Music Video Techniques

When making a music video the director and producer have to figure out how they can make a video that will appeal to the target audience. Some music videos contain aspects of comedy whereas in some other cases they try to shock audiences to make it more memorable for the audience. Some artists use the music videos to show off their beauty, making them style icons.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin is a Musical Theorist from Australia who has created a theory about music videos. This theory contains six aspects.

The Six Aspects of a music Video:

• A music video often has a relationship with the lyrics; either illustrating or contradicting it.
• A music video content also has a relationship with the music; either illustrating or contradicting it
• Different genres of music have their own styles of music videos.
• Music videos with females in them attract more of an audience
• There is usually an intertextual reference
• There is a demand by large record labels to use a lot of close ups

Genre

The genre of the music video usually reflects the genre of the song. Rock and metal music often have performance based videos, sometimes in surreal environments. Sometimes these music videos are live and give the audience more of an idea of what the performer(s) are like live. Pop and RnB music videos usually contain dancers and the narratives often related to the song. Upbeat songs have quicker cuts whereas slower songs have lengthy shots with fade transitions. Most people believe that rap music videos contain drugs, sex and violence. This is a stereotypical view on Rap music videos as some videos contain family problems and love.

Intertextual reference

An intertextual reference within music videos is where the content refers to another media text. Some music videos parody others which are intertextual references. Other music videos contain themes similar to well known movies or television programs. Sometimes the videos touch on current issues that are effected people around the world.




In Anti-Flag's The Press Corpse performance based music video they show clips of events happening across the USA and they sing about how the government don't do anything about it and cover it up. This type of music video is very common with Punk Bands. They are very rebellious and sometimes outrageous to get their point across.




Michael Jackson's Thriller was brought out in 1983 and became very popular due his famous music video. The video starts off very similar to a film and as Michael Jackson changes into a monster the song begins and he begins to dance along with backing dancers who are dressed as 'zombies'. The zombie and monster style of movie has become very popular within the last 40 years. It was especially popular in the 80's as plenty of feature length films were released. Even today this genre of film is very popular and so is this music video.

Voyeurism

Voyeurism has become very popular within the music video industry. In most music videos today women are portrayed as stronger than men and control them. In many of these videos there are women that are either half naked or are showing a lot of skin, this adds sex appeal which largely appeals to males. Some people believe this is degrading for women but some believe it shows how powerful women are. Sometimes these videos are inappropriate for younger audiences.