Music Video Styles

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Product Placement & Synergy

This is the Music video for LMFAO song 'Party Rock Anthem' which has numerous product placements some more obvious than others. Just a few of these are, Beats, iPhone and Mini cooper, these brands will give artists money in exchange for their product to be shown in the music video. Some artists use this money to help pay for the production of the video as a whole whereas others will just take it as an extra income.

Synergy is when two or more forms of media work together to create a combination of the two. See You Again is a perfect example of this as a lot of people know the song because it was in the charts but also people remember the crossover to Fast and Furious 7. The scene that everyone remembers is when Paul Walker and Vin Diseal race and drive off as the video ends. The camera follows Paul Walker as the music video ends as a symbol that he will live on through the movies but also everyone around him.

Music industry Labels

Major Record Labels sign some of the biggest names in music and although this can have positives such as more funding and more public exposure it can also have its drawbacks. The drawbacks could be that the artist has less control of what they release and they don't get to have as much creative control with things like music videos. An example of a major record label is Universal Music, they work with artists like Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande.

Independent labels are much less fixated on the revenue and it is much more about keeping to the artist's style and genre, keeping them original and not going off-brand. This could mean they will have a lot less funding for music videos etc but they will have a lot more creative control of what they put out and the label will want them to stay true to themselves so they stay authentic in the eye of the fan. An example of an independent label is XL recordings who have worked with Adele & Radiohead.

Self Produced record labels are great for artists that want to make sure they are in control and aware of where their money is going and know that no one is trying to get you to sign over your music in confusing contracts. One of the downfalls of a self-produced record label is that you pay for everything, no one is giving you the money you need to make your music/ music videos so it can become very expensive. Ed Sheeran is one of the most famous self-produced recording artists who grew a lot of his following after releasing his "Orange Room" EP and "You Need Me".

Colour Theory

Pastiche

Colour theory is how colour is used in video to manipulate the mood of the video, certain colours make your brain think the video is going to be based around a specific emotion. Red is seen as a  colour that portrays passion and courage, it is used also to show caution or draw attention to something possibly important for the progression of the scene. Yellow is used to instantly affect the mood and bring more happiness/ positivity to the scene.

Pastiche style music videos are a mix between parody and referencing as they will imitate a piece of work in an ironic way. This could also be an adaptation of an older video, a new artist may want to put their own spin on the music video, it could be in the style of the artist remaking it or in the style of the artist who originally made it.

Parody

Homage

A Parady music video is a media that exists to mock and make fun of a person/ thing, they might exaggerate what they are mocking to make it more comical, an example of a parody music video (and song) is Death Cab for Cutie's "Million Dollar Loan" music video. The song is based around Donald Trump and general mocking of him. They have an actor dress up as Donald Trump in the music video as the wall is being built around him. (it's actually a pretty good song lol)

A homage style music video is similar to a parody but it id meant to show respect to the chosen person/ group rather than mock. They will take certain elements of a video without completely copying it, they take inspiration from it enough for you to be able to tell what it is they are referencing. The "thank u, next" music video by Ariana Grande is a Homage style music video as it references multiple movies including Mean Girls, Legally Blonde, Bring It On and 13 Going on 30.

Performance

Narrative

A performance music video is normal a music video of the artist/ band in a live performance; this is meant to capture more than just the talent of the artist. By filming the live performance, you can capture the energy that the crowd have, and in turn, it can make the music video better because you can imagine being performed too. My example is Stormzy's song "CROWN" and the performance video he made of it, the difference here is that there is no live audience but it still feels as if its being performed to you as its a personal video.

A narrative music video is a video that shows a story play out that relates to the song. So if the song is about a sad story, you would watch the characters play out the story, and because of this, it amplifies the sad emotions that the video is trying to portray. In my example of Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" Taylor plays a girl whos in love with Lucas Till, the boy next door. The song plays out, and you see how the beat picks up, and during the second chorus she becomes more confident and tells him how she feels, this is the story it told.

Animation

Interprative

An animated music video gives the artist much more creative control because anything can be created and made into a video. Technology is so advanced that people make music videos that are them dancing but animated and make the background and whole video much more interesting than it would have been normally. My example is a Dua Lipa's song "Hallucinate" which is a really cool music video in which Dua Lipa has been recreated in animated form. She's dancing around different locations with loads of perfectly designed items around her like flowers which you see in the thumbnail.

An interpretive music video is when it can be taken anyway by the viewer, often this is done by having dance be shown in the music video, or the whole video is interpretive dance. This is because dance is really what the viewer makes of it, you can see dance and imagine a story to go with it, and this could change from person to person. Interpretive videos are about every person who watches them getting something different from them. My example "Elastic Heart" by Sia (starring Maddie Ziegler & Shia LaBeouf) is just that, its a dance that can be interpreted in whatever way the viewer wants.

Impressionist

Surrealist 

Impressionist music videos are about more than the small details that are visible when watching a music video; they are about the bigger picture and the mood that the music video can make when watched by someone. In Rolling in the deep music video by Adele, as her emotion builds up more and more starts to happen, such as more plates are being thrown at the wall and shattering everywhere. The cups of water move more and more as the beat gets louder, and this can show the overall mood, which is of disappointment, sadness and anger.

Surrealist music videos are meant to feel like a dream; they don't always have to have anything to do with the song its self, they can be completely unrelated to it. They are normally very abstract, and unlike a music video that has been made before, in this case, the music video for the song "E.T." by Katy Perry is all about space and aliens. It is filmed abstractly and is very easy to get wrapped up In as you can't wait to see what happens next and that means it does what its meant to do because it has the shock factor it needs to be interesting.

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