Analysing Music Videos

How to analyse Music Videos
Andrew Goodwin identifies 5 key aspects of music videos that we audience should look out for, which are:
-Thought Beats - Seeing the Sound
-Narrative / Performance
-The Star Image
-Relation of Visuals to Song
-Technical Aspects of Music Video

First Step; the music itself.
Second; the voice of the song.
Thirdly, the artist's image or mode of address.

Songs fail to give us the complete narrative.
We only get a jist of the meaning, and are free to create our own interpretations.
It doesn't have to show a complete and coherent narrative.

Star Image is one of the most vital aspects of an artist's success.
Artists keep a signature look and attitude, but it's common for an artist to change their image to keep up with the times and trends.

Relation of Visuals to Song
Illustrate
Amplify
Disjuncture

Technical Aspects
Camera Work
Movement
Special Effects
Editing
Setting
Costume
Authenticity



Lassy Gag

Lassy Gag oh my god

Lady Gaga acts as the narrator of this music video, addressing the audience directly. She sings about a chaotic night full of drunken antics, and the video quite rightly reflects this. In relation to Andrew Goodwin's theory, (which I have to reference, no matter how much I protest), the music video very cleary illustrates the music. The visuals remain very true to the lyrics, apart from the one line 'what's the name of this club?' when it's apparent they are in a house. But this might be due to Lady Gaga's drunkness, which is very clearly stated in the song and represented in the video by her harrassment of a inflatable whale.



Now for something completely different.
This is J-POP sensation Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's first hit music video, PONPONPON, establishing her as a sweet, girly idol, albiet a very excentric one.
The music video doesn't convey a coherent narrative, but nor does the actual song. If you have the great fortune of understand japanese, the lyrics are preppy, sugar-sweet and encourage friendliness and goodwill to all men. While the music video doesn't very much convey the last point, it very much conveys the first two. With the pink, girlish set and bouncy dance moves.

Performance, Concept + Narrative

Performance
Focus on the Band/Artist, performing the featured song.

Owl City - Fireflies

Narrative

Communicating a congruent story through the video.

Katy Perry - Last Friday Night

Concept

Exploring certain ideas and issues through the video. 

t.A.T.u. - All the Things She Said

Shot by Shot - GANGNAM STYLE by PSY

Original

PSY - GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) M/V

 

Our Remake

SCI, Tarryn + Kia

 

Music Video Analysis: Take On Me (a-ha)

While this music video is like 27 years old, it's the best, for two main reasons.

1) It's visually awesome. Especially for it's time. 

2) It mixes two things I love. Comic Books, and 80's Music. 

heehee

So this music video follows the story of a girl who happens to be reading a comic book in a café and totally has the hots for this comic character when the comic book just so happens to come to life. 

And she's taken into the 2D-world, and falls super in-love with comic character, you see. 

Then, tragedy strikes when the café owner interprets the girl's absence as that she left without paying and so she tosses the comic book in the bin and so the comic book world falls into chaos. 

The girl manages to escape back to the real-world, and runs out of the café to see what happens next in the comic-- And handsome comic character appears to have been whacked one-- or killed-- But-- 

Handsome comic character breaks from the comic, and becomes real. 

And they all lived happily ever after. 

The shot above, simply, introduces the male protagonist of the narrative. Though it's a drawing, and not-- you know-- live action, the extreme close up of the character's features allows the audience a slight sense of intimacy with the character yousee. 

The beginning sequence, (0:00 - 0:37) presents to the audience the world of the comic.

And then, our female protagonist.

Who is typically pale and cute and girlish. But not completely girlish because I mean

she's reading racing comics clearly meant for boys so

that's a bit of smashing stereotypes which is great. 

Now here's the beautiful part where things start getting really cool. 

That 2D-world hand reaching out into the 3D-world. It's just incredibly clever how they entwined live-footage and hand-drawn animation. This mixed media is beautiful to watch. 

And here's another really clever part. They're really playing around with the whole Cartoon/Reality, and it's utterly brilliant. 

What's this? A threat? Here comes the conflict. May I say how I love the drawing+animation style, and how wonderfully sketchy and choppy it is, but how beautifully it flows together. 

There's not really at all much to say about morality and representation, because it's... 

From the 80's-- 

Simpler days, n'all. 

The two characters are not at all explored in terms of class, or regionality. All that can be inferred is that they are a male and female, both late teens to young adults, and their clothing and hair very much reflect the style at the time. 

The lack of depth of the characters puts the narrative into full focus. While a music video is a brief amount of time, and not the idealistic time to introduce a well-thought-out character, I do wish the two characters were explored slightly more. 

The music video follows a simple, straightforward narrative, establishing a few, one-dimensional characters...

And follows it through until the end.