Purpose of a Music Video

Music Videos exist as only one strand of a multimedia campaign and is just one in which a song is promoted. There is often a clear sense of synergy across a number of platforms, e.g- Film. The music industry as a whole has a relationship with a number of different media such as : Radio, TV, Print Media, Film and New Media.  

The real purpose of a music video is to make money overall! Not only that but it promotes the artist, single/album. It may persuade audiences to buy or download the CD. It raises the audiences awareness or profile of the artist/group. 

Music videos are also very good for product placement. An example of this is Christina Aguillera's song 'Not Myself Tonight'.Within this music video, Christina's perfume is shown for a couple of seconds to promote her new perfume further. Another example is Robin Thicke's music video 'Blurred Lines' where it promotes Dr Dre's Beats Pill numerous times. 




Here shown is Christina's perfume range shown in her music video. This is product placement as it has been shown in the music video for audiences to be persuaded into buying this product. 




These images are clips from 'blurred lines' music video sung by Robin Thicke. These images show that they have advertised this product many times in the video, This product placement is very clever as it has not only been shown once which can persuade the audience more into buying this product.  

A huge rate of synergy is shown in a music video when the song is played in a movie. The music video may take clips of the film into the video to engage audiences. This is because if they like the song and they watch the music video and find that it is a soundtrack to a film, they may want to go and watch that film. It can also be vice versa if they like the film and the music is played in it, they may want to go ahead and listen to more. 

A great example of this is the band Wet Wet Wet as they were at the peak of their talents when their contribution to the soundtrack to the film Four Weddings and a Funeral was released. Their music video for "Love Is All Around" includes many clips from the film and can attract many audiences, this can also be the other way round as the films soundtrack may attract more audiences to watch the music video and listen to their music. This became a huge international success in which the song spent 15 weeks at the top of the British charts!

What makes a successful music video?

In my opinion many things can make a music video successful apart from just the song! Word of mouth is very important to make a music video successful, as one thing is passed on from one person, it will pass on to many more. This can lead up to the music video getting many hits on Youtube. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter also help out as you can post this music video onto your profile in order for your friends to see it too. If the artist/band of the music video are appearing on TV shows or newspaper articles for something, this can also increase the number of people watching the music video itself. If the music video is distributed further than Youtube, such as on the radio or TV. This makes the increase of people listening to the music much higher! People are watching and listening to the radio and TV everyday and will be hard not to hear it.CD sales can be very beneficial to the artist/band because not only one song is being heard but it is also the whole album, which is even better for more of their songs to be published. However, I do not just think that it is the CD sales that make a successful music video but it also depends on how the music video is distributed to the public. 

Types of Bands

Artists and bands can be sectioned into two different categories known as Organic and Synthetic. 

Organic: Organic is used to describe bands and where the music comes first, they then create the music that they want to attract record labels (if signed) so they can sell their music to the correct market segment.  They can appeal to a huge audience as well as often appealing to a niche. An example of an organic band are Radiohead, where the music comes first! They formed their own band, wrote their own songs and played their own instruments. The music is important to them, not the money and fame that comes with it. Organic music artists make the genre of music they want to and then record labels when they get signed. They they try and sell the music they love to the correct market segment.








Synthetic: Synthetic refers to the kind of 'X-Factor' methodology which it is known that the record label do all of the work for them. A gap in the market is identified, and then it is exploited by the development of music, and often the artist, to suit this gap. A good example of the 'manufactured' artists are 'One Direction' where money is the ultimate goal in this operation. They do not play instruments or write their own songs, they are just the faces of the music. They were put together on X Factor to suit the audience market, which were young teenage girls. 

Major Record Labels

The Majors:The music industry are made up of four multi-national corporations such as: Universal, Sony Music, Warner Brothers and EMI. All of these are known as 'The Majors' The majority of these are backed by conglomerates with stakes in other industries such as; Film, TV and Electronics. 

The Major Independents: Most of these 'Majors' own or license, a series of a smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre. 

These companies are known as 'major-independents': 

 

AC/DC, Mariah Carey, Chipmunk, Bow Wow and John Legend have all been signed by EMI in which their major is Columbia records. 





Little Mix, One Direction, Westlife, Olly Murs and Cher Lloyd have all been signed by Syco records has a major of Sony Music.




Leona Lewis, Ariana Grande, Afrojack, Alunageorge and Drake have all been signed by Island Records which have a major of Universal.




Alicia Keys, Britany Spears, Chris Brown, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake have all been signed by RCA which have a major of Sony records.





Bastille, The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, The Kooks and Lenny Kravitz have all been signed by Virgin Music in which they have a major of EMI.

Foo Fighters Exercise

What I had to do:

First of all I watched the Foo Fighters-Pretender music video to give us an understanding of what the music video actually looks like. I got given a storyboard in order for me to sketch each clip of the music video up to 40 seconds. The storyboards allowed me to take a look of how quick each clip changes and the different angles and movements that were used. I stopped the video each time the clip changed, I then drew what was there. Once I finally sketched each clip up to 40 seconds, I then had to photograph them using a digital camera. I done this so I can make my own animatic of the music video in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. I imported all of the photographs that were taken and also imported the original Foo Fighters-Pretender music video into Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. I added the music video onto my animatic in the bottom right corner to show exactly how I am mimicing it. I then had to add my photographs onto video 1 on Adobe Premiere Pro in the correct order to create my animatic. I had to cut down, scale and position my clips in the right timing to what it is on the original music video to succeed my animatic. 

What I learnt by doing this task:

During this process of analysing music videos, I have learnt many new things. I have found out that editing music videos correctly and accurately are very important. I have seen that the more clips, angles and movement there are, the better the music video. On the other hand, clips that change fast may not suit the genre of music. An example of this is a very fast beat rock song, may include faster music clips than there would be in a classical song. The number and speed of clips should relate to how fast or slow the music is. 

How is editing music videos different from editing thrillers?

Editing music videos are very different from editing thrillers as it consists of more editing techniques. Whilst editing my thriller, I didn't seem to change the clips as quickly as music videos would as it would destroy the suspension being created. However, clips are usually fast in music videos to create a good storyline by using as many angles and movements as possible. Whilst editing a music video it is crucial to make sure that the lip synching is in time with the music, without this the music video would be a failure. This consists of more editing as the sound over the top would have to meet the movement of the mouth accurately.