Music Video Research

Looking into previous music videos...

I have done some research into a handful of interesting music videos...

Eminem ft. Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie





I think that this video could be classed as Illustrating , because most of the time, the video is quite redundant, and the images on screen are very much portraying the lyrics of the song.
The video shows confrontation between a couple, and alot of burning and fire is incorporated into the music video.
The fact that people are shown burning alive, and there is alot of fire used within this video might seem very entropic at first, but when attention is paid to the lyrics, the use of fire is very redundant.
Something more entropic would be if the video was shot in Antarctica and not a spark of heat was shown!

There is romance between two people, a male and a female - this is very redundant and expected of most music videos.
I think one of the most redundant features of the video is the consistent close ups of the artists singing the song. This happens a lot in music videos, and adds to the redundancy of the video.

This video uses a variety of camera shots and angles. One typical camera shot is a mid-close up shot of the artist singing some vocals. The camera focuses alot of the time on the face of Rihanna showing her neck upwards, sometimes shift in focus is briefly used, the depth of field varies but mostly the artist's eyes are directly staring at the audience throughout.

The narrative behind the video appears to be a male and female's relationship collapsing as they argue and fight, the video is concluded by them making up and rebuilding there love.
Therefore, I would say the genre of the video is a dramatic romance.

I don't feel the video falls under a certain Auteur, I don't think the video shows any connection to a particular director or style that I know of, yet the style of the video is very mainstream and in the modern genre.

The editing is fairly fast paced, and a variety of settings are contrasted with eachother, the main location being the characters home where the fighting occurs.
Rhianna's location isn't shown due to the extreme close up of the camera shot, whereas Eminem's is shot in enough space to be a two shot.
Eminem's location is entropically in a corn field where the lighting is displayed as very bright, maybe representing Eminem as pure and good.

Some dominant ideology is present, for example, this video portrays the male as stereotypically more important, and the female as stereotypically a sex object, not only in the narrative, but also when the artists are shown singing.

The male character is shown as more powerful and his actions are what influence the story within the video.

The female is shown in not many clothes, and she has less "power" within the video.
The video connotes alot of topics, such as love, sex, power, hate, anger and guilt.
Overall, this video is fairly redundant, with glimpses of entropy. It follows a mainstream genre, and typically advertises the artists that are singing the song.

Eiffel 65 - Blue




"I'm Blue" could probably be classified as amplifying, as the video represents the original song's meaning, yet the video adds another layer of meaning.
The song revolves around "Being Blue" and redundantly - the whole video is showing the colour blue, even the characters are blue! But, on the other hand, the video is quite entropic, because nowhere in the song's lyrics does it mention going outer space and fighting aliens, which this video's storyline is based around.
Another entropic aspect of the video, is that the artist is very rarely shown within the video, unlike "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" where Kylie Minogue is constantly on the screen.
The video portrays correct denotations, yet it also shows incorrect connotations which do not completely match the song's lyrics.
Furthermore, aliens are usually stereotyped as being green, so I suppose it is quite entropic that they are shown as blue in this video, yet the entropy is contradicted by the fact that the video revolves around everything being blue.



Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head




I would say that this video is fairly redundant, it is amplifying, as it connotes lyrics of the song, but it also has entropic scenes, which add another layer of meaning, that does not really relate to the video.
2 examples of redundant features within the video are the synchronized dance scenes, and the one shots of the artist singing (Kylie Minogue).
Another example of redundancy is that Kylie sings the lyrics of the song whilst driving a car; this isn't unexpected or extraordinary.

Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg - California Girls





This interesting video could obviously be classified as disjunctive, due to it ignoring the song's original meaning, and portraying abstract imagery.
There are many redundant aspects within this music video, for example - There are ALOT of girls being shown as sexually available, through them not wearing much clothing etc.
Another redundant feature within "California Girls" is that the many girls within the video are continuously flirty and cheeky, and the single male character (Snoopdog) is shown as dominant and in charge of the situation.

On the other hand, there is a fair amount of entropy within the video...
Firstly, the video is not set in California, and doesn't connote California in any way. The whole video is set in a fantasy location, through the use of CGI where gummy bears come to life and swear, the characters have multicoloured hair and events take place such as characters being trapped inside a giant plate of jelly.
One of the least obvious entropic aspects of the video, is that at the end of the video, stereotypical gender roles switch over...
At the end of the video, the women become the dominant figure over the single man.
This is interesting and unexpected because previously the male was shown as superior to the girls.

This is an animated fantasy, yet the artists that are singing are regularly advertised, emphasising the redundancy of the video.