Music Video Styles 1

Homage 

A Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic. The term is often used in the arts for where one author or artist shows respect to another by allusion or imitation; this is often treated and pronounced as the French hommage."I'll Be Missing You" is a song recorded by American rapper Puff Daddy and American singer Faith Evans, featuring R&Bgroup 112, in memory of fellow Bad Boy Records artist Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, who was murdered on March 9, 1997. The Embeded Music Video can be viewed below via YouTube Software.

Influence of commercials

A Music Video that is under the Influence Of Commercials is one that is heavily branded throughout the video and almost seen as an advertisement for a product as well as a music video. A few examples are Drake 'Versace' which is a complete song committed to one hugely popular and expensive clothing brand with the companies name being mentioned excessively throughout. A further example is Kanye West's Gold Digger which poses a constant reminder to heavy branding topics associated with the rap lifestyle and money. The video I have chosen as a prime example below is Miami 2 Ibiza by The Swedish House Mafia and Tinie Tempah, another song that features several brand names and used in a song which almost compares them to one another in a constant upgrade of quality every time another brand is mentioned in the video.

Parody

A parody in use, is an imitative work created to imitate, or comment on and trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music (although "parody" in music has an earlier, somewhat different meaning than for other art forms), animation, gaming and film. An example of a Parody Music Video is seen below, Trapped In The Drivethrough by Weird Al Yankovic an extremely well known YouTuber who produces comedy videos for audience entertainment. The video below is  a music video of sorts however it was most likely produced for entertainment through comedy rather than financial gain.

Animation/Puppetry

Not seen as often as expected in the current day however these types of Music Videos are usually made to entertain an audience of children who from watching channels like Cbeebies and Cartoon Network all day find it easier to identify with then a regular human being. Furthermore this genre is often highly linked with comedy usually resulting in children showing there friends which then engages the mothers in to both talking about it with their friends and buying it on iTunes for their children, a very clever scheme. The biggest most recent artist who used this genre to his advantage was Ed Sheeran with his chart topping no.1 Sing. Although the real Ed Sheeran stars in the music video itself the majority of the filming is on fake puppet based Ed Sheeran. Using a puppet which looks identical to Ed Sheeran can commonly cause a social media blast where millions of people will be discussing it and perhaps sending it to each other for a laugh, however it stills get the word out there, which is of course what modern day marketing is all about, especially as Twitter and Facebook don't cost Ed Sheeran any money.

Impressionist

Impressionist music videos An impressionist music video can be used to make the audience/ viewer feel a certain way and will use seemingly unrelated, random and peculiar shots to express the themes of the video. However the shots will often relate to the current lyric in the song when the shot is shown. The shots could include people, scenic locations, everyday objects to more obscure objects and abstract features. There will usually be a particular theme of synergy which will connect the unrelated shots together. For example Jay-Z music video ‘On to the next one’ uses synergy in the way of three. The number three is very appropriate as it links to the name of the artists, Jay-Z’s album; The Blueprint 3.

Genres Of Music Videos

Pop

Pop music (a term that originally derives from an abbreviation of "popular") is a genre of popular music which originated in its modern form in the 1950s, deriving from rock and roll. The terms "popular music" and "pop music" are often used interchangeably, even though the former is a description of music which is popular (and can include any style). The following music video is called Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) By Katy Perry and this song overly highlights the stereotype of a pop song with High Key lighting being used at all time and through Mise-En-Scene all of the costumes and props are extremely colour as well as the main story which involves the stereotypical teen party stories e.g. Jock eventually falls for the ugly girl although originally being loved by the far more popular and aesthetically pleasing girl.

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broad sense to refer to most types of popular Jamaican dance music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that evolved out of the earlier genres ska and rocksteady. An example of a Reggae video is Bob Marley's One Love embedded below. The overall tone and rhythm portrayed in the video is very relaxed and happy, a true depiction of the true Reggae world.

Rap/ Hip Hop

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music, or hip-hop music, is a music genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, break dancing, andgraffiti writing. Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing. Seen below is Drake's Worst Behaviour music video, depicting all that is Rap and the exact locations that Drake and others like himself would of been raised in, showing you the raw reality of the genre.

Jazz

Jazz is a genre of music that originated in African-American communities during the late 19th and early 20th century. Jazz emerged in many parts of the United States of independent popular musical styles; linked by the common bonds of European American and African-American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz makes heavy use ofimprovisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note, as well as aspects of European harmony, American popular music, the brass band tradition, and African musical elements such as blue notes and ragtime. A musical group that plays jazz is called a jazz band.

Soul/ Motown

Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s. It combined elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, and often jazz. Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States – where music such as that of the Motown, Atlantic and Stax labels was influential during the period of the civil rights movement – and across the world, directly influencing rock music and the music of Africa.

Country Music

Country music is a genre of American popular music that originated in Southern United States, in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1920s. It takes its roots from the southeastern genre of American folk music and Western music. Blues modes have been used extensively throughout its recorded history. Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms and harmonies accompanied by mostly string instruments such as banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, fiddles, and harmonicas. The song below is the music video for Johnny Cash's Gods Gonna Cut You Down, i have noticed that a lot of these Country music videos are filmed in either black and white, or extremely low key lighting as they feature very dark underlying messages. Although very high profile celebrities, artists and actors are featured in the song none of them ever crack a smile which further highlights a deep perhaps satanic message through Country music, with Jay Z being seen forming the illuminati triangle with his hands.

Techno

Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States during the mid-to-late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno in reference to a specific genre of music was in 1988. Many styles of techno now exist, but Detroit techno is seen as the foundation upon which a number of subgenres have been built. The initial take on techno arose from the melding of electronic music, in the style of artists such as Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Yellow Magic Orchestra, with African American music styles, including funk, electro, Chicago house andelectric jazz. The below music video is named We (All) Search by Richie Hawtin, this particular video has completely changed my initial opinion on what techno was with my usual interpretation being a very upbeat rave type of genre. However the following video has a very sad tone to it portrayed through Mise-En-Scene of the child's body language and the fact that the video is a long take throughout.

Future Of Promos

 

Links to useful websites and documents on this subject can be seen below in the added hyperlinks:

http://www.mediajournal.org/ojs/index.php/jmm/article/viewFile/289/184%E5%AF

What are the Advantages Of Promos For Record Sales?

Here are various links to the information that helped me created the above Pinterest document:

http://sproutsocial.com/insights/author/claire-bedell/

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/a-strategic-perspective-on-sales-promotions/

http://www.musicthinktank.com/mtt-open/indie-vs-major-which-record-label-contract-is-right-for-you.html

http://rap.about.com/od/articles/a/TheCostOfARecordDeal.htm

http://www.inmarketingservices.com/press_releases.29.lasso

How has digital technology opened up the opportunity for more people to make their own promos?

I have chosen to ask the following question in ExamTime, an extremely aesthetically pleasing yet easy to use application that allows you to create a moving powerpoint which adds entertainment to information.

by danielbruce22

The following links below provide fantastic information of Digital Technology in Media:

http://www.cpaf-opsac.org/en/themes/documents/DigitalTransitionsReport-FINAL-EN.pdf

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/social-notes-how-technology-is-giving-music-power-to-the-people/

MTV Vs Viral

Well Known Directors In The Industry

Seen below is an embedded SlideShare powerpoint that i developed outlining the key facts about some of the most notorious directors within the Music Video industry.

Below I have embedded various SoundCloud and YouTube files of myself analysing 2 music videos produced by the directors who feature in the SlideShare above. I will be reviewing criteria such as CameraWork, Sound, Editing and Mise-En-Scene within the extracts.

This song’s genre is hard to define but is commonly seen to be either ‘Big Beat’ or ‘electronica’ however sometimes it’s viewed as Pop or Alternative Rock. The music video won three major awards in 1999 at the MTV Video Music Award consisting of Breakthrough Video, Best Direction and Best Choreography and it was also nominated but did not win the Best Dance Video award. The music video at the time was very new and original costing only $800 to produce and that money was mainly spent on food for the crew and cast as well as a replacement boom box. The video was shot handheld style and this is clearly seen in the video itself when one of the theatre stewards at the cinema in California turns off the music. The visuals contradict the lyrics and all in all have no relevance to what the lyrics are or could be implying. The visuals are juxtaposed to the lyrics and as the lyrics themselves are simple short and the lines are repetitive, this would make sense. There are times in the video where it could be seen that the formation dancing may be illustrating the lyrics ‘I have to praise you like I should’ but for the majority of the video, it is contradicting the lyrics. Another relationship seen is that between the music and visuals in which ‘Praise You’ does illustrate the music and work with it, especially with the beat of the music. The timing of the formation dancing follows the beat and works cohesively as opposed to contradicting it which is not often done in big beat genre songs. The video is really iconic in the fact that it is what would be considered a response video or a parody of an original dance routine but instead it is the official video that has cleverly been done to appear in that style. A lot of effort went into the video as it was directed by Spike Jonze who starred in the video under the pseudonym ‘Richard Koufey’ . Fatboy Slim’s music videos are often contradictory or juxtaposed to the lyrics, but are cohesive and work with the music itself and illustrate it also. Voyeurism and live stage performance footage are not things that are often included and are definitely not a feature of the ‘Praise You’ video. In some regards the formation dancing and the style it is filmed in as well as the overall effect of the video may be perceived as performance footage but is more unique than anything else because all customers and fans follow individuality and trends, if a video can create word of mouth then Spike Jonze has done his job.

This is the second Music Video I have chosen to analyse, stemming from the Rap Genre 99 Problems by Jay Z was directed by Mark Romanek and is filmed in the suburban streets of America. One element that allows me to instantly identify with the genre of the Music Video is the Mise-En-Scene, or to be more specific the clothing. Every actor or rapper that is present in the video who is seen to be on Jay Z's side is dressed in an extremely conventional gang manor with low hanging trousers, large coats, bucket hats and snapbacks etc. This helps create realism for the audience who truly feel that they are getting a taste of Jay Z's pre luxury lifestyle. A lot of the camera work highlights unattractive and graffitied streets with gang members looking intimidating in the frame, another extremely conventional element that is commonly featured in all rap videos underlining Jay Z's respect, power and dominance in the environment their in. Another interesting element of this music video is the way the director has maintained a seriousness and a high quality even when editing to the beat of the soundtrack, furthermore the camera angles never appear to be stationary, intact they're the exact opposite providing the audience with a dangerous and raw feel for the environment Jay Z grew up in, and the pure fact that the editing has been conducted fully in black and white raises many questions such as race issues or the fact that the streets are so rough they shouldn't be looked at in colour, all very clever reasons that Mark Romanek understands in his directing of a video for this genre. Another element of this music video is the realism through camerawork within the music video, Romanek clearly understands the dangerous lifestyle within the ghetto environment and so highlights death, women, drugs, money and fighting throughout the song. For example, The calculation Jay-Z has to make is whether, knowing that the car contains concealed contraband, he's better off trying to flee or hoping that the police won't find the drugs during the stop. Rap as a genre is extreme and at times explicit, this allowed me to notice Mark Romanek's intentional filming of stripper/prostitues shown on screen every time the word 'Bi*ch' is mentioned. As a director Mark Romanek is clearly very keen on telling a story throughout his music videos and so he decides to tell Jay Z's lifestyle throughout the video with constant long shots of jail members walking through jail highly tattooed and extremely dangerous, and even the cross cutting leading up to a near arrest tells the audience of Jay Z's sketchy past as a drug dealer on the streets, creating a very epithetical effect amongst the audience who through Mark's artistry can see the true struggle that Jay Z went through to be who he is, something that all music videos should try and show if necessary. Also an obviously important characteristic for all music videos is the identifiable lip syncing quality, Mark has managed to interlink a professional lip sync whilst showing a deep underlying narrative, making him a world class director.


Below is a link to an article regarding the legal side of Jay Z's 99 Problems Music Video directed by Mark Romanek:
http://gawker.com/5925168/is-jay-zs-99-problems-legally-accurate-a-law-professor-explains-in-line-by-line-reading

Who makes Music Videos?

In his autobiography, Tony Bennett claims to have created "...the first music video" when he was filmed walking along the Serpentine in Hyde Park, London in 1956. The clip was sent to UK and US television stations and aired on shows including Dick Clark's American Bandstand.In 1957, the first music video of the story is set in United States, starring Elvis Presley item Jailhouse Rock, the famous theme prison rock, disseminated images in black and white of the time (although the original was engraved colour).

The Australian TV shows Countdown and Sounds, both of which premiered in 1974, were significant in developing and popularising the music video genre in Australia and other countries, and in establishing the importance of music video clips as a means of promoting both emerging acts and new releases by established acts. In early 1974, former radio DJ Graham Webb launched a weekly teen-oriented TV music show which screened on Sydney's ATN-7 on Saturday mornings; this was renamed Sounds Unlimited in 1975 and later shortened simply to Sounds. In need of material for the show, Webb approached Seven newsroom staffer Russell Mulcahy and asked him to shoot film footage to accompany popular songs for which there were no purpose-made clips (e.g. Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talking"). Using this method, Webb and Mulcahy assembled a collection of about 25 clips for the show. The success of his early efforts encouraged Mulcahy to quit his TV job and become a full-time director, and he made clips for several popular Australian acts including Stylus, Marcia Hines, Hush and AC/DC. 

 As it gained popularity,Countdown talent coordinator Ian Meldrum and producer Michael Shrimpton quickly realised that "film clips" were becoming an important new commodity in music marketing. Despite the show's minuscule budget, Countdown's original director Paul Drane was able to create several memorable music videos especially for the show, including the classic film-clips for the AC/DC hits "It's A Long Way To The Top" and "Jailbreak". After relocating to the UK in the mid-1970s, Mulcahy made successful music videos for several noted British pop acts—his early UK credits included XTC's "Making Plans For Nigel" (1979) and his landmark video for The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star" (1979) which became the first music video played on MTV in 1981.

The record industry eventually replaced the sheet music publishers as the industry's largest force. A multitude of record labels came and went. Some note-worthy labels of the earlier decades include the Columbia Records, Crystalate, Decca Records, Edison Bell, The Gramophone Company, Invicta, Kalliope, Pathé, Victor Talking Machine Company and many others. Below is a pie chart that highlights the dominance of the music industry in 2014.

Major labels since 2012 (Big Three)

1. Universal Music Group (part of EMI's recorded music division absorbed into UMG)
2. Sony Music Entertainment (EMI Music Publishing absorbed into Sony/ATV Music Publishing)
3. Warner Music Group (EMI's Parlophone and EMI/Virgin Classics labels absorbed into WMG on 1 July 2013)

Independent Record Companies

Record companies and music publishers that are not under the control of the big three are generally considered to be independent (indie), even if they are large corporations with complex structures. The term indie label is sometimes used to refer to only those independent labels that adhere to an independent criteria of corporate structure and size, and some consider an indie label to be almost any label that releases non-mainstream music, regardless of its corporate structure. The punk rock era brought about a turning point for independent labels, the do-it-yourself ethos of the time seeing the emergence of a plethora of independent labels. In the US, independent labels such as Beserkley also found success with artists such as The Modern Lovers. Many of the UK labels ended up signing distribution deals with major labels to remain viable, but others retained their independence (e.g. Industrial Records, Factory Records, Warp, Ninja Tune, Wax On, BlancoMusic)

Why Use Promos?

The key reason for implementing any kind of sales promotion activity is identifying a specific marketing need that can be addressed most effectively by promotional activity.

However, sales promotion has some advantages over conventional advertising, which are particularly relevant to the smaller business.

• Promotional activity can be targeted to a greater degree than other forms of advertising.
• Promotions can be timed and results viewed over a more specific and much shorter timeframe than conventional advertising.
• Perhaps most importantly, promotional campaigns can be quantified relatively easy and as results are more readily available, activity can be accurately evaluated.
• The key reason why small time bands use promotions is purely to boost potential customers awareness of the band, with the modern days technologies available it wont take long for a small time band to become an internet sensation if promoted correctly.

In pull up sales promotion marketer tries to pull the customer with some extra benefit,with some gifts and offers, while in pull up sales promotion marketer tries to push the product to the customer with the help of distribution network, showroom owner with the help of dealer meet etc.Therefore marketer use sales promotion to increase sales volume in order to achieve targets.

The link below highlights the lengths companies within the music industry will go too and the sheer power they have in the modern day world, focusing on how modern day technologies have changed the face of the industry as many know it.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/may/13/record-labels-not-dinosaurs-music-industry?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fmedia%2Frss+%28Media%29&utm_content=Twitter