Music Video Inspiration - Miss Georgiou.

When planning a music video I took inspiration from numerous music videos, I looked at how each individual video uses each specific micro element, the style of the video, how the artist is represented within their particular genre and the choice of song. Each of these elements have given me huge inspiration and given me a lot clearer idea of the genre I plan to use for my music video and what its going to consist of.

The first video I have chosen to take inspirations from is Wankelmut, Emma Louise - My Head Is a Jungle (MK Remix). The reason I have chosen this video is because there is the use of a party scene and strobe lighting. The use of the colour tints also is conventional as it creates the party theme and gives the audience and insight to the genre of the song and what it represents. The video follows a character which is also quite relatable for the audience as they may feel they also have a lifestyle similar to the character in the visuals of the music video. The narrative has given me inspirations for my own video. The location of the party is very irregular; it takes place in a launderette. The idea that the party is in an unordinary location keeps the audience entertained and surprised as it is not just any normal dance music video. Another inspiration is the mis-en-scene element of costumes; the costumes that have been worn in this video really appeal to the target audience of the video as it is current and fashionable and suits the genre of music. 

The main micro element which inspired me from this video was the use of lighting. Within this video the lighting used is very successful in creating a party atmosphere as they have numerous beams of light going around the room in a variety of colours. The also have sudden flashes of different boldly clouded lights as well as frequently changing this lighting to a different boldly coloured, fast paced spectrum of light. This particular use of light is very good at creating the party atmosphere which we plan to create in our own and therefore we will try to explicate this exact lighting as this video has proven that by using this lighting you can make any setting look like a party this means we will be able to film in a variety of locations and make it look like a party. This use of lighting is the most conventional lighting possible to the dance genre because within the dance genre this lighting is regularly used to create a party setting and to create the excitement of a party to the audience.

The second video I have chosen to take inspiration from is Alesso - Tear the Roof Up, there is a very fast pace of editing used within this video which shows a clear link between the music and the visuals. The song is of the electro house genre so is also like my chosen genre. The video is diverse and follows different characters through the use of close ups and irregular visuals. I like this video because it keeps the audience interested in the video as it doesn’t stick to one basic concept. The visuals within the video are almost unnatural, just like the style of music. The visuals in the video appeal to the audience who enjoy the style of music which means that my target audience will also enjoy the idea of a strange or aberrant nature. The images within the video show characters who are distressed, this links to the music as it reveals a much exaggerated reaction created by the music. The artist of the song appears in the video as the only sane individual. I am definitely going to include the fast pace edit which accompanies the rhythm of the song, but I might also adapt the idea of the artist being the only normal or customary person within the video as the atypical concept keeps the audience enthralled. 

The editing used within this video has also inspired us for editing which we plan to use for the party element of our video. The editing used within this video is extremely fast paced throughout as numerous jump cuts are used in quick succession to change between a variety of different shots. The effect of this is that it creates excitement as the audience are not left bored looking at the same image instead they are constantly left captivated as it keeps on changing and progressing. This form of editing is extremely conventional to the dance genre as it is frequently used to try and get the audience to start dancing as it emphasises the pace of the video and song. Despite it being very conventional i only plan to use it i do only plan to use it for the conventional part of our video as thats when we need to create excitement and havce a fast pace, where as for the narrative part of the video i plan to use much slower editing which will create a more depressing atmosphere. 

The third and final song i took inspiration from is Won't Look Back by Duke Dumont. This video didn't inspire as much as the other two as it is extremely unconventional and therefore many of the elements are totally unique and would be difficult to recreate successfully but on the other hand i did take some inspiration from the fact that they created such a unusual video within the undeviating dance genre. Wont Look Back is a entirely narrative based video in which criminals wearing bizarre masks of numerous royals rob a shop using pogo sticks as guns. They then use these same polo sticks to flee the scene before they are pursued by policemen on a segway. Although the storyline used i did take some inspiration from the fact that they used a completely original narrative as it kept me intrigued throughout and i was never bored. I also believe that the comedy element within the video was successful and although it was extremely unconventional to the dance genre i would like to incorporate a little bit within my music video. 

The editing used within the song 'A Team' by Ed Sheeran also inspired us as within this video a time lapse is frequently used. A time lapse can be seen at numerous points when the character remains in the same place and the surroundings around her quickly go past as the pedestrians who walk past are sped up. The effect of this is that it evidently shows to the audience that all long time has passed and the character is yet to move. This means that the audience feel sympathetic towards the character as it shows that they don't do anything with their time which means they would have a boring undesirable life. This use of editing is unconventional to the acne genre as it is very rarely used to show that a characters depressing life but it is contrastingly sometimes used to quickly show a large crowd moving either entering or exiting a venue. 

Another editing effect which we have taken inspiration from this video with is the black and white effect. Within this video the black and white effect is placed throughout the whole video and everything is seen in black and white. The effect of this is that it makes the whole video seem more depressing as removing the colour from the video means everything looks less bright and energetic and instead looks more dull and gloomy. This use of editing is extremely unconventional to the dance genre and actually completely opposes it, as within the dance genre they usually try and do everything they can to include as much colour and to create as much excitement as possible whereas this effect does the opposite and tries to remove all the excitement. Despite us trying to replicate this depressing narrative we might not do it throughout the video instead we may only include it on certain segments of the video.  

We also took inspiration from the focal character used within this video and the fact that the narrative follows this characters day-to-day life. The character seen within the A-Team video is a young homeless young girl who can be seen wondering the streets of London as she goes about her everyday life in which not very much happens. Within our video we plan to use a similar part of this type of narrative within our video as part of our video will see a young homeless girl go about her everyday life but contrastingly to A-Team this narrative will run parallel to another narrative in which a young successful man will be seen and they will meet in a club scene finale. This use of both characters and narrative is unconventional to the dance genre as usually within this genre a performance based video is used in which you only see the artist performing live in a festival, concert or club. Therefore the characters used within our narrative are also unconventional as stereotypically no characters are used as their is no narrative instead the audience only see the artist.

Another video which inspired us for our music video is 'My Love' by Route 94, much like our video this video belongs to the dane genre and is a very conventional video and therefore we aim to replicate these conventions within our final conventional scene. Although the most dominating factor within this video is the infra-red colour tints and editing, which we don't plan to replicate, we do plan to re-create the party setting which can be seen within this video. The setting seen within this video is a busy club setting in which all the characters can be seen having a good time, we plan to replicate this as it is one of the most prominent conventions within the dance genre which evokes memories within the target audience which have experienced that situation and enjoyed it.

Another element which can be seen within this video which we plan to use in ours is the fact that a young, romantic couple can be seen within this conventional club scene. We plan to closely mirror this within our video as the two focal characters which have been seen throughout our video will then finally meet in the final conventional club scene. This is a unconventional element within the dance genre as the fact that they are always performance based means that very rarely a narrative can be seen which could follow a couple.

Copyright - Miss Georgiou.

The copyright law which applies to the majority of creations within the entertainment industry such as sound recordings, films, musical work and artistic work (as well as many others) is officially known as the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Copyright means that a company or person who owns a recording or song has the ownership of its content, meaning not just anyone can use it. This stops the recording being used for things that the owner doesn't agree with, and helps them to protect their own work. 

The reason that the first thing as a group we needed to do was apply for copyright is because if we proceeded to produce a music video for a specific song without the permission from its owner.. we would be breaking the law. The song we have chosen as a group is 'Turn back Time' by Sub Focus. My first step was to make some research and find out what music label the artist belongs to, my second step was to contact the owner via email and ask for Copyright permission. By applying for copyright it means that I will be able to use the record and also to publish my production on the internet on websites such as YouTube. 

As of the 17th of November 2014 we are still awaiting a response from the record label, which we previously contacted asking for permission to use "Turn Back Time" by Sub Focus. Despite this we continue to plan and film our video as we know that the record label is busy and may be unable to reply to us. 

Analysis Of A Star and Dyers Theory - Miss Miller.

Artists may change their image, sound or lifestyle for numerous reasons in the hope of totally reinventing themselves. One of these reasons for reinventing themselves may be to appeal to a different target audience which may make the artist more relatable for a larger target audience. This changing in target audience could to a increase in revenue if the appeal to a more mainstream audience or contrastingly they could appeal to a more niche audience. If the change of their image was drastic enough this could cause a increase in publicity as the press would document the change and express their positive or negative opinions which would cause their audience to go see the change of the artist. The artist i have chosen is Justin Bieber as i believe that over time he has reinvented himself and gone from a teenager cute performer to a more edgy adult, within a relatively short period of time. to achieve this Justin has changed both his image and music and now wears more fashionable mature clothes and his music although is still within the pop genre is now more unique and distinctive.

Goodwins theory consists of 7 main points; links between lyrics and visuals, links between music and visuals, genre characteristics, intertextual references, notion of looking, voyeurism, demands of the record label and whether the video is performance, narrative or concept based. Each of these elements is evident in all of these videos but they differ in each video due to Justin reinventing himself in between the realises of the two videos. Goodwins theory is evident in both of Justins videos despite his contrast in image. For example within both videos numerous close up camera shots are used of the artist, this is to promote the artist to their target audience and ensure that they remember his image and are aware that he is preforming the song. Artists aim to achieve this because their specific image may only appeal to a certain target audience and specifically Justin Bieber has had to change his image to ensure he is still appealing to his young audience who are growing up and maturing.


Although Bieber completely reinvented himself changing his sound, image and even lifestyle the style of both these videos remain the same. Despite being released two years apart both videos are mainly narrative based with large amounts of performance based elements throughout. The video for 'Baby' follows the narrative of Justin pursuing a love interest at a bowling alley; to do this he frequently tries to impress her through dancing, singing and bowling. Even though he reinvented himself, the narrative within 'Baby' is similar to the one within 'Boyfriend' as                                                

'Boyfriend' also follows the storyline of Justin pursuing another female love interest. Despite this similar plot the fact that the artist is changed is evident through the way this storyline is presented. Within 'Boyfriend' Justin uses his expensive cars and fast driving to impress the girl which differs immensely from the methods used by a younger Bieber during 'Baby. This contrast is due to the fact that the artist has to change his videos to adapt to his personal change to ensure they remain realistic and appeal to his target audience. Both of the two videos also have similar performance based elements in which they briefly pause from the narrative to show Justin singing either directly to the camera or within the scene. Both videos also feature a brief group dance in which numerous background dancers dance in front of each other, this features in both videos as it appeals to the artists target audience and makes the video more up-beat and fun.

Justin Bieber belongs to the pop genre and both these videos and songs belong to this genre as they follow stereotypical conventions of that genre. Although both the videos do belong to the pop genre the second video is much more edgy and dynamic where as the first is a very stereotypical and conventional video. For example within the video for 'Baby' the lighting used is very stereotypical and conventional as bright, bold lighting is used throughout, this type of lighting is conventional because it is appealing to the young female target audience as it is associated with positive vibes. But on the other hand this type of lighting isn't used within 'Boyfriend' and instead they use natural lighting, this is because his target audience is no longer interested in the bright bold lights and is instead more mature and grown up. Despite still belonging to the pop genre certain elements of 'Boyfriend' may be considered as hip-hop because he frequently shows off his flashy lifestyle e.g. cars and watches and also objectifies women.

Another video which supports the fact that Justin Bieber has changed over a period of time is 'Confident', this video was released near the time of the release of Boyfriend which means there hasn't been much change in the artists image. On the other hand Confident does emphasise the change over time since Baby because within this video, much like Boyfriend, Justin can be seen chasing a young female. But even though he also does this in Baby the way in which he goes about chasing the female within this video appears to be more sinister, due to his older age, as he is no longer viewed in the 'cheeky' manner like previously. The setting use in both Baby and Confidence evidently show the change over time as Baby is set in a bowling alley and contrastingly within Confidence Justin can be seen looking for his love interest inside a party. This shows how Justin has changed over time because a bowling setting emphasises Justins youth as it is a setting where young kids stereotypically attend and is usually associated with young kids. Where as, contrastingly the party setting within Confidence shows that he is a young adult or a
older teenager as these are the only people who attend these settings and shows how he has grown up and is attending more mature settings. He may also have used these contrasting settings to appeal to his different target audiences who have also changed as he targets girls who are of the same age of him therefore as he grows up so do his target audience. This means that when he released Baby his target audience was 10-15 year old girls this meant that they could relate to the bowling alley setting meaning the video appeals to them, and when he released Confidence his target audience was then 16-20 year olds who would relate to this particular setting and again making it appeal to them.

Richard Dyer was a writer who developed a theory which described artists as 'stars' which means they are not real people and are instead commodities and products. Dyers theory is evident within 'Baby' as Bieber is presented as quite cute and innocent to viewers who are more mature and older but at the same time he is presented as appealing and attractive to his target audience. This representation differs immensely to that featured during the video of 'Boyfiend' as during this video he is presented as young man who is extremely wealthy and successful which equally makes him as appealing but instead to a much older audience. The artist, Justin Bieber, can be viewed as a product in both videos as in 'Baby' he displays numerous characteristics which Dyer claimed made him a 'star' such as youthfulness, originality and talent. These characteristics would present him as a product as it would make him more appealing which means he will appeal to a large audience and generate a large revenue despite appealing to a niche target audience of young females within the extremely large pop genre fans. Dyers theory is also present within the second video 'Boyfriend' even though the displays different characteristics. Rather than the youthful representation from the first video 'Baby' Bieber in the second video is presented as with a antiauthoritarian and rebellion attitude as well as sexual magnetism. This change in attitude and characteristics emphasises the fact that he is a commodity as it makes him more appealing to his new aged target audience which allows him to generate more revenue.

This analysis of Justin Bieber and research into Dyers theory has increased my knowledge on how artists change over time and how they appeal to different target audiences. Given this i now have more of a idea on what artist i will use for our music video and following this decision how i will appeal to their target audience.  

Analysis Of Music Genres - Miss Georgiou.

Music videos appeal to their specific target audience  through many ways. Due to their being many variations in music genres and channels the way each music video appeals to their own unique target audience differs. They attract these specific target audiences through numerous micro-elements such as miss-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound. How each music video uses these micro-elements is how their target audience is able to recognise the genre of the video and the individual style and personality of the artist.

Drake - Over (Rap) -

Within Drakes music video for 'Over', cinematography is used to appeal to his target audience who is attracted to the rap genre. This video is very stereotypical and conventional to the rap genre which makes it appealing to his target audience who are attracted to this specific type of video. This particular use of cinematography is evident when a close up of Drakes face is used early on in the video. This close up shows the emotions Drake is trying to portray within the video as the close up immediately allows the audience to clearly see the fact that he's feeling depressed and sad, and sets the tone for the rest of the video which is about Drake expressing his negativity towards a relationship.

Another shot which is used within Drakes video for 'Over' is a long shot from allow angle. A long shot is used because it successfully shows the editing which is being used in the background, which is the rushing city streets, this means that they are clearly able to express the connotations of these city streets to the audience. A low angle shot is used because, from the audiences perspective, they are looking up on the artist this means that he is presented as bigger and more dominant and powerful to the audience as he is towering above them and looking down on them. Both of these shots are conventional to the dance genre because long shots are usually used to show large amounts of the background and present specific messages. Low angle shots are also frequently used and conventional within the genre as rap artists often try to present themselves as powerful and this shot does achieve this.

The editing used within this video is very unique and key in portraying a specific effect to the audience. Colour tints are frequently used in this video to change the colour of the whole scene to a variety of bold colours which makes the more exciting and eye catching which appeals to their specific target audience. This use of colour tint makes the video more exciting because it quickens the pace as they quickly interject the colour for a very short period of time which makes the video appear quicker as what the audience is seeing keeps on changing and they don't know what to expect. This particular use of editing is unconventional to the hip hop genre because usually within this genre they use just simple jump cuts which vary in pace depending on the song and whether it is fast or slow. This type of editing is usually found within the dance genre.

Within this video lighting is also used to present Drake as relatable to his target audience and help portray the emotions the video is trying to express. This helps appeal to an audience as the red lighting has numerous connotations such as love and passion, and contrastingly danger and anger. To do this  they briefly cut from the stereotypical and conventional editing and lighting of the busy rushing streets in the background and jump cut to all red lighting. This contrast from the usual stereotypical rap genre editing and lighting of the fast paced city streets to the all red lighting emphasises the emotions it connotes. These emotions which the colour connotes are what present Drake as relatable to his target audience as most of his specific target audience would have at one point during their lives felt one of these emotions and therefore form a bond with the artist as they have something in common with them which makes them appear as less of a celebrity and more as someone who has had similar experiences.

Flo Rida feat. David Guetta - Club Cant Handle Me (Dance):

Contrastingly to Drakes video for 'Over', Flo Rida's 'Club Cant Handle Me' belongs to the dance genre rather than Drakes rap genre. Because of this difference in genre the micro elements used such as mise-en-scene, lighting and editing. This is mainly evident through the contesting use of lighting. The lighting which mainly features within the Club Cant Handle Me video is low key lighting with flashing strobe lights, this lighting aims to recreate a club setting and atmosphere. This will appeal to Flo Rida's specific target audience as they will be attracted and interested in this specific setting and therefore will look for it to be recreated within a music video. This, much like the affects of certain micro-elements from Drakes 'Over' makes the video more relatable to the audience as they will have experienced this lifestyle and will therefore also feel like they have similar interests to the artist and will therefore enjoy the video more than other audiences who the video isn't targeted at.

Despite this initial difference in the use of lighting and its affect on the audience, similar red lighting is used within Flo Rida's music video to that in Drakes and aims to have a similar affect despite appealing to a different target audience who would be attracted to different aspects. Much like Drakes video which  Flo uses red lighting to portray his love and passion for a love interest Flo Rida's video also uses this similar lighting to a similar effect but presents it in a more lustful manner.


Within Flo Ridas 'Club Cant Handle Me Right Now' a varity of different shots throughout but the main two which are consistently used are long shots and close ups. A long shot is used to show off the luxurious lifestyle of the rapper and make him look extremely wealthy and flashy. To do this a long shot is used as it allows for two very expensive cars to be seen parked behind each other outside the club whilst money is falling from the sky. This portrays Flo Rida as extremely wealthy and flashy because he appears to own at least one of theses very expensive cars and is throwing money on the floor. This use of cinematography is conventional to the hip hop genre because the way in which it is used conforms to the convention that the artists should be wealthy and show off their money.


Pharrell Williams - Happy (Pop):

The final video I've decided to analyse is 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams. This video differs immensely from the other two despite belonging to a genre which isn't that different from their own. 'Happy' belongs to the Pop genre which means that it features certain micro-elements which differ from the other two genres. For example the cinematography used within 'Happy' differs to that used within the other two videos as both Drake and Flo Rida use numerous close ups off the artist which helps the audience remember the artist and shows the emotions on the artists face. Happy also aims to show the artists emotions but instead of using numerous close ups, long shots are used to show the artist dancing. Despite these differences in use of cinematography Flo Rida and Pharrell do frequently use a similar longshot to present their unique and contrasting images. Although both videos use a longshot which allows for the majority of the artists body to be seen as well as the background which is key to presenting their own unique messages. This specific shot is key within 'Happy' as it still shows the focal artist dancing but it also clearly shows the gospal singers singing and dancing in the background which is all part of presenting the main 'happy' message within the video.

The lighting used within Pharells Happy differs immensely to the lighting used within both Drakes Over and Flo Ridas Club Cant Handle Me Right Now as within Happy all the lighting used is natural and comes from either the outside lighting or average room lighting. This differs from the lighting used within Drakes and Flo Ridas because all the lighting used within their videos is very artificial and has been created in that specific way to conform to their genre's conventions. The lighting used within this video is, for the most part, very bright sunlight. This conforms to the pop genre codes and conventions and the message of the song as it evokes happiness within the audience and is a joyful use of lighting. This differs to the dark club lighting used within Flo Ridas and the dark lighting used within Drakes video who are not conforming to the pop genre and portraying a happy message.

The editing within this video is also very different to the editing from the other two videos as within this video very basic slow editing is used and within the other two videos they use complex styles of editing which contrast in pace to Pharrells Happy. Within Happy the editing is very slow and consistent as only jump cuts are used and they are spaced quite far apart. This is used because within this video they rely on other micro elements other than editing to portray the happy conventions and this pace of editing also matches the rather slow paced song. This style of editing is rather conventional to the pop genre as usually within this genre they use editing which matches the pace of the song so all slow paced pop songs will stereotypically have slow paced editing. This differs to the editing of the other two videos which is much faster as their songs are much faster therefore they have o create excitement within the audience as well as conform to dance genre conventions.

This analysis of different music genres will assist me and my group when we choose which song to use for our music genre and allow us to recognise and understand what genre this song belongs to. Following this decision this research will then help us realise what the codes and conventions are of that genre and then we can figure out how to go against these or conform with these depending on what type of video we plan to create; a diverse video or conventional. It also has given us knowledge and ideas on how to manipulate specific micro-elements to ensure that the video appeals to the different target audiences. 

What Is A Music Video - Miss Miller.

MAGIC! - Rude 

A music video is defined as a short film integrating a song and imagery. the majority of modern music videos are used as a marketing tool with the aim of promoting the artist and song. This is evident within MAGICS Rude as the video has clearly been created to publicise the artist as this is their debut single therefore they want the audience to remember the artist. To achieve this they frequently show the a artist make it evidently clear who is preforming the song.  Another purpose of this video is to help build a relationship between the artist and their target audience. A artist would look to achieve this because it would mean that they would create a specific fan base who continue to buy their music as they have formed a bond with the artist. This would be extremely important for a brand new artist, such as MAGIC, as they need to immediately create a audience who will buy their music. To build this relationship with the audience the singer is shown to be repeatedly rejected by the father of a girl he wishes to marry, this causes the audience to sympathise with the artist and makes him endearing.

This video has two main styles performance and narrative. It is referred to as narrative based as the video follows a storyline in which the lead singer is asking for permission from a father to marry his daughter and keeps getting denied but despite this he persists and asked her anyway. But within this narrative there is also a performance element in which the artist can be seen singing during the narrative scenes and also separate, performance only scenes, in which the whole band is playing their instruments. I believe that the artist used this particular style of music video because the narrative keeps the audience enticed  as well as linking to the lyrics of the song, and the performance based element links to Goodwins theory and makes it evident who is performing the song. The narrative style also helps the audience form a relationship with the artist as this particular narrative always the audience to feel sympathetic towards the artist and maybe even relate to him. These use of styles is conventional to the 'pop' genre in which this song belongs to because this genre appeals to a young audience and the narrative which features within this video is rather basic and easy for the young audience to understand. The performance based element also keeps them entertained and they become familiar and recognise the artist. Cinematography plays a huge role in showing the main performance based section as a long shot is frequently used to show the band performing. A long shot is used because it successfully shows the whole band performing as it has to be far away to show both guitar players, the singer and the drummer within one shot. It also makes it look as if you are a fan in the crowd and you are watching them perform live on a stage as they are positioned as though they are performing and thats how far you might be sitting when watching them perform. 

The genre of this particular song is rather unclear as it belongs to the pop genre but is heavy influenced by the reggae fusion genre which MAGIC are known for. This made this video very hard to create because they had to acknowledge the codes and conventions of both these genres and either conform to them or challenge them. I believe that this video challenges the conventions of the pop genre because they're videos are still heavily influenced by the reggae fusion genre. I think that this video challenges many conventions of the pop genre because usually videos within the pop genre have a happy and cheerful message but within this video the narrative expresses a contrasting message because this video shows a the lead singer repeatedly getting told that he doesn't have permission to marry this mans daughter, which portrays a rather dark depressing message. The fact that the narrative follows this particular storyline is also rather unconventional to the dance genre because the pop genre has a target audience of young children and therefore they have no knowledge of mature issues such as marriage and therefore may be rather uninterested in the video because they don't understand it. Despite this, this video does follow some conventions of the pop genre as songs and videos within the pop genre are usually based around love and this video does evidently follow this convention as it is based around love but contrasting to this pop love songs usually have a more happy perspective on love unlike this particular video. Another convention which they have challenged is the micro element of costume. Within the video the focal character and lead singer can be seen wearing very casual clothing during the majority of the video, this casual clothing is also replicated by the other three members of the band. This specific type of clothing is unconventional to the dance genre because stereotypically within this genre the artist wears big, flashy clothing which has numerous bright colours on it and looks rather expensive. This contrasts the costume seen within this video as the artist can be seen wearing dark skinny jeans, a leather jacket and a t shirt which is a very basic outfit and also mainly black. The artist may of chosen to  challenge this convention because it helps form a relationship with the audience as they can replicate that outfit and maybe even already have it which means that the artist is presented as just a normal person, unlike other conventional pop artists who wear costumes which their target audience cannot afford and replicate. 

When releasing content artists usually target a specific audience, this is because they can then directly appeal to a set audience consistently if they recognise a audience and manipulate the video to ensure that it appeals to this audience. This video is no different as it also targets a specific audience; this particular video targets the mainstream audience of 5-18 year olds who are mainly girls and fans of the pop genre. To appeal to this specific audience MAGIC had to use numerous elements to ensure that the audience remain interested in the video and they enjoy it. One of the elements which was key within this video in doing this is the performance based part of the video, this specific style of video appeals to this target audience because it has more of a happy and cheerful feel when they seem them performing. It also means that they don't have to be following the depressing narrative and can instead just be enjoying them performing. Another element which is used to appeal to their target audience is editing; this video uses a specific form of editing in which the screen shrinks slightly and becomes slightly blurred, with a specific filter and then it cuts in and out with numerous blotches on the screen. This creates the effect that it has been filmed along time ago because it looks as if the camera is of poor quality and is slightly damaged. This specific type of editing appeals to MAGICS target audience because it looks as if the artists have filmed it and are reminiscing upon good memories. This is appealing to this specific group of people because looking at the artists good memories makes the video seem more happy and joyful with positive energy which is what a younger audience enjoys.

This research into what a music video is will help me a lot when planning my own music video because i now recognise what the purpose of a music video is and therefore i can aim to achieve this purpose. It has also helped me understand how i can achieve this purpose as i have much more knowledge on how to target a specific target market and how i can use the codes and conventions of a genre to appeal to this target market.

Diversity - Miss Miller.

"Why would a artist chose to create a diverse music video?"

A diverse music video is one created by a particular artist who aims to create a music video which is unique and different from all others. All of these videos would be unconventional to there specific genres as a diverse music video means that the video is not similar to any others and therefore stands out within the genre. To make a diverse music video a artist would most likely create a concept based video with a hidden message and connotations of each micro-element, despite this a diverse music video can also be performance based if its presented in a original manner or narrative based if the storyline was unique and individual. To make a video diverse the director would also have to use individual and distinctive mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound and editing. Each of these independent micro-elements has to be different to those used within other music videos. A artist may aim to create a diverse music video in order to gain publicity, or appeal to a different niche target audience, or they may use a music video as a way to change their 'image'.

An artist may opt to choose to create a diverse music video for many different reasons. The main reason would be to get people talking and to create a 'buzz' for the video. This would get audiences talking about the artist and their video publicising them and their music. However their are certain disadvantages to a diverse music video. One would be that in trying to gain views through making it somewhat controversial or changing it from what your original fans where used to could loose you fans.

Chris Cunningham is a music video director who is famous for creating diverse music videos which do not conform to the stereotypical genre characteristics and are unique from all others within that genre. He primarily worked within the ambient music and electronica genres and was most well known for his work with electronic artist Aphex Twin in which he created the videos "Come To Daddy" and "Windowlicker". He also won numerous awards for directing Bjorks "All Is Full Of Love" video including MTV music video award for Breakthrough Video and  a Grammy nomination for Best Short Form Music Video. His work on Aphex Twin's 'Come To Daddy' where his creative ideas of putting the artists face on characters within the music video publicised the artist swell as helping the video gain thousands of more videos than any of the artists previous videos did. His work with other high profile artists such as Madonna where also successful  His directive input on the music video for her song 'Frozen', portrayed her in an unusual light to what audiences where used to seeing her in, attracting a whole new audience to her music. 

Cunninghams work with Madonna was particularly notable as he was able to reinvent Madonnas image, targeting her at a more niche gothic audience with the use of dark colours and themes throughout. The bellow image shows her in the music video. The costume she is wearing is black and contrasts to the skimpy outfits you would usually see her in during a pop music video. Cunnigham choice of this colour is much more appropriate for the new gothic audience that it is being targeted at.  

Michael Gondry is another high profile music video director also working with artists such as Daft punk, radio head and most notably the white stripes. The settings he uses in the above music video of 'Hardest button to button' are interesting. The settings such as the train station and park that the band play in make the band seem more accessible to their fans which is important for their smaller fan base.

Similarly Michael Gondry created music videos was unique within each particular genre of music and used numerous distinctive micro elements which ensured that his videos stood out from all others within the genre. Gondry usually had a specific focus on the miss-en-secene element within the video which was his main technique to ensure his music videos was diverse as he manipulated all the visuals of the video.  Gondry worked with many more successful and more mainstream artists than Cunningham such as The Rolling Stones, Kanye West and Kylie Minogue. 

While Micheal Gondry and Chris Cunningham are both successful directors they both have contrasting directing styles. Chris Cunningham is more controversial, working on Madonna's work as well as promoting artists such as Aphex twin through his use of editing his face onto characters within the music video. His outlandish style of directing is effective as the music video  gains views through audiences talking about it and how strangest is or in madonna's case, how different it is. Gondry however works with music with a relatively smaller fan base in genres such as rock, where its more about the music and less about the artists. Therefore he adopt a more particular directing style where focus is on more the music and improving the fan base other than the artist themselves. The appeal with working with Chris Cunningham would be that he is obviously vary good at what he does and is no doubt able to get you publicity through the ambitious style of his directing however his style of directing makes it difficult for you as an artist to keep fans as they may become to confused of his music videos.


Upon reviewing both Gondry and Cunningham's work i would argue that Gondry would be the best suited director for my work. The use of his inventive visual style and manipulation of
mise-en-scene aswel as his particular style of directing would suit my rock genre music video as he already has allot of experience working in this genre, directing music videos for artists such as Radio head, The Chemical brothers. I will take inspiration from his directing on White stripes 'hardest button to button' in the hopes of replicating the same effect of making the artist appear accessible to fans into my work. However a disadvantage would be that no relationship will be built between artist and audience as this type of alternative music usually focus's on the artistry rather than the artist and so it maybe difficult to maintain a strong fan base.

History Of A Music Video - Miss Georgiou.

In recent years technology has been rapidly developing, making it more accessible to a wider range of people. Parallel to this, the music industry has also, very much so, been developing. This has had a massive affect on how audiences consume the music in which artists create as the development of this technology has meant that audiences are now able to access content much more easily and efficiently. Audiences are now able to access artists content through a variety of brand new mediums which they wasn't previously able to use to listen to music. The first major impact on music streaming came from the introduction of the music channel MTV which was the innovator in making music more accessible to much larger audiences. Another of the most influential developments upon the music industry is the introduction of the internet as it has allowed numerous websites to be created which allow audiences to listen to music and view music videos by simply going onto one of these websites. The most famous of these websites is Youtube which has had a massive impact upon the music industry as it has allowed audiences to very easily stream artists content, which has meant that artists are able to be heard by a much larger audience as this website is now, due to advancements in technology, readily available to a extremely large audience, which artists was previously unable to do. The graph below (source: Wikipedia) evidently shows how development in technologies has led to music videos being much more readily accessible for audiences and therefore able to be viewed by a much larger audience.

1894- The first step towards a music video was made by George Thomas. He created 'the illustrated song' which became popular in 1894. The entertainment consisted of using a 'magic lantern' to project images onto a screen during live performances, this gave audiences a visual images to view when listening to the music. This was the initial introduction to visuals being added to music and led to the advanced music videos of today but it was still only able to be viewed by a small live audience. 

1926- Another innovator within the creation of a music video was 'Soundies' they also created a visual to go with the music by inviting the earliest form of karaoke. Soundies would provide the lyrics to songs on screen and encourage the audience to sing-a-long. Although this is completely different to a performance, narrative or concept based video it did emphasise the need for visuals to accompany live music. Soundies later furthered this progression by replacing the lyrics of songs with a revolutionary sequence of images which would show a dance sequence to be replicated by the audience during the song. This was considered as the earliest form of a performance based video. Despite this the lack of technology meant this was still only accessible for a limited audience who could see it live.

1945- Arguably the most influential impact upon the creation of music videos came in the mid 40's and was made by Louis Jordan who came up with the idea of creating a short film for her music. This was considered as the turning point for the creation of music videos as she wanted to create a short storyline which led to the creation of all narrative style videos. This differed to the lyrics or dance moves previously used by Soundies as Jordan had more ambitious visions in creating a video which would have more depth to the content rather than a succession of basic images.

1957- This was the year the first ever stereotypical music video was created. It was a video for 'Jailhouse Rock' in which megastar Elvis Presley can be seen appearing to sing the words of the song. The introduction of new technology which allowed the producers to record the song then separately record the video and put them together to make a whole video with both music and visuals was key within the development of music videos. Not only was this immensely important within the production process of a music video it also played a massive role within the development of how consumers view artists content as the making of this video, with both music and visuals, meant that this video was, for the first time ever, able to be watched on televisions. This meant that they was able to watch the video and listen to the music in a brand new way which meant they had access a newer much larger audience.

1981- MTV was the first television channel created primarily for music. It was launched on August 1st 1981 its initial purpose was to just play music videos with the assistance from television personalities. During these initial stages MTV was targeted towards young adults but since then it has developed and is now focussed primarily on targeting adolescents and teenagers as well as young adults. As of August 2013, 32 years after the channels launch, MTV is approximately received in 97,654,000 American households (85.51% of households with televisions). The introduction of MTV had a huge impact upon the music industry as artists was now able to appeal to a much larger audience because previously music videos was very rarely aired on TV therefore the millions of people who watched TV was unable to easily access these videos, whereas MTV's creation meant that there was a channel which would be able to air music videos which meant that the large TV audience had a channel to view which they knew would be showing artists content. Because of this MTV was key in helping the career of numerous performers such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and Prince as there content was frequently shown on MTV therefore it was seen by a much larger audience than previously. It has also helped the growth of numerous genres because of the fact that this was the only channel which meant it had to broadcast a variety of audiences to appeal to every single person.

1983- It is in this year where Michael jacksons iconic music video for 'Thriller' was released. Seen as one of the most influential music videos of its time Michael Jackson's near 14 minuite long 'Thriller' music video set the benchmark of music videos and sparked world wide attention. The budget of $800,000 for this music video was dramatically higher compared to what the average music video cost to make helping the video gain over 190 million views and people are still watching it today.

2005- This year saw the introduction of the video sharing website 'Youtube'. Youtube was a website which allows anybody to share a video and then for it to be seen by everybody who goes on the website and plays it. The introduction of this service was immensely influential within the music industry as it meant that artists was able to post their music videos on this website and it could then be seen my a much larger audience than television could ever reach. This is shown in the graph above as the most viewed video PSY's 'Gangnam Style' has over 2,000,000,000 views which is forever rising. The development in technology within the music industry has allowed for audiences as large as this to be reached because Youtube allows its audiences to share the videos on its websites to other people by using various forms of social media such as Facebook and Twitter this means that each individual who shares the video on these platforms promotes the video to many more people causing it to spread rapidly. 

The research that i have carried out today will further my knowladge on the whole about the music indistry helping me know where to put my music video when completed to allow audiences to veiw it as easily as possible. Through the reasearch i conducted i also discovered that it is no secret that in todays day and age Youtube is the most effective means of me advertising my music video for consumption to my target audience and so Youtube is the means in which i will show my audience.