Artists claim from their own perspective that they use music videos to express their feelings towards their songs, be creative, have some fun and give back to the fans. However, artists who do not have the freedom to give their ideas to put towards the production of the music video usually use it as a promotional video and sometimes use product placement to make people want to buy products that are put in the music video intentionally to make more money and usually depends on the record company.
Good examples of artists who have put ideas towards their music videos are;
Jessie J
- 'Who's Laughing Now'.Taken from her first album 'Who You Are'.
- This song is a fantastic song about when Jessie was bullied in junior school and how everyone put her down and said she will never become famous and now she is famous, all the bullied want to be friends with her and act like they know her, when all they know is her name. The song has been very inspirational in the world of social networking and she is working with 'Beat Bullying' to raise awareness for bullying in schools. As Jessie said herself from her own Twitter page 'I just let my creativity flow, I feel you're going to love this one- I did it for all of you out there looking for hope'.
Analysis of the music video focuses a younger looking Jessie J with the same hair, clothes, and make-up as Jessie the only thing different thing is the height and nose piercing. The storyline is a flashback of the 'mini Jessie' in school, getting bullied in a little junior school. It also keeps flashing back to Jessie as an artist when it says 'Who's Laughing Now'. I feel that this video is very good, especially for promoting positive behaviour and showing that no matter what happens when you're younger, anything can happen and you can bounce right back and be the better person.
Taylor Swift- 'Love Story'. Taken from her second album 'Fearless'.- This song is very creative, especially as it was said to be written when she was 15. Firstly, I would like to say that giving input into a music video at the age of 16/17 is very good, and shows that she deffinitely has a long career ahead of her. If you listen to the lyrics of the song, it basically talks about the story of 'Romeo & Juliet' but from the eyes of a creative young girl where there is always a happy ending in this story because death is not on the cards.
You can tell that the song was inspired by 'Romeo & Juliet' from the clothes worn in the video, as it shows that it is set in Shakespherian times. The clothes have very delicate detail of which are in rich colours such as deep orange and reds. The story also includes a good-looking male of which she names 'Romeo' in the lyrics and also recalls the words 'And my daddy said stay away from Juliet' which connotes that it is a sweeter version of 'Romeo & Juliet' without the bloodshed.
Example of an artist who is restricted and does not have the freedom of creativity when it comes to music videos;
Shayne Ward-'Gotta Be Somebody'. Taken from his third album 'Obsession'.- First of all, this song is a cover song originally sang by the American Rock band, Nickelback, which personally, I think should never be a single, let alone the first single from a new album because it gives audiences the wrong idea about the new album, especially after a musuic-break of 3 years. The basics of this video are very unusual, as the original portrayal of the song when Nickelback sang it is completely different when compared to this version. I feel as if Syco and Sony BMG were struggling with a good idea concept for the video, so had to work with what they had- A very good looking, young male singer who has abs like they have just been photoshopped in real life.
Analysis of this music video includes a half-naked Shayne staring out of a window of a New York apartment with a 'stalker' taking pictures of him without a shirt, it then flashbacks to the girl following him to the dry cleaners, cafe and other places around town before he actually finds out and catches her. As a comeback song I find this highly disappointing and very unthoughtful of the record company to allow such a product to be distributed to promote his upcoming album.
I feel that if they had used one of his self-written songs such as 'Crash' and he had been able to input his own ideas to portray what he was feeling when he wrote the song, the single and album would have gone straight to Number One and his tour would have sold out and extra dates would have had to be put in place because of high demand.
Unfortunately, because of this Shayne was shortly dropped by his record label for not being unsuccessful enough. However, I feel as if they wanted a reason to drop him, but it wasn't long- around 2 weeks- before he was picked up to the top by 'Simply Delicious' and taken to expand his target audience to the West End by playing Staycee Jaxx in the 80's musical 'Rock of Ages'.
Example of an artist who uses product placement in music videos to make more money;
Lady Gaga- 'Bad Romance'. Taken from her first double album 'The Fame Monster'.- As we all know, Gaga is famous for her extravagant creativity in her outfits and her flourishing bisexual stage presence. Before this video was made, we all knew it was going to be bursting with Gaga originality. However, who knew it would be the start of epic Gaga product placement? She has made her fame all by herself and she didnt need anymore 'little monsters' following her not-so-perfect role model act.
Analysis of the music begins with the basic knowledge of what she is talking about. When you read the title of the song, you instantly think that it's going to be about being loved the wrong way. However when you break down the lyrics, she is actually talking about the situation of 'being in love with your best friend' and was said in an interview that the lyrics are taken from a storyline of a film, meaning that she (Gaga) wants the deepest, darkest, sickest parts of you that you are afraid to share with anyone because I love you so much. However the story also tells a story of a 'fashion line' with the lyrics of 'Walk walk fashion baby, work it move that bitch crazy' which is very confusing, especially when compared to the rest of the storyline.
-Information taken from here-
The basic creativity of the music video is that she is dancing in front of a panel of judges who are mostly male, in very few clothes but still with background dancers. Within this, Gaga appears in a bath tub and is flaunting silver triangular earphones in here right ear. These earphones later came on the market at a recommended retail price of $149.99 as they were specifically designed by Gaga herself and the famous music and DJ guru Dr. Dre.
This links to the theory of Stuart Hall of which he said that there are three ways in which an audience can receive texts, in this case- a music video.
The first way is when an audience interprets the message and storyline of the music video as it was supposed to be understood. This is called ‘operating in the dominant code’- I remember it as ‘the exact thoughts that are going through the producers head’. The producers and the audience are communicating perfectly with each other and are in the same mindset as they are understanding and communicating together.
The second way is that not all audiences understand the message and storyline of the music video, and that there is a negotiated mixture of adaptive and oppositional elements so that people can understand it with some help from external references such as forums etc. The producer can negotiate with the differently influenced audience as they come up with new ideas and perceptions that the producer might not have thought of.
The third way is that the audience does not understand the text at all and understands the message and storyline in a completely different mindset compared to the producer. However this is not always a bad thing because this means that the audience can re-work the music video to their preferred meaning which can greatly widen the target audience of the producer and artist.
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