The Purpose Of A Music

Video
Dean Duffy
Purpose of a music video
There are multiple purposes of a music video here are a few,
● Promote a single and normally an album.
● Promotes an artist or a brand.
● Creates, adapts or feeds into a ‘Star image’.
● Entertained the audience.
● Sets the meaning of a song by the use of the images
Basic Structure
Every music video has a basic structure that it follows,

In 3-4 mins a typical music video either focuses on performance or combines a mix of focus
on performance, narrative and can include other visual imagery such as computer graphics
and animation. You will either have all performance, a mixture of all or a narrative.

● It does this to promote the band

● Often contains a number if different elements
● Performance
● Narrative
● Thematic
● Symbolic
Performance
Many music videos include performances featuring the artist as part of the video
● Often contain shots of the artist performing
● Can be live stage performance, with shots of artists performing
● Can be the artists in real life situations for example fooling around or
talking/singing
● Often includes a variety of close ups of the artist and this could be a particular
visual style that goes with the artist. For example particular clothing,
makeup,actions, props and types of images.
Idea of spectacle
Music videos maybe considered to be an example of spectacle to the viewer,
In this the performer is often looking directly at the viewer this is called ‘Direct
Address’- where they are directly interacting with the viewer.
Narrative
Often the video tells a story either that features in the lyrics or is suggested in the
lyrics an example of this would be a girl loving a boy.
● This narrative can be like a mini film, with a beginning, middle and end, or it
can suggest links to the story because of the short length of the video.
● Can be very fast pace, lots of shots and cuts.
● Use intertextuality with TV and Films.
● It can mimic other Films or TV programmes.
● Sometimes the artist is apart of the story.
Thematic
There are lots of common themes in a music video depending on the genre of the
music for example,
● Heavy metal bands go for performance dominated music videos
● Rap is typically got a lot of street imagery
● Dance routines are normally common for Female artists.
Symbolic connotations
Use of lots of symbols to build up meaning, an example of this is, Graveyards-
Death.
● Lots of use of montage - lots of use of image to create meaning often
contradictory.
● Lighting often suggest the mood of the video
● Fast paced- often only a few seconds per shot.
● Shots can support contradictory lyrics.
Some other codes and conventions
● Visually stylish- ‘artistic’ mise-en-scene.
● Cutting related to the rhythm of the music video (syncing/editing to the beat).
● Cross cutting between performances and images or story
● Experimental use of camera/editing
● Often breaks the rule of continuity editing can use lots of jump cuts.