Hyper-Reality Hyper-reality is when a music video's visual is exaggerating the reality, something we don't usually see everyday in our lives, something very unrealistic. Special effects/Green screen are often used in this type of music video.
This is an example of hyper-reality music video. Through out the music video, Robbie Williams seems like he has supernatural powers as he got halo on his head, was moving pedestrians out of his way without touching them, jump in front of a moving car and survive, while laying on the ground dancing, another car drives over him but didn't suffering any injury, damage, or harm at all. He got back up then got hit by two cars at the same time but again, he didn't suffer any injury as he still standing up, this is not realistic at all. There was a lot of other things is in the music video that wasn't realistic such as the piano was dropped on him from a great height but didn't gain any pain.
The purpose of Hyper-reality music videos is to appeal their target audience and make their music video successful as it is different compared to most music videos. Most hyper-reality music videos are unusual and creative. This has over 65 million views. This way can help the artist create bigger fan-base and generate revenue.
Parody Parody is an imitative work to created to mock, or make fun of an original work. A video that exaggerates and mimics the characteristics of a work or person. The purpose of it is to make the audience laugh and make the video and the channel go viral. This style of music video isn't really used for an artist to promote their music. Bart Baker is well-known for making parodies music videos, he has over 8 million subscribers. This is an example of an Parody music video, Bart Baker were mocking Fifth Harmony, as this music video was disrespecting and oversexualizating Fifth Harmony. Bart Baker often to be rude in other of his parody music videos, the purpose of it is to make the audience laugh.
Original work:
Homage
This style of music video is kind of similar to Parody as both styles imitate out of something. But instead of imitating to mock a media product or star, Homage is used to imitate to pay tribute or show respect. For example of an Homage music video, Take Back The Night by Justin Timberlake which paid tribute to Michael Jackson. You could hear a strong Michael Jackson influence in the song, and also see Justin Timberlake dancing through street which very similar in Michael Jackson's Billie Jean music video. At 1:44, Justin's shoes look very similar with Michael Jackson, Justin was also doing Michael Jackson's signature glide/side slide walk.
Pastiche Pastiche video is a music video that imitates or copies features to another artist such as techniques, theme, style etc. of the original music video in order to show respect to the artist and their music. As in the examples below, Miley Cyrus paid tribute to Sinead O'Connor Nothing Compares 2 U in one of her song Wrecking Ball. In the beginning of Wrecking Ball, there was exact same use of close-up in both music videos which you can see almost through out Sinead O'Connor's music video.
Allusion Allusion is when a reference to a person, existing text, place or event is made within a music video, they usually don't mention what the references is from. Very similar to intertextuality. They can be obvious or difficult to get the reference.
This music video is an example of Allusion, Taylor Swift ~Bad Blood ft. Kendrick Lamar. This music video has countless movie references including Kill Bill, Sin City, Tron, The Matrix, DareDevil, The Hunger Games, Quantum of Solace etc.Allusion type of music video may be used to help the song flow more and give it a deeper meaning.
Animation
Animation music video is use of drawings to illustrate lyrics and meanings.This is an example of Animation music video, Heartless by Kanye West. You could see it is animated and not real, tells a story and illustrates the song, this music video shows Kanye West wandering through a city alone at night, with scenes of various women shown throughout the video.
This is an example of In-concert music video; in the music video above, you can see the artist performing on a live stage in front of audience, this is also another example of performance music video. Although this song's genre is Pop, this type of music video are very common in rock music videos, it's their genre convention. This music video contains different clips of her performances and behind-the-scenes footage taken from her world tour The 1989 World Tour. They have recorded it live and turn the footage into a music video so this way, they can show their audience what it would look like if they came and watch one of their performances live. Music videos like this can help artists/bands make more money as it can attract the audience into buying tickets as the audience may want to experience the live performance. This also make the company more money.
Taylor Swift ~ New Romantics (YouTube Comments)
Interpretative
This is an example of an interpretive music video. This song is called ‘The Hills’ and it is sung by The Weeknd. Interpretive means something that looks like something else but has a different meaning. These types of music videos usually make the audience to make their own theories of what they think the music video is about, as the music video doesn’t have a clear meaning. This music video links to the artist's other music videos.
The video begins showing a wrecked car that has been flipped over, but it is unknown why the car was flipped over which give the audience to come up with a theory. The Weeknd is then crawling out of the car then he walk to the other side of the car to help other two women to get out the car. As the song continues, The Weeknd is walking by himself down a dark street which low-key lighting was used in most scenes. Around 1:50, the wrecked car explodes behind him, which was sync on the beat drop. Later he entered an abandoned mansion and went upstairs to a room, which is illuminated with red light. In the room there was a man who was holding an apple that seems to be waiting for The Weeknd, the two women from the car scene was also there sitting with the man. The video then cuts to black.
This music video make the audience interpret their own meaning on the video as it isn’t made clear why the car was wrecked and flipped, who was those two women, where is going, why did he go into the mansion, who was that man in end, is that the same man in other (The Weeknd’s) music videos? etc.
Narrative
This is an example of an narrative music video. Narrative music video is a style of music video that tell any kind of story in linear. Similar to short film. Most narrative music videos are more likely related to the lyrics of the soundtrack. Love stories are the most common narrative theme in music video as you can see a love story in this music video, it was about a man who's returning home and finding out she has been unfaithful, there was also a twist at the end. In the music video,there was no lip-syncing at all which mean there's no performance linked to it so therefore it's 100% narrative although the artist is in majority of the video as he is the main character/actor of the story. Narrative music video usually cost a lot for a record label.
Impressionist (Conceptual)
This is an example of an conceptual music video. Conceptual music video is when the purpose of the music video is to create meaning. The meaning doesn't tend to relate to the song and they usually consists of montage used to create meaning.This music video does not really have a narrative storyline but it has a meaning about it. This can mean many different things. For example, J. Cole ~ Wet Dreamz, the video uses a pair of dogs to humorously represent the lyrics of the song. The song tells the story of J. Cole losing his virginity.
Referencing (Intertextuality)
Intertextuality is the way in which one media text is referenced in another that producers think the audience will get the reference. There many reasons why they used intertextuality in music videos, for example, other artists of the younger generation could be playing tribute to older stars, likely well known or they could be a reference to motivate you or a reference to other songs etc. Intertextuality could be lyrical reference or visual reference or both. Intertextuality are very common in Hip-Hop and Parodies of an movie or music video, for example, parodies usually make fun out of famous particular stars or movies. Another reason they may be used in song/music video is to help the song flow more and give it a deeper meaning. An example, The Script ~ Hall of Fame ft. will.i.am, it contains lyrical reference to the film King Kong.
At 0:52, the lyric is an allusion to the film King Kong. There was a scene where King Kong bangs on his chest on top of the Empire State building. According to Genius (a website that allows you see the interpretation of song lyrics), the line symbolizes strength, courage and pride of achievement. As King Kong is on top and doesn't seem to be scared to fall as he is banging his chest, being on top represents success, not being scared to fall represents courage and banging your chest can represent strength. This song is basically motivating you as they're saying you can reach to the top.
To sell the song The purpose of a music video is to build an image for the music artists. They are promoted to emphasis the music artist. Another purpose of a music video is to sell the song and leaves people to remember it. It is to entertain people by showing off their talents. To sell the song it need to create a memorable visualization in able to increase its sale. There are bunch of different ways for artist to sell their song such as monetization. YouTube is a way to monetize music videos, once the video is eligible for monetization you will be able to earn money from it and get paid. Once it is monetized, you will start seeing ads before and/or in between the video. They’ll make roughly about $2 (£1.50) per 1,000 views. There are other distributions such as SoundCloud and Spotify etc.
An example, Wiz Khalifa - See You Again ft. Charlie Puth, it has over 2 billion views (2,055,713,949) on YouTube, which made over $4 million in revenue (2,000,000,000 ÷ 1000 x 2). This video gone viral as it is a tribute to the late Paul Walker, who died in a single-vehicle accident on November 30, 2013 in Valencia, California. The song was commissioned for the soundtrack of the 2015 action film Furious 7, Paul Walker played a main role in six of the Fast & Furious' seven installments. See You Again was the best selling-song of 2015 worldwide.
Promotional for the artist Music videos have become a key promotional tool for the artists as it help create an image for the artists. There are many ways to promote an artist, you can promote them through social media such as Sound Cloud, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube etc. It can allow people to hear the artist's song. There are others promotional ways such as Print-based media such as magazine, billboards and newspaper This is especially important if the artist new to the industry, they will need to gain exposure as it will help them to promote through different platforms, this will make more money for the artist themselves and also the record company. Making the music video controversial could possibly get the public talking about this new artist. Exposure and Expansion of the Artist
Exposure for any new or current artist is hugely important. Music Videos play a vital part in the exposure of an artist because it shows the audience the image of the artist. Star image is important because their image will portray their personality and style, and who they are, their individual uniqueness. What an artist wears, their attitude. Their music tell a story about them and help creates their unique/fake image. Their unique/fake image would help them gained more audience and revenue as some of their viewers may look up to the artists or relate to the artists.
To sell the song, invoke a reaction from the audience
Some music videos are designed solely for this purpose. They are often used for new and upcoming artists to promote themselves and get many people interested and talking about this new and upcoming artist. This also generates more money for the artist themselves and more importantly the record label. An example of this type of music video is Zayn ~ Pillowtalk.This was his debut solo single after he left One Direction which left fans around the world shocked and surprised back in 2015. This attracted a lot of attention as it is his debut music video after leaving his band of 5 years, this music video has got over 600 million views.
To give the audience a better understanding of the song Often songs have a meaning. Music Videos are often used to develop the meaning behind the song and use a visualisation to create an image for the artist and give the audience better understanding of the song from a visual perspective and from a different outlet. The benefits of this is that the audience can relate to them and therefore they can relate to the song more. Example of this would be Selena Gomez - The Heart Wants What ItWants. In the lyrics, Selena was explaining her account of her relationship with Justin Bieber (although she doesn’t actually name him), and was seemingly justifying why she remained with him for so long. The music video demonstrates the lyric.
Product Placement Product placement is used in almost all Entertainment outlets as a way to increase revenue. Product placement is selling and promoting products of the specific company in which are usually inserted into a music video, it's basically an advertising technique used by companies to promote their own products. Product placement is not only in music videos, they are also seen in TV, magazines, billboards, newspapers and Social Media. Product placement in music videos are very popular, especially Beats by Dre's Headphone/Pill. Nearly all artist will use this technique within their videos as companies will pay a lot of money to see an promote their product to their audiences. Companies would like extremely popular artists to promote their product as it make the product more desirable to customers while watching the music video. An example of this a music video, Little Mix ~ Black Magic. At 0:42, you could see two out of the four girls wearing Beats by Dre's Wireless Headphone. When one of the girls took the wireless headphone off and place it on the table (0:46), it changed camera shot to Extreme Close-Up onto the wireless headphone. This is example of promoting a product such as Beats by Dre. This musicvideo has over 200 million views, many viewers may have like and brought the product because of the artists promoting them.
Promotion for Music and Album
Promotion of an artists music or album is hugely important for the success of that product, so the music video will need to have something that will be remembered by viewers/audience (viral etc.) so the viewers/audience will shared the music video with other people on all popular Social Media, this way will allow the artist to gain popularity and more fans and receive more revenue. The video below is a good example of promoting your music and album. This video features music from G-Eazy's latest album When It's Dark Out. It contains different clips of his performances, making songs in the studio, behind-the-scenes footage etc. The artist is promoting his upcoming music and album through an album trailer.
Synergy
Synergy is when two companies or product decide to work and combine together to make a video, and use the video as a platform to give them success. For example a music video could be made to increase publicity for a film. An example of an synergy music video, Gangsta, the official music video for a film Suicide Squad (2016) which sung by Kehlani. The music video contain scenes from the film. As this movie looks successful as it grossed over $300 million, this helped to increase sales of the song, the music video has now over 50 million views on YouTube.
As this video is currently being shown on YouTube, there’s advertisements in the beginning, this show it’s currently being monetized and this would give them synergy though the video as they would be associated with the video and hope to improve publicity.
The music video also helps to provide synergy for the artist who starred in it as a popular music video helps to expand their audience.
. Promotion of film Often artist will write songs that are specifically for a film, the music videos for these songs then often feature scenes from the film. This is done to help increase the sales of the song and the movie together. When the audience watch the music video, they will see couple scenes from the film which make the viewers aware of the film, this may make them want to go and watch the film. An example of a music video that aims to promote a film, Alicia Keys ~ It’s On Again ft. Kendrick Lamar. As you can see in the music video, it show bunch of clips/scenes from the movie The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Promote festivals
Music videos are often used to promote other music related products. In the last decade Festivals and tours have become more important because it allow artists to gain popularity and promote themselves and get wider exposure which can help them getting a bigger fan base and receive more revenue. For example,The Wireless Festival is a music festival in England that takes place every year in London. They had big artists like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, Kanye West, David Guetta etc. There will be artists you may never heard of or don't really listened to, this festival will allow them to promote their songs which will help them gain popularity and create bigger fan base. For example, Bryson Tiller is an singer, songwriter and rapper. Some people may never heard of him as Bryson Tiller only started getting recognition last year (2015). He has won awards such as BET's Best New Artist and Best Male R&B/Pop Artist. Festivals like this has helped Bryson Tiller to gain more popularity and bigger fan-base. He has almost the whole crowd singing, this may lead other people who haven't listened to Bryson Tiller yet to search up his songs and also become a fan (if they liked him).
Opens up new market
Music videos opens up new markets for the Artists and Record Companies to sell their songs by promoting their image and creating bigger fan base through other outlets such as YouTube/Twitter/Instagram/Facebook or collaborating with films/television show (synergy). This increase in outlets, which increases the amount of people who are likely to hear/see the song and buy it, therefore making it successful. This music video is an example of a video that opened up an artist to a new market. Lose Yourself is a song by Eminem, a lead single soundtrack from 2002 motion picture 8 Mile. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2003, making it the first ever rap song to have received this accolade.
Generates new market for Record Company
With major record labels likeUniversal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. They will use music videos as an extension of income for the song. They do this by making the music video as widely accessible as possible on as many different outlets such as YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify etc. For example, posting music videos on YouTube will help promote the artist's music. Through monetisation, it will also make more money for the artist and their record label. As of today, social media has become a way to reach fans and market as the Internet is now a place to sell music. Example: This music video below, Silento ~ Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae), it has over 1 billion views which made over $2 million in revenue. This music video went viral due to popular dances of today. In the music video, there is a combination of two popular dances which mentioned in the title, Whip & Nae Nae. This music video is example of a way to sell a song (viral/trend).
Selling an Image
Music videos are a way to help artists to sell their image, artists will often sell their image and looks to increase their income by attracting the target audience to appeal wider audience. They may want change their image because they want to stay relevant and keep up with the new audience today as the new music videos today are more powerful and wanted more than the song itself. We are now to the point where the music video become more important than the song. Miley Cyrus is an example, she has changed her image dramatically to enlarge her audience (from innocent Disney star to provocative pop star), you can see two music videos below that she changed genre from Country, Rock and Pop to R&B and Hip-Hop. Not only she changed her genres, she changed her looks and attitude, this caused many people to dislike her new image as we all remember the new Miley as Hannah Montana/ Old Miley and she was innocent back then and wasn't provocative then as she is now. Many people thought of her as a role model to young girls as she was an huge Disney Channel star. Although she changed her character/image, she is still the same person as she was before, she is just growing up just like her audience as well. Since Miley changed her image, she have been getting publicity for her new image which help her sells her albums and songs. When the music video We Can't Stop was released, it reached 10.7 million views in the first 24 hours, this broke the record for having the most views in that time-frame. The music video also broke another record after reaching 100 million views within thirty-seven days for being the faster music video to attain Vevo certification. Both records were broken by another music video of Miley Cyrus, Wrecking Ball. Both music videos have gone viral due to Miley Cyrus, who were once an innocent girl, changed her image into provocative pop star. This viral has helped her increase her income and attract her target audience.
Location/Settings In Chris Brown music video, you can see the whole music video is set in an abandoned graffiti car park. As this is an hip-hop music video,graffiti is often included as one of hip-hop's four elements alongside with rapping, b-boying (break-dancing) and DJ-ing. Nowadays, hip-hop music videos usually include artists performing in narrative setting such as clubs, parties, mansions, beach, luxurious foreign country etc. The general message nowadays in hip videos is let’s go out, go to a party, get drunk/high/whatever and have lots of sex.
Costumes The majority of the time the artists were surrounded with a crowd of people wearing clothing that give them the look of ghetto/thug/street look etc. Clothing such as bagging clothing, low slung jean, trainers, tracksuit etc. This type of clothing is very common convention in Hop-Hop genre, it connotes a sense of 'crew/gang'.The baggy clothing is sort of old school nowadays, the clothing was the common convention of hip hop genre in the 90s. Two examples, N.W.A. ~ Straight Outta Compton and Kendrick Lamar ~ Alright.
Props
Props such as flashy cars and designer brands are seen most hip-hop music videos, this is very common convention in hip-hop music videos. They use this to show off their 'wealthy' side, showing off expensive things signify their financial status etc. There's usually a lot of references in hip-hop music videos. For example, 50 Cent ~ Window Shopper,50 Cent and his friends were rich enough to buy overpriced items, such as $400 cheeseburgers, and a $16 million yacht. You could also see flashy cars and couple stacks of money. Camera
There is a lot of low angled camera shot being used in hip-hop music videos which is very common in the hip-hop industry. They used low-angled shot because it give the artist power and in control as they look down on the audience and the audience will feel to look up and respect them.Track away is another shot type used commonly in the hip-hop industry, it's when the camera is moving away from the subject while the subject is coming toward to the camera. This effect of this movement is similar to Low angle, Track away can creates the effect as if the camera operator is running away from the artist which make them look powerful, aggressive and dominant.There's always close ups in many hip-hop music videos which is another dominant camera shot used in hip-hop industry, it implies they’re important enough to have a frame to themselves. They do this in order to establish /sell the artist. For example, Jay-Z & Kanye West ~ Otis. In Chris Brown's music video, there is a long shot of the dance routine, Chris Brown is in the centre, which catches the eye and the audience's attention to the artist, this shows he is the main leader of the group. This long shot also showcase his dancing abilities which idolized by his target audience which will result more fame/publicity and bigger mass demographic.
Voyeurism
Throughout Chris Brown's music video, the female character roles were side-lined, although at 2:33 there is one girl who is dancing provocatively while being surrounded by males. This show voyeurism, this is very common in hop-hop music videos. The reason why they show voyeurism is because the main audience for hip hop is male, voyeurism in hip-hop music video ensures they keep viewers and attract new people into their audience. Men usually have all the power in hip-hop music videos. Women are usually shown as lust and interchangeable etc. Here is another good example of voyeurism in hip-hop videos (French Montana ~ No Shopping ft. Drake).
Editing Usually in hip-hop music videos, the editing pace are usually fast, the cutting to the beat match the pace of the music. Cutting to the beat is when the images cut or transition on the beats or on significant beats in the music. This is usually used during performance scenes. They are used to engage with the viewers and to emphasize the lyrics, they're also used to create a sense of hyper-reality and a dynamic visual style. For example, A$AP ROCKY - F**kin' Problems ft. Drake, 2 Chainz, Kendrick Lamar and Drake ~ Headlines.
1. Music videos demonstrate particular genre characteristic stage performance for heavy ,metal bands and dance genre is dance routines for girls or boys.
This music videos consist of 5 alluring woman in a construction site surrounded by shirtless men and wearing outfits inspired by construction equipment. The girls are later seen doing choreographed dance routines during the choruses and different construction activities during their individual solos. Work From Home is asong about sex. This song's genre is more of electro-pop.
You could tell the genre is Pop because pop's music videos are usually performance-based through choreographed dance. I would say this music video is a performance music video because it featured the band/artists and you can see them lip-syncing to the soundtrack and it is not usual to see lip-syncing in narrative or conceptual music videos.
5. There is frequently Voyeurism - reference to notion of looking(screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
There is voyeurism in this video as you can see the artists/band twerking and their outfits are arousing however, it is not just voyeurism of the female form. There is also voyeurism of the male form as you can see shirtless men who are muscular. This show some hypocrisy in the music industry because it’s okay for men to be looked at, but when it’s women. there’s usually criticisms. They use voyeursim in their music videos because it to sell their image and appeal to wider audience and to show how women are portrayed through sex appeal.
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work. (Rihanna - Stay ft. Mikky Ekko)
This music video has a lots of close ups of the artists which is conventional in performance music videos as record labels demand close ups of the artists/band in order to sell the artist, develop their image and keep their face relevant.
Image is important to show to the audience because their image will portray their personality and style, and who they are, their individual uniqueness. What an artist wears, their attitude. Their music tell a story about them and help creates their unique/fake image. Their unique/fake image would help them gained more audience and revenue as some of their viewers may look up to the artists or relate to the artists. An example, Rihanna - Stay ft. Mikky Ekko.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc). (Big Sean - Play No Games ft. Chris Brown, Ty Dolla $ign)
Intertextuality is the way in which one media text is referenced in another that producers think the audience will get the reference. There many reasons why they used intertextuality in music videos, for example, other artists of the younger generation could be playing tribute to older stars or they could be a reference to motivate you or a reference to other songs they like etc. Intertextuality could be lyrical reference or visual reference or both. Intertextuality are very common in Hip-Hop or Parodies of an movie or music video, for example, parodies usually make fun out of famous particular stars or movies. Another reason they may be used in song/music video is to help the song flow more and give it a deeper meaning.
An example of this,Big Sean - Play No Games ft. Chris Brown, Ty Dolla $ign. The music video is heavily inspired after the classic popular 1992 TV sitcom, Martin. The music video also features appearances from Martin Lawrence (the main character from Martin) and Reginald Ballard (another character from Martin who nick-named Bruh-Man).
You could see the music video is heavily inspired by Martin, you could see Martin's theme song below, it is very similar and old school especially the intro of the music video.
7. They are hyper-real, 'reality' and visual experiences are played with: distorted, disorientating, exaggerated, surreal, a jumble of representation. (Kid Cudi ~ Day 'N' Nite)
This music video is hyperrealism, it uses real visual images and animated effect, they were both combined into one video. This video is made surreal due to the pop art style music video and the way Kid Cudi is in an animated, fantasy world, but the artist remains real while everything else is switching between animated and reality.
The music video shows Kid Cudi walking around in Los Angeles doing bunch of activities such as getting a slice of pizza, grocery shopping, or visiting a bar. While the artist doing those activities, you could see the graphic colours effect overlaying on top of the video to transform the scenes into animated fantasy world etc. This is exaggerated/hyper-real because it is not realistic at all. The purpose of surrealism music videos is to create a sense of hyper-reality and appeal to their target audience and make their music video successful as it is different compared to most music videos. Most surrealism music videos are unusual and original. This has over 60 million views. This way can help the artist create bigger fan-base and generate revenue.
