This assignment is to show and represent conventions and techniques of different music videos, in the light of different styles and to show what they stand for and do for the song. To start with, we have the Jessie J song, Who's Laughing Now, which was analysed previously in class, and serves as a simple video to discuss.
The video, to me, fits many standard conventions of a music video in popular culture. One example is the use of setting the video in a familiar environment (in this instance, a school) that people can relate to, so as to give a sense of reality to the video. This kind of technique makes it interesting to watch as you can understand the kinds of people and types of struggles that may occur in this place.
Despite being in reality for the location, the costumes are very outlandish in a sense that they stand out as being unusual and not common clothing for the average person. In particular, a large number of pink is used on the 'popular' girls to paint them in a specific way. This is certainly a technique used in other videos in the sense that it shows a personality through their clothing. The character of Jessie in the video wears darker clothing to show that she doesn't fit in, where the girls who are rude to her and pick on her throughout the video wear the pink clothing, showing that they all get along and have their own trends, and they dislike Jessie for being different. A technique like this is to represent a story and characters within it in certain ways without needing to explain who's the good guy or the bad guy, which it can't do due to it being a short video with music over it, giving the necessity of this form of convention.
The costumes themselves fit with other popular artists such as Katy Perry, who will use loud colours and costumes to draw people to her videos and make comments about, an idea that is used to gain more publicity and interest in the artist for having their own quirks.
The story of the video also, in my opinion, seems very cliche, which in a way is a good thing for not being unnecessarily complex and difficult to follow, making it an easy video to watch without having to overanalyse what's happening at every second (like I'm doing. Sorry, I couldn't resist this one), which is intentional in design that it makes it so that it's not necessary to watch the video to enjoy the song, and that it's not necessary to pay too close attention to understand the plot of the song, as it's not an unusual plot.
The lyrics of the song largely go along with what is happening in the video. When Jessie talks about being bullied, we see her being bullied, when she sings about her future, we see actual singer Jessie instead of child Jessie, and when she draws to the end of the song and gets more annoyed in her lyrics by repeating the line "Who's Laughing Now" as if to explain her displeasure at the previously mentioned bullying, we see child Jessie getting more annoyed. This kind of technique is simple to follow along to, and fits in with the simple narrative to make it even easier to keep track of.
Below is a few other videos I found that are similar. Personally, these aren't my favourite kind of artists, so I wasn't sure what to look for, but these videos should add to what has been said in some way.
The costumes are very outlandish colours and the set design is interesting enough to draw the eye to it and make it memorable.
Set in a school, showing that other people use a similar location to give their videos a setting.
However, other artists beyond pop artists will stick to conventions and techniques, as well, but they differ to those conventions of pop music. For example, a song with a video that is animated will typically have a different set of rules and conventions to that of a video that is live action such as Jessie J. Instead of focusing on strange costume designs or creative camera angles, an animated video would be more focused on an interesting art style and visuals that make you curious about the video that is shown. One such song where this styles is used is in "Imogen Heap - Telemiscommunications", where the video consists largely of different types of animation styles being used to tell short clips of story in brief moments, rather than focusing on an overall narrative with interesting costumes and different angles.
I mention this as a comparison. This song is slow and does not speed up (despite the Deadmau5 involvement, it stays really slow and tame) and the video does too. Typically, an animated video will match the speed of the song, as this is how it designed to fit the beat and rhythm. This song is slow and the video stays slow, but in the case of "The White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl", the song is fast and the video stays fast. This is typically the convention of an animated video to do this, and this is to match the song's vision.
Now, while these videos are creative and are used to show interesting ideas and themes throughout, the music industry is not all creative and lovely, and a lot of people will use this to advertise themselves, like Jessie J does in a way. Typically, artists such as Miley Cyrus or Britney Spears will advertise themselves the most in a video, but my favourite example is this example:
This video is made as a parody. As a brief mention of parodies, music videos are sometimes comical to make people laugh and have something funny to go with the song (see Bowling for Soup or The Bloodhound Gang for better examples), and this is in ways linked with advertising the artist and their image. Image amongst and artist is important in selling themselves, and if they don't have a unique style then they won't sell well, and this video parodies the situation by suggesting they give in to branding and stealing people's ideas, as can be seen in how they copy the Katy Perry video from earlier. This is done in a way to make people laugh and make them remember the video and, therefore, the song, so that they will want to go back and listen to the song and, therefore, the video. This is them advertising themselves, and it updates their image with the fact that they see what they did in the video as wrong but that they are willing to make it (as seen by how they go through with it despite the fact they're not enjoying it in the video), showing them as relatable artists that people can enjoy, and the video is clever in doing that.
It fits many conventions and techniques of both a parody and an advert video, as it makes fun of the situation for laughs, as well as showing the artist as the good guy in this situation for sympathy and relatability, which can be seen in other videos such as the previously mentioned artists.
A parody/comedic video showcasing similarities in it's mockery of themes and suggestions in pop culture and of other artists.
Advertising the artist (and other products) to make them memorable, as well as to sell themselves and the other products.
These are the reasons that a song would have a video, and these are the conventions of these videos in music. They fit a style based on what they're trying to do. If they try to tell a narrative, then they tell the narrative through the video, showing what people need to see to make sense of it. If they try to advertise an artist or a product, they show the artist or the product to make them more memorable. If they try to be artistic, they show art. If they fit together with the song in it's beat, then it matches the tempo of the song. This is how most music videos will work. There are exceptions here and there, such as most videos by The Gorillaz, but in general these are the techniques and conventions used in the majority of music videos. This is my analysis of videos, and that's what I see them as, if there's anything I missed, then I'll probably edit this or make a sequel in the future, but for now, this should suffice as, at the least, completing the work.
I'm going to post the original, unfinished version shortly, by the way, for anyone reading this blog for what I say instead of what I talk about.
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