Genre: Country/Pop

The genre of the song me and Julius have chosen for our music video is country/pop. This genre includes singers/bands such as Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum, Jessica Simpson and The Band Perry. These are all very current singers/bands but mostly Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum so the genre is still popular with the target audience. What made me and Julius want to do our music video in this genre is because there are two genres in one song so it will appeal to a larger target audience and because pop genre music is one of the most listened to music and most people like it. The Band Perry’s song ‘If I Die Young’ influenced us a bit with the concept of the target audience thinking the lead singer was dead but in our video we want the female character to be revealed at the end that she’s’ actually dead. Country/Pop music connotes calm sounds but also fun which reflects in the video. Country/Pop videos are generally narrative and performance based, usually love related but most videos are about love anyways.

Potential Songs

1)
The first song I and Julius chose was "Second Time Around" by Lady GaGa. This song isn't released on any of her albums as she wrote the song before becoming famous. We chose this song mainly because of the lyrics and the catchy beat, which has a slight imprint of ballad music. The video will look really good if it had coreography in it because it is slightly upbeat and using props such as cars for example will look good too aswell as good lighting for the mise-en-scenes. You would usually see these kind of conventions in R&B music videos that's why we're slightly skeptical of using this as it would take alot of effort and it'll be hard getting a flashy car.

2)
Our second song we chose was by Rihanna "Cry" another Pop and R&B song. This was more of the path we wanted to go to, as it had a linear narrative and we was able to visualise the lyrics into an actual storyline. For this idea we wanted to apply flashbacks of the leading role of the main character from when she was in a relationship. We were able to visualise what female actress to use aswell. We considered a black and white filter into the music video to give it that sense of drama and conjure other emotions. The main idea for this song was to have an opening of a female character walking into a bathroom and drowning herself, although she stops, and this is when she has flashbacks and other suicidal thoughts. Although one problem was, is that the singer herself is incredibly popular and mainstream, and the storyline that we thought of seemed a bit too depressing. Julius wanted to go for a direction of a niche artist, someone not well known but create good songs as well as having decent lyrics but I wanted to have a wider range of audience as it's easier to appeal to them.

Song Inspirations

By Chance (You and I) by JRA  

This was one of my song inspirations that got me to go for the genre:country. JR Aquino, also known as djkeeno (on Youtube), is from Anchorage Alaska. He has been singing since he was “knee-high.” He writes his own lyrics and melodies and was on American Idol Season 4, and made it to the top 44. Although his typical genre is not really country but more of the lines of pop, r&b and soul, nonetheless it still inspired me to take on these cliche love songs. The reason why this song inspired me, was mainly because the song was the typical 'Boy loves girl'  and it made thought the idea of having both the male and female character looking at their picture album whilst they reminisce or flashbacks of when and how they first met. From these pictures it shows a timeline of events and within these events we see the main character chasing after the 'Hard to get' girl.

  

Forever and Always by Parachute

This was also another song I recently heard of, right after finding Kiss Me Slowly by Parachute. The song inspired me more to proceed with Kiss Me Slowly, as I gathered the same concept of having the female character having a tough time with her relationship with the lead character because of her own problems. But I had a slight different direction for this song. The main idea I had for this song was rather different. I wanted to become literal with the lyrics because they were straight forward. The idea for this song was a marriage theme and keeping the concept of flashback, but this time a flashforward to the future. For example, of them having kids or having arguments. I wanted to use the idea of main title and lyric 'Always and Forever' that no matter the worse they go through, they would always still be together. This gives out a positive moral to the audience that, you shouldn't fight over something so small and think about the good.



The All-American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret

I’m going to analyse the All-American Rejects music video Dirty Little Secret which was directed by Marcos Siega. The music and band belong to the rock genre as the video includes many rock conventions such as; the use of guitars, drums, massive amplifiers dark clothing’s and stage performance.

There’s not much relationship between the lyrics and visuals in this music video apart from the obvious one. The whole song is about people’s secrets and they’ve told one person hoping that they’ll keep to themselves. The relationship with the lyrics and visual is that the band sing ‘I’ll keep you my Dirty Little Secret, don’t tell anyone or you’ll be just another regret’ and the visual shows loads of different people holding a piece or card with their secret written on it. This is intertexual reference to the artist Gillian Wearing. Also, where the band is performing, in the background they have all the peoples secrets enlarged so it’s like they’re not keeping a secret and telling everyone.

The video doesn’t really cut to the beat because the instruments used are guitars and a drum kit so there’s loads of beats throughout the whole video and they’ll be too many cuts, too fast the audience will not know what’s going on. There are no solo instrumentals but every time you can hear more of the drums in the music then the video shows the drummer and when you hear more of the guitars in the music then the video shows one of the guitarists. The video does change pace with the music, in the beginning when the guitars start playing; it shows one of the band members tapping their feet with the beats. More than half way through the song it calms a bit down and goes a bit slower that’s when the different shots of the video takes more time to change. However, at the end when the music finishes but you can hear the last hit of the guitar coming to an end the shots change really fast showing all the different cards that everyone was holding to the camera.

There are various close ups in this music video especially of the lead singer. He gives a direct mode of address by looking into the camera. This will make the viewer feel more close and personal to him which will help sell this track. The image of the band being offered is positive because they look like normal guys who have a passion for music. Some of their other music videos look a bit popish with dancing such as ‘Beekeeper’s Daughter’ and happier compared to the Dirty Little Secret video. On the other hand, the music video to their song ‘Move Along’ is quite similar to ‘Dirty Little Secrets’ because in the move along video there’s loads of shots of the lead singer wearing different outfits and it cuts really quickly to the next outfit just like the shots of the cards that people were holding up with their secrets on in the Dirty Little Secrets video.

In the video there weren’t any notions of looking such as voyeurism or any camera work, costume or dance to imply sexualised display. Also, there wasn’t any intertexual reference but there was a product placement of Marshall Amps for the guitars. However, there was exhibition because the lead singer knew that he was being watched as he looked at the camera giving direct mode of address.

The music video is all performance based as the band is performing in a room with guitars, drums and the lead singer has a microphone.

This music video is rock genre as the bands performing in a room with amps in the background, the band members play drums and guitars also, there’s loads of fast beats to the song. I’d say the relationship between the lyrics and visual is more obvious than the relationship between music and visual. It’s easier to notice the Dirty Little Secret lyrics with the cards everyone’s holds up with their secrets on than the beat of the song with the movement of the band or how fast the shots change.

Nicki Minaj ft Chris Brown – Right by My Side Textual Analysis

I am going to analyse Nicki Minaj ft Chris Brown – right by my side music video, which was directed by Benny Boom. The genre of the song is Hip Hop but it’s more like a ballad which isn’t very typical compared to singers like R Kelly and Nelly. However, the video does feature a number of characteristics of an R’n’B/Hip Hop music video such as luxury cars, jewellery, wealth, glamorous lifestyle and big houses.

The visuals do not support the lyrics the lyrics are saying how Nicki is feeling and you can tell she’s upset by her facial expression. However, all her emotions builds up to the end because she sings about that she isn’t leaving but at the end she’s all alone on a bench outside. However then her boyfriend; (rapper Nas) joins her and they kiss and make up. There’s another relationship with lyrics and visual when Chris Brown sings the lyrics ‘care to sit down? Let’s talk it out, one on one, without a crowd’; it shows Nicki Minaj and Nas sitting outside at a posh cafe, one two one and without a crowd so it goes with the lyrics.

There are couple of times in the music video when it shows a direct relationship between the music and visual for example, at the bridge of the song when Nicki Minaj sings ‘I can’t eat I-I-I-I.... I can’t sleep I-I-I-I...’ she and Chris Brown move their heads to the ‘I-I-I-I’ parts. Also, when Nicki sings ‘I just hope your heart can hear me now’; every time she sings ‘now’ she breaks it up and the visual shows the shot seem like its vibrating. The video cuts to the beat at the beginning, just before Nicki starts singing and in the middle of the song when Chris Brown is looking down and pulls away his hands from each other. There is a slow paced editing with cross-dissolve transitions which reflect the mood of the song. Also, match cuts are used to add to the edginess of the song when Nicki is performing. The video changes pace with the music when Nicki Minaj is rapping, the camera shots change more frequently and when she finishes her rap the shots cut really fast and it looks like its flashing.

The record company is looking to sell this track by representing Nicki Minaj as being desirable and beautiful so some girls can relate to it and aspire to be like her. They made the song into a ballad R’n’B/Hip Hop song which isn’t every typical for that genre so it would interest a wider audience. The song features two very popular and successful singers performing on the track. Also, the video features a rapper called Nas, to act as Nicki Minaj’s boyfriend. This song will attract three massive fan bases of each of the super stars on this track. Nas is shown as Nicki Minaj’s boyfriend rather than Chris Brown so the female audience don’t hate on Nicki and see Chris Brown as their boyfriend. This has helped sell the song more as Chris Brown is shown single in the video. The song is mainly a Nicki Minaj song as Chris Brown features in it and doesn’t sing throughout most of the song. The video for this song is very different compared to other Nicki Minaj songs such as Dance and Starships as she’s hardly dressed in them and it’s very sexual. However, in all her music videos her curves are much emphasised and in your face as well as her bum. This video she was wearing some revealing and short clothes but its more calm compared to her other videos.

Nicki Minaj is used as a sexual display in some parts of the video, when she’s wearing the black dress; it’s transparent so you can still see her legs although it’s a long dress. Furthermore before Nicki starts to rap the camera tracks up her legs for the male gaze but it wasn’t all the way to the top. There’s a slight voyeurism in the video when Nicki and Nas are outside sitting down at a cafe table, it shows a point of view shot of Chris Brown looking at Nicki when he’s driving past in his car. There’s also exhibition in the video as Nicki and Chris are performing they look into the camera with a direct mode of address to involve the target audience. There’s loads of close up shots throughout the whole video but most of them being Nicki Minaj’s face as she is the main singer and most of the screen time for the music video is of her.

At the beginning Nicki Minaj is on a big chair in a glamorous room where she is wearing a cute teddy bear top and the intertextual reference is that she looks like Barbie but that is her whole persona. Product placement has been used two times in the video because Nicki is seen wearing Christian Louboutin heels; you can spot the red sole and the shot of the Bentley and when Nas is driving in it.

The music video is a mix of performance-based and narrative-based as it shows Nicki and Chris Brown sing throughout the video and Nicki also moves around at a part like she’s dancing. It’s narrative-based as well because the video tells us a story of Nicki Minaj and her boyfriend Nas.

This is very much an R’n’B/Hip Hop music video as it features most of the characteristics of the genre although it’s more slow and ballad style. Slow motion editing has been used such as fades to the next shot to show that time has passed.

Analysing Narrative of Justin Bieber – As Long As You Love Me

Justin Biebers video for ‘As long as you love me’ is like a short film and is quite long for a music video as it comes to 5 minutes and 52 seconds, almost double the length of a typical music video. The video starts with Michael Madsen telling Justin Bieber to stay away from his daughter who Justin is dating, otherwise they’ll be trouble. This lasts for 1 minute and 30 seconds. After watching this we could tell straight away that Michael Madsen is the antagonist and Justin Bieber is the Protagonist as the audience side with him.

In the music video the time strands plays throughout. As the girl’s father is talking to Justin Bieber we see flashbacks that are telling us what has happened. Throughout most of the video, especially the dance scenes, there is a lot of enigma code as the story is not linear.

 The video doesn’t follow a specific theorist such as Todorov, as the narrative isn’t typical because it doesn’t end how the viewer would like it too. However, the equilibrium of the video is when it shows all the happy memories of Justin and his girlfriend but there are some clips where it gets darker and he’s in a big, empty hall as if he’s running away that’s when you get a slight feeling something’s going to happen. The disequilibrium is when Justin is running away and when Michael Madsen sees the writing on his daughters arm.

When Big Sean starts singing, that’s when it shows Michael Madsen beating Justin Bieber up. Usually Justin would have won but in this video Justin was left beaten up while his girlfriend couldn’t do anything as she was getting dragged back by her dad. There’s not really a hero in the music video as both Michael Madsen and Justin Bieber loves the girl in the video, who is portrayed to be the princess and they want to protect her. However, from the audience’s perspective, Justin Bieber is the hero and Michael Madsen is the villain as he’s trying to split Justin and his girlfriend up. Throughout the music video it shows flashbacks so the narrative isn’t straight forward with a beginning, middle and end.

The audience are on Justin Biebers side while he’s getting beaten up by Michael Madsen because he’s the singer and most of the female audience will tend to be attracted to him. The person who the audience decide to feel towards is challenged because usually you would want Justin Bieber to win but you don’t want him to hit Michael Madsen back as it’s disrespectful and rude. Also, you would hope that Justin and his girlfriend were allowed to see each other and end happily but it’s the complete opposite. Time is represented as being very short as everything happens so quickly. There’s not any intertextual reference but you can say it’s a bit like Romeo and Juliet as Justin Bieber and his girlfriend love each other and want to be together but they’re not allowed because of Michael Madsen.

Introduction

HEY!!! My names Mumina Begum and this is my A2 Music Video Blog! I chose to do Media Studies for AS Level last year and I really enjoyed it so I decided to carry on with the course and progress into A2. I think I did quite well for AS level, I came out with a B overall and saw no reason not to carry on. I hope you all like my blog. ENJOY!!! XD