an in-door stage.
They wear funky costumes to make them more interesting towards the audience.
The lead vocalist dances with song – this probably makes the song more upbeat & interesting. This would entertain the audience rather than the group just standing & singing.

30 Seconds To Mars – “Closer to the Edge”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLqHDhF-O28

Genre: Progressive rock

The video features the band performing at a live concert. Not only does it show them singing, it also shows them interacting with the audience.
The purpose of the video is to show what the band are like at their concerts & encourage people to attend them.

Joy Division – “Love Will Tear Us Apart”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuuObGsB0No

Genre: Post-punk, synthpop

The band perform in an old studio rather than on stage.
There are a lot of close-up camera shots that showing the band performing their instruments & the lead singer performing the song.
The purpose of the video may be to try & focus on the band’s performance & skill with use of camera shots to show this.
The video may also show to the audience that the band is indie rather than a large & professional band. The location connotes this: the band are performing in an old, small & very basic studio. This would amaze the audience because they would usually expect bands to have professional studios.

Challenge: Billy Joel - "We Didn't Start the Fire"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g

Genre: Pop rock

Performance: The artist (Billy Joel) mostly appears performing the song during the chorus.
Narrative: The video features a white middle-class married couple who have the goal achieving the American Dream: a home, careers, & children.
Conceptual: The couple’s goal for the American Dream is symbolised by the kitchen being changed into a 1940s utilitarian turning, a 1950s Populuxe, a 1960s op art, 1970s earth-coloured tiles & macramé, & a 1980s black lacquer & granite bench tops.
- Every time Billy Joel appears, there is a photograph in the background of an iconic event being set on fire. This is to reflect the lyrics, with fire being a metaphor for the major events that had happened in second-half of the 20^th Century.

Narrative:

"You Belong With Me" – Taylor Swift

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNIsY6JdUw&list=PLEFpfXTUvxos-7EHqig2fiZRyBtLq8jde

This video has a very straight forward narrative, where Swift likes a guys that is in a relationship but they develop feelings for each other, when the guys girlfriend is caught flirting with another guy, he breaks things of with her, and then swift goes to prom with him and they end up together. This is a very cliché example of narrative music videos from this genre.

"If I Were a Boy" – Beyoncé

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpsOqh8q0M&list=PL9F8AB7E351363B01&index=8

This music video isn’t a classic narrative as it has an alternative meaning, although you are still following the story of someone getting upset that their romantic partner is flirting with someone they work with and doesn’t understand when they are being confronted about it. The artist looks at it from two perspectives, one from a woman’s point of view and one from a mans and shows the contrasts and how it makes the audience think differently.

"I’m Not the Only One" – Sam Smith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCkpzqqog4k&list=PLef7zrjm655LVEB52zkSGxRXDnXUCacNF&index=34

This narrative music video is about a wife finding out that her husband is cheating on her, but doesn’t tell him, instead she lets it drive her crazy and acts like everything is okay. Although this depicts a story, I feel that the scenes where she burns his cothes may have just been happening inside her head as once she’s done this she greets him with a smile at the door.

Challenge: A video that contains performance, narrative and conceptual elements

Panic! At The Disco: Miss Jackson ft. LOLO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUc_jXBD9DU

This has a narrative of the performer going to find the woman with the sword, and there is performance in the narrative, while the conceptual element is far more discrete it is still noticeable, as the part of the video where the smoke from the artists mouth goes into the woman’s mouth, as well as the part here he kills her can have the meaning interpreted by the audience, and is on its own rather abstract, therefore making it conceptual.

Conceptual:

Sia - "Alive"

This video is a pure dance video where there is no shown narrative making the video conceptual the MES in the video doesn’t relate to the lyrics making the video even more open to interpretation.

Skrillex and diplo: "Where are you now"

This video has some performance in the verses but in the chorus/dance part of the video there is a large amount of visual effects that don’t really make sense or have and relation to the lyrics making the video conceptual.

šRed Hot Chilli Peppers: "Californiacation"d
hot chili peppers: Calliforniacation

šThe reason why these are called conceptual videos is because it is left to the audiences interpretation. Some people will think of different outcomes for the same video and it makes the video feel a bit more unique with individuals instead of having the same message conveyed across to everyone. In this Music video, It goes through a type of old video game where it has different scenarios in different areas. Certain people will think that the music video shows how fake Hollywood is or it could perhaps show a story of what they were like before they became a band.

Sia: Big Girls Cry:

š This music video is different than other videos sia has done. Its only a close up on the dancer (Maddie Ziegler) doing a dance that can have many different meanings to other people. Sia did this so that her audience can be intrigued by the specific dance and it is unique in the genre the song belongs to. The Dance itself goes along with the song however the black background and the outfit that the dancer is wearing makes the video more mysterious than other music videos sia has done in the past.

Comparison:

šWith The red hot chilli peppers belonging to Alternative rock and Sia focusing around Pop genre, you can see that conceptual music videos can be used in different variety of genres. They both have different outlooks where Sias music video is very simplistic compared to The red hot chilli peppers music video. They both can have different meaning to their attended audience. They even have different techniques used because Red hot chilli peppers uses both the band members and augmented reality whereas sias video only focuses on one person throughout. Red hot chilli peppers also use performance of the band in their video as well whereas Sia only focuses on conceptual dance in her music video.

Part two:

Genre:

Sia: "The Greatest"

Genre: Pop

šThe conventions of pop genre are very evident in this music video. In the music video, The dance follows the beats of the song (strongly supported when they're in the hallway) and the setting also helps with the pop genre because it addresses to the song itself. This music video also follows the length that it should be for a pop song. It also has a set structure to the song that it follows throughout.

Disturbed: "Sound of silence"

Genre: Rock

šDisturbed Follow some of the conventions of the music genre, Its shown that there's piercings when it’s a close up of the singers face. The clothes are shown to be associated with the conventions of the genre because of their dark tones in the video. The filter also used is significant to the genre about the dystopian tones in the song. The facial expression shown by the singer can also associate with the genre of music and can be tied in with what the song is about.

Comparison:

šBoth of the videos follow only a small minority of the conventions of both pop and rock genres however, they do follow some of the main conventions of both genres. Both are very different because pop is known for being energetic for its colors, settings, Choreography and the beats of the song to be repetitive. Whereas rock songs are known to be dark, rebellious, dark colored clothing and the locations to be quite grim and messy.

Symbolism:

Britney Spears – “Everytime”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YzabSdk7ZA

The video features a narrative where Spears & her boyfriend are harassed by photographers & paparazzi. This results in a fall out with her boyfriend & herself getting an injury (supposedly leading to her death).

The purpose of the video is to reflect the stress that she (& possibly other celebrities) comes across as a result of being famous, & that it affects her personal life. The video is supposed to draw sympathy towards her.

Olly Murs, featuring Demi Lovato – “Up”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29GWMT0GB6s

The video features Murs & Lovato standing in two rooms separated by a wall. They begin to wreck their rooms by throwing stuff around. In the end, Murs uses a guitar to break a hole into the wall. After a hole is made, he & Lovato look upon each other.

The wall is supposed to symbolise a barrier with 2 loved ones on each side. Murs using a guitar to break through the wall is to symbolise him breaking down the barrier of the relationship.

Comparison

Britney’s portrays her symbolism through a narrative while Murs & Lovato use a more performance & conceptual structure.

Britney forwards the symbolism directly to audience, making it obvious at what the meaning is. For Murs & Lovato, there is not a solid meaning put forward. Instead it can be interpreted by the audience.

Wednesday, 26 October 2016