Preliminary evaluation

Preliminary music video storyboard - Young & Beautiful

Preliminary music video - Young & Beautiful

Analysing A Music Video

For the preliminary task we must make a music video and we must analyse a music video that is within the genre we have have chosen for the 30 second music video. I have chosen to do Young & Beautiful by Lana Del Rey. Lana's music genre is alternative pop so I had to find an artist that was also alternative pop therefore I have chosen to analyse the music video Hurricane by Halsey.




Genre of the music: As I previously mentioned, the genre of this music is alternative pop. This is signified by the vibe and tone of the music that it gives off, it's a darkly produced song and as Halsey described "trippy".  We can see from the music video that it's alternative by the colours used, they are all fairly light colours which some would say challenges the genre. The people that are seen in the music videos are fairly young so the suggests that maybe the song is aimed at the younger generation.

Camera movement/shots/angles: We see a variety of different shots during the music video. First we get a wide shot of the location as to where the music video is set. This gives the audience an idea of what to expect to see throughout the music video.Then we get a mix of long and medium shots, these show the audience the scenery and the characters in the scene. We also see close ups to the characters faces, this allows us to see their reactions and emotions. A tracking shot is used frequently throughout the music video to follow the characters. Additionally, we see an over the shoulder shot from the boys shoulder and this helps the audience place the characters in their setting. Another shot that may have gone unnoticed is the point of view shot from the two characters in the car together.

Editing transitions/special effects: Unfortunately there aren't a lot of editing techniques in the music but there are a few noticeable ones. For example, the slow motion effect is used regularly to show that time is moving more slowly once the characters meet. Also around 0:25 the camera goes out of focus, this just shifts the focus from the character on to the next setting in the music video.

Mise-en-scene: The colours used for the duration of the music video are all fairly light such as white, yellow, light pink/blue. These colours may be used because they represent different things and they wanted these representations to be seen by the audience. For example, yellow signifies youth and happiness which you later see in the video. The outfits that are being worn by the characters are all very 'hipster' or 'indie' as people say. They're the sort of costumes that you see the young generation wear currently, such as shorts and crop tops. There are very little props seen throughout the music videos such as a polaroid camera, alcohol, a notebook etc. The location is set in a Brooklyn neighbour best known as the 'largest ghetto in the US'. Many of the buildings are made of bricks, combined with its poor state it creates a run-down setting for the resigned song.

Dominant Ideologies:  Ideologies are ideas that are normal, common sense and just the way things are. However, ideas, values and beliefs are not static; they evolve and develop overtime. For example ideologies of women has changed as women have become more equal. So for the music video, the dominant ideology of youths could be they are causing mayhem although this doesn't apply to every teen.

Intertextuality: The term Intertextuality refers to the process of creating references to any kind of media text via another media text. In other words Intertextuality essentially means for a type of media (film,television,music etc) to pay homage to another media text. For the music video I have analysed, I believe there is no intertextuality.

Audience reception: Stuart Hall came of with the theory of encoding/decoding. He said it is how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed, proposing a new theory of communication. The meaning of the text is located between its producer and the reader. The producer (encoder) framed (or encoded) meaning in a certain way, while the reader (decoder) decodes it differently according to his/her personal background, the various different social situations and frames of interpretation. So for the Hurricane music video, the audience might view the video as intriguing as the meaning behind the music video is about avoiding attachments both to locations and lovers, and forming the appropriate persona. This could be relatable to certain audiences. The audience may also find the song relatable to people that aren't in advisable social situations as the music video is set in a run down area.

Uses & Gratifications: Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience centered approach to understanding mass communication. Diverging from other media effect theories that question "what do media do to people?", UGT focuses on "what do people do with media?" And so, people may watch/enjoy this music video because from start to finish there's an interesting plot. You want to know what happens with the boy and girl at the end of the music video. Also with the "to be continued" you feel intrigued and want to know what will happen next.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory: I don't think Goodwin's Theory could be applied to the music video as the music video doesn't doesn't demonstrate genre characteristics, there is no relationship between the lyrics and visuals, there is no relationship between the music and visuals, there weren't as many close ups as to what you'd expect from the record label demands and there are no intertextual reference.

Laura Mulvey's Theory: The concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented. For feminists it can be thought of in 3 ways:

• How men look at women,
• How women look at themselves
• How women look at other women.

Laura Mulvey coined the term ‘Male Gaze’ in 1975. She believes that in film audiences have to ‘view’ characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. Features of the Male Gaze:

• The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events.
• Relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male.

Again, I don't think Mulvey's Theory can be applied to the music video as I feel it actually challenges the aspects of the Male Gaze.

Levi Strauss Theory: Strauss believed that the way we understood certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain however but by our understanding the different of the word and it’s ‘opposite’. He then produced the theory binary opposites. A protagonist and antagonist or Heroine and villain are both examples of binary opposites. In the Hurricane, I don't think there are any binary oppositions. 

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

To some extent I do believe that Goodwin was correct about music videos having genre characteristics as it is common to see girl/boy bands to have dance routines and it is common to see rap videos having street images, women in bikinis with flashy cars such as the examples I've shown on my prezi. However, I don't think it's good to generalise about all music videos. There are bound to be some music videos that go against the generalisation.

There are several music videos that comply with Andrew's Theory. Goodwin suggests lyrics will make constant references to visuals on screen. Visuals will reinforce what the lyrics say. An example of this can be seen in the Griminal – Invincible music video. The lyrics depict a boy and girl in love, using personal terms about a relationship such as “we” and “us”. This is further emphasised on screen by the couple sharing an intimate moment on screen. Furthermore the lyrics lead up to the word “love” on screen this is then followed up by the ring reading love and the way the couple are together on screen, in love.

Genre characteristics are depicted as the certain traits associated with a particular music genre. For example a rock video you would expect to have the performance of a live band. For grime it adopts several characteristics of different genres as it is a new genre. Typical grime video’s you would expect them to have the following characteristics as a must; Jewellery, a narrative based story, hoods and ‘urban’ clothing, a trait of many grime songs is to perceive the artist as if he/she is just writing the music. This can be seen in American hip-hop video’s such as Stan by Eminem.

Notions of looking plays on the idea of gaze and the way someone in particular is seen. For example, in a lot of music video’s women are often presented according to Goodwin as objects. Notions of looking however is not just restricted to women, it may also represent men in a particular way such as controlling or violent as cheats etc. An example of a music video that slightly goes against the way women are presented is in the music video Please Don't Leave Me by P!NK. In the music video she plays the aggressive, controlling role that the man should, although she is dressed in revealing clothing which could support the idea of women being seen as objects. 

Additionally, the record label has a certain control over the artist they sign. It is ultimately up to the record label to decide what the artist should be represented as. For example, for women the label may require the artist to come off as sexy in order to appeal to men and reach that target audience. For men the same thought process could be applied, being represented as sexy would reach out to the target audience of women. This is crucial as particular genders are more inclined to listen to certain genres of music. E.g. women who are interested in urban music are more likely to listen to R&B. So men appealing as sexy would draw in women audiences.

As well as being part of the genre characteristics narrative is also its own category with in Goodwin’s theory. The narrative allows the music to come to life, like a story. It connects all the dots with in the categories that Goodwin identified. Narrative can either be fragmented or linear. Most music video’s today tend to be fragmented. This is typical of R&B and Grime as a genre. This however is not the case with Griminal’s music video. It uses a linear format, which is rather simplistic getting from point A to point B. It is only broken up by the chorus.

(I used a Slideshare presentation to help me with this)