Music videos have been created for many years now and is seen as the norm that when a new single is released by an artist how ever big or small they may be a music video is created. Music videos first started to be made around 30+ years ago they became more and more popular when satellite TV channels were launched such as MTV (music television) being the main music channel provider launched in 1981 and VH1 launched just like MTV. The main purpose of creating music videos is to sell the single, if they make a music video to go with the single it is potentially free marketing once the budget has been paid off by consumers of the single or album.Without a music video these days would make it very difficult for a single to sell as they would not be able be broadcast of music channels therefore advertising and marketing would have to come from live events on TV such as appearances on day time TV shows or shows such as star appearances on The X Factor, radio would also be the other way to market the single. Without the music video to go with the song it wouldn't be able to be played on music channels at all and would not be able to be shown in program's aired on the channels such as the UK top 40.

Music videos are watched not just by people wanting to listen to the song with some visuals but by people who want to see their favorite artists preforming in a video. This is why so many conventions go in to impress the audiences of these music video watches, in the past artists have behaved rebelliously in their music videos to attract the right audience have appeared in designer clothes driving nice cars and looking 'cool' so to say. This is all done for audience attraction and is carefully placed in a music video to attract the right kind of person. The sex appeal in music videos has been running for many years now and has featured woman wearing next to nothing dancing round in a sexual nature. This was first introduced in the late 70's to early 80's and has carried on throughout time and has got even more popular to this day with more and more artists containing a a lot of sex appeal in there music videos. This is all for audience satisfaction and is seen as a big selling point for a single and is why a lot of people like to view the music video in the first place.

Madonna - Material girl was released in 1984 and contains mild sexual references in the way she composes her self in the pink dress being carried around by men and dancing in a mild sexual nature.

As years have passed on the sexual nature of our music videos has got stronger and is a big reason why people watch the music video whether that be because they idolise the artist in what they are doing or because they just like to watch it. In Rhianna's music video for S&M you can see how much has changed when it comes to sex appeal in music videos and within the music industry.

Even artists such as Katie Perry who is seen as a big idol and innocent American girl poses in extremely sexual way in her video for I kissed a girl.

Music videos cost a lot of money to make so a big budget is needed to accommodate the big sum of money needed to create these successful music videos which will stay and be associated with the single forever.

For bigger artists such as Britiny Spears an average music video will cost around $500,000 to produce. This was the figure I found for her song 'you want a piece of me' which was popular back in late December 2007/early 2008. Other artists such as Kayne West with his song 'stronger' budgeted at a massive $1,200,000 to produce which is a lot of money for one music video which is designed purely to market and get money for the single by audiences buying it singularly or in the album.

It costs so much to create these music videos due to the high end equipment used. Camera's costing thousands of pounds and high level editing needs to be done. Produces may have to pay local councils to shut a road off to be able to film successfully with no traffic e.g. if it is in a city or a set may need to be created to make it look like the artists are in the place they are suppose to be posing in e.g. New York. High end producers and directors and other staff will all be high end and expensive due to their high end knowledge they have to be able to create the successful music video the audiences are expecting from the artist.

From this research I can see that the better quality the music video the better the sales of the single or album. Overall the more money spent the better the single will do which is why only a few artists get to be household names not only because of their singing but because of the quality of their music videos to get people to buy their music in the first place. It is like a fight to the top which is why there is only a small amount of artists or bands which are households names and have been for generations. Some of these names are artists like Madonna, Beyonce, Rhianna and Coldplay.

This year I am carrying on with A level media. As part of this course there is an amount of coursework to complete. Set by the exam board are some briefs in which you get to choose one to create as your coursework. Out of the 15 briefs we were shown I finally choose to make a music video. I've always been interested in music and the different types produced, I also enjoy the music videos that come with the song as I think they tell the story of the song especially if the lyrics are not always that clear. I like the idea of creating a music video and have loads of conventions I know need to be incorporated into one to make it successful. This is not only from research but from what I have seen before. After searching on YouTube for examples of music videos that have been made by people doing this course it amazed me what people can do with limited equipment and editing software to make a real successful looking music video.

This is an example of a music video i saw which had been created as part of this coursework, I liked this one as it shows throughout that you don't need high tech quality cameras and editing software to create a good looking music video. This video shows that you just need to be skillful with your camera angles and mise en scene which they have just done through changing light colours onto a background which they are dancing in front of. The use of good camera angles and lighting along with the high level editing make this music video look professional. I hope when I reach my final product it can match something as simple and effective as the one shown above.

1) In the first shot above it shows a dance routine which should be incorporated into a music video if it is a boy/girl band. This is following the Andrew Goodwin theory that boy/girl bands will have a specialised dance routine in their music video.

2) The second shot shows effective editing using limited resources which shows it is possible to do professional looking editing using basic editing program in this case the use of split screens moving across the screen to give the illusion of time moving on.

3) The first shot exposes close up shots which change to something different whenever the beat of the music changes. Various close up's are shown as the fast beat is played, the close up shots last for the first 5 seconds of the song and give a professional look due to exact matching of when the beat changes the picture does to.

Analysis Of Music Video

Analysis Of Music Video

Beyonce - xo

I have decided to analyse the Beyonce 'xo' video as I like the song and think the music video has been created carefully to cater for the needs of the wide audience Beyonce appeals to, I also like the simplistic style the music video has of Beyonce at a fun fair which herself and the film crew allegedly turned up to without any notice to film the music video.

This music video isn't to unusual for Beyonce fans as the majority of her music videos relate to real life things that go on. For this one in-particular it is filmed at a fun fair and for example pretty hurts by Beyonce is filmed to look like shes in a beauty contest.

Andrew Goodwin's features of the music video theory is shown in this music video in a number of ways. The first point in his theory I noticed was the use of a variety of shots of Beyonce in the music video (close and long/mid shots) this is clearly the demands of the record label ensuring the music video is full of shots mostly close ups of the highly famous Beyonce to ensure the music video is a big hit which if it contains many shots of Beyonce it will due to her being a big selling point of her music.

Another point highlighted from the Andrew Goodwin's theory was the notion of looking, throughout the video things occur like Beyonce on a dance machine you get in most arcades and sitting in a Ferris wheel with close ups of her in there/dancing on the dance machine. This fits into the notion of looking point in the theory as it is things that will enhance the audience to look more carefully at notice the main artist more, these two things work like stages as they make Beyonce look more defined than if she was just to walk around singing.

Finally the last point I picked up on from the Andrew Goodwin's theory was the point about intertextual reference. The part in the music video I noticed this was when Beyonce is on the rollercoaster wearing a snapback with a picture of her husband jay-z on it. this is an intertexual reference due to the fact its connecting to her life outside the music video whilst at the same time helping to promote his music. 

Beyonce flicks in between lip syncing with the lyrics to not lip syncing at all, in scenes such as when she is on the rollercoaster she is not seen lip syncing but screaming as the roller coaster fly's down the track which us the viewers cannot see as the song is played over the top of it in the editing stage, when Beyonce is seen singing she seems to have a dance routine carried out alongside other dancers, another example is when she repeatedly sings xo towards the end of the song where there is a close up of her in pink bunny ears lip syncing doing xo signs with her hands which is shown in the picture below. 

There are no reference to musical instruments in the video, this is because Beyonce is a solo singer and isn't in a band therefore no attention to instruments need to be highlighted even though all instrument sounds are probably put together in an editing program.

I think the producers for this video wanted to portray Beyonce as a normal human being as in recent years she has been seen as someone to worship instead of a pop icon, I think this video brings back the reality that Beyonce is just a normal person that enjoys the same fun that others do. The song fits in with the lyrics in places but this is not true throughout, there are some scenes of couples kissing which links in with the lyrics but this is about it for the lyrics fitting the visuals due to the fact the video wants to stay focused on Beyonce following the Andrew Goodwin theory that the record label want endless close ups of the singer to sell the video/song. 

Looking through from sources made by a person called Steven E Carlsson the music video xo by Beyonce seems to be a performance clip. I come to this assumption that this music video is a performance clip as it is mostly a filmed performance. This video is different to any other as it is shot at a fun fair, it still comes under the performance clip section due to it being filmed in a place of interest which is common to most people.

The video contains dance routines for example when Beyonce is lip syncing to the song we see her preform a dance routine which is a common feature to have in a music video that is a performance clip. Dance routines work well in Beyonce videos as she is famous for not only her singing but also the was she appears to be able to dance extremely well in the majority of her music videos if not all. This music video doesn't generally concentrate on much dancing therefore by adding some in will get the audience going and give them what they want to see by making the film more of a performance clip which is think works best for most pop artists videos like Beyonce. There are also references to concerts Beyonce is preforming in when a clip shows her dancing in front of a massive crowd whilst the crowd copy her dance moves with could also been seen to illustrate the power she can have over her fans.