Research Task : Dance music videos

• What makes all of these music videos from the dance music genre?

In all the music videos, there is dancing featured. The majority of the routine in the video takes place in the streets, where street dance and freestyle is incorporated. Despite this, on the music video for 'Cola' the freestyle dancing tales place in a standard home. In all the videos, there is a use of bright colours which convey the upbeat style of the music. The use of colour shows the contrast between the scenes and the fast pasted editing makes the video seem fast and the beats fit to the lengths of the shots used. In the music used, there is a climax used for a beat drop which also suggests the dance style. The music videos also contain a variety of different edits- varying from fast pasted editing to slow motion. This creates a dramatic effect and fits in with the climax of the music.

• Explore how the artists are using representation to appeal to their target audience in these three videos by picking out key frames from the video to analyse.

In all of the music videos, there is a use of young actors. This is because the music would appeal to a young audience, those who go to parties or out dancing. in all of the music videos, there are actors who are represented as 'wild' 'free' and having a good time, with smiles on their faces.   This is most likely what the target audience are likely to feel like, having just or about to enter adult hood. This makes the music video have a connection with the audience and there feelings. Not only this, the actors are seen mainly around friends, and little/ no shots with family. This is because the target audience of young adults are most likely to be spending the majority of their time with friends - either at college or going out with them to parties or in a night club. This would appeal to the target audience as they are able to relate and familiarize with  the actors. In the videos's, especially the 'Cola' video, each actor is expressed to nbe unique and individual. These representations express the individuality that young adults have today, this is particularly expressed during the dance scene in the living room.

• What other music videos could you find from the same genre? Outline two and explain why you think they are termed dance.

HIDEAWAY - KIESZA

In this music video, a girl is featured dancing in the streets of America. This fits in with the dance genre as she is seen freestyle dancing, to the dance genre music. She is also seen wearing bright colours, with a unique dress sense of a crop top, jeans and braces. 

SIGALA - EASY LOVE

 
In the music video, it is clear that it is termed dance as the music video features dancing throughout. it begins with children freestyle dancing synchronised in the typical location of the streets in america. This fots accorcingly to the majority of the other videos which have the same/ similar setting.

MASSIVE ATTACK & UNFINISHED SYMPATHY

Explain how representations in music videos are chosen to promote the artist(s).

Refer to both of the music videos you have studied to support your answer.


Within the music video to Unfinished Sympathy, The band are featured very little in the video, leaving the focus purely on the singer, Shara Nelson. 3D, Daddy G, and Mushroom appear walking or crossing the street at points in the video, but only as an extra or role as an average person in the streets. As the band blend into the background of the streets themselves, represents them as normal people and the background that they come from, as well as Shara also represented as a normal person walking down a street. The use of one tracking shot made the video unique, promoting the artists as there wasn't a music video out before that featured the same camera work, also, they appear to be different from any other bands at the time that the video was released, so therefore this may also attract the attention of people who don't necessarily listen top the bands music, but have instead saw the diversity of the band and music video and took internet in it, promoting the band. I think that Unfinished sympathy music video successfully portrays the artists. This is because in the video 3D, Daddy G,Mushroom and Shara Nelson are all portrayed to be normal people casually walking down a street in LA, which portrays the bands roots and where they came from,  the streets of Bristol itself.

In the video to 'Burn The Witch' Radiohead are represented as a creative and individual band, through their choice of animation. Also, the message that the video and song itself portrays the band.I think that the video to Burn The Witch also successfully portrays Radiohead. This is because the unique style of the video, inspired by the Trumpton trilogy, expresses the bands individuality. It also portrays the bands creativeness in the style of music that they create. This helps to promote the band as audiences may be familiar with the Trumpton Triology so therefore take an interest in the artists and the video. also, people may also be familiar with the bands inspiration from 'Burn the Witch' which promotes the band as creative, daring and unusual, much like the music that the band creates.

• What are the songs about?

Massive Attack:
The narrative based video is idealised on the loving someone more than they love you, the sorrowful lyrics depict, "How can I have a day without a night, you’re the book that I have opened, and now I've got to know much more." These both suggest she's had some kind of contact with the person but only a limited amount and it's left her wanting more. "Like a soul without a mind..." beautifully conveys the feeling of emptiness as a result of this desire, she is missing something she needs, although this could perhaps be a resignation to the fact she won't get what she wants. The line "You really hurt me baby..." expresses her angst and despair about the fact the other person pulled away or does not require her love. The entire video is filmed on a dolly, of which is tracking the female as she goes through the stages of recognition in Tzvetan Todorovs theory. 

Although the lyrics don’t physically match the visuals, audience can focus on certain aspects, in order to come to understand that she is unsure whether the next relationship is going to hurt her like the previous one and goes onto question, "How can have a day without a night". When she lip-syncs to this she looks hurt and her boy language becomes more hunched, demonstrating that she is confused by the question. She then goes on to state, "Like a soul without a mind", the active audience then need to question whether she is just lusting for a physical relationship without thinking of the hurt it could cause "In a body without a heart". 

As the whole video is based around a dolly tracking the female, she is looking directly into the camera, this them therefore, creates the notion of looking. Additionally this means there are no close ups to her specifically, it is medium to long shots instead. As she is looking directly into the camera, when as an audience come to understand that she, during recognition is becoming more confident. It is for that reason that there isn't any sexualisation and the need for Laura Mulvey’s theory of the 'Male Gaze' is non-existent. The reason for the producer to choose for the woman to be looking directly into the camera is an attempt to break the fourth wall, the band wanted to be closer to the audience. The woman therefore, is the medium to do this, she is a sense is asking the audience for help, and it is for them that she restores order at the end of the video. This idea of connecting with the audience is also found in the digipak for the single. 


Radiohead:

Burn The Witch is about people who want to kill a witch. This is also portrayed through the music video.

• What message or messages do they convey to the audience?

Massive Attack:
Unfinished Sympathy portrays the message of how hard it can be to get over past relationships and how they can effect your every thought and day to day life. It also portrays the power of love to the audience, which would be relatable to most as they are likely to have experienced a breakup/separation from someone at some point in their lives.

Radiohead:

Burn The Witch conveys the message of the ' fear of outsiders' relating to the current refugee crisis in Europe.

• How have the artists been represented in their videos?

Massive Attack:

Within the music video to Unfinished Sympathy, The band are featured very little in the video, leaving the focus purely on the singer, Shara Nelson. 3D, Daddy G, and Mushroom appear walking or crossing the street at points in the video, but only as an extra or role as an average person in the streets. As the band blend into the background of the streets themselves, represents them as normal people and the background that they come from, as well as Shara also represented as a normal person walking down a street.

Radiohead:

In the video to ' Burn The Witch' Radiohead are represented as a creative and individual band, through therir choice of animation. Also, the message that the video and sonbg itself portrays the banmd 

• Why have they been represented in such a way?

Massive Attack:

Radiohead:

• Do the videos represent the artists successfully?

Massive Attack:

I think that Unfinished sympathy music video successfully portrays the artists. this is because in the video 3D, Daddy G,Mushroom and Shara Nelson are all portrayed to be normal people casually walking down a street in LA, which portrays the bands roots and where they came from,  the streets of Bristol itself.

Radiohead:

I think that the video to Burn The Witch also successfully portrays Radiohead. This is because the unique style of the video, inspired by the Trumpton triology, expresses the bands individuality. It also portrays the bands creativeness in the style of music that they create.

• What styles of film making have been used? Why utilise such styles?

Massive Attack:

The Video to Unfinished Sympathy consists of only one long tracking shot. THis enables the audience to follow Shara Nelson down the street of LA, making the audience feel like they are following her, or are apart of the video itself, within the setting. The use of different angles enables the audience to view Shara from several different perspectives of different characters walking down the street among her.

Radiohead:

The Music video to Burn The Witch was made using stop- motion animation in the Trumpton Triology style, with a more gruesome twist. This animation would be familiar with listeners who followed the band when they were first formed, who would have perhaps watched Trupton Tripology TV shows as children.The video itself conveys the story in which the lyrics of the song tell, and express the current crisis of refugees.

• Why does the Radiohead video reference Trumpton and The Wickerman?

Radiohead:

• How and why has 'the street' been used in the Massive Attack Video?

Massive Attack:

• Do the visuals work well with the musical and lyrical content?

Massive Attack:

Radiohead:

• What 'pleasure' does the audience get from each video? Consider fans of the artists in question.

Massive Attack:

Radiohead:

Burn the Witch references:

1. The Trumptonshire trilogy (1966-1969)

In the late sixties, three connected animated series – Camberwick Green, Trumpton, and Chigley – aired on the BBC, showing the way of life in idyllic little communities, and teaching children about community values. Those conventional lessons are something the video pillories by making its own values hideously screwed up. Some have even suggested the nod to Trumpton is, via its name, a reference to Donald Trump and his attitude towards anything outside America. Whether or not you think the reference can be taken that far, you’ll easily see the similarity between Camberwick Green and the ‘model village’ of the video.

2. The Wicker Man (1973)

The 1973 version of The Wicker Man – the better one, with Christopher Lee, not the 2006 one with Nicholas Cage – told the story of a devout Christian detective going to an island to investigate a disappearance. There, he finds a mad community of pagans indoctrinated by Lee’s laird, whose fruit farm’s success depends on pagan rituals, or so they believe. Among rituals like those you can see below, they also have a sacrificial effigy that houses a sacrifice – here and in the film, that’s the inspector.

3. Medieval Practices

The menacing tone gets more bleakly anti-intellectual via medieval details such as the red crosses painted on doors – plague crosses that date back to 1665’s Great Plague of London – and what looks like a Beef Wellington made from an entire cows.


4. Jobe’s…

Throughout the video are crates of tomatoes, a reference to the empty crates of Summerisle Fruit in The Wicker Man. Here, those crates are full to bursting and are plastered with “Jobe’s”. One of these is also used to light the effigy at the end of the clip. One Redditor has pointed out a possible connection to a company that makes organic fertiliser for tomatoes. That might explain why the fruit has grown in this version of the Wicker Man tale… but it’s a bit of a stretch.

5. ‘Dawn Chorus’

A key part of the video is the bird singing cheerily at its open and close, ignorant of the lyrics’ nightmarish vision of mob-like communities. Radiohead have recently formed a company called ‘Dawn Chorus LLP’, and another called ‘Dawnnchoruss Ltd’, a tactic they have employed before prior to an album release to minimise the effect its success or failure has on any of their other albums. Their social media shutdown took place on the first Sunday in May – International Dawn Chorus Day – and they have a song called ‘Dawn Chorus’, which in March 2009 Thom Yorke said he was “trying to finish” and was “really great.” If the video’s bird is a hint, hopefully we’ll be hearing ‘Dawn Chorus’ soon.