Morgan Clarke

LO 2: Music Video Research

What makes a music video?

Music videos help to demonstrate genre characteristics such as stage performance in metal
videos and dance routines for boybands as well as relationships between the lyrics and the
visuals of the video with either literal representations or implications (creating a relationship
between the song and the visuals). Contemporary music videos also feature a lot of
voyeuristic treatment of the female body, with a large focus on glorification etc.
Music videos are also defined by a variety of popular characteristics and tropes that feature
throughout most if not all videos, regardless of their songs genre or videos narrative

Lip-syncing: Probably one of the most well-known and common tropes of a music video, lip
syncing, this involves either the lead singer, or the main protagonist of the narrative either
throughout the song or the chorus, will at some point lip-sync along with the lyrics of the
song. This helps give the impression that the person in the shot is singing the song, when in
reality the music was pre-recorded in a studio booth.
Performance elements and narratives: These two feature prominently in contemporary
music videos, performance element is usually a technique that is fragmented across the
track, much like it would be in forms of literature such as poetry. This technique is also seen
is music promos which will often suggest a storyline of show non-linear (out of order)
events, to the viewer, encouraging repeat viewings in order for them to fully grasp what is
happening in the video (the unreliable narrator of music video techniques), the repeat
viewings help the viewer piece together missed information. However, whether the storyline
is linear or not, a technique that is used throughout is shots of the band interspersed
between the narrative, performing live (whether that be in a studio or in scouted locations
that fit with the narrative such as abandoned warehouses, nightclubs, concerts etc.)

Close-ups: The most common shot in contemporary music videos, these are predominantly
used to show the artist singing along to the track or even the main character of the videos
narrative lip-syncing the music. These shots or more commonly seen in the chorus of songs
and are used to show the lead or icon of the video to help sell the brand of the artist (used as
advertising).

Potential awards for creating successful and innovative music videos

Morgan Clarke

Examples and Analysis of Music Videos within My Bands Genre Video #1 Imagine
Dragons Its Time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sENM2wA_FTg)

1# Close Up Techniques

These screenshots demonstrate the use of two techniques that I have talked about earlier,
those being both the lip-syncing and the close ups of the artists. These techniques have
been used in order to help sell their Imagine Dragons - image (the most prominent
example being the photo in the bottom left showing them all united as a group).
The close up shot of the instrument being played and the groups more ragged look also
gives the audience the feeling that they are not as concerned with their appearances, and
that they are more focused on the music and performance rather than a popular and
attractive image for their band.
The lip-synching shots also help to give the video the illusion that they are performing their
music live, which helps it feel more authentic to the audience. The use of close-ups could
also be used to help make the audience feel closer to the artists, as they are constantly
shown to be very close to the camera (/audience) which helps to keep the audience
connected and invested in the narrative.
The grayscale used throughout the video also helps to compliment the songs sombre lyrics
(The path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell right to the top Turning to rags
To ashes, to ashes), and emphasises the conclusion of the narrative when they
protagonists break through the clouds and the world is illuminated again.
Morgan Clarke

2# Group shots

The video also utilises a large amount of group shots (almost every other shot is of the band
together), this is for a multitude of reasons. The first being that it helps convey to the
audience that the band stand together and are united, both inside the narrative of the video
(and outside of this separate story but as a group of performers, this subsequently helps the
bands public image).
The group shots also help to create some very interesting and unique visuals (such as the
examples shown above), these visuals help keep the video interesting to look at. The
majority of group shots keep the band in the centre of the frame to keep them as the main
object of interest and draw audience focus.
The lighting in the video helps play upon the darker lyrics of the song, with computer
generated backgrounds and a lot of silhouetted shots of the protagonists traversing a
desolate landscape, which also helps to complement with the ending of the video where the
characters illuminate the landscape, adding colours back into the shot which contrasts with
former half of the video.
The use of silhouettes also helps to emphasize the details of the backgrounds used in the
video, as the lack of detail in the foreground figures/characters brings our attention as an
audience to the desolate and destroyed backgrounds. By using silhouettes the wrongness
of the situation in which our protagonists find themselves is amplified via the strong use of
the darkness.
Morgan Clarke

3# Colour palettes and set design

The video utilises many long shots of the protagonists walking across the desolate
landscape. The use of these shots helps make the characters feel small and powerless to
their situation, and helps to drain the feeling of hope from the situation and the audience
(as well as show off the visual design of the environments theyre traversing) which once
again helps to contrast the ending when the landscape is transformed and illuminated.
The colour palette used in the video also helps to drive forward the feeling of helplessness,
sadness and dread that the set design is creating; the use of greys and blues is another
choice by the creators of the video to keep the sombre feel of the video, as the colours
invoke connotations of grief, mundanity and sadness (feeling blue is a very common
expression for someone feeling unhappy relating to the overuse of blues in this video).
The backgrounds often include very large (and destroyed/decaying) buildings and dead
plant life to further drive home the point that the protagonists are small and insignificant in
the videos narrative, and their situation that they find themselves in is dire thus all the
destroyed manmade objects (boats; bridges etc.)