Analysis of Britney Spears's Music Video - (Hit Me Baby One More Time)

This analysis was done by me and Harry.

Analysing Music Videos and Theorists

Textual Analysis:

Look at -

• Gender
• Age
• Sexuality
• Band/Artist as a brand

Through-

• Mise-En-Scene
• Sound
• Editing
• Camera Work

Narrative Theory:

Narrative- The way a story is told so that the elements are structured in such a way that it makes sense to the audience.

3 Key Theorists:

Todorov-

• Equilibrium
• Disequilibrium
• Recognition
• Reparation
• New Equilibrium

Propp-

• Hero/ Heroine 
• Sender
• Villain
• Helper
• Reward
• Doner
• Father

Levi Strauss-

• Binary Opposites

3 Types of Music Video:

Concept Based-

• Not much narrative and not necessarily linked to lyrics.
• Based upon single idea or theme.
• Intrigues a specific target audience.

Narrative Based-

• Tells a story.
• May feature/ be suggested by lyrics.
• Follows beginning, middle and end.

Performance Based-

• Just band performing.
• Usually shown on stage.
• Lyrics not as important.

Final Theorist:

Andrew Goodwin-

• Music video theorist
• Ignores common narrative
• Essentially adverts

Six Different Conventions-

• Relationship between lyrics and visuals (illustrate, amplify or contradict them).
• Seeing the sound (music has a relationship with visual).
• Genre-related style (different genres have certain conventions).
• Multiple close-ups of main artist (creates an image for the brand).
• Voyeurism, looking at someone without them knowing (sexualize artist).
• Intertexuality, references other media texts.

After looking at how a music video should be analysed and learning the 3 types of music videos; as well as incorporating theorist ideas. We can now go on to pull apart some music videos and work out where they fit and their genre/ conventions. 

The Directors Approach

Here is a Powerpoint presentation I have created showing step by step instructions on how to create and edit a music video. It also includes a real director's story (Emil Nava). This has helped me decide how i will go about making our music video.

Movie Song's Music Videos

Elton John-Can You Feel the Love Tonight:

This music is very clever as it incorporates Elton singing, just like his usual music videos, as well as clips from the animated Disney movie it was made for (The Lion King). It also shows Elton within the animated sections; overlaying him. In fact all the songs he created for The Lion King involve this format within the music videos.

As well as this we can see a slightly different attempt at a movie song music video by looking at Adele's Skyfall.

Adele-Skyfall:

This shows a complete different approach as it doesn't feature the artist (Adele); except for the beginning shot of the iconic James Bond barrel of the gun, where her image is shown around the edge. It almost seems to be only advertising the film, rather than her song. Whilst watching, it seems more like the trailer to the film than the music video of the song. 

So clearly we can see as technology develops, conventions of music videos start to change. Represented here by the two film songs of Elton's- Can You Feel the Love Tonight and Adele's- Skyfall.

Music Industry- Big 4

This Prezi is by Arran and Connor, the other two members of our group. They have discussed the Big 4; which are the major companies of the music industry. They have research each parent company as a whole and then have gone into detail specifically for the music areas of the companies.

The Music Industry

Research- Music industry:

• ·         The big three (music labels) – Sony, Universal and Warner.
• ·         The major labels own and are made up of subsidiary labels.
• ·         The big three own the smaller recording labels to maximise audience through niche and mainstream tastes.
• ·         2012= 74% of digital and physical music sales globally done by the big three.
• ·         Therefore operate in an oligopoly.
• ·         Independent music companies operate outside of the majors and usually focus on one genre of music (niche).
• ·         Domino and XL are independent music companies, recording artist such as, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys and Adele.

Horizontal integration (Sony Music)                                       

Independent Companies

Vertical integration (Sony Music)

Timeline Of Music History

History of Music Videos

My First Thoughts on the A2 Project

Thoughts:

I am really enthusiastic about this project as I feel it will be enjoyable to create a music video due to the types of stories they usually portray. Conveying a serious message or issue of society (dependent on the songs and lyrical analysis). I'm looking forward to being able to analyse lyrical meanings to construct a narrative for a storyline. Also being able to design the digipak will allow a more creative side in terms of artwork for an album and creating an album name. Already I have been given permission from an unsigned band to create a music video for one of four songs and to create the digipak and digipak advert for the potential album. I am in a group of two, me and Harry and we are already ahead with the task due to the interest we have. The music genre I am into is Pop, R+B and some forms of Rock. The band we have permission from is called BOCA and they are a local Indie Rock band. One song we are considering is called "Elevator" and is based on the idea of drugs and violence in relationships; therefore incorporating serious video footage and enabling more of a darkened aspect to the narrative and overall music video.

Overall I am excited to start this task and create a really effective music video and promotion pack for BOCA.

My group and I started thinking about what sort of things we would need to post in our blog and research about. So we created this mind map highlighting our thought and ideas about what the assignment should entail.