Styles, Conventions and Techniques
Styles - Popular Music Genres
Popular Music Genre Videos generally
reflect the genre of the music. The genres will also be reflected
in the costumes used. A mainstream video will have a variety of fashionable
costumes whereas the costumes of another genre will generally reflect the style
of the artist/audience.
Styles - In Concert and 'As Live' Footage
In-Concert Music Videos show the artists of
the song doing a live performance of it. Some of them even use videos from a
real gig rather than a staged one. Audiences generally enjoy these music videos
as they want to see the artist playing the song rather than just hearing it. In
some cases, it can be used to represent the feeling of a real concert.
However, artists need to ensure that they lip-sync by singing in the same way to
the studio version of the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKZ_Eoq5FtQ&list=PL7CD581C098780214
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKZ_Eoq5FtQ&list=PL7CD581C098780214
Styles - Animation
Some music videos use animation, whether it
be for the whole video or just part of it. This can range from stop-motion
animation to digital. Animated videos can been joyed by anyone as they allow for visual
effects that would not be possible in real life such as flying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qok9Ialei4c
Styles - Narrative
A Narrative Music Video has a story for the
audience to follow whilst they are listening to the song. These differ to
interpretive music videos in that the narrative does not need to be exactly
following the lyrics of the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uelHwf8o7_U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uelHwf8o7_U
Styles - Surrealist
Surrealist music videos use unconventional
images that the audience do not anticipate and they can often be described by
audiences as absurd. The idea behind these videos is that the surprise factor
will make the video more memorable to the audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U
Styles - Interpretive
As mentioned previously in the narrative
section, an interpretive music video is one where the directors interpret the
lyrics of a song using them to perform a narrator function making the videos
often quite literal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFosUj6A22c&playnext=1&list=PL9F5B80E56D446962&feature=results_main
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFosUj6A22c&playnext=1&list=PL9F5B80E56D446962&feature=results_main
Conventions - Lyric Interpretation
When creating a music video, one of the
conventions you will think about is lyric interpretation. When a director
listens to a song, they will create a video based around what their
interpretation of the lyrics are. Our own interpretation may then be based around
the visuals produced as well as our own opinion of the lyrics.
Conventions - Extending Song's Meaning
Conventions - Extending Song's Meaning
A
song’s meaning can be extended which means that the action and images featured
in the music video are being used to the promote the meaning of the
song. This leaves the song open to other interpretations. An example
of this is in the music video for Madonna’s Like
A Prayer which features
imagery of burning crosses and what appears to be a depiction of
Jesus as a black man whom she kisses. Therefore, the interpretation could be a
statement against racism, as it was intended. However, a lot of
controversy sparked up at the time under the grounds that she was boasting a
provocative blend of sex appeal and religion which people found
objectionable.
Conventions - Allusions
Allusion is when a reference to a person, existing text, place or event is made within a music video. It could be fairly obvious or totally discreet but either way, many music videos feature conventions such as this.
Techniques - Miming & Lip Syncing
If
the music video includes elements of live performance, the artist wouldneed to
mime the lyrics and music to the track so that when the audiowas
overlaid, they would sync. The example below is created entirelythrough
having various celebrities, talent and members of the publiclip-syncing/miming
the lyrics of the song from various, unrelated locations.
Techniques - Playback & Lip Sync
Sometimes
the speed of the song is changed for certain effects when filming such
as fast paced video with normal paced audio. This would be done
by getting the artist to sing the song at half the speed in the video and
then doubling the footage speed, meaning that the lips are now
synched to the track but everything else runs faster. Directors/artists
sometimes implement this technique into their music videos
as it creates a strange ‘alternate reality’ sense to it and can also work
excellently for semiotics such as life moving in the wrong direction.
Techniques - Multi-Image
The
multi-image technique means that multiple images are shown on thescreen
simultaneously. Whilst the old practice involved projecting multipleand
repeatedly varying images onto a screen, innovations in non-linearediting make
this process more efficient meaning that split screen is thecontemporary
equivalent. This technique allows multiple ideas to beshown on
screen at once, allowing different imagery to be juxtaposed tocreate an
overall semantic interpretation. An example of this technique is Without Me - Eminem.
