Music video - Introduction

Music Video introduction blog task

This week's work requires Media Factsheet #69: Music Video. You'll need to log in to Google using your Greenford Google account to access this. Read the factsheet and answer the following 10 questions:


1) What is the purpose of a music video?
The purpose of a music video is to sell products, the most obvious of which is the song featured in the video.

2) How has the digital age changed the production and distribution of music videos?
The development of new media technologies meant that music videos, and the songs along with them, were more widely available at any time. Videos could be uploaded to video hosting sites like YouTube and viewed using portable media devices such as mobile phones and iTouch devices, allowing audiences to see the video and hear the song whenever and wherever they liked.

3) Which three major record labels are behind VEVO? What is VEVO and why was it created? Universal Music Group and Abu Dhabi Media and EMI
VEVO is a video hosting site specifically for music videos. The content of Vevo is syndicated to YouTube in the UK with YouTube and Google receiving a share of advertising revenue for directing users to the official versions of music videos rather than those uploaded by a third party.

4) What are the key conventions of a music video?
Movement, intertextuality, rapid editing, special effects, dancing, narrative, band or artist, lip-syncing

5) How can narrative be used in music video? Give an example of a music video that uses a narrative.
The storyline may relate to the song’s lyrics and illustrate what is being said or be independent from the song and tell a different story. For example, I Was a Teenage Anarchist by Against Me! features a loose narrative which links to the song’s lyrics.

6) What examples are provided in the factsheet for intertextuality in music videos?
Such references may be very obvious, such as the way that the Blink 182 video for All the Small Things makes references to videos by pop artists such as Back Street Boys (I Want it That Way) and Christina Aguilera (Genie in a Bottle) by directly copying scenes.

7) Why do audiences enjoy intertextual references in media products?
So that audience feel pleasure when they understand the reference

8) Read the music video example analysis on page 3 of the factsheet. Select a music video of your own choice for each of the following headings and explain how each one links to the heading:

Conventions (movement/narrative/artist): narrative of a party, slow motion movement, artist is main character the storyline is about 

Intertextuality: references to relationships breaking up but still missing your ex and thinking how you could ever go back to friends after loving each other

Representation: represents young adults just leaving a relationship and seeing their ex and missing them

Audience: young adults, teens

9) Watch the video for Ice Cube's It Was A Good Day (1993). How did this video set the conventions for later hip-hop music videos?

Showing off quite a dangerous narrative through the boy having a gun, having police involved

Costume is just street clothes, quite baggy and unkept

Audience for young adults and represents unsafe people, drug dealers etc.


10) How important do you think music videos are in the marketing and promotion of music artists today? Are music videos still essential to a band or artist's success? You need to form your own opinion here.
I think music videos are still important because they help the audience fully understand the music and let them have an even better feel to the storyline and feel where the artist is coming from. However less people are watching music videos nowadays because they can just listen to the song on streaming platforms such as Spotify or apple music so the music video isn't essential and could possibly just be a loss of money for the artist.