Case Study - Katy Perry

Katy Perry is an american singer and in her music videos she reflects relatable anxieties that young girls have in order to appeal to them. Her target audience are girls from the ages of 14 - 18 and Perry is like an older sister/friend to them. She is someone that young girls can admire and want to be as she appears sexy, but not in a threatening way.

In 2008 she released "Hot N Cold" which brought her fame and helped her grow her audience. The song has lyrics that a lot of young girls and women can relate to about men. The song is about a wedding that has gone wrong. Instead of the bride being nervous and running away from the scene it is the man. Katy shows dominance over the groom and this spreads a message to young girls that they are just as strong as boys.

Katy Perry continued her success by being a role model for her target audience. In another one of her hits, 'Fireworks' she embedded a message that encourages people not to hide who they really are. It begins with ordinary people finding themselves in hard situations that they cannot overcome. As the song goes on each person learns to embrace themselves and fireworks come out from them. In the last sequence we see all different types of people with fireworks coming out from them. The lyrics that Katy Perry are inspirational to more than just her target audience as everyone can relate to hiding their qualities.

In the "Wide Awake" video Katy Perry is expressing her feelings after she broke up Russel Brand after a two year marriage. It starts off with a scene from a previous video that she had made during her relationship. The scene shows her on 'cloud nine' and it shows how happy she is. This was from a music video called "California Gurls" and it almost sells a dream to young girls that being in love is the best thing in the world.

It shows her being more aware of what had just happened to her. The lyrics tell her story of how being married wasn't the best thing that had happened to her. "Falling from cloud nine, Crashing from the high...I picked up every piece, And landed on my feet, I'm wide awake" These lyrics show that she hasn't been herself through the marriage, but now that it's over she has seen clearly how she has changed. She also had some graphics in the video that referenced to her "Firework" video. This shows that she is a new person and she doesn't have to pretend to be someone else.

Purpose of the Music Video

Mind Map created by James Chege with GoConqr

Audience Reception Theory

Audience reception is the way we react. The theory describes the way we receive and respond to texts differently and is a way to characterise and group together different consumer interpretations.

Encoding is the meaning and ideology that produces put into texts for audiences to decode. Audiences are can choose whether to accept or reject the message that the producer has encoded when they see the text. Different audiences interpret the meanings differently and can sometimes get the wrong message from some texts. Stuart Hall created the encoding model and it shows how audiences can interpret different texts. 

A preferred meaning of a text is what the author intended. A negotiated meaning is a mix between preferred and oppositional meaning. An oppositional meaning is when the viewer or reader has their own interpretation of the text.

An example of where three different interpretations can be used is in the "Deadpool" trailer. The trailer has a preferred meaning and the message that the author is trying to put across in the trailer is that Deadpool is a good character because he is helping to stop criminals and that he is a joker in the way that he does it. Other viewers may not get this interpretation from the trailer and they may think that he is a funny character, but he is a bad role model because he shots people to do good things. An oppositional meaning would be that he sets a bad example for people who are watching by using guns and that he looks silly in his red suit.

A model of the media

Sexism in Music Videos

Laura Mulvey's theory is that the cinematography used in film and music video denies women human identity. This is the male gaze and it suggests that women are objects to be admired for their physical appearance. The male gaze relegates women as they can only watch a film from a mans perspective. Often the female characters have no real importance and are only exist when in a relationship with the main male character. The presence of a woman in film is to make the male feel or act important.  

If we look at some music videos we can see that they deny women's identity. Lilly Allen's "Hard Out Here" music videos represents the male gaze, but the lyrics of the song address the issue. Watching the video can be confusing because she talks about the common stereotypes that society has on women. She suggests that men can get away with anything but when a female says the same thing they are looked down upon. She doesn't try to mask any issue or hide them in her lyrics. Instead she lets everything go and puts it all in one song. However, if we look at the video we can see that everything she says is not relevant. This is because the video is ironic and it is meant to spread a message.
 

Another song that denies women's identity is "Booty" by Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea. This video represents women as objects and focuses mostly on their faces. Unlike "Hard Out Here" the song is not giving a message about women's inequality and injustice, but it is supporting it. The choreography in the music video and the cinematography of the video work in correlation as the features of the women are highlighted throughout the whole music video. Even though the video relegates women it is understandable. The lyrics of the song match with the type of music video that it is. It talks about sexy women and their features. It encourages women to feel good about how they look and their appearance. 

In conclusion, Laura Maulvey's theory still exists in modern day music videos. Although society knows that it happens people still choose not to opt-out of watching these videos and almost accept the sexism in pop videos. Sometimes the artists have to go with society because they want to give the audience what they want to see and if the artist is comfortable with the male gaze then they don't mind the producing the video.

Case Study - Alex Southam

Case Study - Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was an American Pop star that was globally known for his contributions in popular culture by dancing and singing. He began singing in a group called "Jackson 5" with his brothers and the purpose was to spread music. It was later on when he began to establish himself and start his solo career.

"Rock with You" was the first song he sang as an individual. The song was released in 1979 and it was all about him. There were many close up and shots of him dancing with his shiny costume. The video was almost a message to the world that he was doing his own thing and he was unique. In Michael Jackson's early days he was always more focused on the music and the way he sung. You can see that he is truly enjoying his music as he dances to the song. 


After "Billie Jean" which was released in 1982 he became more focused on story telling. In this video it showed how he was bringing everything to life. It was the first interesting pop video around his time and he was breathing life into it. The following year he released another music video called "Beat It". This song was focused on the story and was the beginning of the alias white socks. The choreography in the video was very elaborate at the end of the video. Also a lot of Jackson's dancing was made up on the spot. He had a talent and he fan base was growing all over the world.

In 1983 he put out undoubtedly one of the most famous music videos of all time called "Thriller". This video cost around $500,000 to make and lasted as long as a mini-film. It had to be edited down because it was too long. Even when MTV aired the video it lasted just under five minutes with one minute of narrative. The long version was just too long and lasted a remarkable fourteen minutes. The video was so imaginative and creative that it won Best Performance Video, Best Choreography and Viewers Choice at the first MTV Music Awards in 1984. The tape became the best selling and was able to sell 9 million units. Tapes were in high demand and the video was released a few weeks before Christmas so the video were able to make a staggering amount of sales. There were also behind the scenes VHS' which included a little documentary of how the video was produced and had some exclusive behind the scenes footage.

Case Study - Emil Nava

Emil Nava is a British music video director who freelances for OB Management. He began his career as a runner for film production companies, but after graduating to Assistant Director he would manage the video shoots. Nava freelances for OB Management, which is an agency that matches clients with suitable directors. OB Management work as agents for people like Nava and their aim is to nurture talent, work withe production companies and record labels and to match the right director to the right artists.

After gaining recognition and signing for an academy he was given many opportunities to manage video shoots. One of his well known music videos is the song by Ed Sheeran called "You need me, I don't need you". The video had a budget of £35,000 which is quite low, but it was a success. It features a young man hand signing Ed Sheeran's lyrics in an empty drama studio. The audience are not really shown to Ed Sheeran as the production were not sure whether people would like his looks. However, after the video was put out people liked the way he looked and the video got a good reception.

Another well known music video that Nava has worked on is "Do it like a dude" by Jessie J. The video was so good that it was nominated for Best Pop video and Best Cinematography at the UK Music Video Awards in 2011. The budget for this video was even less than Ed Sheeran's video, only costing £25,000. We can see that Nava focuses more on the artist in this video to bring out the lyrics that Jessie J is singing. Unlike the Ed Sheeran video there is much more going on and there are different types of dance scenes happening. 

After looking through some music videos directed by Emil Nava I have noticed that he likes to use close ups wherever possible. Nava has previously worked on adverts such as L'Oreal, but he says that it's not as enjoyable as directing music videos. Even though he receives a much higher budget, there is less room for creativity and imagination. This is because when the project is given to him the client has a specific message that they want to get across. 

Star theory & Pop videos

Music industry creates and promotes artists within clearly defined genres. Music videos can use images to illustrate the lyrics. Amplify is when the lyrics and the video have no clear distinction, but there are hidden meanings that the artist has put in. Disjuncture is when the meaning of the song is completely ignored and the music includes random scenes that have no correlation with the lyrics.

Kanye West

Richard Dyer believes that artists are manufactured for financial gains. They are constructed through advertising, films, magazines and music videos to represent 'real people' in order to sell their brand. These artificial images are used to show the artist experiencing emotions so that the audience can relate. This gives the artists a unique selling point to make money for their record labels. Dyer claims that record labels manufacture artists to cater for different audiences knowing that they will become trend setters which leads to more financial gain. If we look at Kanye West most people will know him for his fashion. Fans of Kanye will look up to him and imitate his fashion by wearing similar footwear or clothes.

Britney Spears

Britney Spears is a well known artist. She is an actress as well as a singer and since signing with Jive Records in 1997 she has been successful in the music industry internationally. In her early days of her music career she was represented as a girly artist. She wore pink, had her hair in pigtails and wore make up. In her video "Baby One More Time" her dance routine was choreographed in a way to make the audience desire to be in her gang. Her look was branded to suit the record label.

Britney Spears is an artists that supports Dyer's theory. Her original image was changed in order for the record label to make money. For many years Britney was made to look like an artificial star so that the audience could relate. In the "Baby One more Time" we see that she is wearing a cropped blouse and this was the start of a new trend. She was made to look innocent, but the way she was dressed in some of her videos you can argue that this was just to gain a bigger audience. Laura Maulvey's male gaze relates to films, but we can relate it to Britney. The theory suggests that women are viewed as objects to men. In the music video "Oops!...I Did It Again" we see that Britney wears a full latex suit to engage the male audience. The video has not direct link with the lyrics, but people will still watch it because it catches the eye. 

Case Study - Jamie Thraves

History of Music Video

Bessie Smith
The evolution of pop videos has developed since the earliest pop music video in 1929. Bessie Smith was one of the most popular Blues singer of the 1920's - 1930's. The first example of pop music video was shown in a short film called "St Louise Blue's" where one of Bessie's songs was featured. She was starred in the film and it was shown in cinemas for around four years. 

Elvis Presley

In the 20th century Elvis Presley was one of the most significant Rock and Roll stars in the world. He was a musician and had a small acting career where he would star as one of the main characters. Presley was successful in film and music as he began his music career started in 1954 and his debut film was in 1956. He sung at many concerts, but was only able to tour in the US. An example of one of the films that Presley acted in was "Blue Huwaii". It portrays Elvis as a playboy and this helped him expand his audience as it appealed to teenage boys and girls.

The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock band formed in 1960. Their music career picked up when they were showcased on "Top of the Pops''. This music show in the UK was very popular and this allowed the band to progress in the music charts. Just like Elvis Presley the Beatles had their own film called "A Hard Days Night" and in their debut feature film it showed their personalities. The film appealed to young adults and teenagers as the film included the band causing mischief. Younger fans could relate as this looked cool and thrilling.

MTV

MTV was launched in 1981. This changed the the music industry and was seen as the golden era of music videos. MTV aired "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. MTV doesn't just show music videos and music related news, but now with their many channels they are able to give the world entertainment as well as music. On February 1st 2011 they removed all music from their channel and put it onto their other channel called "MTV Music". They have many channels such as MTV Hits and MTV Base where they are able to reach millions of people across the world. With their social media platforms they are able to promote new upcoming artists, give people the latest entertainment and celebrity news and alert their viewers on the newest music videos. This network has changed the music industry completely as news and information about artists can be accessible from almost anywhere.  

Nowadays people may watch videos for their own pleasure and not for the love of music. The quality of the music may not matter to most viewers as they are too engaged with the video. This may be down to corporate manages wanting to take advantage on exploited males and females instead of concentrating on the meaning of the lyrics. However, there are some artists that have music videos that relate to their song lyrics or express how they feel emotionally.
The music video for "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa feat Charlie Puth is in the Pop genre. If we look at the mise-en-scene used we can see that a lot of effort has gone into the setting and location. In all the shots that we see the artists singing we can see mountains and the sea in the background. The video adds effect to the song as it shows that it is a relaxed song in honor of Paul Walker. The editing used in the video also adds effect to the song. The video has a montage of Paul Walker throughout the past 7 films of Fast and Furious. This is because the song is specifically for him. 

Branding - Spice Girls

The purpose of Pop videos is to promote the artist by marketing their image. Pop videos can help create a brand for some artist and bands as it makes it easier for the public to distinguish one group from the other. It encourages people to buy into the records and into their brand.

The Spice Girls were formed in the mid 1990's by a family management team. Bob Herbert, Chris Herbert and Lindsey Casbon set out to make a girl band that would potentially become popular in a boy band dominated scene. Heart Management placed an advertisement in The Stage trade magazine for open auditions. After the girls were selected they were noticed by Simon Fuller at a showcase. He became their manager.

Often some artists or bands are sold as a brand to inspire the audience. This is a marketing method that draws people into buying the brand. The image of the artist or band is sometimes more important than the quality of the song. After their song "Wannabe" they were branded instantly. The song went straight to number three in the charts and within a couple of days went to number one. Each member of the group were given a branding image and this made them stand out from any other band. The image of The Spice Girls was creative and it was incorporated withing each video. Victoria spice wore a slinky black jumper, Emma in bunchies, Mel B wore leopard-skin trousers, Geri wore a tight dress and Mel C wore her Liverpool top with tracksuit bottoms. 

The girl band were such a success that they were even branded on television. The image was so well known that big companies such as Pepsi and Walkers took advantage of this. They used the girl brand to promote their products because they knew they would be able to reach out to a wider audience.

Digipak Excercise

This is the album cover exercise that I created for a band called "1565 In Literature". The background of the digipak was picked from a random group of images and so was the quote. Firstly I went onto Photoshop and cropped the image to make it the right size then I added in the text. I changed the colour to make sure that it was visible and fitted with the sky on the image. 

Editing to the Beat

Music Video - Added Value

The primary function of a music video is to showcase and promote the artist and to advance sales. By releasing a music video it makes creates an opportunity for the artist to grow their fan base because they will get more recognized as the video is played on music channels.  

A-Ha - Take On Me

The music video for "Take on Me" by A-Ha added value to the song and made it win the 1985 MTV award. The song was originally released a year before the music video was released but it wasn't heard by many people and sunk to the bottom of the charts without anyone noticing. Steve Barron took on the role of being the director of the music video and he came up with a special idea that had never been seen on television before. It took three months to produce and the final piece left the watchers baffled. Its animation took up 1,400 drawings and was a hit in the charts.

Sinead O'connor - Nothing Compares To U

The song "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinead O'Connor was a cover from one of Prince's songs. The music video cost £40,000 to shoot in France, but majority of the shots were close up's of Sinead O'Connor. The video has close ups of Sinead O'Connor showing real emotion so this put the director in a bad situation because he didn't want to waste the footage that was previously filmed. The footage in France took weeks of preparation and planning so the director had no other option but to include it.  

Deconstructing two music videos to identify characteristics of the music video genre

"Bad Day" by David Powter is a pop single and has a narrative music video. There is no artist involvement, but there is some performance shots that we see throughout the music video of where Daniel Powter plays the piano. The music video includes some shots with split screens. This is to show the similarities between the two characters and how they mirror each others life of continuously having a bad day. The characters acting is the link between the music video and the song. By the characters acting their miserable days it helps the audience understand the song and distinguish other links in different shots. The mise-en-scene has been thought through carefully in the music video so that it links with the song. Mise-en-scene is made up of five key elements and these are settings and props, costume, body language/facial expression, lighting and colour and the positioning of the characters. The settings used express the way the characters feel about having a bad day. The journey to work shows many people and this could mean that they are just one of thousands of people repeating their boring life. When we look at where they work we see that they are both surrounded with tall buildings and this makes them feel inferior. The body language that the characters show in some parts of the music video tell the audience how frustrated they are. The music video is consistent and keeps with the narrative and performance concept so that the audience do not lose their interest and get confused. I think that the narrative scenes in the video are the reason why someone would carry on watching the music video up until the end.  




The music video to Rhianna's "Shut Up And Drive" has a performance based concept where Rhianna performs with her band. The whole video revolves around Rhianna and she remains mostly in the middle of the shots. This shows that she is kind of the pacemaker for the song. The close ups and different shots of her almost drag the audiences attention away from the music and make them more concentrated on the video because of her body. The shots are almost the same throughout the video. They just show her face, torso or cut off just above her bum and these shots have nothing to do with the actual song. There is fast editing with many shots of her singing directly into the camera and the editing is set on the beat of the song. During the band sequence there are many different camera angles used and this is to show how energetic the band are whilst performing. The mise-en-scene used in this sequence is mostly focused on the body language of the band and how they are putting all their energy into the performance. The lighting in the performance is quite dark, but this goes well with the performance because we can see all the band and its almost as if they shine through with their music.

Styles of Music Videos

A performance based music video is where the artist or band are included in the video performing their song. An example of a performance based music video is "American Idiot" by Green Day. Throughout the video we see each member performing. In some of the shots we see the whole band performing together. There is no crowd in the video, but because of the editing and the type of music that is being played the music video is still lively. 


"Pompeii" by Bastille is a narrative based music video because the band tell a story in the video. The story itself is featured in the lyrics, but it is dramatized in the video. "Pompeii" is all about the people who died in Pompeii after Mount Vesuvius erupted. The music video relates to the historic event, even though it is set in modern day. 



This music video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is classed as a cinematic music video. A cinematic is when there is a short scene that is similar to a film. In "Thriller" just before the music video starts there is a short opening scene that sets up the music video. The opening scene has qualities of a film and that is why it is a good example of a cinematic music video. 



"Lean On" by Major Lazer and DJ Snake is an abstract based music video because the lyrics that are sung do not relate to the video. The video is not about anything in particular, but we can see that it has a good structure and rhythm.



"Don't Yo Worry Child" by Swedish House Mafia is a music video that is made from their live performance. They are performing at a music concert and there are many shots of the live audience enjoying the music. The music is very upbeat and the audience bring out the energy in the whole music video making it enjoyable to watch. 



Parody is a style of music video. It is not so common because for a parody to be made a song or music video must be released, and only a few people are able to make them work. The intention of a parody is to copy the original piece, but with imitations and exaggerations for humour. In the "Uptown Funk" parody we see that they are mimicking Bruno Mars on the way he looks and dances in the real music video. The video also criticizes the music from the 80's saying how all the music was made by cocaine addicts.



Pastiche is where the artist is going back in time, but living in the music. For example "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea is a pastiche music video because the artist is going back in time to when she was a teen.


Animation is another style of music video that is used to make it more unique and entertaining. "I See Fire" contains some shots of animations. Most of the video uses computer graphics to set the scene or have moving images appear on the screen. This makes the video unique from other ordinary music videos because it includes fantastical scenes or creatures. I chose this song from Ed Sheeran as the example because a lot of the shots include CGI.



An inter textual music video is one that has the artist mimicking other artist. They may use certain words, phrases or have cinematic in the music video to call out to other artists.

Elton John with Evaluation

This is the finished lip sycnching video edited by myself. I have tried to include multiple shots and most of the lip synching is synchronized. When editing the footage I used the basic format on layering all the shots on top of each other and using the razor tool to delete excess unwanted clips. This technique was easy and simple to use because it meant that most of the footage was in sync without me having to keep rearranging it. I have tried to edit to the beat, but I found this difficult because when we went out filming we only filmed from a few angles. There was not much variety so I was unable to keep changing the shot to the beat of the music.

There are some areas that we need to work on before we go out to film our final piece. The main area is the expressions on our faces and how we pronounce the lyrics. When filming this was not a problem, but when I came to edit I realized that the expressions did not go with the music. Also we didn't know the lyrics to the song so for majority of the video we kept referring back to the lyrics and we didn't sing into the camera. A point to remember when filming our final piece is to keep filming from different angles many times so that when we edit we have usable footage.  

Sonny and Cher with Evaluation

This is my finished edited version of my groups lip synching task. This was just a practice task so that we could learn how to film and edit a lip synching video. Watching it back I can see that there are a lot of improvements that need to be made when we film and edit. 

Next time we film we need to remember to make sure that the settings and the background are the same. Also the people lip synching need to learn the lyrics so that they are able to sing into the camera instead of singing away from it. With regards to the editing I need to make sure that I have enough shots to use and that I use many shots within a short period of time. This makes the video more interesting to watch because watching the same type of shots gets too repetitive and becomes boring.   

My Production Team

We have three members in our group and they are Sam, Azimul and myself. Due to our small group we may be assisted with some parts of the music video and filming because it will be more efficient this way. We are also helping the other group and in return because they only have two members.

Azimul is going to be helping with the cinematography. When we go out filming he will be the one guiding us on what to do in the shots. He will also be the one choosing the best positioning of the camera so that we get the best possible shots. Samuel will be focusing on the mise-en-scene of the music video. He will be the one choosing the clothes that we wear when filming. I myself will be editing the music video. After filming I will upload all the footage and discuss with my group on the different ways that the music video could go.