Transcript Purpose of music videos

PURPOSE OF MUSIC
VIDEOS
UNIT 1,16,29
BY ALEX PEREIRA
REASONS FOR MAKING A MUSIC VIDEO
• There are many reasons for making a music video, such as:
o Gain publicity
o Promote something e.g. artist or label
o Representation
o Sell more albums
o Synergy
SYNERGY
• Synergy is when 2 platforms or elements work together. With music it is when 2 media
products work together. In this both the artist and the producers benefit as they work
together to promote each other. This can be seen with songs such as Skyfall (Adele) and
Writings on the wall (Sam Smith). There is also the song I’ll be there for you (The
Rembrandts) or Happy (Pharrell Williams). Synergy is used to attract different audiences,
increase brand image and to make money.
PROMOTION OF RECORD LABEL
• In music videos a record label is also sometimes promoted. This could be through
showing a logo in the video or the name of the record label in the video. It could also be
used to link other artists together from the same label. For example when artists from
the same feature on each others songs. This is usually used to promote upcoming artists
so they are used on bigger artists songs.
REPRESENTATION
• Representation is described as a reconstruction or recreation of reality. It can also be
explained as the way the media represents things to us. It is used to make people think
that things are done a certain way or the way the person acts in the video is actually how
they act. A big thing used in representation is stereotypes for example with Coldplay's
song ‘Princess of China’ it stereotypes Asian culture by showing Ninjas and many other
things.
PROMOTION OF ARTIST
• When promoting an artist the main goal is to make the public aware of their appearance. This is why in music
videos they focus the camera on the singers face so that people are aware of their appearance. It is also to give
the artist a star factor, this means that they are the centre of the video. Promoting the artist does not mean
they need to appear, they could promote their brand or themselves by other means. For example Kanye West
uses a cartoon bear to represent himself in a video; this promotes him without him actually showing himself.
Another example is in Lady GaGa's video for ‘Telephone’ you can see that one of the actors in the video is
wearing a pair of headphones that are branded by Lada GaGa.
•
ALBUM SALES
• Sometimes a promotion of a song can lead people to discover the rest of the album that
the song belongs to. Also sometimes artists release songs in parts so once you buy one
part you want to buy the other to see what happens in the end. Also when someone
features on an album the person listening may check out the featured artists album which
could bring in more sales for the label.
MALE GAZE THEORY (1975)
• The male gaze theory is defined as ‘Using women as visual pleasure for a male audience’.
Laura Mulvey describes how the audience, or viewer, is put into the perspective of a
heterosexual male. Mulvey believes that women should enjoy the attention of attracting
the gaze, and put themselves in positions to be looked at.