- Lyric Interpretation - Interpretation is the act of explaining, reframing, or otherwise showing your own understanding of something. Music videos are made based in the way the director interprets the lyrics to the song. For example an artist could write a song and release it with the lyrics meaning one thing, but you could listen to the song and think it means something completely different. We all interpret things differently so your opinion may not be the same as someone else's. This is because you have interpreted the song lyrics differently. Interpreting something differently could cause a stir for the artist as people might not buy the song or support them because of the lyrics.
- Extending or consolidating song's meaning- This is when you use symbolism and things in the mise en scene to further push the meaning of the song or to add more of a meaning to a song or to just bring the lyrics together into a visual explanation of what the song actually means. Although this sounds like it could be very deep and meaningful that is not always the case, the song could be very straight forward with a consolidating music video. This may effect the audience as if you didn't quite understand the visual explanation that the artist is giving you may get confused or you may not agree with what they are explaining. One example is Lily Allen's 'LDN'. She sings about how London looks nice and pretty generally but if you look closely it isn't all that it seems. The meaning of it is about having 2 perceptions of everything. At first she walks past everything and it's all happy, clean and nice until she walks away and things turn dull and nasty. It's edited and shot well.
- Focus on a performer - When the video is made so that the artist is the main focus of the video.
- Lighting for mood - Lighting for mood is very important and can show a lot of things from the mood of the video to simply seeing the video clearer. For example, if you used a dull light then it would suggest a serious, more dark and sad mood highlighting what the video is about. Whereas if you had a brightly lit video, with lots of colour it would suggest a happier, more vibrant video. In the screenshots you can see Rihanna's 'We Found Love' and the lighting is very dull showing it's serious and a upsetting scene, compared to Nicki Minaj's 'Super Bass' which is a colourful and vibrant video.
- Allusion- This is when a reference is made about a person, text, place or event within the music video. It may be obvious in the video or it may be hidden so you don't notice it straight away. A good example is Ariana Grande ft Big Sean - Right There. It's based around Romeo and Juliet. Within the first 10 seconds of the video you can see what the video is based around as it tells you that Ariana is playing Juliet. From this you can assume the video will be based around love and happiness. Although it doesn't follow the Romeo and Juliet storyline exactly it has aspects of the storyline.
B)
- Special effects such as a chroma key (green screen) - Red Hot Chilli Pepper - Californication https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlUKcNNmywk
- Multi-mage - Silento, Whip nae nae - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjW8wmF5VWc
- Cutting to a beat - Little Mix - Wings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOQDsmEqVt8
- An artist miming and lip syncing to a backing track - Miley Cyrus, 7 things -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr0Wv5DJhuk
- Animation - Kanye West, Heartless - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co0tTeuUVhU
- Reference or includes another artist - Ed Sheeran - Lego House https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4BLVznuWnU
C)
- Illustrative - The simplest and easiest concept to base a music video around as it is just a literal meaning to the song’s lyrics in visual form. Owl City - Fireflies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4
- Interpretative- Where the director interprets the lyrics of the song using them to perform a narrtor function making the videos often being quite literal. Example: R-Kelly In the Closet - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFosUj6A22c
- Surrealist- They use unconentional images that the audience don't expect, oftern quite absurd. The idea is that the videos are memorable so that the audiences remember the video. ET - Katy Perry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Sd5c4o9UM
- Pastiche/homage- Homages are more of a tribute and they don't mock other videos. They usually get inspiration from them and include certain elements from it. Example :Geri Halliwell - Its raining men - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqXUpe3jlkA
- As-Live-Live footage of the artist performing . Some artists use real footage instead of staged ones. Audiences enjoy these as they get to see the artist performing live and can imagine what a concert would be like. Example:Rihanna, Cheers to that - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR0v0i63PQ4
- Parody- Parodies are usually fan made, comedic versions of well known music videos. Parodies can come in any form (animation, narrative, as-live etc.) they take the form of the original video that they are copying. Parodies also change the lyrics of the original song, but keeps the rhythm of the original song so that they sound very similar. Example : Kesha - Tic Tok (parody) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7n8GqewJ2M
- Animation- Animation based music videos are simply partially or entirely animated music videos. This style of music video is usually cheaper to produce since it is entirely digital, and props, venues, cameras and other equipment arn't needed. This style of music video can also compliment a song as it may suit its mood, or can attract their target age group. Example : Kanye West - Heartless https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co0tTeuUVhU
