Genre

The Strokes - You Only Live Once

The video that I will analyse is The Strokes 'You Only Live Once'. I chose this song as it is the same genre as the music that we are using for our production.
 

 

 

 

Cinematography:

The camera shots are very similar to any other indie rock promo, as it includes close-ups so the camera focuses on the lead singers face which expresses his emotions. Long shots and mid shots are used to show the whole band performing. Furthermore, the mid shots are used to show the clothing of the band members, which adhere to the conventions of casual clothing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editing:

The video is a performance only video, which is used a lot in indie rock, although they usually have some narrative in them too. The editing of the video starts off slowly, as does the song, but as he starts singing it becomes a lot faster. The pace varies throughout the video as it changes depending on the beat and speed of the singing.

Mise-en-scene: There aren't a lot of props in this video, as it mostly consists of the bands instruments. Their clothing is also rather casual, but follows a white theme which is the opposite of the black liquid that the room fills with later.

Location:
The location of the video is in a steel room that slowly starts to film with a black liquid that looks like oil. This is a very unconventional location for an indie rock video as they are normally filmed in "natural" locations.

 

Website Conventions

Typical Conventions
Music artist/band websites consist of their name as the main title, at the top of the page, with sub-headings to other important pages on the website (news, tour dates, shop). The colour scheme of the website usually matches their latest releases, for example, on the Mumford & Sons website, the colour scheme and style is the same as their newest album cover, Wilder Mind. The typography also follows the same style as the album cover does.

A music website also include images of the artist/band and an about section which gives the audience a deeper look into their group and lives. Some may also have social media integrated into their website, to allow live tweets and posts to be show on the website. Usually all websites have normal links to social media websites, and even YouTube, Vimeo and Spotify pages. This allows fans to get quick and easy access to their music.

Different Genres
Run The Jewels are a hip-hop group/duo. Their website adheres to a lot of the typical conventions because it has their name at the top and features the style and artwork of their newest album, Meow The Jewels. The difference of this website is that the menu is a drop down bar which is different from normal websites.

Foo Fighters are an alternative rock band and their website also follows the conventions of a music website. For example, their name and logo is at the top of the page, with the menu to the side of it. It also features social media links. However, their website layout is similar to a news feed like on Twitter or Facebook, and it shows off new artwork, tour dates and clothing.

Production Roles

Vox Pop and Analysis

This is our vox pop that we recorded to find out what people's favourite genres were and what they enjoyed and looked out for in a music video. We collected some interesting and useful feedback from a range of teenagers.

From the questions asked, we found that people like lots of different genres, like rock, RNB, Hip-Hop, Indie, Alternative and Pop. This wide range of preferred genres identifies that there isn't a preferred genre for teenagers.

From our second question we found that peoples favourite videos were the same genre as their preferred genre.

From the third question, we found that most of the people that we interviewed, liked a performance based video because they enjoy seeing the band members and instruments.

The next question identified that most people enjoyed amplification and disjuncture music promos. This tells us that they like a video with a story that links to the song but they also like completely random videos.

From the following question, we gathered that they look for a story line or a performance in music videos.

The final question told us that all of our audience view music promos on YouTube because it has most, if not all, of the music videos ever made and you can select which one you want top watch, unlike MTV or other music channels. Furthermore, it is also free to watch which appeals to the people we interviewed as they don't have much of an income.

Overall, I think that our vox pop was a very effective way of gathering information for our research. The information will help is know what to include in our music video so that the audience enjoys it.

Audience Profile For The Amazons

This is an analysis of The Amazons' audience and fans.

 

Permission For The Use Of Music

These are the emails that were exchanged between us and The Amazons' band representative regarding the use of their song 'Junk Food Forever' for our music video.

The band said that we could use the song as long as we showed them it before it was published.

Artist / Track Chosen

The artist and track that we have chosen to make our music video production on is 'Junk Food Forever' by The Amazons.

This is the track that we want to use.
https://soundcloud.com/theamazons/junk-food-forever

http://thistle98.edu.glogster.com/the-amazons/

Analysis of Music Promo: Coldplay 'The Scientist'

Analysis of Music Promo: Eminem 'Stan'

Analysis of Music Promo: Tyler, The Creator 'Tamale'

The first half of the video is the song 'Tamale' and the other half is another song.

Cutting to the Beat

Music promos can follow the beat of the song which is called 'Cutting to the beat'.

Cutting to the beat is where the shot cuts or scene cuts are in time and sync with the beat of the music, so the shot cuts are placed where the beat changes.

An example of this technique is the BMW advert. It  follows conventions of a typical music video and the cuts are placed where the beat changes. The advert is an example of amplification, where the beat of the song sells not only the product but emotion, suggesting buying the car brings happiness.

Music Video Theories

Music Video Theories from Sam Thistlewood

History of Music Videos

Music promos first started to become popular during the 1960's with the Beatles releasing "A Hard Day's Night" in 1964. This video established the conventions of music promos, by showing the band as the main focus, by the band acting and through the use of cutting to the beat. This therefore set the benchmark for future music promos.

In 1975, Queen released "Bohemian Rhapsody" which was. At the start of the video, the four band members heads are under a spotlight and are positioned in a diamond formation. The video then goes on to show alive performance by the band. In this scene, special effects are used, as they were new advances in technology, and it showed one clip fading out and another fading in on top to create an overlap of the two clips. Further on in the clip, we see the band members under a spotlight again, however, a mirror special effect is used to duplicate the members for the high pitch parts. These improved special effects improved the experience for the audience. Furthermore, this was the first music promo to be available for free on TV. 

In 1980, David Bowie released "Ashes To Ashes" which was the most expensive music video made at the time, costing £250,000. The video was so expensive due to it's heavy use of special effects, lighting and setting. The use of these helped to create a very visual reference to the romantic movement.

                                                                                                By 1981, MTV was released, it was a 24 hour music channel that featured artists music videos and showed them to the masses. This was a good way for artists to promote themselves and their new single. This therefore, made the use of music promotions very important and key in the succession of the bands, as audiences were fascinated by them and they enjoyed watching them. MTV was an important new programme as it established music channels.


Michael Jackson 'Thriller' was released in 1983 and it is one of the most famous and memorable music videos ever created. The video used the idea of narrative to express the lyrics. The use of the narrative and horror made it a very controversial video which gave it a lot of attention. The video features choreographed dancing, extreme costume and settings, totalling to around £1 million to create.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality