Music Video: Introduction

​1.) The purpose of a music video is to sell the product (the song) but other items can also be marketed by the video like branded merch by the artist.

2.) The digital age changed the production and distribution of music videos by making it more available at anytime, mainly though platforms like YouTube.

3.) The three major record labels behind VEVO are Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.VEVO is a music video hosting service joint between major record labels. It was created because they wanted to maximise advertising revenue from music video to regain control over their content.

4.) Key conventions to a music video are things which have to drag in the attention of the watches so that they will endure within the product being advertised, things like movement of cameras (different angle shots) create a sense of thrill and excitement rather than the video being shot at the same boring and uncreative angle. 

5.) Narrative can be used in a music video to create a story that links to the song, an example is “I was a Teenage Anarchist” by Against Me! where in their music video a young man is featured to be chased by police men, indicating on him being a rebel or an “anarchist”.

6.) An example of intertextuality references in music videos is the Blink 182 video for “All the small things” make references to videos of pop artists like Back Street Boy’s “I want it that way”.

7.) Audiences enjoy intertextual references in media products because it creates a link between the artist and the listeners over already existing media.

8.) Music Video Chosen: November Rain Guns N’ Roses

Conventions: A mixture of performance and narrative based scenes which constantly change between each other. However the lyrics of the performance match the narrative.

Intertextuality: The music video references a lot of Christian ideologies since there is both a wedding and a funeral which takes place within a key setting of the music video.

Representations: There is about a 1 minute clip of the guitarist playing a solo which audience members could most likely enjoy, particularly audience members who play their same instruments,  fearing a sense of closeness over the idea that both the members and the watcher both play instruments.

Audience: The song was made in 1992, I’m assuming that their main demographic of audiences was previous fans who already shared and interest within the bands music. However due to the bands popularity most fans of the rock genre may enjoy the song as well as the music video due to the members performances of playing their instruments.

I just want to mention the key contract behind the first part of the music video to the second part- the first part showing a wedding with much softer and lighter music whilst the end part of the music video depicts a funeral as the music picks up a pace and increases in intensity.

9.) Ice Cube’s “It Was A Good Day” set  conventions for later hip-hop music videos by using those key conventions associated with hip-hop today: baggy clothes, low rider cars, “the hood”, etc. 

10.) I do think that music videos are still successful in promoting and marketing music artists to this day since it allows the artist to express a sense of creative freedom as well as visually advocating a story and making consumers appreciate the artists. Artists can also use their music videos to advertise merch for watchers and consumers by advertising their merch in the music video.