What is a Music Video?

What is the purpose of a music video?

• A market tool to promote a artist/song - This can be the physical form of advertising the song as a video to go with a song makes it more interesting and this can be shared across the internet or TV and in favor the music video is there to carry the song to many people and making it more appealing through the video therefore picking up more views and also promoting the digital copy of the song with it to allow people to purchase a song through a music channel to promote the song.

• A short narrative or representation of the artist - As people who are part of a fan base for an individual artist, they always want to know more about the person and when they enjoy a new song that has been released they always expect a music video to tell the story of the song visually as much as music through audio. Also its good to represent the artist as it shows a close side of them to the fans and it keeps the songs more interesting for them.

• To attract a particular target audience - If a particular genre artist includes conventions expected by a particular target audience then by doing so they will be able to attract them because they have created a product that goes along with the actual song to be able to make it more appealing and once they achieve this they will be able to get hold of their target audience with the use of their music video.

• To identify an artist/group - A music video is great to help identify an artist or even members of a group as it shows them visually and allows for the audience to make connections between them and get a feel to the artist/s as it will show who does more of what in the group and sets up a personality for them.

• To buy into the artists lifestyle - Activities or events that take place in a music video can sell the artists lifestyle showing what they do or enjoy in their free time and this may influence the audience in a good or bad way as they might follow what the artist is doing as they most likely look up to them.

• To show the different generic conventions of a genre/music video - It is important to follow the codes and conventions of each genre as it gives it more and more potential to be able to make the song along with music video much more appealing to the target audience.

• For the audience to remember the music video - Once a connection has been made between the music video and the song, if either of them are listened to or seen again it will already make the viewer remember each one separately and it will bring back the interest to the audience of why they liked or enjoyed the music video and it will continue to keep the interest in it. 

• To make a song available to a wide audience - The music video allows for the song to be transferred on a variety of formats to make it more available, allowing it to be a larger product and if not making it more successful as more people can view it in more than one way and the product can sell in more ways appealing to each individual consumer in their way which allows it to become more appealing than one form of product.

• To show more about the artist - If the artist is hidden outside of making songs then including themselves in a music video shows their audience them more and it makes the publicity for the artist to grow as he is building a connection to his fans and audience through the music video making the video important to that bond.

The style of the music video

Music videos are split into 3 different categories, which are:

1. Performance- (singing/dancing)
2. Narrative- (telling the audience a story)
3. Concept- (selling the audience an idea/theme or ideology)

Some music videos contain a mixture of the different styles and some contain only one style

The codes and conventions of the music genre

The codes and conventions of music genres are all different to each other and this is because music genres have a different target audience they try to aim for them which is the way they can make a more successful.

Depending on the genre the music video will have different codes and conventions for its own target audience. Dance music will contain more of a night club setting where there will be a physical input to energetic music as dancers will be creating movement to a rhythm and dancing to the song. Rock or Metal music is always staging live performances with the band members actually taking part with their individual instruments and it will look as they are playing the song live, fast camera movements to go with the energetic music, dark colours in the scenes to go with the genre and this is what appeals to their target audience.

You can't justify codes and conventions to music videos in general but you can apply Goodwin and Dyers Theories to Them and see how the music video is correctly constructed around the piece of music the artist has created. So each genre will have its own handful of coded and conventions to go with it as long as the music video applies to the genre of music it is a part of.

A discussion of how the music video appeals to an audience

Korn ft Skrillex - Get Up

This is a metal genre song so i think this video appeals to its individual audiences as it includes very dark lighting which is usually the colour that represents metal and sets the mood for the type of music produced. They use a dark surrounding on stage with static lights which can literally hide the performers and thats what they want, they appeal to the gloomy scene where they come up here and there based on their role in the song.

 

Metal and rock genre music videos conventionally always view the instruments being played lively to add to the impact of the song. its appealing because people from the audience that play the instruments aspire to the band members who play the same instrument and its a thing they want to see their favourite band member taking part in a live performance.