What is a music video? - Miss Miller

WHAT IS A MUSIC VIDEO?

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings.

A music video promotes a song which in turn promotes an album. Each song is sold individually but once the artist has released enough, an album is released, promoting all the songs again. The aim is also to sell an image of the artist and to generate money for the record company. When selling the image of themselves the artist will set a certain mood in their video by attaching the song to certain/past experience, this may involves things such as previous love affairs. The concept of selling artists through artists through image is carried by the record companies. Music videos can help promote a band or artist long after the single or album has been released. Some artists are remembered years later solely because of a memorable music video.

There are three different style of music videos; performance, narrative, concept. Performance is the style demonstrated through the singing and dancing of the artist, narrative is telling the audience a story through the lyrics or the music video itself or the music displaying it and concept is selling an idea/theme or ideology, which means there is often a meaning behind the video. Some music videos contain a mixture of the different styles and some contain only one style. 

The artist that i will be analysing is JLS, a boy band who won the Xfactor in 2008.The song that i will be analysing is 'Beat Again' as i feel is holds conventions of the dance genre. 

JLS are a group of four, who have been creating songs since they won the Xfactor. They are well known for creating a well known single for children in need 2010. The single was called "love you more" and was the groups fourth UK number one. As of 2013, they are the sixteenth richest reality TV stars in the UK, with an estimated fortune of 6million for each member.

JLS have a reputation of creating pop and dance genre songs. There most known music videos include; "beat again", "do you feel what I feel" and "everybody in love", and have created singles with other popular artists such as 'Tinie Tempah' and 'LuvBug'. JLS are known for having previous relationships and break-ups, which is why I feel all of their songs including the above (beat again) have some relation to telling story about a relationship and how they felt. There music videos allow the audience to relate to each of them, giving the audience an insight to their lives.

The song that I am analysing "beat again", portrays the style of performance and narrative. Both styles are mixed together throughout the music video. This music video has a purpose to entertain the audience as well as sing an emotional story to the background music of dance-pop. The genre of this music video is pop. 

The picture on the left demonstrates the use of strobe lighting through the use of a long shot. Strobe lighting is often used in the dance genre as it creates an effect that they are in a club-like scene, whilst dancing and singing for the audience. This screenshot is the opening scene to the music video and clearly shows them starting a dance routine, another convention of the dance genre. The music video includes scenes of JLS dancing to the song in front of blue, red, yellow, and green light all of which represent each member of the boy-band. Strobe-lighting also adds to the effect of the music video as it attracts and engages the audience, as it catches their eye instead of just having a normal plain background. This may also take the focus off the band themselves, which is unconventional as normally within a pop video the focus is straight on them, although this is relatable to the club like scene. The silhouette features conform to the dance genre as it shows to the audience a shadow of what the artists are doing, although meaning the audience cant see the emotions they are expressing, meaning a relationship is created between the two as they are looking and listening closer for there emotions and feelings being sent out.

The picture on the left demonstrates JLS through the micro-element cinematography. A mid-shot shows the boys doing dance routine of them pumping their heart with their hands. This is the style of narrative and performance, as they are telling a story and relating to the lyrics at the same time as dancing and singing. This camera shot allows the audience to see specifically what the artists are doing and what emotions they are expressing towards the audience. This style of dancing and up-beat music would appeal to a teenage audience as it includes aspects of a party scene, dancing and a lively, energetic atmosphere, which teenagers and young adults like listening/watching. The dance choreography involves moves revolving around heartbeats, alluding to the title "beat again".

All the artists within the music video are wearing the same outfit which connects to the micro-element MES. This is shown from a long shot at the beginning of the music video showing their full body appearance. This allures the audience to feel more engaged with the character's and represents them as a team, rather than individuals singing together, also telling the audience a narrative that they are strong and work together, although each character is shown differently through their colours; red, yellow, blue and green. This promotes them as individual characters, and not just as a group. Them having there own colours means they can be recognised easily and be seen to do there own things, and there names may even be replaced with there colour names. This also works well with outfits and when performing in concerts there coloured light will hover over them. This is relatable to a music video as they can be easily recognised and coloured lighting is a convention of a pop music video.

JLS follow all the conventions of the dance genre, as well as boy-bands. This includes them wearing co-ordinating outfits, representing them as a group and in a club like scene which is commonly seen as they have room to dance and sing towards the audience.The artists within this music video are wearing quite causal clouting which is jeans and a dark navy top and an scarf for an accessory. The dark clothing connects to the club like theme, and the strobe lighting makes them stand out more on stage as there dark clothing matches the flooring and black background. 

This music video appeals to the target audience of teenagers. The target audience would range from the ages of 8-16 as they do not use explicit language they may affect younger children. The conventions will be able to be noticed by this age of target audience as they frequently watch music videos on the internet and youtube. Girls especially find JLS attractive to listen to as there music is up-beat and conventional to the pop genre, as there lyrics within this music video are about their love lives and how they have been affected by heart break. There lyrics are understandable and relatable and have a dance type tune that will attract there specific target audience. The positioning of the characters show that they are always huddled in a group together. the micro-element mise-en-scene shows that the positioning of the characters shows they are united and hold a strong connection between the four of them. This shows that there is a strong bond between the four of them and there friendship is quite close. This also links in to the fact that they all know about each others love life and how they heartbroken from all different girls. Although the fact that the song is about love and no girls are promoting themselves sexually is un conventional of this genre. Within a pop music video with the reference to love and heartbreak a story is usually shown to the audience, although all we see within this music video is them dancing and singing towards the camera. We see the use of long-shots through cinematography shown a lot as we can see there full body image and the stage they are performing on. 

An editing technique which is used within this music video is a technique called wipe. At the start of the music video the technique wipe is used several times to open the scene and introduce the 4 characters from the band. The wipe technique almost shows that a new picture is being taken every time to show a new scene. Every time this happens a new position of the characters is shown giving the audience a new perspective to look at, keeping them entertained. This editing technique is used to catch the audiences eye as it happens very fast and makes the audience look to see what is happening and what has changed every time. This is also done at the beginning when they are not singing yet, just the background beat is being played so this is acting as an introduction of the music video as they are showing themselves before they start singing there song. 
Conventions of the dance genre, commonly include dancing, strobe lighting, bright colours, women dancing and wearing minimal clothing UV paint and drinking. This music video conforms to some of these conventions of the dance genre but not them all. The different uses of conventions shows this music video wants to stand out, and reach a wider audience apart from their target audience, which can lead to a larger success for the artists together. The conventions that they didn't form to, may relate to the fact that they are in a club like setting, meaning things such as UV paint is not promoted and wouldn't be conventionally seen.

Overall i feel that from analysing this music video i have learnt that the target audience is very important. If the video doesn't appeal to the audience, it can determine how successful the song will be. The target audience are supposed to be guaranteed viewers for the video which makes it crucial for the correct conventions and features within to appeal to them. Conventions need to be generic and consistent throughout not only to appeal to the target audience, but also to make sure that the correct genre of music is identified. Music videos are very effective in the way that they allow audiences to create a relationship with the artist when otherwise the only way of seeing them perform would be live on television or on a programme performing. A narrative, concept of performance music video allowed the personality of the artist t come across which i don't think is important just for the audience but also for the artist and the way in which they promote themselves.