Analysis - Music Video

Video 1
Artist/Band: Queen
Song Title: Bohemian Rhapsody
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VXc2eZtPN0&feature=fvw

This video follows two main paths, the live performance section (which occurs later on throughout the video, around the mid section), and the stylistic section, which includes bits such as the floating heads. This section sandwiches the performance part. Although the video does have a linear structure, it has no narrative. Nothing portrayed on screen has any direct link to the song or its lyrics; however, the video is more of a visual representation of the band itself in its purist form, its 4 members and their instruments. For the vocally changing sections, the video uses the stylistic and “new” floating head style, whereas for the more instrumental sections, such as the solo’s, the performance video footage is used, showing the viewer what they hear musically, as opposed to lyrically.

This video uses some new (for the time in which the video was released), and previously unused special effects. For example, the half fade / video overlay was a technique that had never been used before. Although Queen were (and still are) a massively popular band, their songs often played into a niche area, and then pulled this area into mainstream popularity. Bohemian Rhapsody has an almost operatic style, more so Vocals, than instrumentals. This niche style is complimented through the use of edits, like the aforementioned half fade/ video overlay between two cuts.

I personally believe that this is a very successful video, as it not only is it one of the most famous videos of all time, its styles are still being replicated today, in modern music videos, using colour graphics, moving in time with the music that is being played. This video also helped catapult Queen onto a much more mainstream audience, although they were already popular, and after all, a music video is simply another promotion tool, and this video for fills its purpose very well!

Video 2
Artist/Band: Guns N’ Roses
Song Title: Sweet Child O’ Mine
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oobDQ0vdm8M

Again, this video doesn’t visualize its lyrics, however, it does follow two different video styles, similarly to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, however, both video sources are live performances of Guns N’ Roses, but from different times, the video shot in colour, is purpose shot video for this video, however, the video shot in black and white, this is documentary footage of the tour of “Appetite For Destruction”. (the album in which Sweet Child o’ Mine belongs). Again, this video follows a linear progression, using the pace and style of the music to forward the video. For example, the first instrument the listen / viewer (depending on whether it is a track or video the listener / viewer is listening to or watching) is Slash’s guitar solo. He is the only person / band member which is present in the video until the other instruments and vocal join the song, then the camera’s start to focus on these other members as well as Slash.
Unlike Queen, there are no complex edits or transitions between cuts and shots, this is representative of the bands simple nature. The members and their instruments, no electronically interference, nothing, just the band. This lack of distracting transitions allows the viewer to focus more closely on the fine details, such as the instrumental or vocal solos.
I think the mock documentary style filming of some sequences work extremely well, and break up the video. If the video was entirely studio footage, the band would come across as a generic rock band, as opposed to the outstanding, field leaders they are.


Video 3
Artist/Band: Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Song Title: Dani California
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU-lTcCu95Y

Unlike other videos that I have analyzed thus far, this is the first video in which the band are not “themselves”, the recurring theme of this video is to mimic the classic, almost stereotypical music genre of a given decade, starting off with the band in 50’s style music hall.

Unlike the other videos, this does not follow a linear narrative, it uses the decades as small breaking points, but these aren’t always in a logical order, and sequences flick between different decades, out of order. However, the video does finish with the band as themselves, this suggests that the band wants to be remembered, and become the symbol of the decade in which they played.

Although transitions are not as complex as those in the Bohemian Rhapsody video, they are more complex than those in Sweet Child o’ Mine. Often using key features in each segment to provide a key frame, which could lead to a graphic match between the two “decades”, although complex, this transition is repeated constantly, and is one of the only transitional styles used.

Although I think this video is successful at promoting the band, showing they break the mould (using the decade stereotypes to almost mock the music industry), I think the band have tried to be too outgoing with the style of this video, and have ended up with something more suited as a remake that would be found in school, as opposed to a professional music video.

Video 4
Artist/Band: Michael Jackson
Song Title: Thriller
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kNP3jogfek

This does not tell a story specific to the lyrics, but it does follow a story of the two main protagonists of the video, Michael Jackson and his “girlfriend” (of the video). Following the procession of the night between these two, and the “happens” of encountering the zombie dancers.

The use of lighting is very important to the overall feeling and mood of this video, during the scenes in which the characters are comfortable in their surrounds, they are seen in places in which there is lots of other people, such as the cinema, but more so, they are in highly lit areas, however, once they encounter the undead dancers, they are in a location with no other visible people, and suddenly the lighting is very shallow, and only illuminates certain details, symbolizing the confusion of the female character.

I think I would be lying if I said this wasn’t a successful video. This is possibly the most famous music video of all time, simply due to its originality, and also the massive success of Michael Jackson. Since his untimely death, the popularity of this video has reached massive heights, for example, the video for Thriller has nearly 20 million hits on YouTube. Thriller is often one of the most copied videos due to its easy recognisability, the most famous parody, the one featuring the inmates of an Asian prison has 32million hits on YouTube alone!

The main target audience for this video is obviously fans of Michael Jackson, however, more specifically, his teenage fans. This is due to the activities taken part in during the video, the characters appear to be on a “date”, and going to a cinema when they encounter the rhythmical undead. Also, the dead routine would be heavily appealing to the stereotypical male teenager, who would enjoy films featuring zombies.

Video 5
Artist/Band: Nickelback
Song Title: Rockstar
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3dG6cpvvV0&feature=related

Being the most modern video from the others I’ve looked at already, this video is massively different. Due to how success sites like YouTube are in the promotion of music videos, Nickelback created this video in the form of a viral internet campaign, featuring a large mixture of celebrities and normal civilian public, as well as notable locations (such as Times Square), using a different group of people (or a singular person) to sing a line in the song. This is a purely visual style of creatation, as very few of the scenes have a reference to the lyrics, except the final line, in which the actual band is playing at a live venue.

The editing is very simplistic, using jump cuts between each scene, and little to no camera movement through the entire piece, only small amounts of zoom and panning, (again until the final line, in which there is a rapid left to right movement of the camera from the crowd to the group performing)

Again, this is another very successful video, mainly due to its simplistic nature, it is very easy to parody, meaning that mass media hype has been generated around some of these more successful parodies, such as James At War’s cover, titled Popstar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uSlqI1AVUk&feature=channel_page)

Although there is no direct intersexuality between anything else, the use of celebrities within the track adds little cross genre sections, breaking up the style of the video. This video is mainly aimed at teens, due to its internet / viral nature, these people are those most likely to try and parody the video style also