What Makes An Effective Music Video?

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,
When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on.
Don't let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.

Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it's time to sing along.
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go, (hold on)
When you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on.

Everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends.
Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand. Oh, no. Don't throw your hand.
If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone

If you're on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on.

Well, everybody hurts sometimes,
Everybody cries. And everybody hurts sometimes.
And everybody hurts sometimes. So, hold on, hold on.
Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. (Repeat & fade)
(Everybody hurts. You are not alone.)

Key:

Sadness Words of Hope

“Everybody hurts”, by R.E.M

“Everybody hurts”, by R.E.M was released as a single in 1993. The Music video was directed by Jake Scott and belongs to the genre of alternative rock. The genre of alternative rock emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, with a sound that didn’t resemble the typical heavy metal. The genre itself is defined by indie sounds and rock roots and was built as post rock. To begin with the genre focused on independent bands that were from the punk rock era but was not to be classed in the category of metal. Despite the genre of alternative rock having no set musical style; the majority are guitar based which is evident within this song. Furthermore, alternative rock has the tendency to address topics of social concern such as drug use and depression. It is evident that the theme of depression is a prevalent theme throughout the song I have chosen and follows this convention of alternative rock.

On first hearing the song without watching the music video, one could assume the song is about sadness and depression.  This is not surprising, given the sombre tone to the lyrics however the lyrics contain a much deeper and stronger meaning which is the preferred meaning; not to give up with the words of “hold on” being repeated.  The video itself is narrative led; however the main singer is part of the narrative and leads the narrative through. The camera often reverts back to his singing, to add to stability for the music video. Even if he is not singing, his figure is recognised by fans and acts as an anchor to the video. John Fiske, a media studies professor theorised semiotic democracy. Fiske discussed how rather than being passive couch potatoes that absorb information in an unmediated way, viewers actually are able to give their own interpreted meaning which this video by R.E.M stimulates.  

The editing in this music video always cuts to the beat however it undoubtedly cuts slower than most rock video which is a common convention of the alternative rock genre. Furthermore, the lyrics appear on screen which helps to emphasise the preferred meaning for the music video of hope. Additionally, different thoughts of people as subtitles are matched to their shots. This helps to give a voyeuristic feel to the music video as despite these people looking “okay”, there subtitles show that there is a deeper meaning and they are in fact not.  As the song progresses, the notion of hope becomes increasingly more noticeable and to show this the editing pace quickens.

The situation of being in a traffic jam provides an insight to everyone’s scenarios and makes it further evident that it is not just one person feeling pain and losing hope. In order to show this, the camera is often panning to show that there is more than one person in a depressing situation and giving a rounded view, instead of focusing on just an individual. The video includes intertextuality from the opening dream sequence of Fellin’s 8 1/2 as at the end of the video all the people leave their cars and walk instead, and then they vanish.

Three minutes, twenty seconds into the music video there is a close up of the lead singer, Michael Stripe. His figure is dominant in the frame, with shallow depth of field of the cars behind him. The use of depth of field can provoke an uncertainty due to the blur of those in the car, who feel like they are losing hope whereas the lead singer is hopeful and therefore he appears in focus to depict that he is the only one and this precise time in the video that is hopeful.

The singer himself is dressed in a suit which perhaps such his superiority in telling these people that there is hope.  However this is also Micheal Stripe's typical style which therefore helps him remain favourable to his fans. His status is represented through high status clothing but by also the framing of some shots. For example towards the middle of the video, the singer gets out of the car and starts walking higher up on the wall. Due to this framing, the people in the car are able to look up at him, therefore emphasising his superiority. Additionally those inside the cars are dressed in what would be classed as 'every day wear' which further adds to the authenticity of the video itself.
 

As the video ends, there is the use of a voice over from a reporter, explaining that all these people have just 'got out and walked'. The use of a voice over, further add to the voyeurism which is evident within the video and also the diagetic sound of a helicopter propeller suggest that these people are being watched, not only by the audience themselves but also the reporters who are characters within the video.

The director, Jake Scott has made the video, appealing to fans by filming, the main singer with several close ups as he leads the narrative through. Nonetheless, the video has also been targeted at those who are perhaps feeling depressed as the message of the song alone provides hope. I therefore think that this music video has successfully satisfied its target audience as the singer is represented as a 'god- like figure' as he first exits his car and walks as others soon follow. This is therefore something a fan would expect to see, as the singer is the main person throughout the narrative.

Overall the R.E.M music video of “Everybody Hurts” has shown common conventions of the genre by the sombre tone. However its preferred meaning is hopeful, which is not a typical convention of the genre. However without watching the video, the lyrics can easily be mistaken for a depressing song. Additionally, this song has recently been used in 2010 to provide hope for the Hati earthquake. The song was produced and covered as a charity single to help raise money to help victims of the earthquake further emphasising the meaning of hope that the song provides.

Analysis of "Where is the love?"- Black Eyed Peas- Semiotics

The music video I am analysing is 'Where is the love?' by The Black Eyed Peas. The music belongs to the American Hip- Hop genre and the video contains several characteristics of the genre. These characteristics include stylized rhythmic music which is accompanied by rapping along with rhyming speech that is chanted. Furthermore the Djing is shown in the van, as one of the singers rap into a microphone whilst the other is scratching. The clothing for hip hop music videos is usually, sport wear, and in this particular video the singers appear in basic casual clothing such as tracksuit tops. Additionally, the main female singer, Fergie, is dressed in a plain white vest top.  In many hip hop videos there is usually a link between the lyrics and the video in this case the lyrics of 'Can you practice what you preach' is matched with the visuals of a man holding up a bible in a crowd. The singers appear dancing along to the song which is shown by them bouncing in time to the beat of the song which is common to the hip hop genre. This implies that they like the song and therefore further gives credibility to the song. Moreover there are many close ups in hip hop videos to help establish the importance of the artist. However the video does not follow the common convention of the hip hop genre of using scophillia, presenting woman for the gratification of men. Instead the mixed gendered band is shown equally in a not very sensual way, which is surprising for this genre.

The video alone, has used amplification, by taking the lyrics of song and emphasising there meaning through the use of visuals. The narrative shows the band running down the street placing question marks on everything that seems to be a problem. The song begins with the lyrics of 'What’s wrong with the world?' From what seems rhetorical in the lyrics alone, is amplified by the visuals as they appear to answer the lyrics, showing what is wrong with the world.

In 'Mythologies' by Roland Barthes (1973) he discusses the semiology of the image. He breaks down semiology into three components, the signifier: the associations, the signified: the meaning behind the associations and the sign: the signifier and the signified together. Ferdinand de Suassure in his 'Course of general linguistics' (1916) first describes science of signs as semiology. Semiology is the deconstruction of the significance of images and words. There are three types of signs, iconic, indexical and symbolic. Iconic is where the sign looks like what it is representing. Different to this, there are indexical signs which have a direct connection with the object and then there are symbolic signs which show no direct connection between the two and the symbol is learnt by society. In Black Eye pea’s music video of 'Where is the love?' there is evident use of semiotics in order to show key issues that the song is representing such as terrorism, the U.S government, racism, war and greed.  To begin with, the camera shows question mark signs being placed on walls and objects. This demonstrates that where the question marks are being stuck to, there is a problem. The question mark is able to be recognised by society as concern therefore being an indexical sign, whereby question marks are learnt by society as showing that there is a problem, or concern or perhaps even confusion. There is then a shot of the statue of liberty which symbolises freedom however a question mark is placed by the statue, to question these peoples freedom. The symbol of a question mark is a prevalent theme which runs throughout the music video.

 

Throughout the video, there are many close ups of actors, lip synced with the lyrics, to show their emotions within the situation. It is evident that these actors aren’t happy with the current situation, which is therefore emphasized through the frequent use of close ups. Additionally, the band together is a motif throughout the narrative and during the narrative; the shot then reverts back to the singers to give a sense of security to the video. The motif of the band helps to keep the attention on the singers, as they are the ones who need to be satisfying fans and also making the money for the music. Furthermore, there are many moments in the music video where the band are looking and singing directly into the camera. This is a common convention used to make the audience feel like the artist is singing to them. This technique makes the audience feel involved with the video and therefore they are more likely to enjoy the song.

Throughout, the video, there is a use of intertextuality. WillIAm (one of the main singers in the band) 35 seconds into the song is standing in front of the famous mural 'We are not a minority' of a tribute to Che Guevara which was painted in 1978. In order to understand the reason why this mural is being shown in context with the storyline of the music video, audiences would need to recognise this mural from something of their own knowledge.

The editing in the video always cuts to the beat in time to the music which is a common convention in music videos and in particular in hip hop videos. At 57 seconds into the video, there is the use of pause as the band is running across the road. The band is paused therefore further emphasising the presence of the band. However the pause is mainly on Fergie herself, the female singer perhaps to appeal to a male audience. This therefore presents the notion of looking as she appears in a sporting heroic manner leading across the street.

The location of the music video is in the streets of New York, which is a common convention of the hip hop genre. The location adds to the authenticity of the video but also makes the video relatable to Black Eyed Pea’s target audience of teenagers.  At 2 minutes 59 seconds of the music video, the black man is being victimised. This is emphasized by the use of lighting as his back figure is silhouetted by the use of low key lighting which emphasises his figure. The use of a silhouette in this video has created a dramatic effect in order to show the importance of this man who is being chased. Furthermore the use of lighting has been used in order to emphasise key moments of the song.

The video ends with all the actors involved, looking up to the sky, as the band repeat the lyrics 'Where is the love?' This further amplifies the lyrics as the visual are again answering the rhetorical question from the band as they are looking up to actually see where the love is and how they can perhaps change this.

Threatening The Music Industry

Within the music industries a threat to music institutions and digital music sales is music piracy. Online music piracy has caused some record sales to drop by 20% every year. Online music piracy is responsible for 2.6 billion downloads of copyrighted files every month. Music piracy is a serious issue as it equates to loss of revenue.  

Another key threat to music instutions at the moment is breach of copyright. Copyright, is a legal concept used by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it usually for a limited time. Copyright began in 1662 and was later established in 1790. The process of copyright ensures that music is protected for the whole lifetime and 50 years after the death of the singer. However the most common example of breaking the law worldwide is breach of copyright.

I emailed the band ‘Dog is Dead’ to ask for permission to use their song; ‘Two Devils’ for my music video. The response I received was that we are allowed to use their song. It is important that we received copyright from someone in association to the song, as we will be broadcasting our video onto YouTube and if the video is not what they approve off, this could cause them loss of fans, and loss of marketing.  However a benefit for the band is that our video will be free advertising for them, as we will be sharing our video with others. Due to a key issue of breach of copyright it was extremely important that we got permission to use their song to ensure that we were not going to break any legal restrictions.

Key Features of Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin, In Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992, Routledge) has identified what he considers as the main visual features of music videos. His  categories include that a music video must demonstrate genre characteristics for example a girl group video would consist with dancing whereas as metal genre video would focus on the stage performance. Furthermore a music video must make frequent references to Scophillia (the notion of looking) for example screens within a screen ad some videos may include voyeuristic features of the female body. Furthermore the notion of Scophillia, shows what is pleasant to look at such as attractive men and women as an audience enjoy looking at something which is pleasurable to watch. Goodwin, further justifies that a music video should show a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, whether this is illustrative, amplifying or disjuncture. Often, inter-textual l references are made to films, TV programmes or other music videos. Additionally for most music videos of artists who are signed to a label, there will be requirements of the record label that will need to be meeting in the music video. These include close ups of the artist and also developments of small motifs to bring stability to music video and reoccur across their works, which is known as a visual style.

Additionally, Goodwin has categorized the technical aspects of music videos. He categorizes speed which is visualised by camera movement, fast editing and digital effects. Furthermore, beats are a key feature of music videos in which the video will try to represent the music through the use of cutting in order to keep a specific rhythm. The majority of music videos also include post production digital effects such as colourizing images and multiple split screens. Often lighting and colour is used to emphasize key moments in a song. Lighting will often help to add to the dramatic effect, for example to focus on an individual singer there may by the use of a spotlight in order to emphasize the individual. Lastly mise en scene is of particular importance in a music video. The use of mise en scene helps to add authenticity to a music video along with emphasizing the realism of a performance.

History Of Music Videos

History of music videos from lucybrenner19