Research: Controversial Music Video

I wanted to take a look at a controversial music video and for me, there is not much better an example than Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. It was released in March 2013 and became the best-selling single in the UK for the entire year. Here is the video. 

The unrated version of the Blurred Lines music video was so controversial that it was forced to be taken off of YouTube after just one week of being uploaded. However, the video reappeared on YouTube and Vevo two months later, but with an age lock, meaning only people aged 18 and over were intended to be able to access the video. They also released a censored version of the video, which interestingly has had 362,000,000 views on YouTube (as opposed to the uncensored version's 37,000,000 views). There are a few reasons the video caused such controversy.

Most obviously, there are boobs everywhere in this video. This is probably because it encourages the male gaze, which will pull in a larger audience for the video. Many people will argue that this video objectifies women and does not treat them with respect. The males are clearly represented as the superior gender and more powerful. This nudity also wouldn't be appropriate for a younger audience, which especially when the video was originally released, it would have been very easy for a child to find on the Internet. 

At one point, one of the females is seen to be riding a life-sized dog model, in a similar way to how one would ride a horse. To many people, this would be seen as implying that animal cruelty is acceptable and this is an appropriate way to treat a dog. This caused controversy because the video appears to be condoning treating animals in such a way. 

One of the females is also seen to be lighting a cigarette for Robin Thicke and he smokes it. He blows the smoke in the woman's face. Many people would see Robin Thicke as a role model and so to smoke in his music video implies that he is encouraging other people to do it, despite it being so dangerous. It is controversial that Robin Thicke is seen to be promoting smoking. 

There are also some big balloons that spell out "Robin Thicke has a big dick". They're fairly hard to miss - a bit like his penis apparently. This message promotes the idea that peoples' bodies matter, perhaps making others feel insecure about themselves. Also, having females with such perfect, stereotypical bodies also sends out the message to audiences that you should look like this and if you don't, then you are not as cool. 

Arguably, the controversy worked - having such a controversial music video and song lead this to be globally one of the most successful songs of the year. It gets people talking about it, listening and watching it together. This can be said for many controversial videos. 

Textual Analysis: Geronimo

To mix things up a bit, I have decided to analyse something a little less British. Geronimo is a song by Australian band Sheppard, and the music video was released summer this year. The pop song made it to number one down under, but hasn't even been released in the UK yet. The music video has over 1,000,000 views on YouTube - which isn't many - but as Sheppard are not very established artists yet, they have definitely got off to a good start!

This is a primarily narrative music video - although, the narrative is not particularly clear. The video features all of the members of Sheppard and is one of the quirkier videos I have studied whilst undertaking my research. It has some quite unrealistic concepts but you can't help but love it!

Applying Vernallis' Theory

This music video is most certainly a visual response to the lyrics of the song. The lyrics "say geronimo" are particularly relevant when there is a 'war' between the two armies. The pace and key of the music is also particularly reflective of the environment visually conveyed throughout the music video, also contributing towards the visual reinforcement of the song.

Additionally, the narrative is not particularly complete and is presented in a rather fragmented manner. As Vernallis propounded, not all questions are answered in this music video and the audience is left asking questions. For example, it is never revealed who exactly the mysterious girl is.

Also, the narrative is shown in a more montage-focus style. There is no distinct beginning, middle and end, although the narrative that is presented throughout the video does make sense. One way, for example, the narrative is presented more abstractly, is through the use of jump cuts. For example, there is one shot of Sheppard walking towards a house, and the next shot they are standing in the house speaking to a crowd of people. This jump cut helps the video to progress quickly, as it lasts under 4 minutes in total.

This video's diegesis is also revealed very slowly. For example, Vernallis makes a point that characters may not complete actions until the very end of the music video. In the case of this music video, it is only at the end that you see the happy couple have a little smooch. This supports Vernallis' theory as it exemplifies that the diegesis of the video is revealed gradually as opposed to being able to predict exactly what happens from the very start.

The video also uses various master shots. For example, this master shot shows the entire 'army' getting ready to fight and all saying geronimo. This is a great opportunity for the audience to see the entire band together, singing the lyrics, so that they are able to make a relationship between the song and the artist. This helps to increase the artist's profile.

Applying Goodwin's Theory
There are a lot of close-ups of the artist. For example, there is a close up of the lead singer (George Sheppard) singing part of the song. Firstly, this helps to convey to the audience who the is singing the song out of the group. Secondly, and more importantly, this is assisting in raising the band's profile and making them more recognisable to the audience for the band's future endeavours in the music industry. This helps to contribute to the band's profile.


Since the band is so new to the world (this is their first official single), it is difficult to develop an artistic style. However, Sheppard certainly do a good job at introducing particular motifs. For example, the band are represented as being quite childish and quirky. Like when they are seen standing with the adorable box robot thing, and they are all wearing cardboard armour. It suggests that despite being adults, they are still young at heart and so this could challenge the stereotype of adults having to be all grown up and sensible. Additionally, there is no voyueristic treatment of the female body throughout this video - also suggestive of the band's innocence and childishness. The band show their audience that they just want to have a bit of fun. Predictably, this style will probably be consistently maintained over their future music videos.

Finally, there is an evident relationship between the music and the visuals. The music is particularly fast-paced and quick and the video is reflective of this. Especially as everybody goes into battle, the characters are all running around very quickly and are all just as excitable as the music! Also, the editing is very fast-paced. There are various jump cuts and even short shot-reverse-shots between the band and the opposing side that helps to solidify the relationship between the music and the visuals. The lighting is also very bright and warm, also reflective of the music.

Overall, I absolutely adore this music video. It follows a really interesting, but intriguing narrative and doesn't reveal everything about it. It is really nice to watch in terms of the aesthetic pleasingness, and is the perfect music video for the song - even if it is a little whacky and different to the sort of video you would get in the UK or America!

Developing Ideas

Textual Analysis: Past Student Example 1

I am going to take a look at this past student example from 2013. Lewis Parker created a music video to the song Still Here and scored extremely highly overall. I am hoping to take some inspiration from his music video and see if he did any particularly relevant things that I could look at implementing in my own music video. 

I think this is a really great music video. I would consider it a performance music video, although it does also have elements of a concept music video. The band are seen to be singing to the camera a lot and also messing about when they are not performing.

Camerawork

Lewis used close-ups of the artist a lot. These shots are perfect for helping to promote the artist and are also good for helping the audience understand who is singing what. It allows them to create a relationship between the song and the video, because they can clearly see who it is singing the song.

Lewis also uses mid shots in order to show the entire band standing together in one frame. This shot, for example, helps to connote a sense of hierarchy within the band - the main singer is quite clearly standing further forward, with the other two in the background, and is centred in the frame. This shot is quite common with bands in music videos because it shows the band as a whole.

Interestingly, this music video lacks any real establishing shot. Although the location is sometimes shown (such as in the shot on the left), there are not many shots that show solely the location. However, this type of shot is less essential when there is no narrative to convey and also helps to reinforce the importance of the band.

A lot of the camerawork in this video seems to be freehand and this works really well. Especially when the band are rehearsing, the camera is a lot less still than when the band are walking around outside. This is representative of the difference between the rehearsal and performance phases of the band.

Mise-en-Scene

My favourite aspect of this music video is the mise-en-scene. For example, I love the costumes of the stars. They are wearing costumes that are typical of the indie rock genre, and are worn throughout the music video. It helps to, as Goodwin would claim, reinforce the relationship between the music and the visuals.

Although not very many props are used much in the video, there is a point when you see the band rehearsing with their instruments. This showcases the artist's talent and shows the audience that they play their own music. It also helps to make them look like they are very cool people because they can play instruments so well!

The video is shot in a very worn down, urban location. This is very appealing to the video's target audience (teenagers and young adults) because it may be the sort of place that teens would hang out in their spare time. Also, the video adheres to the genre of indie rock because it uses locations that are typical of that kind of music.

Editing
The editing in this music video is very impressive. When the band are rehearsing, along with the handheld camera movement, Lewis uses a scratchy effect in order to make the shot look less 'complete' and professional.

Light leaks are also usual used. They make the video look very cool, and help to adhere to Lewis' visual style which is maintained throughout the video - similar to Vernallis' theory.
The light leaks also help to just make the video look aesthetically pleasing and stand out from other music videos.

The video is also mostly edited to the beat of the music. This helps to develop the relationship between the music and the visuals and to help make the video 'fit together' better when playing the musical soundtrack over it.


Overall I think Lewis' video is really great. It is one of the best student examples I have ever seen because of its professionalism and beauty. It is a great song and the video certainly helps to do the song justice!

Research: Carol Vernallis

I found a particularly interesting music video theorist who has some fascinating ideas - some of which I intend to implement in my own music video. 

Textual Analysis: Heart To Heart

Heart To Heart is a single by James Blunt. The single was released for digital download on 3rd February 2014, but the official music video was released earlier, on December 17th 2013.

This is one of my favourite music videos. I absolutely love the song and I think the video to go with it is fantastic. I decided to analyse the video to see if there was anything I could use in my video.

What is the video about?

Heart to Heart is a song which appears to be written by James Blunt to somebody else. It talks about how even though there are times where he gets frustrated, and he doesn't know where he stands, it doesn't matter because "you know shine even on a rainy day". The song is about how it doesn't matter what happens between them, they will always still "see eye to eye, heart to heart". Throughout the video, there are small shots of other couples that the song could relate to - couples of all ages and sexuality, but also familial couples, such as father and son or mother and baby. The song talks about how every relationship has its good points and bad points but at the end of the day, they will be there for each other until the day they die. It's very cute, really. 

What type of video is it?

This music video merges two types of music video - performance and concept. There are various obvious performance elements to the video, such as the artist clearly singing the lyrics for the entire song. However, this is an unusual style of performance video. The artist is not performing to an audience, or even performing on stage, but performing to the viewer of the video in front of various stop-motion locations. The video is set in a very urban location. At points, even the artist appears to be singing in stop-motion but it is still clear that it is him who is singing the song. Having James Blunt have such a prominent part in the music video helps to raise the artist's profile; one of the main purposes of a music video.

Goodwin's Theory

This video also follows many of the conventions of Goodwin's theory. For example, in this video the demands of the record label clearly included the need for lots of close-ups of the artist. Again, this links with the prevalence of James Blunt in this video, which helps to raise his profile and enhance his success with future singles.

The music video also demonstrates certain genre characteristics. For example, since the genre of Heart to Heart is pop, it would be expected to see lots of warm, inviting colours and popular locations. An example of this in the James Blunt video would be the shot of a busy amusement park lit up at night. Popular locations such as this target the audience of the pop genre and so make them more interested in the video and as if they can relate to it because they get particularly excited by something. 

There is also a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. For example, James Blunt is seen to be singing the lyrics throughout the video. However, as well as this, there is another way that the lyrics and the visuals are linked. Throughout the video, you see pairs of people - romantic couples, father and son, child and mother - and these are representative of the meaning of Blunt's song - that wherever they go in the world, they will always see heart to heart and eye to eye. This is another way in which the lyrics and visuals are linked.

A link between the music and visuals can also be seen. For example, despite the whole video being stop-motion, there is one point where the music stops for a short amount of time and James Blunt sings without a backing track. At this point, the stop-motion freezes in the background behind him, as can be seen in the screenshot. During this time, nothing moves until the music starts again apart from James Blunt who is singing. 

How successful is this video and why?

Personally, I think this video is very successful. The song only peaked at Number 42 in the UK music chart and so was not a particularly popular song in the country. However, on the YouTube version of this music video alone, it has had over 9,100,000 views. This is representative of the fact that the music video did help in increasing the profile of James Blunt's new album and also the song. I also think the video achieves everything it would want to. It is entertaining for the audience, but also helps to raise the artist's profile and advertise the fact that a new song has been released - or, at the time of launching this video, is soon to be released. The video makes me really happy with the warm colours, happy song and cute scenes. 

Is there anything from this music video that I will use in mine?

I do like the idea of having a music video, similar to this one, where the artist is seen singing the songs in various different - almost random - locations. It makes the video really interesting to watch and so I would love to try something similar with mine. This video has inspired me to create a performance video that also has elements of a concept music video, with the artist performing to the viewer of the video as opposed to an on-screen audience. 

Audience Research

I created an audience research survey in order to find out about my target audience. I will be analysing this data in 3 weeks' time. During this time, I will be posting the survey on social networking sites to get as many responses as possible. I am aiming for 150! You can complete the survey below.

Textual Analysis: Bohemian Rhapsody

The first official music video ever released was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975. I decided to look in great detail at how this video is presented, in order to ensure I incorporate elements of this video into my own. 

Summary

Bohemian Rhapsody is broken into various distinct sections: a ballad section ending with a guitar solo, an operatic passage and a hard rock section. The music video is mainly performance-based and shows the artist playing the song.

Goodwin's Six

The music video demonstrates certain genre characteristics. For example, you can clearly see a guitar solo being played. Electric guitars and solos are particularly common in the rock genre, and this characteristics reinforces the representation of rock. 

Also, the band is seen to be very active on the stage whilst performing, full of energy and very exuberant - also a characteristic of a rock artist.

Additionally, there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. Especially as the video is a performance music video, you can clearly see the lead singer singing the lyrics of the song. The lyrics and the visuals run parallel with each other so you can quite clearly see it is the lead singer who is singing.

There is also a clear relationship between the music and the visuals. For example, you can clearly see the band playing the music on the stage. But also, there is an aesthetic relationship as well. For example, during the 'hard rock' section, the lighting is a lot more red, green, and quick changing - in a chase state. However, during the more slow-paced parts, the lights are darker and the smoke is lessened.


Evidently, Bohemian Rhapsody follows some of the codes and conventions of a typical music video according to Goodwin. However, there are some characteristics that it does not reinforce - for example, a voyeuristic view of the female body is not apparent in this music video - there are not even any women. Despite this, arguably, music videos had evolved considerably by the time Goodwin wrote his theory, and so now, different things are expected of them.

Camerawork

The most iconic shot in this music video, which is still globally recognised today, is the first shot. I think that this shot has become well-known because it was the first shot of the first music video ever to have existed. It clearly shows Queen singing the lyrics, which showcases them to the audience. It uses a low-angle camera shot that could represent successfulness or knowledgeableness of music. It also uses low-level lighting that fades in from a high angle and so only lights the top of their faces. For me, this reminds me very much of an angel-like shot and suggests that perhaps, Queen are so popular and loved that they are thought to be almost magical. The lighting is a straw colour which helps to keep their faces coloured, as opposed to having strangely coloured faces it keeps it looking warm.

Medium shots are also used. For example, during the guitar solo they use a medium shot in order to show the guitarist playing. Although the shot is far enough away to see the guitar, it is also close enough to be able to distinguish the guitarist and this could have been done in order to increase his own profile or advertise the fact that they play their own music. Again, this shot adheres to angelic characteristics. For example, Brian (the guitarist) is wearing white clothing which has connotations of heaven, angels, and purity. These connotations help in presenting Queen in a good light. The stage lighting is very bright at this point and is also a green colour. These are typical of the rock genre in music videos because they are colours that stand out very much and presents the genre as being very extreme and exciting.

Close up shots are also used, again during the guitar solo in the case of Bohemian Rhapsody. These shots assist in showcasing the impressiveness and complexity of the guitar, which in turn helps to make the guitarist look more skilled. Therefore, it helps again to promote the artist and show the audience that they are very talented at music - one of the primary purposes of a music video.


Sound
The band chose to use a lot of instruments that are typical of the rock genre. For example, they used drums, electric guitar, bass guitar and piano, all of which are visually reinforced in the video. These instruments entice Queen's primary target audience.
Additionally, the lyrics of this video play a large role in its success. They have a clear link with the video, since Queen are playing the song and singing in it.

Preliminary Task

After learning new skills on Final Cut, we had to put them into practice by filming a rough music video to the song Why Does Love Do This To Me. Here is the original music video.

In our version of the music video, we learnt various new editing skills whilst doing it. For example, we learnt how to use green screen, split screen, key framing and colour manipulation tools on Final Cut. Our filming was not of the best quality because we were most interested in making the most of learning how to use the program before we split up to film our own music videos!

Research: Narrative Music Video

Created with Padlet

Research: Performance Music Video

Although there are various different styles of music video, they usually all share purposes:

• Music videos promote a single. If more people are interested in watching a video, this would also advertise the song to them and, possibly, an entire album.
• The music videos also promotes the artist or band. Especially if the artist is particularly new or unknown, music videos help in making the artist's face and music more well-known.
• Depending upon the style of music video, it also helps to create, adapt and feed into the artists 'star image'. For example, if an artist wanted to be perceived as quite a 'bad boy' character, they will have quite a hardcore music video to showcase themselves. For example, they may use much darker colours or show the artist doing things they shouldn't be - perhaps breaking the law or being aggressive towards somebody else. 
• Music videos also help to entertain the audience. Some people may not be interested by the concept of just listening to a song, but the visual aid of a music video would make the song more popular to people who would prefer to watch a video. 

The typical music video would last between 3 and 4 minutes, and would combine a mix of life performance, narrative and other visual imagery including computer graphics and animation. Consequently, this helps to advertise the band/artist as well as the song. 

Primarily, there are three main categories for music videos.

Performance

In many music videos, the artists are seen performing the song as part of it. This is the most traditional type of music video since they originally developed from compiling clips of performances. An example of a performance video would be Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer from 1986. 

This video follows many of the conventions of a performance video. For example, the video often contains many shots of the artist performing. This means that the audience can make a connection between who is singing in the video and the song, meaning that they come to learn who the artist is.

This particular example of performance music video involves a live stage performance, something that is very common in this genre of video. It has shots of both the artist singing and the audience joining in with them, showing that the artist is very popular, successful and good at entertaining a crowd.

You also see Bon Jovi in a "real life" situation where they are talking and warming up with each other. Only half of the actual music video involves them performing to an actual audience. During the other half, they are rehearsing together and warming up.

Additionally, there is a particular visual style that matches the artist. The mise-en-scene of the video is made up mainly of red, orange and black colours, including the artist's stage lighting and costume. These colours adhere to the rock genre and so help to convey the artist's image and style to the audience of the video.





Overall, Bon Jovi's Living On A Prayer is clearly a performance music video as it follows almost every code and convention. Many of Bon Jovi's music videos originate from the same genre and so, this exemplifies the 'star image' that this artist endeavoured to achieve.