Research for Music Video
For my research, I chose three music videos of varying genre, one that was performance-based, one that focused on a narrative, and the third that was prominently an abstract idea. These three videos are also from the last decade, in order to ensure that they were accurate representations of contemporary pop music and the videos to accompany them.
Shake It Off - Taylor Swift
The primary target audience of this video is likely teenagers or pre-teens, predominantly female, as that is who Taylor Swift tends to aim her music towards.
The video is a performance video, which features Taylor Swift singing her song in various locations with various outfits amongst a different group with her each time. This appears to be in an attempt to display how hate isn’t restricted to one group and no matter who you are you still matter and can just ignore the negativity. Beyond the message of it, there are some technical aspects that can be explored.
Firstly, the camera angles tend to be of an eyeline match, as she frequently sings to the camera, the distances and length of takes heavily vary but all tend to be of eyeline match regardless. A shot recurring shot in this video is that of the medium close-up on Taylor. Zooms also make an appearance but it is infrequent.
In terms of editing, all transitions in the video are straight cuts, no dissolves or fades whatsoever. Within virtually every shot too, Taylor Swift is included, showing the extreme emphasis on the artist, showing the affects of star theory on audience and fandom, as it has reached such a high view count. She has accumulated a following and knows now how to appeal to them, and does so with the uses of an upbeat song accompanied by a flashy video as we see here and the message it attempts to convey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM
Shape of You - Ed Sheeran
Shape of You by Ed Sheeran is a pop song from 2017 which has reached a total of 4.5 billion views on YouTube. It’s a love song and is targeted at teenagers, most likely young girls.
The video is a narrative video, which follows two boxers, one being the singer Ed Sheeran, who fall in love. The video is exclusively narrative driven, with no performance elements present at all, not even singing within the narrative.
In relation to cinematography, the camera uses a wide range of techniques, there is no defined style or manner in which this video is achieved. The camera switches between handheld and stationary as much as the shot lengths change, as do the distances and angles used. This prevents the video from having an exactly clear cinematic style.
Unlike the other videos, this video has an accredited director, which suggests it is more professional and wanted to focus on the narrative that drives the video forward rather than any performance elements.
Editing includes just straight cuts, with no variation to this. The editing follows traditional continuity editing for a narrative based piece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGwWNGJdvx8
Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye
Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye is a pop song from 2011 that has achieved 1.3 billion views on YouTube. It’s a love song between two artists, Gotye and Kimbra, who is the featured artist.
The primary target audience of the song is somewhat ambiguous, as it focuses on a rather abstract idea which doesn’t necessarily appeal to a particular group or demographic. It could appeal to general teens or adults who are enjoy the music of Gotye, or the ideas of the music video. The musical audience may be teenagers, as it is a love song, but isn’t as sombre as other songs.
Whilst the video is performance, it also has elements of abstract, featuring elements of stop-motion paint that gradually covers the performers, who are naked. The camera remains stationary for the runtime and only changes between different shot distances, and only focuses on close-ups for the stop-motion portions of it.
The narrative isn’t entirely clear but it shows Gotye singing, along with later, Kimbra. He gets covered in paint and then Kimbra is introduced, already covered in paint, as she then has the paint removed whilst his remains on, this is perhaps a representation of how she was able to move on from the relationship, but he wasn’t, though there isn’t a clear answer. This use of abstract storytelling is done well, leaving an incomplete picture/answer, forcing the audience to theorise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY
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