Analysis of music genres- Miss Georgiou

Music videos appeal to audiences with the use of Mise-en-scene, editing and camera shots. Each music has a different reference whether that reference is performance, concept or narrative. The audience can be drawn in by what the music video does alongside the music. The target audience that the video is trying to attract will try to appeal to that audience.


My first music video I analysed was 'Out the blue' by Sub Focus, this video is another electronic song so helped me with my own music video as my song I have chosen is from the same music genre. Even though this music video is from the same music genre as my first music video inspiration their music videos are completely different. This showed me that I do not have to just make my music video fast paced editing as this music video is not. The artist does not appear in this music video as well, this could be because they want their fans to be more focused on their music than their own image, which is common with DJ's. Fast editing is commonly found in this type of song, however this music video does not follow this conventions as instead the music video is mostly in slow motion to help create a hallucinating effect. This music video does follow the conventions of bright flashing lights and bright smoky colours, these are always evident in dance music videos no matter if the editing is fast or slow, so this has helped show me this is a vital convention to include in my own music video, these flashing lights help make the music video more entertaining for the audience.

I analysed the rap song by Drake 'Over'. I looked at conventions within the music video that relate to the genre of the song. In the music video there is a low angle camera shot. This is evident when Drake is dancing, while his lyrics are projected on the wall. The camera shot represents Drake as a new rap artist and the shadow on the wall represents his image. This relates to the rap genre as it defines his emotions and the life that he has been through. The audience would be interested in watching the music video and find out more about him. Within the music video there is also a establishing shot, this can be seen when there is a picture of the city on the wall behind Drake while he is singing his song. This shows that his life is moving quickly and that everything maybe be happening too quick for his liking, such as his career and love life. The establishing shot shows the story of his life and it relates to the song as he is saying his life is over as in everything is going to happen fast.

There are a lot of editing techniques that are used within this music video, to help the audience understand what the song is about. Colour filters are visible within the post, the filters can be seen when they use them at the start when Drake is in the bedroom. The bright and quick colours have a red and orange tint which explain that his life is fast and full of drama. It represents that his lifestyle is quick and modern. In addition, to the colour filters, i can see that there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. Furthermore, Drakes facial expressions that are used in the bottom screen shot prove that all the words he is singing means something to him, in some way. In this shot he looks angry which must mean he has remembered something while saying them words, which proves the song is related to him in someway. During the song when Drake is stood at the side of the camera shot and there are people behind him. It relates to Goodwin's theory and shows that people have a big impact on his life. It represents the production of people, making a point to tell people how far he can come in his life.

Within the element of mise-en-scene, costume, positioning, lighting and colour, iconography and location are all a part of the music video that help to explain Drakes story. Within the costume element Drake wears a red jacket, this represents that he is angry. It shows that there are a lot of emotions going through his mind during the song he is singing. It could related to how stressed out he is from all the fame he is getting from his music that he is not use to. Iconography is evident in the form of a lamp, it turns on and off quickly. This represents his lifestyle as it shows that he cannot keep up with what is going on. It is typical as it tells a story to the audience. The location of the music video was in the bedroom of a house, this shows the high profile lifestyle that he lives as it was a expensive looking bedroom.It relate to the song as the song is about the being over, therefore he feel most comfortable in his bedroom, he likes home comforts. Drakes positioning within the clip changes throughout the clip, it was evident during the clip his position at the side of the screen, when the people are walking behind him. It shows that he stands out. It relates as the focus is on Drake and the people behind him symbolise how popular he is. The lighting and colouring used in the clip differs on the mood of drake. However, strobe lighting is evident and it has been used as it follows the beat of the song. It relates as the song is slow paced at the start but when he starts to rap the beat gets faster with the lyrics. The facial expressions used by Drake is a hard face, this shows that he means all the lyrics that he is singing and wants the song to go well. Finally, the colour effectives that have been just in the middle and right screen shot mean that he stands out from the crowd as he is in bright colours which would show the audience he is powerful and stands out from the crowd. However, In the screen shot on the left, it shows drake blending in with the crowd which still explains he is a normal person in some peoples eyes. Not everyone thinks he is famous or made it, people still view him as a normal person.

The second music video that I analysed was Flo-Rida 'Club can't handle me' and the genre of this song is dance. The camera shots that are used during the music video help to describe what the song and the music video is about. A high angle camera shot is evident when the camera is above the audience. It shows that everyone is getting into the music therefore backing up the point that it is a dance song. This relates as everyone is dancing and having a good time which is stereotypical to the fast paced music. A second camera shot that is visable is an establishing shot, this is when the city is on the wall behind Flo-Rida and he is in the middle of the floor on the platform. This shows the lifestyle of the artist as he is from a built up area and has the money to still live there. This relates to the success of the artist as he can live in a built up area with a large group of fans following his music.

 Editing is used throughout the music video when there is a split screen which is evident. This can be seen when one of the scenes is calm and the other scene is of the night club.This references to the lyrics to explain that the club cannot handle them. It is conventional of the dance genre having a good time at the party. Additionally, the second editing shot i found, was when the visuals relates to the music. The pace of the video is slow and the music is slow. The music is slow and the dancing is quick, the cross-dissolves are slow and the straights cuts are fast. The fast pace helps to portray the party atmosphere.


Mise-en-scene is visible within this music video by Flo-Rida. The first that i spotted was the positioning of Flo-Rida himself as he is standing on a podium above all the crowd. It shows that everyone is looking at him and he is the centre of attention. As an artist he would like the attention that he is getting from the music that he is producing, it shows that everyone is enjoying his music and having a good time. It relates to the song as he want to be focused by everyone and he wants everyone to look at him as he is at a higher level them realistically and with his music. The iconography that is used during this music is bottles of champagne . This is evident when they are brought out with sparklers in the top of them. It relates to the party seen as people stereotypical have champagne at parties. It relates to the party seen at the club. The location of the music video is a club, which illustrates the song is a dance song relating to the genre and everyone should have a good time a party to this song. The lighting which is evident through strobes also shows that the song should be played in a club environment as these kind of lights are normally played in this type of area. It relates to the song and the genre being dance as this kind of song should be played in a club environment. The facial expressions expressed by Flo Rida and David Guetta are happy faces as it shows they enjoy performing this song as everyone is going crazy for it and enjoying themselves. It relates to the dance genre of the song as it is making people happy and people want to party to this kind of song.

Diversity-Miss Miller

A music video is diverse when it breaks or does not follow the typical characteristics of its music genre A variety of things can make a music video diverse this can be through all the micro-elements to make the video as unique as possible. Chris Cunningham and Michael Gondry both are directors who make diverse and controversial music videos which does not conform to the stereotypical genre characteristics. 

Chris Cunningham most famous pieces of directing a music video are 'Frozen' by Madonna and 'Window Licker' by Aphex Twin. Frozen is a prime example of Cunningham's diverse work. Madonna is commonly know for having a sexual image but in this music video her image is completely different as it is changed a Gothic and mysterious image. The music video has a Goth feel about it with it all being dark colours and shot of crows flying this could symbolise death. Typically the Pop genre is all happy and light-hearted with many bright colours used, however in this video Madonna completely subverts the conventions of the pop genre and is seen in this video as mysterious and spooky, this shows Cunningham has completely changed Madonna's image for this video. The dark look and feel about the music video makes it unique to other pop artist as it is completely different to them as the is not shown off as a sexual object instead she is completely covered up and wearing black. The style of the music video is performance based with Madonna dancing very slowly almost hypnotically and singing, this is to focus the audience on the song and also to highlight Madonna's skill. The whole video is completely focused on Madonna as well which helps the audience relate more to her as they are just watching Madonna performing solely on her own. Goodwin's theory is evident in this music video for example there are many close up shots of Madonna and she is the sole focus of the whole video this links to Goodwin's theory where he says the artist has to meet the demands of the record label by being in music videos; this will attract fans even more who are fans of Madonna to watch this video as they know she is performing in it. Also Goodwin's theory where he says there is a link between visuals and lyrics is used in this video for example when Madonna sings 'Love is a bird she needs to fly' their is a shot of crows flying. The target audience for the video would be different to her normal target. The male audience would not be attracted by this music video due to the appearance of the artist not being personified as a sexual object, also other audiences may also be put off because of Madonna's new artist representation from this video as many of her fans aspire to look like her image and this image they love is no longer evident in this diverse video.

Chris Cunningham's other famous diverse music video is 'Window Licker' by Aphex Twin. This video was very diverse and controversial. Aphex Twin is an artist from the dance genre and their videos are very stereotypical using many of the codes and conventions commonly found in dance videos such as partying and flashing lights.
This video was deemed as very controversial for its strong use or swearing throughout, by creating this controversy it would help gain the song media attention attracting more viewers wanting to watch this music video. This video like Madonna's 'Frozen' completely subverts its genre of music, this video has hardly no conventions of the dance genre except for odd dance scenes of the artist, and it generally looks more like a rap video. This video is also very unique with how weird it is as their are male faces been put over female bodies, which can be seen as very disturbing but also as good way to gain publicity as these disturbing scenes would get people talking and get people to want to check the video out. Goodwin's theory is also evident in this video as the constant image of the artist is seen throughout the video with his face being cropped on to children's faces and also him starring as the main rich guy, this links to Goodwin's theory where he says the artist has to meet the demands of the record label by being in music videos also the voyeuristic treatment of the female bodies through them being verbally sexually harassed links to Goodwin's theory. The style of video used is Concept based as it portrays women as Gold diggers who are only interested in rich men.

Michael Gondry is another music director known for his diverse music videos. One music video he done which was diverse was 'Come into my world' by Kylie Monologue. This video subverts the typical conventions of a pop music video as their is no dancing included, and Kylie's image has been changed from a sexual one to an image of an ordinary person. The video is very creative and unique with their being one continuous shot of Kylie walking through a street and keeps going in circles with everything doubling up, this is very creative for a pop music video where normally you would typically find girls being looked at as sexual objects and lots of dancing. Through Mise-en scene her clothing does not conform to the pop genre as she is wearing normal clothes which don't give her a sexual image, the laid back theme of the music video also does not conform with typical pop music videos as these are very much party based This could have a negative impact as her original target audience would not like to see this different image and they are fans of Kylie because of the image she is know for. The style of the video is performance with the sole focus of the video being on Kylie walking around singing. Goodwin's theory is evident in this music video as well with their being a link between lyrics and visuals for example the lyrics are very repetitive this is followed by the repetition of the music video another example for this is when Kylie sings 'Come into my world' then there is an appearance of several Kylie's following her. The constant appearance of Kylie and seeing her sing links to Goodwin's theory where he says the artist has to meet the demands of the record label by being in music videos.

Both Cunningham and Gondry are extremely successful in creating music videos which are completely unique and not stereotypical of a music genre. Having  diverse music video has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages for these artists above using diverse videos is it helps differentiate themselves from other artists and makes them stand out, also these diverse and different videos help create bigger publicity than a stereotypical video this would help create a bigger euphoria or buzz about the video and gain more views for the video, it also makes the video more memorable rather than being so similar to other videos of its music genre that they look copycats of each other; another reason for having a diverse video is it helps an artist reach other audiences, this would mean more views and sales for the artist, which is their aim. However, the disadvantages are artists could lose their original fans for example Madonna and Kylie both have a sexual representation and a party image which many fans love but this image is completely missing in their diverse music videos, this could have a huge negative impact as their original target audience could feel distanced, diverse videos such as the 'Window Licker' by Aphex Twins can cause controversy as well and get the artist a bad image as their is so much swearing in the video. Generally an artist would look to create a diverse video to stand out to audiences and this would get audiences talking about the artist and their video publicising them and their music. 

Both Gondry and Cunningham are similar as they both create diverse videos however their directing styles are different with Cunningham being much more controversial and drastic with his change of image with artists like Madonna and Aphex Twins, this more controversial style compared to Gondry's more subtle style I believe would create more of a buzz and get audiences talking more. I believe if you want a video which will shock and get audiences talking then Cunningham is the right director to use but this is a more risky style to Gondry's who still subverts the stereotypes in Kylie Minogues music video but does it in a much less drastic way. Overall I believe both style are successful in creating a buzz around a music video. For my music video I believe both their styles would not suit my music video as I want to go for a very stereotypical dance music video and both their styles are opposite to this as they aim to subvert the stereotypes.

Rough Cut

Me and James put our finished rough cut on YouTube this helped us get feedback in order to know what things the target audience like and what things the target audience think they will need to change. This will allow the group to review any changes in the eyes of the target audience and not only change elements on their feedback but change things on how we see them on youtube. It will help us see the video through the audiences perspective and we can give ourselves feedback on the music video. Also, we can see if the target audience can understand the concept behind our music video and we can then understand if we need to make things clearer or more understandable. It is important to consider the target audience feedback as we can understand and further our understanding of what the target audience feel they like in our music video and the things that they feel need to be added or change. The target audience would be able to understand that the genre of our music video is dance and therefore they will be able to go into detail into other conventions that we can include and other ways we can promote and relate to the artist. As the artist the group can understand the needs of our target audience and realise what other scenes, clips or effects they would expect to see.

We received feedback for our music video in the form of youtube comments, left by people who have looked at our video and left their comments to help us improve and say what things they think went well. We also did interviews for feedback on our music video in order for the group to get a first hand understanding of what people thought of our music video. We also got given verbal feedback from our class mates when we showed our rough cut music video to the class. As the class are in our target audience they were able to give us feedback and also give us further instruction in helping us improve our music video. This therefore allows us to collect a range of positive and negative feedback on our music from a range of people and in the form of different ways.

We received very good feedback, which told us clearly where we needed to improve and what were the good parts of our music video. It was clear that we had overused the editing effects with many people saying the overuse of graphic before the club scenes was too distracting so this means we will take out his effect; another criticism was the last 30-50 seconds had too long clips and became a bit repetitive, this means we will have to include more variety of shots and shorter quicker clips as we don't want our audience to get bored as a dance video is meant to be engaging and entertaining. The positives which came from the feedback was our narrative and concept was really entertaining to watch with the concept of friendship being clearly shown, the variety of shots and effects when the beat drops was our most successful part of our music video with our feedback saying it looked like a real life dance video and was very entertaining to watch.The feedback that we received will assist us in finalising our final music video as it will help us understand what the target audience believe we need to change and what elements of the music video they liked. Not only did we receive feedback from people on youtube but we furthered our knowledge by interviewing people on their thoughts of the music video and gaining verbal feedback from our class. This will allow us to bring more ideas into our music videos and get the audiences feedback on different elements that we included within our music video and hopefully our final piece will attract to the target audience.

Individual Digipak- Miss Miller

Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book style) paperboard or cardboard outer binding, with one or more plastic trays for the cd. Digipak style packaging is often used for cd singles or special editions of cd albums. Digipak style cases grew in popularity among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000's. Digipaks are a lot better than CD'S for fans as Digipak's contain higher quality images and meaning in them, these also include a personal message from the artist to the fans this makes the audience feel closer to the artist as it gives a more personal feel. The Digipak has 6 sides this means there is more opportunity for visible pictures, information and promotions than there is on a CD. This helps the artist to attract fans to buy this productas the Digipak is more than just a disc with songs on it, it is actually more meaningful to the fans.

The digipak is conventional to the genre as it has the background of the party scenes on the front cover. The audience will clearly be able to see that the front cover will be able to represent the party scene and they will be able to relate to this background as it was taken from a scene in the music video. Colours are a major element for my digipak as it will attract a wider target audience. The main objective of using lively colours is to catch the eye of potential buyers and ultimately conform to the genre of dance music. The use of bright colours is evident on my digipak on all of the pages. It highlights the the audience that the artist is confident which suggests his music is original and appealing. The use of bright colours are also used to represent the use of coloured tints and lighting stereo-typically used within a dance location such as a club or a rave. This can obviously be seen on the front cover where the use of blue has the effect of a strobe light. Bright colours are also used as a way to lift the emotions of the buyers, colourful images automatically put the buyers and target audience in a good mood. Exciting colours also reflect the emotions that are created by the music, the dance music genre excites the target audience who are into the feel good factor and remaining excited when listening to the songs, the use of colour just highlights to the target audience what style of music will be on the album.  Colours are also passionate a fresh, which would appeal to the audience as it indicates the music is original and new. The fact that the colour black is used is primarily for effect and to make the colours stand out brighter. 

Individual Magazine advert- Mrs Miller

The purpose of a magazine advert is to promote the artist to their target audience. It will make the audience want to see more of him and if the artists advert appeals to the target audience then they will will want to buy more of his songs and albums. If the magazine advert appeals to the audience then they will also want to see him in his concert as they feel like they may have a connection with him, as the artist stereotypically stares at the audience to make it look like they are looking at the audience. I want my magazine advert to be relatable and help fans to feel closer to my artist.Through my research on other magazine posters I understand that colours, lighting and the representation of the artist is needed in order for the target audience to be attracted to the song and the album. The research allowed me to understand what elements are needed in order to make a good magazine advert for a dance music video.

I feel that my magazine advert is very conventional to the dance genre. I feel it is conventional to the genre in a variety of ways, one of these is the use of bright colours. The use of bright colours replicate the strobe lights that you would expect to see in a club environment. Through using these strobe light type colours the audience will be able to see that the album is from the dance genre, meaning it is more likely to attract its target audience. Furthermore I believe that the images included in my magazine advert make it conventional to the genre; the image I have used is of our artist looking directly down the camera wearing sunglasses and a plain t-shirt which makes you focus on him.. Both of these pieces of iconography are conventional to the dance genre as you often see DJ's with sunglasses staring at the camera.The layout of my magazine advert was important as I didn't want to clutter it as I felt that could deter the target audience, so I decided to try to make it as bare as possible. I decided to therefore only include information about the name of the album, the release date and what songs will feature. I placed the information about the album in the centre of the magazine advert as I felt it would stand out most here and attract the target audience. I wanted my artists image to be in the centre to make him stand out and be the main focus. I used two different fonts in my magazine advert. The first I used was for the name of the album. As you can see it is much larger than the other font as I wanted to make the name of the album stand out the most as the whole idea of the advert is to promote the album. I feel that the font used for the album name is appropriate as it is conventional to the dance genre as it looks edgy and stands out. The other font that I used was for the additional information about the album and as you can see it is very original and bold. I feel that this contrasts well with the diverse font used for the album name. 

Furthermore the bold font used for the additional information means that it will also stand out although it is in a smaller font. The use of bright colours is evident on my magazine advert. It highlights to the audience that the artist is confident which suggests his music is original and appealing. The use of bright colours are also used to represent the use of coloured tints and lighting stereo-typically used within a dance location such as a club or a rave. Bright colours are also used as a way to lift the emotions of the buyers, colourful images automatically put the buyers and target audience in a good mood. Exciting colours also reflect the emotions that are created by the music, the dance music genre excites the target audience who are into the feel good factor and remaining excited when listening to the songs, the use of colour just highlights to the target audience what style of music will be on the album. Colours are also passionate a fresh, which would appeal to the audience as it indicates the music is original and new. I put the artists image fading into the clouds as this is to symbol the music will take you to another place the lens flare also has a tantalizing feel to it to make the magazine advert look more attractive to look at.

Initial group planning ideas- Miss Georgiou

My group member is James Barry. In my first meeting we discussed what songs we could use for our own music video we also discussed what music genre our music video was going to be. We chose electronic/dance to be our music genre and our song we chose was 'Blame' by Calvin Harris Feat John Newman. We made a mind map coming up with all our ideas we wanted to include in our music video.  As a group we were thinking to use songs such as "sun don't shine" by Sonnentanz, also we were thinking of  using 'Rather be' by Clean Bandit. We discussed whether we wanted to base the song on either a relationship, friendship or family, in order to make the music video realistic. As a group we had felt the song blame was a good song to make a music video as we could play with the narrative and could use fast paced shots for the beat drops. When we decided what genre and song we were going to use we printed off the lyrics and their me and james both put forward our ideas of what we wanted to use, we straight away agreed we wanted a narrative with the concept of friendship, after going through the lyrics we believed the best narrative was going to be the group of friends being dead after a car crash and they are blaming their death on the night, the video will show the crash at the beginning of the video then it will rewind and show what the boys had done all that night, which is going out partying and drinking. Before we could begin filming this narrative we first had to apply for copyright so we could legally use the song in our music video we done this by emailing Calvin Harris' record label.

To gain inspiration as a group we researched other dance music videos and saw from this it is conventional to use party scenes when we saw this we knew we wanted this to be the main shots for our music video. To help with the planning of the music video on an A3 paper to look at the different elements we were going to use for our music video- Mise-en scene and location are both extremely imprtant elements in our music video as we are using a lot of iconography such as smoke bombs and fireworks and a car. The location for our music video is set in clubs and concerts around London and shows the group of friends having a good time. We felt for cinematography that a lot of point of view shots were important to use especially for the party scenes as it helps engage the audience with the artist as they are seeing the artists lifestyle through his own eyes, this shot is commonly found in dance music videos along with wide shots which we are also going to use. To help make everything go straightforward we made a risk assessment and filming schedule, this was to help make us film our video quickly and coherent- we did follow our storyboards for most of it but did change certain shots the filming schedule helped with the production of the film as we managed to do this very successfully as by planning evrything properly my group had a clear idea of what we wanted to achieve from filming our music videos.

As part of our planning my group had group meetings to help us plan our music video. Group meetings and discussions are important for a music video as they help the group to discuss and decide on elements they would want to use within our music video. We can look at the different elements such as editing techniques, camera shots and iconography etc, and make a decision what we are going to use within our music video to make it as good as we can. It allows the group to have a input with how we are going to create our music video and what features and conventions are going to be included within it. It is important that all of the group have a say and can actually contribute to that making of the music video. I believe our group of me and james worked well together and managed to plan our music video successfully, which made it easier for us to produce.

photo shoot Miss Miller

It is important to carry out a photo shoot, especially when creating a digipak and magazine advert  because you can take a number of shots and pick which one you think the best is that gives you a lot of  options and you will be able to get inspirations from each one. You could even use part of one and join  it in with another one. The digipaks and magazine adverts are an important part of our coursework so it  is vital that we get the correct shots in the photo shoot otherwise it would be a waste of time.  My image will be used on the music advert because as our song comes under the genre of dance and as I have a photo of me dancing I therefore, thought it would be best to use it as the music advert. The music advert is where your going to get the audiences attention it needs to be lively and stand out from the rest if it is going to succeed. By it standing out creates attention and leads to the audience wanting to listening to the song, audiences don't want to look at bland and blunt music adverts because it wont entise them to have a look or listen to it. By the audience listening to the song generates sales for the company.

We took several pictures of our artist, locations or objects that we came across whilst we were carrying out our filming. The pictures that we took will be used for both our album magazine advert and our digipak, therefore it was important to take variety of different images also using different camera angles so that we had more choice. The digipak includes four images itself therefore we needed a wide range of images so that we did not become repetitive or boring, using different angles also added a professional effect to show that we know the different influences each angle represents. The clothing in the different shots is simple, with him pictured wearing plain coloured t shirts. The effect of this, rather than showing him in fancy designer clothing, was to make him seem more relatable to the audience and also more humble, not flash. This in turn could encourage people to listen to his music as they can see he is not just a show off, and is not flash like many other artists. All our photos are showing the artist staring right at the camera to the artist this helps make a connection as the fans feel they are closer to them. We found for the dance music genre that the photo shoots are kept simple with the emphasis being on the video and music so we have follwed with this theme and from our research we found this was commonly used. With our simple photos we managed to use them on photoshop and edit them to look like they belong to the dance video genre. By having the same picture but different clothes makes the DJ have a cloud of mystery with no facial expressions except for staring straight at the camera to the audience this makes the audience want to find more out about him as he comes across mysterious.