History of the Pop Music Video

I am going to look at popular music videos from the pop genre over the last ten years. I am going to see how they have changed and developed whilst looking to see any common conventions shared between them.

2004- Avril Lavigne - So Much for My Happy Ending
The focus in this video seems to be split between cross-cutting between a story-telling scenario and the singer singing alone. There is also a heavy theme of playing instruments at intervals alongside the telling of a story. Mis-en-scene seems important in this video as the shots often work to establish the dark places she is in to match the hopelessness of the song.

2005 - Backstreet Boys - Incomplete
This music video also uses an empty setting to convey the song's message of pain and being alone. Slow motion shots are used of the sand and leaves blowing. Light shining from behind the singers is also used. The playing of instruments is also a running theme in the video.

2006- Gwen Stefani- Hollaback Girl
The video here also uses slow motion shots of the gymnasts falling. Close ups of the singer are frequently used and musical instruments are also being played at parts of the video, too.

2007- Nelly Furtado - Say it Right
We see in this video either the shots or the people in the video move to the beat of the song. The shots have a fast changing pace and lots of close ups and extreme close ups are cross-cut in around the main body of the video. The camera movement is smooth but fairly constant to create a sensation of rhythm to the video.

2008- Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl
The video here also uses slow motion shots of the feathers falling alongside very brief inserts and cross-cutting of close ups and extreme close ups. This helps the video to flow and tailors it to match the varying pace of different sections of the song.

2009-Owl City- Fireflies
  This music video is fairly simple in comparison with the constant changing setting on many of the others. There is a running theme of light and the video focuses on all the different points of light in the room as things begin to come to life. The playing of an instrument is again a very large part of the video.


2010- Ke$ha- Blah Blah Blah
 
In this video there are lots of close ups of the main singer and her expressions. Some scenes are sped up in pace and set to match the beat or mix of the song. The singer is often shown in the same place as she she cross-cut in singing the chorus and some lines of the verses. This holds the video together nicely as the clip of her in the same place gives a structure to the video.

2011- Maroon 5- Moves Like Jagger
In this video the focus is very much on the singers themselves in a simple unchanging setting. Instruments are played and dances are used. The contrast of colour and no colour also add to the effect of the video. Extreme close ups are used of women's eyes at point which work nicely around the shots of the dancers and band.

2012- Calvin Harris- Feel so Close
This video follows the stories of many different characters. Many different settings and kinds of people are used. A great deal of slow motion shots are used on things such as hair blowing in the wind and people dancing.

2013- One Direction- Kiss you
In this video we see the importance of setting. The video itself is a montage of making a video. The content fits the energetic theme of the music and the pace is fast with the scenes changing quickly to keep the watcher's interest.


Overall by watching these videos over a progression of time I have noticed many themes within pop videos:

• The characters often have a strong light source behind them in some shots
• The camera is NEVER stationary
• The use of many close-ups and cross-cutting them into the video is essential.
• The playing of instruments or having them in the video is highly common
• Some forms of dancing are often included
• The setting is often reflective of the mood of the piece. If sad, a darker area, if happy the setting is bright with a great deal of colour. 

(Information on charts and popular pop music videos in each year with the help of: http://musicremedy.com/archive/musicvideos/2013/12/1/ )

Chuck Norris - Izzy Marie Hill

Here is the song we have chosen to use by Izzy Marie Hill - Chuck Norris.

We have given the lyrics of the song to our friend Kate who has agreed to perform in our music video after taking part in our lip syncing practice.

When I'm down I wanna hear your voice so,
Talk for hours and hours don't wanna let you go
Cause only you can put a smile back on my face.

Just one word can change me for the better,
Makes me wish we could stay like this for ever
so why did I have to go mess it up?

Chorus
Its like falling asleep on a railroad track
Or baiting Chuck Norris just to make him mad
Skinny dipping in the pouring rain
Or sending drunk texts to your boss' phone again.
Swim with sharks just to feel the danger
Or flipping the bird to a mean State Ranger
No - the dumbest thing I could do,
Is say that I didn't love you.

Sitting here I swear I heard a pin drop
What you said just left me in a heart-lock
I kinda froze when you told me that you loved me.

So please take this song as my apology,
A love letter to you but as an MP3
So listen in cause I think I found a way to show you I need you,
tell you I love you.

Chorus

Middle 8
Need to catch my breath for a minute.
I'm obsessed so caught up in it,
No point denying the feelings that I'm hiding,
I've gotta tell you boy I'm so excited.
So would you hold my hand for a second?
Come close cause a whisper's all you're getting,
I was dumb and I know I took a while,
But I'm finally admittig that I'm so smitten.

Final chorus
Its like falling asleep on a railroad track
Or baiting Chuck Norris just to make him mad
oooh skinny dipping in the pouring rain
Or sending drunk texts to your boss' phone again!
Swim with sharks just feel the danger
or flipping the bird to a mean state ranger
No - the dumbest thing I could say, is 'I don't look at you that way'.
Yeh the dumbest thing I could do, is say that I didn't love you. 

Permission to use our chosen song

We emailed Izzy Marie Hill's management to ask for permission to use her song 'Chuck Norris'.

The management team responded quickly and enthusiastically to our request. After speaking to them on the phone we were given permission to use the song in our music video and they kindly offered to send us a higher quality version of the song.

Stop Motion Animation Tutorials

In order to be able to make a stop motion animation of my own I started to do some research into some techniques on making them. To find some helpful tips I watched videos such as this one on Youtube:


After looking at various different types of animating, such as using figures, playdough, cut-out drawings and whiteboard drawings I came to the conclusion that the style I liked the most was the whiteboard one as it looked much cleaner and easier to manipulate. However, as I did not have a whiteboard available to use for my practice I decided to try the pencil method with cutting out and moving images. This seemed like an easier method to start with, too, so I decided to practice in this way.

Stop Motion Animation Inspiration

As stop motion animation is something which we have been looking at using in our music video we started to do some research into different Stop Motion videos on Youtube to see what inspired us. We plan on making our own short stop motion animation video as a practice before attempting to use it in our A2 music video.

Below are some examples of stop motion animation which have inspired me:




We also looked at the work of a fellow student Rory Murphey who uses stop motion animation in his graphics work. His work was also inspiring for us to watch and has helped us to build on our ideas.

Radio 1 - Unsigned Artists

I also researched Radio 1's slots for unsigned artists to promote themselves to their listeners. Whilst looking through their playlist I found a singer called Izzy Marie Hill.

Her music fits the upbeat style we had been considering and we went on to look at her website and listen to a selection of her music.

Music Video Planning

When it comes to deciding what to do in our music videos our options are still fairly wide. We have made a few small decisions so far to guide our route. We have decided to shoot our music video with the same person who was in our Lip Sync Practice. As she is female this now limits us to songs with a female singer.

We have not yet decided what genre of music to use, however we are considering something quite upbeat and are also thinking about using some stop-motion animation within the video if we are able to. We also were aware that it would be much better to use the work of an unsigned artist as asking their permission to use their music would be much easier for us. We looked at the work of some previous students who used a singer called Beth Cawte’s music in their video, as she was unsigned she gave them permission to use her music in their video.

Myspace and Youtube act as a platform for many unsigned artists to try and promote themselves. We have started our search across both websites to see if we can find any particular artist who we feel might like to contact in order to ask permission to use their music.

Here are a couple of unsigned artists I found as an example on Youtube:

http://youtu.be/ZAJZ0FrAh60