Analysis of student video-Enigma

To help me learn form any mistakes made by others doing the same project as myself as well  as how they have tackled it I made an analysis on another student's music video. This would help with my own because I would be able to use how this video has been constructed to help with making our own video.
Visual codes

The video has been mostly set inside a garage which as a location has connotations of improvisation and low expense reflecting the indie rock style of the song. It also portrays the stereotypical place where rock bands practice at the early stages of their career. In the background disco lights have been used as iconography to make them appear as  lights on a live stage, creating a juxtapose of the band's actual location to emphasise their low budget set. The coloured dust throwing, creating a mess follows the band genre's conventional use of havoc and an uncontrollable attitude. The colours also indicate the song's non-negative style. This is also reflected in the character's energetic and positive body language. There isn't a clear use of iconography or typography used in the video which could have been used more to mirror the song's love theme, for example a rose which connotes love. The high key yellowish tinted lighting reflects the positive feel of the song to help emphasise it.
Technical codes
The editing is effective in following the music's beats for emphasis however a lot of the time the shots last a long time which makes the pace of the video quite slow unlike that of the song. A faster pace would help mirror the up-beat style of the song. There is a good use of framing in each shot, however there isn't a wide variety of camera angles which would make the video more interesting and engage with the audience better.
Genre

The artist's genre is Rock/Indie Rock which matches mostly the style of the video as it follows common conventions such as manic behaviour, a live performance and close up shots of the instruments and artists, which are expected throughout the video, however the video's pace is a little slow for a rock video a lot of the time.
Narrative
The video's main narrative involves the song's band entering a garage to practice the song being played. This relates to the classic stereotypical rehearsal space form most high school bands before they become well known, especially rock. There is a very energetic and positive theme to the song and the video shown by the coloured dust fight. The lyrics say "Love's a crossword like an enigma made with words" which implies love is a very complex subject. The video doesn't reflect the lyrics as there is no clear references to the idea of love within it except possibly the strong looking friendship between the band members. This could have been achieved through iconography relating to love and romance or certain characters portrayed as a couple or as one or more having feelings for another.
Audience
The video targets the song genre's typical teenage/young adult audience well by its use of wild behaviour when the characters are throwing dust at each other. This would also be appropriate for the generic low or middle class audience who are commonly stereotyped as being more rebellious and disorderly than higher classes.
Representation
There isn't a clear representation of any issues in the video other than vaguely age through the stereotypical uncontrollable behaviour of the young characters in the video. This area could be emphasised further so the audience can relate more to the video's narrative by using stereotypical representations such as the characters being mischievous or contrasting the behaviour of older, maturer characters.
The artists themselves follow the conventional casual looking clothing of pop/rock bands which helps highlight the video's genre to the audience. The casual fashion also emphasises the characters as being an amateur band rehearsing in a garage.

Purpose of a music video

Generally a music video is only so when used for promotional purposes. A music video will provide a form of visual entertainment though a short film in order to entice an audience to purchase the song featured in the video as well as being used as a way of advertising the artist to them, ultimately in order to gain extra revenue for them and the company. It works as a product advertisement in which, unlike most common advertisements, the audience can actually experience the product because they are listening to the song.

The MTV channel was originally created to help stream artists' music videos to a wider audience. Nowadays YouTube mostly provides this through channels such as 'Warner Music Group' and 'Vevo' which have received over 5 billion views with their top subscribed channel alone (RihannaVEVO).

Another reason for artists to use music videos is as a promotional tool for themselves or for the album the song is coming from. In the same way the audience is given an experience of the product, that being the artist or album. For example PSY's video for 'Gangnam Style' promotes his album of the same name not only by using the same song name as the album, but also by featuring a scene referencing to the album cover by looking similar to it and at the end of the video showing the actual cover.

Product placement is also an common purpose for music videos. it involves featuring a company's product within the music video to help advertise it so the artist and record label can make some extra revenue from them. Owl City used product placement to help promote the film Wreck-It Ralph in their music video for 'When Can I See You Again' by using a similar video game theme as the film and sections of scenes from it.

Music video history

Despite many artists creating videos to accompany their songs, the first official promotional music video was made by Queen for 'Bohemian Rhapsody' which was recorded in November 1975 and aired that same month. It was due to the success of the song that creating music videos to accompany songs became a trend with other artists in order to help promote their music, and it is because of this they are also referred to as promotional videos or promos.
(Wikipedia, Slideshare)

Michael Jackson is known for creating the most expensive music video ever made for the song 'Scream' which cost $7 million dollars to produce. Madonna followed close behind with 'Die Another Day' costing over $6 million and both her other songs 'Express Yourself' and 'Bedtime Story' costing $5 million. (Wikipedia)

The top viewed music videos ever on Youtube include Gangnam style by PSY (2 billion), Baby by Justin Bieber (1 billion), On the Floor by Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull (750 million), Eminem's Love the Way You Lie (709 million) and LMFAO's  Party Rock Anthem (704 million)
(Wikitubia)

There is a variety of key conventions associated with music videos such as mid shots or close ups (in order to give the artist more camera time so as to make them the centre of attention), shots of the artist, sometimes instruments and often a visualisation of the lyrics. However most of them vary based on the music's genre and style, for example:

Rap/ Hip Hop
The artists usually wear expensive branded clothing, jewellery or cars, with lots of money, objectifying women all in order to show the artist's wealth and make them look more powerful.
Their objectification of women means many of their shots follow Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory and shots tend to be quite slow paced to put more focus on the artist.

For example in 50 Cent's 'Candy Shop' in which he wears a fur coat and gold jewellery and drives a sports car. The whole music video also shows him surrounded by women seducing him, showing his voyeurism towards them.

Rock
Artists are mostly seen performing at concerts or as bands wearing casual clothing to focus their audience mostly on the music as a post to the video's content.

Commonly there are close up shots of instruments being played and, depending on the pace of song, often use fast paced editing though generally they avoid using too much editing techniques so as to focus solely on the artist.

Many of these can be seen in You me At Six's 'Lived A Lie' such as close up shots of the instruments and the artists in casual clothing.

Metal
Similarly to rock many of their music videos comprise mostly of the band performing and playing their instruments. They commonly wear lots of makeup or costumes to show themselves as individuals and standing out. Their songs tend to be very dark themed so low key lighting and fast paced editing is used to give a sense of fear and tension to the viewer.
An example of some of these is in Metallica's video for 'Until It Sleeps' which includes performance shots, costumes and makeup and the dark theme.

Music video comparison
I made a comparison between an old music video with one of the most recent ones to see the differences in the two. I compared Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody with PSY's Hangover. Firstly I found there was a much larger variety of shots in the newer video and much more editing used. There was also a much clearer narrative in the newer one and link between the visuals and lyrics and better lip syncing, whereas the older music video included mostly performance shots of the artist. There is a much more artistic look to the older video in comparison to the newer one as well, which would relate to the artist's need for promotion.

Because these two artists were of very different genres I realised it may affect how their differences appeared so I decided to compare another two music videos with the same genre which were ACDC's "Highway To Hell" and My Chemical Romance's (MCR)"Teenagers", both of which are Rock videos. My first clear finding and one which is the same difference as what I found in the other two videos is how ACDC's video lacks a narrative unlike MCR's video which portrays a school of rebellious teenagers watching the band's live performance in a school hall. These visuals relate with the lyrics of the song which ACDC's video doesn't do either. However the clear similarity between the two despite this is in both videos the artist are shown performing live on a stage which is of course a generic convention of Rock videos. Similarly, the two videos also contain quite low key lighting which highlights the stage lights on their stage more to give a bigger sense they're performing live. In terms of editing and camera work, MCR's newer video contains not only much faster paced editing but also faster camera movement and a larger variation of camera angles in each of their shots, which could be partly due to the narrative layout of the video. However, like in many music video's, the camera focuses most of its shots on the main artist, more specifically the lead singer of each band, in both videos. Finally, the background dancers and teenage crowd are featured in the video as extra characters in the newer music video, as well as the band itself, linking back to the fact that they use a narrative structure which usually would require additional characters to interact with the artist.

Textual Analysis of Miss Nothing-The Pretty Reckless

Visual codes
The entire video is set in a gothic looking dining room with a table placed out in the style of the last supper. This setting gives connotations of power due to the expensive looking furniture and decoration over the room. Laid across the table are various expensive objects which help highlight this idea such as the roasted pig, the golden goblet and the cooked lobsters. There is also a shot of a golden goat head which religiously commonly signifies the devil, reflecting the artist's frequent inclusion of Christian folklore and beliefs in their music. There is also a sense of romance by the use of certain props including the wedding dress and bouquet of roses which have connotations of love and a courtship which reflect the theme of the song. The first shot has an interesting composition due to the long shot used to present all the characters seated at a table similarly to the last supper. This again relates back to the band's use of religion. Throughout the video the artist, who is supposed to represent Mary Magdalene, uses very sexual and flirtatious body language which reflects the stereotypical female using her sexuality as a way of conveying dominance over the opposite sex.
Technical codes
Many of the camera angles, including mostly high angles and birds-eye view shots, look down on the artist which makes the viewer see the artist as less important as a pose to the common way of presenting them in music videos. This makes the artist look insignificant to reflect the lyrics 'miss nothing' which conveys her as this. Despite this the camera still focuses very much on the artist as they are still the most important character of the video. In terms of editing, the pace varies slightly throughout the video to match the speed of the music which also varies however it is mostly fast paced. It also follows the main beats in the music for example at the very beginning when the drums and guitar give a fast double tap, the camera cuts twice to a different shot at the same time. Both these points allow the viewer to focus on both the music and lyrics at the same time as both aid each other in evoking the narrative to the viewer.
Genre
The artist's genre is rock, however although there are some elements such as fast paced editing and close up shots, the video doesn't show many of the major conventions included in this genre such as performance shots and shots of instruments. This would be so the audience focuses more on the narrative side of the video as a pose to the performance. There is a clear intertextual reference in the video by the use of iconic figures in the background at the end of the video, more noticeably John Lennon in the green Sgt. Pepper costume, Charlie Chaplin and Jimi Hendrix. These contrast with the artist as great iconic figures to emphasize her character's insignificance.
Narrative
The video follows a very Christian theme in a Georgian looking setting based on the last supper, with the main artist representing Mary Magdalene who was a good friend of Jesus and one of his closest followers. In an interview the artist explained that the song is about a person who has lost a loved one, just as Magdalene lost Jesus, therefore the two reflect each other. The lyrics reflect the video through the artist's body language as they describe her as being 'miss guided' and 'miss used' and she says she is 'miss nothing'. This suggests that she is allowing herself to be objectified, most likely by men and her body language in the video with her being surrounded by men mirrors this idea. The way she refers to herself as 'miss nothing' also presents her as a stereotypical female by indicating her as having low self esteem.
Organisations
The record label, Interscope Records is owned by universal Music Group. They are involved loosely in the video by its product placement of Dr. Dre's "Beats" headphones which are featured in the video. In 1996 Dre founded Aftermath Records, a record label distributed by not only Universal but also Interscope Records. Not only was this product placement to help make some extra money for the artist, but also it will have been organised by the company as a promotion for one of its own biggest artists. The artist themselves has been promoted via the music video through the company Vevo over Youtube.
Audience
The target audience for this video would be teenagers of a low-middle to low class by the destructive attitude of the main character and the low clothed way she dresses both of which are associated with these groups. Also the genre of music and gothic style is more popular among that type of audience. the audience would also include people who can relate to the lyrics of the video which describe losing someone and/or like that genre of music or the artist. As well as this the various references to Christianity would aim the video closer towards a fairly Christian audience. The most likely way two step flow could be applied to this video is through fans of the style of music or artist discussing it, as there aren't any outstanding elements to the video itself which help make it more appealing to a wider variety of audiences. Even major fans of the artist would find it difficult to understand the meanings behind the video and only a Christian audience could realise the link between the video and the last supper.
Representation
There is a strong representation of gender in this video which portrays males as negative characters due to their black clothing which connotes a dark character, whereas the female is in white clothing which has connotations of purity and innocence. This is made to signify the innocence of the main character as she is used and mistreated by the males which surround her, reflecting the lyrics 'miss used' and 'miss guided' in the song. This contrasts hugely with the scenes representation of a religious setting (the last supper), which wouldn't commonly be associated with the idea of female objectification, in order to highlight how the character acts. The artist themselves have been presented wearing very revealing clothing which corresponds with her sexual, provocative character. This also portrays her as something attractive in the video to focus most of the audiences attention on her as the video's artist.