Narrative, Performative and Abstract music videos

There are three types of music videos with every music video, a narrative based video tells a story and is usually seen in pop music videos, a performative music video is where someone is singing to the camera and is usually seen in rock and indie music videos and doesn't follow a traditional storyline, the last one is an abstract music video these videos are videos that do not make any sense whatsoever and are usually consist of showing the beauty of art.

The song Luka by Suzanne Vega, is all about hiding who you really are and keeping quiet she uses a performative music video to show that she won't hide in the background and will speak out, so she doesn't disguise herself through someone. There is also Smells like Teen spirit by Nirvana as they are performing to an audience all about denial and how it can eat away at you, this is common for a indie/rock song for it to be performed to an audience.

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The song Love story by Taylor Swift- tells a story of how she has fallen in love with her perfect man and how they will live in this perfect fairytale land, which is evident through the way she dresses, this is a narrative based music video.

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Lastly the song Joga by Bjork is a perfect example of an abstract music video as it captures art rather than a storyline, it chooses not to focus on her but everything around her this is classed as an abstract music video because it purely focusses on nature beauty.

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Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin put together a theory that consists of all the key concepts to make a music video, he was mainly interested in the visual language and imagery that is created within the music video, there are seven key features to this theory.

1. Lyrics and visuals- this means that the relationship between the lyrics must match what is seen on screen, this could be illustrated, amplified or contradicting: this is usually through narrative, performative or abstracts music videos. The music video by Taylor Swift(Blank Space) is a perfect example of how the lyrics match what is seen as she is seen acting "crazy" which is what she is talking about.
2. Music and Visuals- there is a clear link between the type of music and what is seen on the screen, this is usually highlighted through onbeat editing as the more of it, the more likely it will relate to a cheesy song it could also be very contradicting due to some songs not matching what is seen on screen, this could again be illustrated, amplified or contradicting. A song that is a good example of music and visuals is Walks like Rihanna by The Wanted.
3. Genre exists- This is making it clear to the audience what music genre it is without making it over the top obvious, its making stereotypical assumptions like rap music is all about girls and cars, that all rock music is a band playing and dark lighting or all pop music is colourful and over the top. The example for this one is California Gurls by Katy Perry, this is an abstract music video that is over the top that highlights that its a pop video.
4. Artist close-ups- This is usually a record label requirement as they are trying to sell a new artist, its usually only in videos where artists are trying to establish themselves, its used for branding, celebrity culture, artistic portrayal and can cause implications of what looking good means. Mirrors by Justin Timberlake is full of close-ups this is because he is establishing himself as an older artist and not the kid that used to be in the biggest boyband.
5. Star iconography- This is how thee artist represent themselves and if they have an iconic look, for example Madonna became very iconic in the 80's for her rock punk chic, which then changed in the 90's to this more seductive look. This is shown throught their music videos as they want people to be like them. Lady Gaga is a great example of Star Iconography as she is identifiable through her weird abstract outfits.
6. Voyeriusm- This refers to the uncomfortable viewing for the audience, Madonna and Justin Timberlake made a song together that saw them as a couple it became uncomfortable for the audience to watch this couple.
7. Intertextuality- this is making references to other media platforms, this is like Katy Perry Thinking of you video as it references the film Dear John.

Interviews on our target audience

 These interviews were for us to understand who our target audience are and how they can help us create our music video based on their opinions on music videos and what their taste is in music. By asking them simple questions on what they study we were able to get a basic idea of what kind of video we could make and knowing what they wanted to be when they were older could definitely help us as we could focus on this and make a video appealing to that. This interviews followed by a questionnaire gave us inspiration to create a video that could possible have a deep dark meaning behind it but be quite fun loving on the surface.

Intial song Ideas

Initial song ideas from Shan3009

Thinking Of You

Thinking of you from Shan3009

Young and Beautiful

Young and beautiful from Shan3009

Hall of Fame

Hall of frame by the script from Shan3009

Different Types of Genres

Genres from Shan3009

Opening Post

Hello and welcome to my A2 Media blog, over the course of the next few months I will showing the development stages of my music video to Ex's and Oh's by Elle King and how my research, planning and editing will be done in order to create a great music video. I hope you enjoy what you see :)