Para 1: Music videos are a great way of bands promoting themselves. Normally to get their symbol out there or style out there. A heavy metal band for example will have a lot of low key lighting and the band being aggressive.
The Foo Fighters put there trademarked FF symbol in a lot of their videos so it is easy for audiences to know that the music video is the Foo Fighters. In the music video Walk it tells the narrative of Dave Grohls character being stuck in traffic leaving his car after a breakdown and wandering around L.A encountering the strange inhabitants played by the other members of the band. The video is inspired by the Joel Schumacher film Falling Down. Towards the end of the video we find out that it actually is Dave Grohl because the building he enters at the end to play with the band has the symbol.
Directors can also use music videos to broadcast themselves. Sometimes a band or an artist will want their music video to have a unique vision or style so they'll employ a director to make it for them. A lot of directors started through music videos or even famous directors have made them inbetween films as they are quick and easy to make. Some include Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher and Michael Bay.
In this music video directed by Edgar Wright for Blue Song by Mint Royale Edgar Wright goes for a comedic music video. Julian Barrett, Nick Frost and Michael Smiley's characters go to rob a bank but instead of showing the robbery Edgar chooses to show the getaway driver played by Noel Fielding waiting in the car singing and dancing along to the song. Instead of having a watch the getaway driver uses a song on a CD to time how long it will be till he has to getaway, making the song diegetic to the scene. Edgar made Spaced before this video so his style on that show is clearly evident throughout the music video. It's definitely more refined in it's editing and cinematography. This music video was released two years before Shaun of the dead and the physical comedy and comic timing is as refined as Shaun of the Dead's. The scenes where Noel Fielding has to change the signs to stop suspicion from a guard and then puts the hat on, and when he clears the bird poop of the bonnet are good examples of this. The camera is rarely still giving the music video a quick momentum. Edgar Wright's moving camera was used to great effect later in his career with Hot Fuzz, The Worlds End and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. This music video promotes Wright's fantastic style and penchant for comic timing.
Producers strategies:
Producers will make an artist have a particular style so they are easy to market to the general public. A band like My Chemical Romance are a Pop Punk band so they are marketed by the producers with a Gothic look. Whereas Rhianna's music videos emphasizes her attractiveness. Sometimes producers will change the look and feel of a bad. The Beatles started off as a pop band in the early 60's but in their final years the band became more psychedelic and unusual opening up to a niche and mainstream audience. Occurring elements in mainstream music videos are product placement, like
in the music video Bang Bang, Jesse J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj which features product placement of Beats by Dre.
Producers like big artists to collaborate with artists that aren't as big who are on the same record label because it raises awareness of the smaller artist and gives the producers more money. Mainstream music videos aren't too complex. The most common type is the artist partying having a good time. No complex dilemmas or artistic videos. And a music video being simple makes it cheap to make and it can be made extremely quickly in time for an album or single release.
Some producers currently at the moment are releasing songs on the music platform Tidal. Artists like Kanye West, Deadmau5 and Coldplay are releasing their songs on the platform. This is a good way to make people subscribe to the service as the songs are exclusive to that service.
Producers market independent bands videos much differently. The videos are much more artistic and aimed at a niche audience. Up and coming unknown directors will direct them and they won't have a huge budget. Music videos like Karma Police by Radiohead are extremely strange and experimental. Because of it's cheap budget the director has made it as simple as possible, but the somber tone of the video shows off Radioheads image.
A website that independent artists can broadcast themselves on is Youtube. Almost any producer can place a video on Youtube. With social media sharing it can make awareness to the band. Especially if the music video is unique. Before Royal Blood was famous their unique music videos got them recognised by a wider audience as they were unique and not a standard music video.
Self produced artists:
Artists who don't have a clear path into the industry can use sites like Youtube and Vimeo to broadcast themselves on to the internet. Now artists don't have to buy expensive equipment as you can now film videos on phones so the technology is much more accessible then it used to be. Artists like Justin Bieber found fame by putting videos on the internet and he was noticed by producers and ever since he has become one of the most famous pop stars on the planet. The advantages of self produced music videos is that as I said it's now easier then ever to make music and record videos. This and social media can start someones career in the industry. It makes singing contests like The X-Factor obsolete now. The main disadvantage is getting noticed, as the internet is such a big place and you need a unique voice and vision to get noticed. Sometimes even having bad production values on a video can make people be turned off.
Art and statement through music videos:
A lot of artists aren't in music for commercial reasons. They believe that music is an art and they want an artistic video to go with it. Usually surrealism could be incorporated, and other art forms may be put into the videos to give it that artistic feel. Videos like Gotye's Somebody that I used to know incorporates paint and some stop motion to give the video a strange and slow feel.
More artistic videos will be found on sites like Vimeo as it is a site aimed at indie and artistic filmmakers and the audience of the website Vimeo will appreciate the videos.
Extension of income:
Whenever a artists song is played on the radio they earn royalties from the airtime, so if their is a music video to accompany that the artist will make even more money. People don't know the exact amount of times a song will played so a general estimate is made.
It's difficult for independent artists because they have to get noticed by a mainstream audience. Sometimes it might be the genre of music, say if a band is punk which is a very niche genre of music it won't get a lot of people listening.
Genres like punk are extremely niche
Music video outlets:
Media outlets that artists can expand themselves on are a Vevo, Tidal and iTunes. For example when U2's Songs of Innocence was released it was only exclusive on iTunes for months before it was released on physical. The album was also free and automatically downloaded on peoples apple devices.
Songs of Innocence
Tidal released Kanye West's Life of Pablo exclusively on their platform so it could get more subscribers to the streaming site. It worked as their was no other platform to access it on. Kanye announced this a week before the release of the album, making it so it didn't have a physical release or iTunes release.
Vevo will premeier music videos before any other site. For example Meghan Traynor's No music video premiered on Vevo before any other site or T.V channel. It is a good way to make the audience of Meghan Traynor visit their website.
The advantage of this is that using multiple media platforms can make different audiences see the music videos, like releasing it on T.V will widen the audience. The disadvantages are that as media platforms grow is exclusivity, the media platform can make a lot of money and an artists fan base have to use something they'd never usually use to see the new song or music video. So this competitiveness gets in the way of the artist and the artist may not get a say in what occurs.
Synergy:
Synergy is when a company makes a licensing deal with a subsidiary company to show off their product or company. For example whenever a Star Wars movie comes out Lego produce toys to coincide with the films as it builds anticipation for the films. It can also be used on food like when Pixars Cars came the characters were put on food packages to advertise the movie.
Lego collaborates with Star Wars every time a film comes out.
Characters from Pixars Cars put on Macaroni cheese packets to advertise the movie.
It's the combination of two forms of media for example the music video for Writing's On the Wall by Sam Smith ties in with the James Bond film Spectre. By using shots from the film and images of Sam Smith himself singing the chorus and the important parts of the song. The James Bond iconography is meant to be obvious so if someone stumbles upon the video it will make them want to watch the movie, and the video advertises Sam Smith's singing abilities.
Both the companies benefit from synergy as both can support each other, for example if a film has a soundtrack somebody may want to buy the soundtrack having enjoyed it in the film. Sometimes though the subsidiary company may not benefit as much as the main product as say something like food it will only be a limited edition so it won't last too long.
The soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy introduced a new audience to songs from the 70's because of the films and it's soundtrack.
Conclusion:
Overall I think music videos are so popular because they have been able to give artists an image that they never used to have before music videos. Narratives can be explored, or it could just show a band playing live. The possibilities are endless. Music videos are essentially ust short films with the artists music playing along to it. Music videos also do not have to follow the typical conventions of films and television. It is easier for a music video to get away with non-linear storytelling. As the years have gone by it is much easier from independent artists to make music videos and broadcast them to the World via the internet to show off their style and image. Music videos are beneficial for mainstream, independent and self produced musicians.
http://music--videos.weebly.com/purposes/synergy
http://www.slideshare.net/hasnmedia/producers-strategies
http://www.slideshare.net/robertclackmedia/music-video-28407817http://music--videos.weebly.com/purposes/synergy
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