Research: Analysis of 3 music videos that have influenced my final planning decisions

The artist whose song we are going to be using is quite hard to categorize solely into one music genre as she fits into several categories. These include:

• World Music
• Electronic Music
• HipHop Music
• Garage/Alternative Music
• Dancehall Music

So M.I.A is quite a diverse artist who combines many elements from different music genres to create her own unique sound; she especially does this with music videos. The three music videos that have influenced my final planning decisions are music videos that fall into one of the five mentioned music genres above.

REDLIGHT - GET OUT MY HEAD

Redlight is an artist that falls into the Garage and Dancehall genre. The reason the music video for the song 'Get out my head' has influenced me is because firstly the music video is completely disjuncture and unrelated to the lyrics of the actual song. The actual song is about a romantic relationship between two people and the bass, instruments and general vibe of the song would give the listener a preconception of quite a clubby, showy music video; which it is not. There are at least 10 different base tracks in this music video; all very different from one another as there are locations such as a Church, Carnival, The Streets etc. Also, as this is quite a fast paced song the editing of the music video is very fast and snappy and completely in sync with the base and pace of the song; which is very effective and visually appealing and also intriguing as the camera never stays in one location for longer than five seconds. This is a concept that we would like to introduce into our music video; particularly with the chorus which is just sounds of gunshots and a cash till which is very rapid and fast so instead of doing what the original artist does in her music video (Miming these sounds with her body language) we will edit scenes to the pace of these sounds which I think will be very effective and visually appealing to the viewer.

FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE - SPECTRUM 

Although this music genre is fairly different to that of our artists the reason this music video has influenced the planning for our music video is because of the use of colours. Throughout the entire music video there is a burst of bright and different colours which has being illustrated through shiny props like the chandelier and  the lighting is quite exaggerated and unnatural which only emphasizes all the different colours everywhere and makes the locations and scenery that much more effective. Also the mise en scene, particularly the eye makeup and costume is very vivid, eye catching and different. This music video has being a heavy inspiration on our decision with what type of makeup we would like our artist to wear; bright colours not only in the costume but in the makeup itself is very eye catching and appealing and emphasizes and compliments the colour of the location, props and mise en scene.

KREAYSHAWN - GO HARD 

The music video to the song 'Go Hard' is very bright and colourful; this is particularly illustrated through the use of colour, especially location e.g. The Graffiti walls, makeup and costume choice. The reason I have drawn inspiration from this music video is because Kreayshawn has a target audience that is very similar to our own audience profile and her genre of music is fairly similar to MIA's. The choice of costume, makeup and location is very effective because of the choice of colour; everything is vivid and very colourful which is something we would like to implement into our music video. Also, the editing matches the pace of the song itself; an example of this is when you hear the sound of vinyl being scratched the artist mimics the sound but the editing speeds the movement up so it matches the pace exactly. Also, the use of special effects is very entertaining and a concept that we would like to use; an example of this is when the artist sprays the graffiti can and purple air comes out. The artist also has one scene where she is singing the chorus and the words 'La La La' come out of her mouth in bright bubble text; things like this make the music video really fun to watch.