Gender and race causing moral panic in music videos...

Mylie Cyrus Vs Sinaed O'Connor

In this essay, i will be assessing the representation of women through the comparison of two different music videos.Firstly 'Wreaking Ball' by Mylie Cyrus which came out this year and secondly 'Nothing compares to you' By Sinead O'Connor which was released in 1990.

The music video 'Wreaking Ball' starts with a close up of Mylie Cyrus's face.Her bright red lipstick signify her femininity. In contrast with her facial features and blue eyes which we usually associate with 'ideal women'. For example we expect to see a women look like this. Cyrus's complexion and the white back round could signify her purity as the color white usually symbolizes something that is pure. This makes her look attractive and compels the male audiences gaze.
                    Adding to this as Cyrus is directly looking/lip syncing into the camera, this develops a relationship between the audience and the artist.Therefore the music video feels a bit more personal to the audience and they can understand the artist better.

However through out the music video Cyrus is representing her self in a sexual way.For example her costume and her body language connotes her sexual desires. Due to this music video most people now have a new perpective on Cyrus.Some see this as a great change from when she used to be on Disney channel. Others despite it because of her young fans and how this behavior could influence the younger generation,Clearly we can see this was done in the intention of publicly.

The music video 'Nothing compares to you' by Sinaed O'Connor was first shown in the 1990's. At this time womens are represented differently as we can tell when comparing 'wreaking ball' to this music video. 'Nothing comapares to you' is made up of the same concept where O'Connor is directly lip syncing the lyrics to the camera.Whereas in the music video 'Wreaking Ball' we see Cyrus using different props such as a hammer to present her self to the audience. we only see one shot of her where she is directly singing to the audience.

The mise en scene such as the colors and back round, we can easily point out that Sinead O'Connor's music video is much dull than Cyrus, because of the dark colors used for example the pitch black back round and costume.Though out this music video O'Connor is fully dressed, not showing much of her skin. Society see this as self respect as she is not trying to be the center of attention for men.

In both music videos womens are represented different,where one shows women seeking sexual desires,the other shows women as being pure and respectful, This could be because of the different times. For example we see womens differently than we did in the 90's. Universe is much diverse and women have more rights and freedom than they did before.We can connote Cyrus being naked on a wreaking ball could symbolize her freedom and that she does not care what others think.

Due to the similar shots, we can tell Cyrus is inspired by O'Connor however Mylie Cyrus's audience is mostly 12-19 year old girls. O'Connor responds that Cyrus should not be allowed to exploit her self in the music industry, as the younger generation could can get influenced....However it shows the truth and provides prove from many theories which states that the industry exploits women to help them become more popular. Other artists such as Rihanna and Lady GaGa provide this evidence.

Magazine adverts-Layout

While browsing on NME's website, we came across a few adverts from different magazines. We liked some of the layouts which we can imply to our music advert. The layout above doesn't contain a lot of writing,this grabs the audiences attention because huge picture of the band. we can tell the men in foreground is the protagonist as he is standing out more than the others in the back round. Due to this picture the fans can recognise the band easily.

In this advert, the layout of the page causal than the other adverts. It is like a dairy as there is a picture of the pen on the side with some photographs. It looks like a dairy where someone records their memories.Our music video is based on the concept of 'memories' the idea of having photographs as a layout maybe a good idea because it fits with our theme. 

We would not like to use the layout above,as there isn't much information on band or music. The whole advert revolves around the band,because its the only main thing you see apart from the quote "In a Neverland kinda of way we haven't had to grow up yet..."

         

The quarter of the page covers the writing such as the heading and subtitle. "we're writing two new albums" is a very catchy because it makes the audience want to know what the two albums are. It's short but effective. We can use this technique in our music advert for 'the summer war'. 

Artist Research

The summer war is a band that consists of  three male members;
Tom Farr - Bass
Dave Ciaramella - Guitar
Jack Nolan - Drums
Influences:Lady GaGa, Avril Lavigne, The Olsen Twins

The music genre they use is alternative rock. By exploring their Facebook page and YouTube channel  i found out that the band does not make much of their own  music videos.Their YouTube channel only contains three proper music videos, two of which are lyrical. The band tends to make a performance based video.
Or lyrical as it is much easier, and cheaper.


As we don't have the right equipment to make a performance based video that will fit in with the other videos the band have made.We decided to make narrative based video that will have a little lip syncing.
While browsing on the internet, i realized that band makes a lot of music (audio) and not a music video for it.

http://www.reverbnation.com/thesummerwar

Analysis 'Discovery' and Pitch.

The summer war have made an official lyrical music video. However we decided to make a narrative music video for their original song 'Discovery'. From the lyrics of their song, it seems like the song is about a group of friends who haven't seen each other in a long time 'i keep dreaming about all the friends that i don't see'. They are talking about how they use to have such a great time together 'It's been a while since we've dressed up for the night'. As the song is mentions the past 'Sixteen,looks like so much fun' we can concluded that the singer has 'discovered' their self, and who they want to be.

 

Our Pitch:
We decided that our music video will be narrative based. The music video will start with a young girl, who is about 17-19. she is going to be sitting in a room next to the window, with headphones in her ears and a picture of her friends in her hand. As she plays the song on her iPod the music begins, it's as if the audience will be listening to the music with her, therefore they can relate more.The camera then zooms into the picture, and the flash back starts. Where the girls are getting all dressed up in their room for a night out. We also want to shoot some shots on the road with lots of bright lighting's, to give our video wild atmosphere. We have thought of various locations; such as a busy road, a bed room, and high street. However this is not our final idea, we would like to add on to this and develop it for the better. At the end of our music video we decided the girls will meet again, although they will not talk to each other.

Pitch Protection

My pitch for the music video 'Protection' by Massive Attack. 

My pitch is about a little girl, who is about seven years old...she is depressed, feels lonely and unwanted,as she's an victim of child abuse. The location i want to use is a dark bedroom and small park with a lake, as i want to create a dull environment. My music video will be based on both Narrative and Performance.The performance is going to be a solo of a women singer in a white dress. Like an 'Angel' The singer is a ghost that the little girl can not see. However the little girl is the childhood of the singer, and though this song she is telling her self that she is her own guardian angel. The dress symbolize this...

  The narrative is basically about singer telling her childhood self that she will protect her,as she has done it before 'I have leaned on me for years, now you can lean on me'. The singer and her childhood self then see each other at the end of the music video,never the less instead of saying something they walk right past each other without a word. As if they they know each other but do not recognize because they are two very different people now.
         
I can compare my pitch to Avril Lavigne's music video 'smile' where she walks around picking up glass, and people around her could not see her. 
But 'smile' when she picks the broken glass pieces. 

Protection

                             

The  music video 'Protection' appeared in 1994.This was when sets for music videos were self created and designed in real life, as there were no green screening at time. Despite this,Massive Attack were able create an illusion and fool the audience into thinking the building in the music video is real.
we're not able to tell that the building created is horizontal,and the camera is moving along.
As the camera is moving along at all times, we can tell that the video was filmed in a continuous shot.
This video contains both performance and concept.Also most of their music is either alternative hip pop,or experimental rock.

The little girl shown at the beginning of the music video is the protagonist, as she is shown various times in this video.This is a very unique video, therefore it is very difficult to compare this to any other videos.The mise en scene in this video shows a combination of both dull and bright colors.We see many different age groups, we see an elder lady in a wheelchair with lots of locks on her door. This denotes 'fear' and the need of protection which is the title of the song.We also see the protagonist afraid and abused... also seeking for protection.

Most of Massive Attack's music videos are based on editing for example; in the music video below... Editing is used in order to create the effects in this video,therefore i can conclude that editing plays the most important part in their work.Similar to the music video 'Protection' this music video contains performance and concept.

             

The Summer War-Group pitch

 
Discovery-The Summer War
Original music video

Narrative

As a group we have discussed that we want our video to be based on a narrative, a story that explains the lyrics to ensure that the song is relevant to the video. We have come up with a narrative that explains real life situations so its realistic and believable. The main topic is peer pressure, there will be a group of friends that are influencing a new member of the group to drink, smoke, party etc. So the new member is 'discovering' a new life and becoming a whole different person. The narrative also has a moral behind it, the moral is that peer pressure is strongly persuasive in a bad way.

Filming Techniques

For filming techniques we are not fully sure, but we have thought about many hand held shots to make it seem as though the audience is experiencing the change and influence with the character that is facing peer pressure. And we have also thought about many close shots for intimacy when performing and the narrative is being explained.  

-Palwasha

Casting and Location: 
As we want to do performance and narrative, we were thinking to use male actors for the performance aspect of our video, because the lead singers of the bad 'The Summer War' are males.
We want at least 3 males for the performance. For the narrative part, some of us are willing to take part, and i can contact some other people who i think might be interested being in a music video.
The type of actors we are looking for a casual, with casual costumes jeans, and shirt.

We want to have minimum of 2 locations in our music video. One is going to be outdoor, and other indoors. For example house, and park?
However this is our initial idea and we will like to develop it as time passes.


-Harpreet


 Genre: Alternative/ Pop Punk

Muse: Starlight

 - Mainly a performance video, set on a ship in the middle of the sea.
- Casual clothing which is popular within the genre.
- The lighting in natural as it is set outside.
- All band members are shown.
- Close up shots of the members and their instruments
- High angle shots are used to establish the location
- low angle shots allow the lead singer to dominate the shot
- Editing is the same pace as the beat of the song
- Transitions such as fading in and out are used when the beat of the song is slower

The Killers: When You Were Young

-Simranjeet.

Mood Board

-Manisha

'The man that cant be move'-Andrew Godwin theory

Analysis of the man that can't be moved-By The Script



The music video of  'the man that can't be moved' is a narrative and performance based.It  begins with Danny, one of the artists from the band walking on the road. The shot is edited to match slow pace music/beat of the song.As well as it being cut in between shots to show the narrative and performance. The song is basically about an heartbroken man, who travels to the place where him, and his ex girlfriend first met. In this song he is telling us/her that he will be waiting for her there, and will not move until she comes back to him.The narrative goes really well with the song/lyrics. Including performance is a good tactic to earn more money as many people might enjoy the video,because they get to see the script performing whilst they are sitting at home, and don't have to pay as much as they would have to for a concert ticket.
                     
As Danny is lips sinking the song directly to the audience, it seems like hes the story teller, and the song is based on him ( hes telling us his story). He forms a close relationship with the audience because it seems personal, as hes directly talking to us. It not only influences the audience psychologically but emotionally as well.

The image Danny shows the audience in this video is that hes naive and sensitive. This teaches the audience about his personality, and the sort of person hes like. By presenting an image for the audience, may mean gaining a lot of money and fans. As the old fans are likely to buy his album/singles due to the star image he has made. Most of the music video is repeated, we constantly see Danny singing and walking down the street. There are only two locations in this video, one is outdoors on the street and second a parking lot where the band is performing.

In this video Danny is also portraying an poor person, He sits on the street and lays his things for example his watch on the ground. implying that without his girlfriends hes owns nothing, hes just like a poor man, but with her, he feels like he owns everything, showing us that shes makes him happier person. The watch represents time, it is showing us that time has stopped since she is not with him.

The music video builds up from a slow pace,to a fast one near the end. To keep up the fast pace, the clips are edited with 1 min shot in the frame. The images show us that time is going by, as we can see the time on the watch fast forwarding, and weather constantly changing. This type of editing is called montage, where cuts are made to show time has past.

Overall this was a very successful and entertaining music video which concluded the media conventions of a music video. It also covers Andrew Godwins five key concept...However the most important one was the narrative as that is mostly what the song was based on.

The theory of music videos

Andrew Godwin 

- Five key aspect of a music video

• Thought beat/seeing the sound-Editing fast or slow pace depending on the type of music/beat.

• Narrative/performance-storyline, lyrics, dancers, artist. Songs/music videos fail to give us the complete narrative, it always leaves us wondering what’s the real meaning of the song is. Even though the songs give  us a bit of narrative we still  tend to interpret what the song could/is about.

• The star image-Is another way for the artists to make a connection/ relationship with the audiences, as in the audience will have a better understanding of their favorite artists personality,and may begin see them as a role model,which would mean more money as audiences will buy more their music to be inspired and motivated. For example Michael Jackson moonwalk which everyone wants to learn how to do. Every time we see a moonwalk we instantly think of him. Although he has updated his image. We still remember his star image, and because of that many people are still inspired by him,and his work.Therefore we can concluded that his image has influenced the audience.

• Relation of visual to song- Music videos get repeated and there is a lot of lips sinking (miming). Music videos help us  visualise the song better,which  makes the song much more realistic. It engages the audiences emotional aspects as well as their psychological. 

• Technical aspect of music videos-Camera, Lighting, Editing to the right pace/beat, color. Needs to look professional.
  
  
  -Relation to visualise the song
   Illustrate; music video can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning to the lyrics, and genre. 
   Amplify; similar to repeatability. The meaning and effects are manipulated.
   Disjunction; this is where the song and meaning are completely different. For example the songs about holiday and the music video show a funeral. 
  

 
Just Dance- Lady Gaga

Star Image analysis: Lady gaga image in the video ‘just dance’ she represents herself as a party diva and someone who is overly energetic. We can see this as she is dancing nonstop around the room. Every time people fall asleep, and someone turns the stereo back on they all begin to dance again, showing a never ending party. The audience learn about her personality through the song,as she presents her self in a certain way,which creates a image the audience then recognize her through that image. The image she is  presenting her self is as a person who hosts never ending party, and someone who likes to have fun. As she is directly speaking to the audience whilst lips sinking, we can tell shes the storyteller, by doing this she is forming a close relationship with her fans and audiences as she is directly speaking to them. . Young adults are likely to follow her as a role model, as they have reached the drinking age, and are likely to attend many party’s, in comparison there is a lot of drinking and dancing in this video therefore the young adults can relate more to her then other age groups.

My pitch

Artist: The summer war
Song: Discovery
Genre: Alternative rock
The summer war is a unsigned band which i found through a friend.I have emailed them if i could make a music video for their song 'Discovery' as they don't already have one. The type of music video i would like to make is performance and narrative. There will be minimum of 3 people in the band, who will perform out doors, somewhere like a park at dawn. When its a little dark but not completely. For the narrative, i want to show a friend betraying them as it says in the lyrics... 'we were the best of friends,with the worst idea's your such a bitter taste'. I also want to show how they developed as a person because of their passion for music. They 'discovered' themselves through their music.

                                  However this is not my initial and final idea, i would like to develop this as time passes, i would add new ideas, to make this the perfect music videos, with the key conventions.I am also open for any suggestions from others and their brilliant ideas, which i don't mind adding to mine.
Lastly the quality and skills i can provide for my group is that i am very good at working as a team, i can record, as i'm aware of many different angles and shots.Adding to this i can do a bit of editing.

Performance,Narrative or Concept?

There are three types of music videos....

 1) Performance which features the band/artist performing, this is usually an advantage
    when your on a budget.

 .
    Apologize-One Republic &Timbaland

   This music video is a combination of a performance and narrative,we can see One Republic performing, as well as a narrative of a couple and their unhealthy relationship. The song is basically about how its 'too late to apologize' and the other person can not be forgiven anymore.Through the narrative in the music video we can see two couples are tensed and have some problem going on between them. We can analyze this through their facial expression. At 2:08 the clip of everything around the guy being frozen indicates time, as in 'its too late'. therefore everything is stopped apart from him...He was too late. We then see the stopwatch at 10seconds again, showing the audience that he has gone back in time. The stopwatch being at 10seconds matches the lyrics- 'got me ten feet off the ground'. All through the video we see cut of back and forth shots of one republic performing and the couples.

2) Narrative, usually involves actors/characters, and a story which can be linked to the lyrical content   of   the song.



You belong to me-Taylor Swift

Through out this whole music video we see Taylor swift's crush on boy next door to her, we can see he has a girlfriend. As the music video shows us, and tells us through the narrative. The story matches the lyrics, and both fit together perfectly. At all points of the video we see Taylor comparing her self with the boy's girlfriend... 'i wear T-shirts,shes wears short skirts'. Also at all points we hear her singing (miming in the video) You belong with me which is the title of the song,and at the end we can see she finally gets to be with him. This video does not only show a narrative but it passes a message too. As the lyrics 'you belong to me' was consistent through out all the song it suggests that if we want something very much and we do not give up, constantly work towards our goal, at the end we will achieve it. The audience does not only enjoy the song and the music video but it also motivated.

3) Concept tends to be based on a single idea,this could be a particular editing or film technique.

  
Invaders must die-The Prodigy.

The ant is key in this music video (the prodigy's logo) There is a bit of political theme to this music video as well it passing a message to the viewers. The whole video is telling us that those who invade others property end up unhappy. As we can see the man marking the ant (logo) everywhere hes going... 'he is invading the place' and at the end the police arrests him. If we look at the political side of the video we will see that the prodigy are talking about countires/prime minsters taking over/invading other peoples countries and how that is wrong.The message this video is giving to the audience is that we should not invade others property or things, but appreciate what we have.

Why music videos are made? and why we watch them?

Swagger jagger parody

 For our task we had to create a 30 second  parody music video. The song we chose was Swagger Jagger by Cher Lloyd, as its a fast pace and we thought we can add our own little twist to it.

Resource manger: Harpreet

Researcher: Palwasha

Representative: Manisha

Cinematographer: Simranjeet
Editing: Manisha 

         

The original song- From Cher Lloyd debut album 'sticks&stones' 

-Swagger Jagger

         

Our parody

I think the filming of our parody music video went very well. We worked together as a team to achieve our goal of a 'successful' parody. whilst Palwasha looked into the song (Researcher) the others decided the costume and locations e.t.c. I think the best part of the task was filming,as we got to do crazy dance moves, and just have a bit of fun. However there are some gaps which we will need to keep in mind next time we make a parody. Although the filming was easy, editing the clips was a little hard, because we had to make sure that each shot went with the lyrics of the song.Personally i was not so happy with the editing, i think we could of done better. The last shot doesn't exactly match with the song, this is something we need to improve on. On the other hand our preparation for our parody music video, for example deciding the locations,costume... was a success and something i was happy with. We also used various camera angles/shots we included close ups, medium shot, long shots, to make the video seem much more interesting to watch. 

M.I.A (Case Studie)

The hip pop artist Mathangi Arulpragasam well known as M.I.A (missing in Acton) was born on July 17, 1975.
M.I.A has an active role of a rapper,singer,song writer,visual artist,photographer,fashion designer and much more. Shes an Tamil artist who was born in Hounslow (London) but later moved to Sri Lanka where she was raised  during the civil war.

 Most of M.I.A's early life influences have been artists like Big daddy,Public Enemy, and N.W.A.
The theme to her music videos are usually for the same purpose, which is to get a certain message across to the public, she resolves this through her music videos. For example her song 'Born free'


This music video contains a lot of violence which can be age restricted, suggesting that it isn't going to make as much profit as it could, as some people under the age of 18 will not be able to see the official music video. Therefore a cover may have to been done to replace the original music video. Adding to this recreating a cover video may mean double the cost.
                      Overall the original music video is very effective as its political and passes a message to the audience about race discrimination.Apart from the political theme, another theme to m.i.a's music videos is feminism.


   
 M.I.A-"Bad Girls"
   This video shows women's in Saudi Arabia are driving whereas its well known that women are ban to drive in Arabia. This links with the song 'Bad Girls' indicating the women driving are being rebels and being 'bad'. This video also shows the Arab culture,as well as overcoming the stereotypes about Arabs- Showing the fun,lively and active side of them.Similar to M.I.A other music videos this one also passes a message across.

music video analysis-Now by paramore

   

Paramore is an American alternative rock band their song now was released in January 2013, however the music video was premiered in February 2013 on MTV. This music video is currently my favorite as its about how love and kindness can defeat war and violence and that love always wins at the end. What i enjoy most about this video is not just the concept but the way they have used the smoke to give an effect to their music video. The colors bursting can be seen as the metaphor for blood.

The music video starts with  Hayley Williams and a soldier in the middle of a field, with a little fog and her eyes closed as the soldiers start fighting. There is a jump cut between these these two clips, the first clip consists of Hayley standing in the fields and the second where shes laying on the floor with others fighting around here. However we can see combination of soldiers trying to project and attack her, this shows us that shes the main focus of the music video.