MUSIC VIDEO CODES & CONVENTIONS

After an in depth analysis of music videos by Pop/R&B artists, I have drawn to some conclusions about the codes and conventions of this genre.

All the music videos that I analysed followed the generic conventions by the portrayal of women in the work. They are presented as sexual icons from the revealing clothing to the way they perform in a suggestive manner. Noticeably in all the videos women are involved in a situation with a man most of the time, their actions are centred around a man. Whether it may be from Britney's quest for revenge on a man or Madonna's saving the world in four minutes with Justin. Then there is the vulnerable state of the female lead in the 'What Goes Around' video how she may be painted out as the villain but she is still very much seen as scared and nervous almost like a child. What I aim to achieve in my music video is to break this convention by presenting the woman as strong and bold to the point where she is on the same level as the man.

When it came to the portrayal of men within the music videos that I analysed, in every single one they were seen chatting up women, undressing women and getting involved with women. A very traditional representation of men, most of the time they are completely in control of the situation and even when they aren't they're rarely phased by it at all.

The range of shot types that have been used in the majority of the music videos that I've analysed consisted of mid-shots and close up shots of the artist, especially in performance. This backs up Goodwin's theory about music videos. There's also a large amount of performance in each video, it's sort of the structure of the video the base and everything after comes together. For example in 'Womanizer' the scenes with Britney performing in the sauna can be seen throughout the whole video, the same goes for '4 Minutes' and the scenes in front of the counter. The videos are edited and cut from scene to scene at a very fast pace, especially within the videos that feature heavy amounts of performance. The lighting in each video obviously is catered to fit the mood of the actual song, however, in each video everything's glossy bright and bold when it comes to the portrayal of the artist.

The location in each of the music videos changes in each one. For instance in 'The Way You Make Me Feel' it is set in a street, a very urban setting. I believe this is meant to add some level of credibility to the artist, for them to appeal to their audience more. Then in other cases like in 'What Goes Around' you've Timberlake in a lavish apartment, a big club, driving expensive cars. When it comes to our music video I think it will be easier and better if we focus the location in a urban area, simply because we have easier access.

MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS

I will now analyse some existing music videos, with a brief idea of what ours will be like we have chosen the music videos which best represent our genre and challenge and explore the codes and conventions. They are all Pop videos, dabbling in electro and R&B.

"4 Minutes"
Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake 
2008
Director: Jonas & Francois

In this video Madonna and Justin Timberlake are seen running around different sets of day to day situations, from a living room, to a used car garage, to a supermarket to an office toilet. As they make their way through the sets behind them is a black line which is sort of dissolving everything in them, I think it's supposed to be a metaphor for time as the song is called '4 Minutes to Save The World'. Accompanying this is numerous performance shots in front of a time counting down from 4 minutes. This backs up Goodwin's theory about a relationship between the music and the visuals.

The first shot you see is of Timbaland stood in front of a giant screen mouthing the words to the song, Madonna and Justin quickly follow to also perform in front of the screen. This is an example of intertextuality and screens within screens another one of Goodwin's theories. The majority of performance shots are close up and mid shots of Justin and Madonna accompanied with a few long shots to show that they're dancing.



Both artists in video are represented as very important people from the narrative shots of them running on top of the cars, what's also important to mention is that despite the fact they're important people, when they're running around every day life they're being ignored by the extras in the video, I feel this is done to keep the focus on them.


What is also noting is the level of dancing in the video, at the start Madonna challenges the codes and conventions of women in music videos, she's pushing the car and running around on top of tables and cars. However during the rest of the video, she performs some very sexual moves and has Justin undress her in the music video, she also undresses him but there is more emphasis on her as she is almost naked by the end of the video. This backs up Goodwin's theory that women are presented as a sexual object in music videos.


The fast paced editing is what I really find captivating within this video. No shot lasts more than a few seconds at most and I feel it really gives the video pace and gives the music and video a level of suspense. I think this could really work in our music video, therefore I will be making sure that we have a large variety of shots to choose from and edit together.


"Womanizer"
Britney Spears
2008
Director: Joseph Kahn

In this video, Britney Spears thinks that her boyfriend is cheating on her. She goes undercover in a series of disguises to confirm what she suspects. Accompanying this is not only performance within the narrative of the story but a performance section in a sauna.

The video begins with Britney dancing in a sauna, she's posing on a bench and is naked. This is represents her as a very provocative woman and once again backs up Goodwin's theory that women are displayed as sexual objects in music videos. She then serves breakfast to her boyfriend who barely looks up from his paper. This is a very traditional representation of the relationship between men and women. Throughout the video we see her in her different disguises, kick her boyfriend in an office chair, slam him against a photocopier and pinning him down in the back of a limousine. This challenges the codes and conventions of women in music videos by the end of the video she is in complete control. The roles of Britney and her boyfriend have reversed.

Once again in this video the editing is very quick to go with the quick tempo of the song. The fact that this video is predominantly narrative means that we will focus a lot on this one when planning our production.

"The Way You Make Me Feel"
Michael Jackson
1987
Director: Joe Pytka

Despite this video being from 1987, I think it's relevant as Michael Jackson is one of the biggest inspirations of many artists today. In the video Michael tries to impress a girl, dancing in front of her, throughout the video she acts completely uninterested and just carries on walking down the street. However throughout the video he slowly wins her over.

In the video it's a very traditional relationship between men and women, htis seems to be a common pattern within the videos that are by male artists. The shots are very long to go with the story as this the first music video that is based on one set. Most of the shots used are long shots which zoom in to become mid shots the camera as tracks along the street and tilts to keep up with the action. There are also some mid shots of Michael when he is miming key parts of the song.

The women once again is portrayed in a very traditional way, she's simply another object of a man's desire and this seems to be her only purpose in the video. She might act unimpressed but there's still a very happy ending.

"What Goes Around... Comes Around"

Justin Timberlake
2007
Director: Samuel Bayer

In this video by Justin Timberlake, he meets a girl at a club she acts uninterested before they both leave. The next scene they're together in bed before she leaves and jumps in a swimming pool, he jumps and saves her. This is a very traditional representation of the relationship of men and women, the typical cliche man saving the woman. The next sceen they are sat with some friends drinking. What's also apparent in this music video is the cuts between the music for scripted dialogue. The narrative of the video is almost separate to the performance shots. The performance shots in the video mainly consist of Justin stood on a stage performing casually, in just vest and shirt, it's very informal. The costume for most of the video is predominantly quite dark and plain. After a large section of performance, Justin discovers one of his friends kissing his girlfriend. A small fight occurs before she runs away and drives off. He chases after her before she crashes for the audience to see that she's dead. 

The narrative in the video proves to be controversial and deals with a dramatic storyline which ultimately goes well with the song. What I also like in this video is that it challanges the codes and conventions of a pop video, due to the fact that his love interest in the video dies. It's unexpected, shocking and leaves you on the edge of your seat throughout. Despite the fact Justin is surrounded by fast sport cars, a beautiful girl and lavish parties which portray what his lifestyle is like, there is a strong sense of dark undertone to the video. It's set at night and the lighting gives it a cold, hollow feel. This might be because the director Samuel Bayer traditionally directs videos for rock artists.

There are also many interesting aspects to the camera work in the video, it's almost filmed like a proper film. There's lots of match on action, focus pulls and handheld camera work, this gives it a sense of reality, something I think could be very effective within the narrative in our music video.

ANDREW GOODWIN

Andrew Goodwin cam up with some key points in analysing music videos. He states in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'... 

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

We will be taking these ideas into consideration when analysing music videos in the next stage of our project.

GENRE

A key part of our project is the focus on genre of our music video. What will be the main factor of our project is the study of the codes and conventions of existing media products from the same genre that we have chosen. What we have been asked to do is not only consider these codes and conventions but to challenge them as well.

There are several theories relating to genre which we can apply within this pre-production stage of our music video. Rick Altman explained that genre is a set type and group which any medium can be classified within, when applying this to music examples of this are reggae, jazz, drum 'n' bass etc. In each case the acknowledgement of genre depends on the acceptance of the generic conventions.  Genre can change and develop over time it's completely open to historical change. Altman also stated that viewers pre-read media texts, that they become passive viewers which ultimately restricts genre.

Richard Maltby claimed that the success of Hollywood is reliant on the combination of predictable elements with variation. This suggests that as producers we should follow the codes and conventions of our chosen genre but also add some variation within our work so that the audience does not become bored and the media text is not predictable. This will be a theory to keep in mind and apply to when planning the narrative part of our music video.

Jon Fiske said that any one type of media will bear the main characteristics of it's genre, but is likely to include some from others. Categorizing it in one genre would mean deciding which characteristics are most important.  This theory specifically applies to our project, pop is the genre of our artist, song and music video but as pop music is such a wide spread genre there are several characteristics from R&B and hip hop. Therefore when looking at existing music videos and promotional packages we will have to keep our research focused on very similar artists who are primarily pop singers but incorporate other genres of music within their work.

AUDIENCE THEORY

When looking at audience within the research stage of our production it is important to recognise and remember audience theories. Below are some key audience theories which could be a possible help influence on our final products.

"All the world's a stage and the mean and the women are merely players." As the audience we can be manipulated and can be persuaded to buy products or follow corrupt leaders through propaganda. The question is whether or not this brings us together. On one hand when we listen to CDs and go to the cinema we become part of a mass audience. However at the same time we are very different because we are separated by space and sometimes time.

THE HYPODERMIC SYRINGE
The media is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who as a powerless mass, have little choice but to accept. For example a person might watch something violent and then may do something violent. If you are a woman who's watching a woman washing up on television, you will feel a subconscious need to go and do it yourself. If you are a man watches a woman doing the washing up on television then you will expect the woman to do the washing up.

On the other hand there are theories which oppose this view.


THE CULMINATION THEORY
One media text does not have too much of an effect and influence but years and years of watching violence will make you less sensitive to violence.

TWO STEP FLOW
Another argument suggests that the masses will experience the media individuality but then they will discuss what they have watched with others and it is the discussion which can then influence people's opinions and behaviour.

USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY
We make the choices about what we watch, we also have certain expectations, we expect to be gratified by what we have watched. The types are as followed...

1. Information
2. Entertainment
3. Personal identity
4. Social empathy/social personal interest
5. Escapism

This may be more relevant to a short film project, however in our music video there will still be a strong element of narrative and despite the fact we are using song, we have chosen a song which tells a very clear story from start to finish.

QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS

From carrying out our questionnaire, we have learnt they key points that our target audience want to see within our music video. This video has to predominantly be about the artist performing the song, the narrative must feature the artist within it and there must be a large amount of performance within our music video.

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

Here are the results from our questionnaire. We asked 40 people in age region of 13-21, what they liked to see in a music video, how they watch them and how often they watch them. We made the graphs using Microsoft Excel and uploaded them using Scribd.

Questionnaire Graphs

TARGET AUDIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE

An important part of our research and planning in preporation for our media production is audience analysis. To find out about our audience and their attitude to music videos in general, we will produce a questionnaire for people to fill in. In this questionnaire we will ask our audience what they like to see in a Pop/R&B music video and what they like to get out of a music video. As the target audience for this genre of music is typical teenagers and young adults we will ask this demographic of people.

RECORD COMPANY LOGO RESEARCH

As part of this project we were also given the opportunity to be creative ourselves by creating our own music record company. This will be the name featured on our media products, as well as the company name advertised when we create Facebook groups, Youtube channels, Twitter pages etc. First of all we looked lots of different existing record label logos. You can see a montage of them below...

As you can see they're all quite plain, basic straight forward. All of them feature the company name in their own individual fonts accompanied with basic illustration and layout. We decided to create our own by finding a font on the internet and then giving it a glow on Photoshop and spacing out the letters far apart. Below you can see our logo.

MOODBOARD OF EXISTING ALBUM COVERS

To gain an understanding of the type of different artists who are similar to Justin Timberlake, pop singers who have incorporated blends of R&B into their music we have put together a moodboard of existing album covers. By this we can see themes and continuing trends that will be beneficial when putting together our promotional package.