Codes and Conventions of Popular Music

I am now going to look at the codes and conventions of popular music, unlike the other genres i have looked at such as rock and heavy metal, popular music isn't a genre but more of style.

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music is a generic term for music of all ages that appeals to popular tastes, whereas pop music usually refers to a specific musical genre.


Eminem - Without Me

• A performance concept video
• Usually titles and stereotypical references to comics and comic character, they have created a story following two superheroes.
• A lot of shots of Eminem performing
• A lot of male gaze, nearly all the females in the video are not wearing much clothing.
• A lot of comedy in the video to draw in a audience.

Justin Bieber - Eenie Meenie

• Narrative, Performance video
• Mainly following the two singers and a girl who they both try and get with.
• Set at a house party
• Shots of the singers in a different location against a wall singing
• Shots of dancers at the party
• Unlike most other music videos with a similar genre they isn't really any male gaze in this video, this is probably due to the main target audience as the singer is only 16

Dizzee Rascal - Holiday

• Performance video set at a "Pool party?"
• Opening following a women on a phone walking down a empty path to a gate, and she goes through the gate and they is a party.
• Mainly focuses on the singer and other singers who are constantly surrounded all the time around women dressed in bikinis.
• The entire video is just for male gaze. As its mainly appealing to their target audience

One Night Only - Say You Don't Want It

• Set in big city
• Performance and Concept
• The performance is simply the band performing on a roof with the standard codes and conventions for performance videos
• The concept is strangely good. It follows what is signified as a couple who are walking around the city, both are very well dressed. But everyone kind of ignores them or gives them weird looks, at one point the male runs into a shop and gets chased out and at another point a food vendor throws some food at them. At the end of the video it is revealed that they are dogs because later on a car drives past and stops and a women runs out, runs over and picks up a dog (at this point you see them as dogs not as people).
• The video has famous actor Emma Watson which will help it appeal to a large strong UK fanbase and a strong male fanbase.

Alicia Keys & Jay-Z - Empire State of Mind
 

 

• All in black and white until the end
• Simple performance video
• Performance aspect is simply the two singers, with shots of them showing a new york setting behind them
• they is interlink images of new york from the sky and fast quick pictures of the city.
• At the end the two singers come to together and the colour goes to normal.
• The female singer is dressed in a way that makes her appeal more to a male audience.

Conclusion

The codes and conventions of popular music videos is extremely varied. It would be impossible to nail down the codes and conventions.
Two points i can say are that,

1. Appealing to a male audience with male gaze is a huge part of popular music videos
2. It really depends on the audience of artist of what the videos are like

Codes and Conventions of Rock Music

I am going to try and found a series of codes and conventions for the Rock Music genre and the music videos that come out of it.

Rock music is a genre of popular music which entered main stream in the 1960's, The sound of rock usually revolves around bass guitar, electric guitar, rock drums and some form of Piano sound. Its a genre that has many many different sub genres such as Alternative Rock and Garage Rock.



At random i have selected 5 music videos from 5 different bands and will search for some consistent codes and conventions.

The Beatles - Help!

• A simple black and white performance video
• Shots jump between shots of all band, of a member and of instruments.

Biffy Clyro - That Golden Rule

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWUF2oiWe2I (Can't embed)

• Performance video with the whole band, usually performance video codes and convention's.
• A lot of lighting and post production effects used.

The Smiths - Panic

• A art driven concept video shot mainly in black and white
• Recurring shot of a possible band member and the camera moves around him
• Extremely fast POV jumpy shots
• Shots of a possible post industrial London looking at the river and old industrial buildings
• Shots of graffiti of lyrics on walls.
• At the halfway point and end of song they is post production pieces of a spinning crown and a band member, which the image of the band member flashing.

Oasis - Wonderwall

• Starts with diegetic footsteps of a clown walking up to and putting on a record.
• All shot in black and white
• Is it a performance video mainly
• Mainly shots of the band playing the song and then shots of musians playing different parts of the songs such as violinists.
• Some random shots of people such as a shot of a dancer and 5 swinging guitars.

Brand New - Sic Transit Gloria

• A concept video, with a aspect of performance
• Follows the lead singer of brand new
• The story is a interpretation of the lyrics
• Follows a guy who runs away from something that we don't see, he runs into a bar and he can control everybody in the bar, but he realises in the end he doesn't want control.
• References in the video to the director.

Conclusion

My conclusion of rock music videos and their codes & conventions is that performance is mainly a common code and is seen in a lot of rock music videos. Narrative and concept themes are commonplace but really is dependant on the style of rock music and the band.
The videos for rock music really are so diverse that its too hard to pin down any real codes and conventions.

Codes and Conventions of Electronic Music Videos

Mark Ronson & The Business Intl   "The Bike Song"

Narrative & Performance

The start of the video starts with a little concept, where Mark Ronson is at a tv show, when it finishes he steps outside and a bike appears infront of him and when he gets on the setting changes.
3 guys cycling around on thier bikes, typical use of females in the video with them being viewed as sex object with the guys looking them up and chasing them. The 3 men (all from different bands) who colaborated for this video are the 3 guys on the bikes and all 3 of them sing as they bike around.

Genre is Synthpop, Alternative hip hop

Cant embed The Bike song YTB link

Katy B          Katy On a Mission

Performance

The song focuses on Katy B as she performs at a gig, then is also clips of her singing at a recording studio and in a car. For the majority of the video the camera focuses on katy B and also moves onto focusing on a audience dancing. All the clips are slowed down to fit in with the beat of the song.

Dubstep, electropop



Pendulum                 The Island Part 1 Dawn

Concept

The entire video is set on a different planet following a female character. He is wearing a jumpsuit and at the start of the video wakes up on a barren planet, she sees someone in the distance and chases after them. The entire video follows this chase and then at the end she relieases that shes back to the start and she is chasing herself.


 Genre is Progressive house and Fidget house.




Magnetic Man               "I Need Air" & "Perfect Stranger feat Katy B"

Genres	Dubstep, trancestep

Genre      Dubstep     TranceStep 

Both Performance videos.

I am putting both these videos together for one specific reason. The music videos for these songs are almost identical. Both videos feature the band at a live performance. And the video heavily focuses on the crowd. The shots are usually cut together very quickly though the shots themselve are usually slowed down to fit the tempo of the song. They a view shots of the 3 Dj's in magnetic man but the shots are usually from afar. The videos also show alot of the light shows during the song.





Chase & Status  feat Plan B              "End Credits"

Genre:  Drum and bass, liquid funk, indie rock, acoustic.

Video - Narrative

The video was very intresting. At first i thought the video was around Plan B, who sings the song being killed at the start and then you see him singing in the background in the lead up to his death. In a way i was right about it. But after a little research the songs video is clips taken from the 2010 film Harry Brown. This song is on the soundtrack for the film and the singer is in the film. So even though the song fits the video. Its purpose is half just for promotional purposes.



Hadouken!                Mic Check

Genre : Grime

The video is a performance video.

The song shows the band playing the song with the lead singer jumping around the place. They is a lot of use of stage lights (though its not on a stage) so the area is flashing to the beatof the song. They are also shots of 2 female dancers which are used mainly for the male gaze.



Hadouken "That Boy That Girl"

Genre: Grime New Rave


Video is performance and concept.

This video is very stylized. Its the band performing but each band member is made out of paper and card aswell as a backdrop. the figures are also animated so they moved and the image changes. Its very unique video.



Conclusion

In conclusion they are a few codes and conventions to electronic music videos. Mainly that the songs follow performance and concept codes. Usually the songs are styled with lighting and special effects such as both Hadouken videos. Sometimes though they are songs that do stand out and are different such as Island Part 1 by Pendulum and End Credits by Chase & Status.

Codes and conventions of Heavy Metal Sub Genres

The Seattle Sound "Grunge"

 

• Started late 80's
• Influenced by early heavy metal, hardcore punk and indie bands.
• Key Bands : Nirvana , Alice in chains and Soundgarden.
• A lot of Grunge supergroups
• Defining album was Nirvana's Nevermind.
• Was seen to combat Glam Metal. 
• A lot of mainstream success
• The genre still moving with all the main bands still together accept Nirvana.

Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun:

• Narrative/Performance
• Controversial theme
• Colour filters
• High Budget

Pearl Jam - Jeremy:

• Narrative
• Extended intro
• Flashing images, text
• Colour filters
• Nazi salute used. Controversial

Alice in Chains - Them Bones:

• Performance
• Cave/Desert setting
• Flashing images
• Camera colour filter
• Shots of all band, no emphasis on singer

Power Metal

• Combination of traditional metal & speed metal
• Mid 80s germany
• Fantasy & mythology theme
• Popular in Europe
• 80s fluffy hair
• bright clothes (no make up)
• modern gothic, long/scruffy hair and plain black tops

Gamma Ray - Into the storm

• Performance
• normal c + c of metal
• disused train station

Amaranth - Nightwish

• Performance and concept
• based on a village and some fallen angels
• Unusual power metal female singer
• Jumping zooms and flashing lights focusing on lead singer

Christian Metal

• Also known as white metal
• Started in 1970's USA
• Evanesence - were christian metal band but not now.
• Stryer - Christian glam metal band , performance music videos and thier records were removed from christian music stores.

Underoath

• mostly concept and performance videos

Hardcore

• 1977
• Bands such as Glassjaw, Misfits, Gallows, Dead Swams, The ghost of a thousant
• 1970s boston, new york and new jersey
• Small genre
• High earning bands
• Gallows - grey britian was voted best album of decade
• very aggressive
• Lyrics of voilence

Gallows - Abandon ship

• Performance, small gig/venue
• lots of stage presence
• shaky dutch angles
• breakdown with a long take
• normal shot variation of a heavy metal video.

Your Demise - Burnt Tounges

• Performance / Narrative
• focuses on front man

Viking Metal

• Came from viking folk music
• then heavy metal adopted it
• Heavy on keyboards
• Very bleak
• Lots of norse mythology.
• Key bands - Amon Amarth and Barthory

Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

• Lots of vikings headbanging
• Women countertypes
• band members in normal clothes
• Viking battle during video
• Amon Amarth - The Pursuit Of Vikings

Turias - To holmgard & beyond

• Viking Mise en scene
• Viking way of life
• Modern Performance

Thrash Metal

Thrash Metal

Heavy Metal Sub Genres

I researched the many different sub genres of the genre Heavy Metal.

Source :  The Metal Crypt

•Traditional   - Traditional heavy metal, also known as classic metal or simply heavy metal, is the seminal genre of heavy metal music before the genre "evolved and splintered into many different styles and subgenres."

•Thrash - Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized by its fast tempo and aggression.

•Power - Power metal is a style of heavy metal music combining characteristics of traditional metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context.

•Progressive - is a subgenre of heavy metal, which blends the powerful, guitar-driven sound of metal with the complex compositional structures, odd time signatures, and intricate instrumental playing of progressive rock.

•Death - is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes.

•Black - is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It often uses fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, and unconventional song structure.

•Doom - is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much 'thicker' or 'heavier' sound than other metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics intend to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom

•Grindcore - is an extreme genre of music that started in the early- to mid-1980s. It draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including death metal, industrial music, noise and the more extreme varieties of hardcore punk.

•Gothic - is a subgenre of heavy metal music. Gothic metal combines the aggression of heavy metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music. Lyrics are generally melodramatic and mournful with inspiration from gothic fiction as well as personal experiences.

•Folk - is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music. This includes the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles.

•Viking - is a subgenre of heavy metal music characterised by its galloping pace, keyboard-rich anthemic sound, bleakness and dramatic emphasis on Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age.

•Symphonic -  is a term used to describe heavy metal music that has symphonic elements; that is, elements that are either borrowed from classical music or, as with progressive rock music, create a style reminiscent of it, e.g. operatic female lead vocals; instrumentation that includes acoustic guitars and different types of keyboards instead of relying solely on electric guitars; asymmetrical meters such as 5/4 and 7/8, and classical thematic material in addition to characteristically heavy metal power riffs.

The above are really just the main sub genres but they are a lot more sub genres of heavy metal, some of which are only a few years old while some are very old.

Here are a few more

• Hardcore
• Rapcore
• Pirate metal
• Christian metal
• Nu Metal
• Glam Metal
• SID Metal
• True Metal
• Pop/Party Metal
• Stoner Metal

Music Genres

Because i am going to go through the codes and conventions of different musical genres i believed it was necessary to explain music genres.


They are tricky to tie down because the music industry is constantly creating and modifying old and new genres, If i was asked in the 1950s what different genres of music they were i would of replied with such genres of RnB (Rhyme and blues) and jazz and the any music listened to by the masses back then would of been called popular music and would of been played in jukeboxes in dinners and pubs.


These days a genre can be spawned by adding a new sound, theme or style a existing genre can create a new genre or sub genre. Example of this could be in the 1980's some musicians added a new progressive style to rock and created Progressive rock.

Cat in a progressive rock band

Because it would be impossible to look at the codes and conventions of every genre i intend to narrow down my list to much broader genres.

• Electronic Music with sub genres such as Grime , Indie pop, House
• Heavy Metal with sub genres such as Thrash metal and hardcore
• Rock Music with sub genres such as Alternative Rock, Post grunge and Britpop

The last genre that i am going to look at is a bit debatable, i personally don't believe its a genre but more of a style but other people may say differently. It is popular current music, this fit bands and singers that are currently doing well with the masses and are played in the charts and on the radio. Some of the music in the charts could fit into heavy metal or rock music but it isn't that often.

• Pop music with bands/ singers such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Ellie Goulding and The Wanted

Alot of these genres and artists do fit into other genres such as some would say heavy metal is a sub genre of rock and rap music is a part of electronic music but i am really looking at these genres because these are the ones that stand out the most in terms of differences in music videos.

The History & Development of Music Videos

Extensive quoting from the book "Money for Nothing" 

The Early Years 

1927: Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer" - First notion of image and sound link together in a musical.


1930: Fischinger's motion experiment shorts were tighty synchonized film movements to accompany music (usually new recordings of short classical pieces.)


1940: Fischinger sought to collaborate with composer Leopold Stokowski on a hybrid project of sound & animation but stokowski ended up taking the idea to Walt Disney. Who laid the groundwork for "Fantasia". Which is described as the first unintentional long form music video.




1941 - 1946: The Soundie was a new piece of technology which allowed for projection of moving image onto a screen that combined music with short movie clips. Usually found in nightspots and charging ten cent a throw, the soundie's were able to imitate their cultural superiors (films). Soundies were primary concerned with selling the female image (could be classed as the first case of the male gaze). Classed as the first dance videos.


1950 - 1954: Snader Telescriptions, named after director George Snader, were filmed musical performances sold in blocks to television stations to fill gaps in their programming. Usually consisting of just one set piece.

The Start of Music Videos as we know it

 1964: As with so many other things, The Beatles were innovators in the music video format. Intended as a quick cash in on their overnight success, The Beatles first film, "A Hard Day's Night" directed by Richard Lesterr was an accidental comic classic and a key precursor to the music video. Lester turns the musical numbers into discrete short films less about the stately strumming of guitars then dazzling, unhinged expressions of male camaraderie, clever hijunks, and Marxian physical humour. "Can't Buy Me Love" is the most brilliant of all, a series of crane shots swooping over the four Beatles running and leaping through a field. Needless to say, these qualities, in many ways made Lester the godfather of music videos.

1966 - 1968: The influences of a "Hard Day's Night spread beyond the Beatles and into the work of their imitators. Turn on any episode of the Beatles - biting rock and roll sitcom The Monkees, which ran on american television from 1966 to 1968 and almost inevitably, they would be a montage set to one of their songs in which the band would prance around to music tracks.  These tv music videos laid the foundation for the future intersection of television and music video.

 1968 - 1970:  The musical promotional film came into being in a form similar to the contemporary music video, with The Doors, The Animals and The Byrds plus others making mostly utilitarian clip.

1967: Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" was the first video to build on, rather then imitate, Lesters and the the Beatles triumphs.

Music videos + Television

• Major corporations having invested in the burgeoning cable - television industry, found themselves starved of content. Music, still an overwhelmingly non - television friendly medium, had to be shop horned into cable TV, and promotional music videos were the safest bet. It was television, and not the music industry, that made the initial push for a music video channel.  
•  Beside the corporate investors (who included Warner Brothers and American Express (the initial inventors in MTV), the other group of dreamers who believed in music videos were the artists themselves. The musicians of the late 1970's used the promotional music videos as another canvas to paint on.

Early 1980's:  The music video had its era of possibility, surging in cost, production values, star quality, and skillfulness. Performers lived and died on the strengths of their videos, and it is no coincidence that many of the era's biggest stars were also its savviest videomakers. Madonna, Michael Jackson Bruce Springsteen, U2. This format was perfect for Artists and record labels to sell themselves, to create a additional revenue as well as use the videos to promote the band and up the revenue in merch, tickets and album/ single sales.

1981: MTV debuted in 1981, the channel was intended as a visual equivalent to the album - rock radio stations. Back then MTV was designed to serve an almost exclusively white audience with its musical selection determined and limited by genre. 

1983: MTV debuted in New York and Los Angeles, and in a attempt to fill in the holes in its schedule, it turned to Britain where bands had been making videos for a number of years to be played on countdown programs such as Top of the Pops.

1983 - 1985 - MTV leapfrogged the moribund  music industry, crowning its own stars and leaving the mainstream scrambling to catch up.Thus in this early phase, and continuing on into the mid 1980's. Videos went from trifles to blockbusters with more money, more effort and greater professionalism marking the music videos graduation to pop culture's major leagues.

1983: With MTV sticking to its guns about its self declared genre limitations, it took a force of nature to move the channel from its quasi- racist ban on African American performers. It required the impact of Michael Jackson's twenty nine times platinum Thriller, perhaps the last album to attract so sizeable a percentage of American record buying public. In Jackson's wake came Prince, Tina Turner and all the black artists left out in the cold.

• As music videos grew respectable, the ranks of it directors expanded and fashion photographers, filmmakers and artists began to take up the video's reins. Major hollywood filmmakers began to moonlight as videomakers, offering a touch of their sensibility to sympathetic artists.

1984 - Present: Madonna became the queen of music video to Michael Jackson's King, using the video as a marker of her every changing moods, phases and modes. It was always easy to place her videos chronologically, because they served as a moving photo album of her stylistic restlessness.

1986: A collection of hip hop clips fought their way into MTV rotation and national recognition. Aerosmiths' "Walk This Way" with Run D.M.C. and Beastie Boys "Fight for Your Right to Party" joined by the Fat Boys and the Beach Boy, Opened the doors to hip-hop on television, leading to Yo! MTV Raps, the video jukebox and other tools of rap's ascent to cultural prominence.   

Mid 1980's: Even with the fashion - plate video ascendant the notion of the video as short story survived with two of its primary practitioners being the old fashioned rock starts David Bowie & Bruce Springsteen. They mingled narrative and punk - rock attitude which were crucial in crystalizing a more conservative take on the music video.

1986:  No other video symbolized the forms growth into maturity, and its concomitant embrace of seriousness, like Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer", Sledgehammer was as FX intensive as its predecessors, if not more so, but it was less self deprecating. With its surrealist swirl of imagery, time-lapse photography, and over arching sensation of operating according to a mysterious but coherent logic.
While Madonna, Bowie used their glamorousnes as a selling point in their videos, musicians with less physical charm turned towards a workaday brand of surrealism in order to glam up their own drab surfaces. "You Might Think" (1984) directed by Jess Stein and Charlex ventured deep into the realm of surrealism. The video was crowned MTV's first video of the year over MJ's Thriller

• MTV continued to produce and create stars in every genre possible on a varierty of shows on the channel. Music videos had reached a highpoint with videos being created by huge named directors with higher budgets such as  MJ's Scream. Music videos in TV was at the peak of its existence with more and more channels popping up across TV representing a variety of different styles & genres.

The Rise of the Internet

The world wide web really kicked off in 1993 with the first web browser from here the ability to share knowledge skyrocketed, pointing out all the key stages in the www history and its relevance to the history of music video would take too long so i have summed it up. The world wide web gave its users the option to share everything from photos to videos around the globe, this was a huge stage in music videos because this globalisation was causing videos to move around the globe.

During November 2005, Youtube fully launched. Youtube become a global phenomenon with it becoming one of the top visited web sites in the world. The reason why Youtube is a huge part of music videos is now nearly every video is uploaded to YouTube and it can be argued that the majority of music videos now are consumed mainly on Youtube (the survey i did on "My consumption of music videos" proves this).
For example Justin Bieber's song "Baby" has now reached record high amount of hits on YT with 480 million views.

Music video's have now reached a peak in its existence i believe. Now its unusual for a artist to not create a music video, the norm is to release a video with a new single and now artists have many videos released in there careers. Videos on TV is as popular as ever with many new tv stations popping up dedicated to playing the latest and the best music videos as well as regular tv stations dedicating time to music video charts. The videos themselve have reached a stage where videos are being created in every shape and sizes with the videos moving up with the technologies that create them.

   

My Consumption Of Music Videos

Consumption of music videos has changed a lot in the last decade.
 When music videos first kicked off you would watch a music video on channels such as MTV and on normal TV. Sometimes they might be a music video as part of a EP but that was a rarity.

The addition of the Internet and huge video sharing websites such as Youtube, has dominated how we view music videos. Now a band can easily upload their videos which can then be accessed instantly by the masses. Such as Justin Bieber's hit video "Baby" which has been viewed a staggering 440 million times.

  
   Aswell as the addition of digital revolution in television which has caused countless music channels to spring up spanning a wide range of genres such as Lava, Scuzz and NME.



Personally music videos are a large part of what i watch at home, usually when i switch on the TV i go to the music channels and switched between the different channels (such as NME, Bliss, Kerrang!) until i find a song i like.
        Because on music channels i don't get to choose what i see (unless i vote which costs £1 each time, and i wouldnt waste my money doing that) i usually just sit back and view the videos over the music and  try out new bands which has led to me finding out new bands which i have fallen in love with.

Though sometimes i find that a band i like has just released a new video and instead of waiting to see if it pops up on TV i often go to large video sharing websites like Youtube and find the video on their. This way is free and quick.

Another way that i consume music videos is through DVD, often with a album sale you may get a extra DVD which contains bonus features of music videos and more. Or you may buy a DVD which contains music videos. Such as i have The Offspring Complete Music Video Collection.

How other's consume Music Video's


I ran a poll of 30 people to see how they consumed music videos, the results are below presented in a Pie chart.

My 6 Favourite Music Videos

 The XX - Islands





Type of video: Concept
Reason for it being a favorite?: The video is extremely simple but as the song progresses, hidden in the simpleness of the song, so much is happening. Its a video that can be interpreted which i'm a fan off.
I think the video is about relationships and its showing that too much routine in a relationship will cause the relationship to slowly fade and in the end "burn".



Johnny Cash Hurt 


Type of video: Performance
Reason for it being a favorite?: The video isn't anything special in terms of semiotics and cinematography. What makes this video so amazing is the way the song fits with what we see. We are seeing Johnny Cash perform his swan song, the song is all about his life and how it will soon come to a end and about how he wishes he could do it again. The imagery on screen is images and videos from his life and clips of him almost crying as he sings the song and plays the guitar and piano.



Island In The Sun - Weezer (Spike Jonze)









Type of video: Concept
Reason for it being a favorite?: This video is so childish and fun, it simply follows the band as they play with a variety of animals such as monkeys and lions and puppys in a sunny african setting. The shots of the animals playing really make the video. They is nothing better then seeing a lion grinning straight into a camera.



 Biffy Clyro - Only One Word Comes To Mind





Type of video: Performance/ concept
Reason for it being a favorite?: I am probally being a bit biased, but this is one of my favourite songs and i fit the video flows so well with the song, the video follows the three band members as they "run?" through what can only be described as a front room setting and the peoples reactions to them jumping over them and running past them, and did i mention all in slow motion. Even though this all sounds quite funny they is something very serious to what is on screen.
 WAX - California (Spike Jonze) 




Type of video: concept
Reason for it being a favorite?: A man running to catch a bus, all filmed in one take from a car driving next to him, And people not noticing anything out of the ordinary. Oh yeah, did i mention that the mans on fire?
A classic.
 

 Arcade fire - The Suburbs (Spike Jonze)




Type of video: concept/ narrative
Reason for it being a favorite?: i could write paragraph after paragragh on this video, another spike jonze video, the music video is parts of a short film by spike jonze and arcade fire. The video itself has so many interprations. Its a hugely moving video following a group of teenagers in a suburb as war is slowly coming to them. I think the military stuff in the video is supposed to represent evil. At first it is far away from the suburbs but then it slowly creeps in as the video progresses. When the evil arrives it messes up the utopia that the suburbs represented. It causes friends to fight and turn on one another

First Look at Music Videos - 10 examples

Islands                        The XX                        Concept/ Performance

The concept for this video is a short sequence involving the band and some dancers. Throughout the video the band are singing but the dancers are repeating a 5 second"ish" routine perfectly. But each time it restarts something in the sequence changes.

A personal favourite video of mine for a few reasons



Love lost                  The Temper Trap        Concept

The idea for this music video is a bunch of boys (and a bunch of girls at the end) running around a muddy track. The idea is its sports lesson at school signified by a coach. The idea doesnt link in with the narrative at all. The boys are also singing through the video.

Its a very intresting video to watch.



57                            Biffy Clyro                    Performance

This video is entirely performance. The band are in a dark room all playing thier instruments and they just play the song. Nothing out of the ordinary, Yet the video works very well. They is also a little bit of editing on transitions.



The Captain         Biffy Clyro                     Performance/ Narrative

This video cleverly links two types of videos together. The lyrics can interpratated to be around a captain of a ship. Which is what the video is based on. Simon Niel the lead singer of the band plays a ship's captain and the video follows a story where he is captured but rescued by pirates. The video also contains snippets where the band are playing the song on the boat.





Shake it out                  Manchester Orchestra                Narrative/ concept

This video is very intresting. It shows a story which is completely irelevant to the lyrics of the song. It stars the lead singer of the band in a rocky esque tale of a man who looks like he is training and competing in a series of arm wrestling compitions. Alot of the video leaves you guessing.


Link to video (Embedding is disabled by owner)

Roll away your stone     Mumford & Sons                      Performance 

Filmed the band playing the song at one of thier concerts and in recording studio. Very good video but that is all they is really. The colour is changed to black and white aswell. Also only just noticed but the sound of the song changes at the concert to more of a echo.




Closer to the edge         30 Seconds to mars                  Performance 

 Same as roll away your stone, but this video consists of shots taken across a world wide tour (with anchorage in the form of titles of each country) and backstage footages. They is also some clips involving fans answering some questions to bridge a gap in the middle of the song.



Pork & Beans               Weezer                                 Concept   

A funny concept where the concept is linked in with the lyrics. They have used the lyrics "imma gunna do the things i wanna do" and linked it to ideas and people from famous youtube videos. Its a very intresting and funny video to watch. 





Kick Starts                   Example                                Narrative

A very "fun" video. The video focuses on a couple, with the man singing (him also being the singer example) but what makes the video different is a clever and fun arty style used when people are dancing in the video.

A good video but not a very good explanation of the video on my part.



You! Me! Dancing!        Los Campesinos                   Concept

This music video is all cartoon, During the long instrumental opening to the song they is a sun rise over a city and then during the rest of the song they is a big battle between robots, godzilla and other random beings in this cartoon city. The lyrics don't fit the video at all as the lyrics are about dancing and they is clearly no dancing in the video. Apart from that i really like the video as its something different.