I will be analysing three different music videos from different genres on how different techniques have been used to sell and promote the artist, also how they appeal to their target audience.
Genre: Pop
Miss-en-scene:
It is a close up shot of the character laying down on the floor and he looks hurt but also confused which makes the lyrics of the song relatable and understandable. This shows a clear example of someone is thinking or feeling. This video and song shows the effect love has on people which is why there is low-key lighting that has been used throughout the whole music video in order to show the audience how hurt the character is. It also creates a sharp contrast of light and dark areas. For the setting, throughout the whole video he is shown in a car park which has different meanings to it, maybe he got hurt in the car park, however towards the end of the video he is shown in a room looking at hisself in a mirror to show us his facial expressions as he sees the bruises on his face. Shawn parks the car in a shadowed dark area which resembles pain and loneliness, as he is walking towards the daylight, he gets knocked down and pulled back showing him struggling and not being able to get over the girl. For the costume, he is wearing normal everyday clothes that a man would wear, however he is dressed in dark clothes; a black leather jacket, back jeans and a grey shirt. This portrays how dark, sad and hurtful the meaning of the song is. There is not much props used in this video, there is one car and a mirror, the little use of props may be to let the audience have all their attention on Shawn and the way he is during the whole video to help them understand the meaning of the song more.
Style of music video:
The style of this music video is performance. Shawn Mendes is singing to the camera through the whole video, however there are a few shows where you cannot see him physically singing as he is getting beaten. This relates to the genre as Pop music usually involve lyrics that have problems with love and relationships and this song includes all of this.
Conventions:
For the camera angles, there is a long shot of a car driving into a car park at the beginning of the video. There is also a medium-close up shot that has been use on Shawn Mendes as he gets out of the car and starts to walk away. This is to show the audience what the character is doing and the close up is to show their facial expressions in that moment. There is another long shot used to show Shawn as he falls to the floor after being ‘hit’, this is to show the whole scene from far so that everything can be seen clearly. Â Moreover, there is a close up shot on his legs/feet as he gets up off the ground. Most of the shots are in front of Shawn so you can see his face however when he is punched and hit, there are shots of the back of Shawn when he is hit making match on action shots.
Editing – there are some past pace cutting and editing in this music video, when Shawn Mendes is being beaten up, this is to help the audience see this action in different shots by cutting the scenes to make it seem faster. The cutting is in time with the music which makes it appealing for the audience and not hard to understand both video and lyrics. There are tracking and crane editing used to track the cars movement.
Sound – All sound is diegetic meaning if you were in the scene of the music video then you would physically be able to hear everything that you can actually hear in the video. For example the car and singing.
The meaning of this song is mainly about Shawn being heartbroken, when he says ‘Can’t get you out of my head’ it is a psychological breakdown where he cannot seem to get this one voice out of his head. In the music video, he is being hit and thrown by an unknown force, this force is his ego that is trying to get him to listen to his conscious and stop being in hard, rough relationships.
Genre: Rap
The lighting in this video links with the original soundtrack and the narrative part of the video, this is because of the futuristic theme of the music video. This music video includes star persona because of the fashion style that Kanye West wore of the amount of close up shots of him performing directly to the camera. This close up shot is used to show the audience his face and recognise it more often. The camera work in this video are fast pace shots close ups and long shots of Kanye West which are used to cut with the beat of the soundtrack. Moreover, there are also tracking shots and extreme long shots of the night life in Tokyo (where it is set in) in order to go well in the electronic soundtrack of the song.
The editing used in this music video is used to cut to the beat of the soundtrack, it uses a variety of jump cuts to go well with the fast pace electronic beat of the whole soundtrack. There are some colour corrected filters used in the video which are added to the scenes to give a night club atmosphere to the video.
Mise en Scene:
The location is set in different areas throughout the music video, one of them is Tokyo, this is used as a setting as Tokyo is usually seen for its technology and electronic night life. This would suit the electronic side of the video. During the first verse of the song, Kanye is singing in an alleyway. The target audience may be able to recognise what the location is as it could be similar to a place that they would usually hang out. He is framed in the centre throughout the scenes and shots to represent him as the main focus to the audience. There is a jump cut during the lyrics “You can be my black Kate Moss tonight”. The video cuts to a medium close up to a young Asian woman that is wearing a lot of make up to represent her as attractive. Kanye West is wearing jeans, a white t-shirt with a black print on it and a denim hoodie. These clothes are stereotypical of the hip/hop style which means the target audience will be able to identify and relate with Kanye West.
The colours used are red/orange and yellow, these colours are used in the establishing shot. They have connotations of fire which represents danger, this makes the audience interested in the video and also builds tension within the chorus of the song leading to a climax. The shot with the pipes used has a low key lighting while the shot with the machine shown is quite bright. The contrast between these two lights helps make the video visually interesting to the audience.
The conventions that I found with this genre and video is that there were a lot more edits used in the video and the cutting rate was quite fast. This is because of the beat within the rap genre and the fast pace of music. The style of the video as an old hip/hope style in the 1980’s.
Genre: Metal
This video is a heavy metal song that includes many close-up shots that raise the level of intimacy between both the audience and artist, this links to Andrew Goodwin’s theories of music vide conventions. This video allows the use of very fast-paced editing shown as the theme of the narrative is a drag race which needs speed. There is a lot of close-up shots showing the artists singing or playing his guitar which can help the audience see exactly what is going on in the scene and the artists facial expressions.
The main colours used in this video are red, black and white. White is usually associated with light and innocence, however red and black are more known as negative colours and can be shown as danger. There are different settings in this video, there are scenes showing cars driving and scenes of the artist singing into his microphone in a dark room, this makes the video more interesting as there is not only one thing that the audience can focus on however two settings that also link to the song. The clothes that they are wearing are all black, the main artist has black nail polish on which has faded away, this links to the genre (Metal) as it is an up-beat song which goes well with dark coloured clothes rather than light colours.
Caren Lamaa 