Media texts rely on audience’s previous
knowledge of codes and conventions in order to be understood and well-received.
I researched and applied many conventions of other media texts to my A2 music
video – a task which enabled my group and I to create a realistic and
appropriate music video to a song as well as establishing a brand-new artist or
group. Thus, Alleyways, an electro-alternative four-piece, were born,
performing a music video to their debut single, Fast in my Car.
Andrew Goodwin’s theory states that music
videos follow several generic conventions. For example, he believes that
companies use the star performer’s image and push it through close-ups to sell
them to the audience; voyeuristic images are used to sell a media product to an
audience; intertextual references are used; there is a link between the lyrics
and visuals; there is a link between the visuals and the music. He said that
conventions depend on the genre of the music.
My group conformed to this theory as we used
lots of conventions of other similar-genre music videos. We studied many other
similar-sounding artists and their videos in order to replicate these
conventions. Particular artists we studied were The 1975, Charli XCX, CHVRCHES
and PVRIS. The 1975 heavily influenced us through their contrasting use of both
black and white and bright colours, as seen in their ‘Girls’ video. We applied
this to our own music video. The band also use black and white throughout all
of their marketing schemes, as do PVRIS. We adopted this convention and
translated it across all of our ancillary texts – our website and digipak etc.
were all in black and white. Something else which influenced both our music
video and ancillary texts is CHVRCHES use of silhouetting in their ‘Lies’ music
video. Another aesthetic commonly used in similar-genre videos is the use of interesting/’pretty’
lighting. Fairy lights, neon lights and bonfires are common in alternative and
electronic videos, which we incorporated into our video.
We conformed to Goodwin’s idea of pushing
the star performer through close-ups. I, as the frontwoman of Alleyways, was seen
alone in several shots in the video, very close up to the camera. Even in shots
of the whole group, I stood further forward than the rest of the members. There
are particular shots where all band members are seen but just my head is seen
as I am extremely close to the lens. However, we subverted from this, too, through
our use of silhouetting. The theory behind the silhouette is that we are all
equal; you cannot tell who is who.
We did not include voyeuristic images in our
music video or ancillary texts as this isn’t a convention of any of the genres
we were included in (rock, electronic, alternative). Voyeuristic images are
more a convention of pop music videos and are used as a way to sell the artist
to the audience in a very personal, bare-all way.
We included a link between the lyrics and
the visuals immediately; the first shots are of the band getting picked up in a
car and the choruses show the band through a GoPro having a party in a car
which links to the predominant lyrics ‘We’re driving fast in my car’. Little
sections of the song also include links through the video; the lyric ‘We get
along so sweetly’ is accompanied by the group putting their arms around each
other and huddling closely to depict a very close relationship. We found
through our research that similar-genre artists also use this sort of narrative;
a particular example is Arctic Monkey’s ‘Why’d U Only Call Me When You’re High’
when the lead singer is seen holding a phone and ‘tripping’ on hallucinogenic
drugs. It was found that narrative and stories were not a popular choice in
electronic/alternative music videos, but rather performance throughout, yet
there are always links to the lyrics. For example, The 1975’s video, Girls,
depicts the band being replaced by girls performing the song. Another link we
made was that between the visuals and the music. We used quick jump cuts
throughout the video, cutting to the music and making the editing quick-paced
and interesting. This is a convention of all music videos as too-long scenes
can bore and cause people to lose interest.
We did not incorporate any intertextual
references to movies or games as we felt that this was too risky a step for a
debut music video. We didn’t want to dwell too much on these references for
fear of alluding the viewer away from the band as we were still trying to
introduce the band to the audience. However, we did revert from black and white
into full colour in several parts of the music video, a subtle reference to
Alleyways’ labelmates, The 1975.
We did conform to generic conventions of our
genre and partially to Andrew Goodwin’s theories, particularly through the use
of colour and aesthetic and links between visuals and lyrics. We used these to
establish our band as a clear genre and aim at a particular audience, as well
as to create a memorable, interesting and fun media product.
No comments:
Post a Comment