Purposes of a Music Video

Purposes of a Music Video

What would you consider to be the main purpose of a music video?

The main purpose of a music-video is to increase the income both the artist and record label receives, however there is a lot of different reasons for music videos based on the aims of both the record label and the artist. Some music videos don't follow the rule of aiming to increase income as they are just there to entertain or increase the popularity of an artist where as others try to raise money for charities or awareness of issues surrounding a topic.

What other purposes might there be of a music video?

Other purposes of music videos include :

-To make a political statement.

•  A good example of this is M.I.A's Born Free video, which features ginger-haired people being rounded up in a holocaust-esk environment. This works because the song/video is about a controversial subject, Viewers will go looking for this video due to the nature of its message and not for the music, however they may stay because they like the artist or they might want to check out their other work. This purpose of a music video also gains a huge following through 'word of mouth'. Make a controversial statement and people will talk about it and go looking for the source.

 -To go viral and gain mass attention for an artist/song.

•  A great example of this is Gangnam Style, however annoying the song is, it created a mass hysteria-like-trance among millions of people. Another way this helped PSY's carrer is because it created a huge fan base waiting for his next hit to come out.

 -To increase sales for a song

• People may be drawn in by the 'look' of a music video and they may play it enough times to get it into their head, then hopefully they will buy or download the song. If they don't buy the song the artist will still gain income from the advertisements played along side the song.

 -To visualize and clearly illustrate the lyrics of the song

• Lyric videos are becoming increasingly popular due to people maybe wanting to sing along with a song or to better understand an artists message, MCR are a good example of this, releasing an official lyric video, it does however feature an artistic style to it which increases its play-ability.

 -To entertain viewers/listeners

•  These are very popular videos as their aim is to purely entertain the audience, a good example of this is Weezer - Pork and Beans, in which they set a world record for wearing 155 t-shirts. People who want to watch the world record attempt would go looking for the video and be forced into listening to Weezer's song.

 -To communicate positive correlation with the lyrics of the song ( narrative music videos )

•  A good example of this one is AHA's - Take On Me. In which it appears a girl is falling in love with a comic book character who eventually comes to life and takes her into the comic book with her.

 -To gain a wider audience through the use of a controversial subject

• Again I believe MIA's born free video is the best example of this, raising awareness to the controversial subject of almost borderline-racism against ginger people. Although gingers may not be a race as such they are being portrayed as outcasts of society and different to everyone else. MIA gained a huge audience by using this technique and although she may have caused a bit of a stir among people claiming it is wrong to show this it has done her career well earning her a lot of attention and money.

 -To create a memorable video and thus increase the durability of a viewers attention

•  My favorite example of this is artist 'OK GO' with their hit song 'Here it goes again' in which they choreographed a dance scene on treadmills. They managed to film the whole video with only one shot, there is no edited involved. Many people who have seen this video including myself were amazed and fell in love with the video and song through playing it multiple times out of pure astonishment.
  

How might an artist extend their income through having a music video?

•  An artist could potentially extend their income through their music video by cleverly placing advertising in the video, lots of artists do this and it is known as product placement. For example featuring an Apple Mac within a video, or showing the artist eating a snickers. There are an endless amount of examples, most of which are mentioning product names in their lyrics.

 There is product placement I found in this song at 1:20, they feature McDonalds products, although the video is unofficial it is a nice example of what product placement is.

Describe how and why music videos have been used to fill in for bands on tour or when otherwise unavailable

•  Music videos are used to fill in for bands on tour & when their unavailable because it entertains the audience when the performers are absent, it manages to keep the entertainment value of a performance without having the performers there. Also it is a nice creative way of showing a performance including clever editing and CGI which could not be used during a live performance.

Thinking back through history and presently .. how have music videos enabled an 'extension of outlets' (opened up ways to get music to the masses?)

•  Music videos have increased the ways in which artists can reach the masses with their music by allowing their songs to not only be played on the radio but also to be played on TV and video sites such as youtube etc.There are more ways than ever before to get your song played to the masses.

Styles of Music Video

1) A narrative music video is a music video which follows a story line, for example a-ha - Take on me .

2) I think a narrative video was chosen for this song because it correlates well with the lyrics.

3) I think that the video does a good job of promoting the artist and song because of its creativity. In 1986 the video won 6 awards at the MTV music video awards. The music video is also very unique so the video is attention grabbing and memorable.

4) The most memorable thing about this video is its artistic style, it was also created during a very early stage of music videos. It is one of the oldest and most memorable music videos, due to the detail in every hand-drawn frame. Its beautiful to watch and has surely inspired artists.

5) I think that The Dead Kennedys - California uber alles is a good example of a performance video

B) I think a performance video was chosen for this song as it shows what the artists are really like, their facial expressions etc. Also i believe it focuses the audience on the music more than a narrative video does as you can actually see them playing the instruments.

C) I think the video does a great job of promoting the artist as its the only official video performed by the artist. People will remember this video as being the first time they saw the artists faces.