Case Study

Case study:

Micheal Jackson, also known as the "King of Pop", will always be a strong iconic figure, and still is even after his tragic death in June 2009, in the music scene due to the amount of impact he made to music. Michael Jackson was a singer, dancer and songwriter that were known as the most selling music artist at the time of his death. His style in fashion, dance and music made him a global figure that was able to attain his status for over forty years. Michael was the 8th child out of nine children in the Jackson family. In 1964, him and his brothers formed a group with his older brothers and was officially a member of the 'Jackson 5', moving on from this a few years later, Michael became an independent artist with so much potential to become the greatest, the shoes he then went later on to fulfil.  The song that really changed the music world forever was Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. 'Thriller' was not only a hit that sold over 65 million copies worldwide, but concept portrayed in the video till this day is absolutely incredible, helping channels such as MTV becoming popular and supporting its rise to fame.


Jackson 5 - ABC
From one of Michael Jackson's earliest appearances, he already showed that he had more potential and stood out from the rest of his brothers, automatically starting got create his own star image. Michael Jackson's star image was his ability to sing and unique dancing, nobody had seen anyone like Michael which already separated him from everyone. During the Jackson 5, even being the youngest, Michael Jackson was already the lead singer.

 Michael Jackson - Thriller - 1982
One of his biggest solo songs. In 1982, Michael Jackson wrote 'Thriller', this turned into one of his most well known songs and became a song to show a clear portrayal of his star image becoming stronger and leading him to develop into the Micheal we all knew. Furthermore, the music video itself is another reason for Michael Jackson's uniqueness, in these times there had not been video similar to this. It almost came along as a movie to the audience. The part that was most appealing to the audience was the choreography performed, this really did push Michael Jackson's career.

 Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal - 1987
Secondly, another one of Michael Jackson's biggest solos is "Smooth Criminal". This also represented Michael's unique style of star image =. The setting being old gangsters was phenomenal and something that the audience would never see coming. Once again, the music video starts off similar to a film (long intro), in my opinion i believe Michael Jackson realised that his audience would expect a film type intro as it would immediately grabbed their attention. Furthermore, their is also many dance routines throughout with one main dance which led Michael Jackson to 'Defy gravity' with his almost 45 degree lean. The audience found this remarkable and also increased Micheal Jackson's star image as it seemed that all his music videos will catch them off guard. The ideology that is shown is the idea of being pure and dominant, this is connotations given off from Michael Jackson wearing a white suit.

 Michael Jackson - Black or White - 1991
Michael Jackson realised 'Black or White' in 1991. The theme of this song is purely based on the racism that continues to happen around the world and also a direct address to some of the racism that Michael Jackson had received during his career. Speaking on problems in the world was a turn in Michael Jackson's career, he was now getting older and his star image was also changing, whilst keeping the target audience he already had, he was able to increase it due to bringing a real issue that many countries face, to the surface.

 Michael Jackson - They don't really care about us - 1995
In 1995, Michael Jackson had produced 'They Don't Care About Us". This was another song discussing a real problem about the division in countries and different cultures. This was now the star image that Michael Jackson would be known for songs with meaningful topics.

To conclude Michael Jackson's career and rein as the 'King of Pop', it was clear from the early stages of his singing that he would become one of the greatest. At first his videos were almost completely simple but as he started to become more of a star and began to create his own star image, his music videos had much more detail and creativity. Successful examples of this are 'Thriller' and 'Smooth criminal' as these were some of the first music videos that contained a choreographed dance routine that the audience would remember forever. Even coming to the later stages of Michael's career, he still managed to maintain his popular style of clothing and music that his audience would still relate to. The reason Michael Jackson was such an icon to everyone was because he was so different and unique to all the other artist in his time.

Goodwin theories

Goodwin's theories:

When it comes to music videos's, Andrew Goodwin had come up with seven different key aspects and wrote a book called 'Dancing in the distraction factory' 1992 to state that all music video's have key elements, nonetheless, a music video will always have one feature, either being complimentary, contradicting or amplified.

Complimentary - Agrees/follows the conventions of the song

Contradicting - Going against the conventions

Amplified - Exaggerates a part of the music video

Some of the key aspects are

1. A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals displayed on screen. This is where the feature of the music video will either be complimentary, contradicting or amplified.
The first example i have is 'Firework' by Katy Perry
The lyrics of the song are amplified by the visuals and it adds further meaning to the song. It shows fireworks going off from inside of people to represent that everyone is worth something and it just has to be let out and all the people around will recognise how important you are. In addition the use of fireworks and the bright colours is exaggeration to highlight how important it is to realise your self worth.

Ed Sheeran is another example of an artist where many of his songs lyrics and video are complimentary with also some elements of it contradicting. In Ed Sheeran's 'Shape Of You', the majority of the scenes and actions of the video that go hand in hand with the lyrics and let the audience reflect on what is happening.

2. There is a relationship between music and visuals. This is more to do with the editing of the music 

video and how it can be directly in time with some of the music to give it more of a dramatic effect.
A prime example of this is 'Walks like Rhianna' by The Wanted. Not only is it complimentary but during the in sync dance and the lyrics "Our hearts go boom", there is a constant flash from the flood lights as the word "Boom" is said. This is to amplify the music and visuals of the video and for the audience to be more engaged.

3. Genre exists
 This is to do with genre and how certain music genres already exist. Goodwin theory stated that some artist chose specific props and costumes to fit into an already existing genre.
An example of this is rap music as a genre. Over the years, all rap videos consist of the same key features for it to stand out and for the audience to be able to clearly understand before even hearing the music that it is a rap video. This is called iconography. Iconography is the use of objects or costumes that are associated with a particular genre. Examples for rap would be
- Cars
- Expensive jewellery
- Drugs
- Alcohol
- Women (Video purposes)
Heavy Metal consist of:
- Dark clothing
- Long black hair
- Tattoos of skulls and other unusual things
- Piercings

4. Artist Close Ups
Several artist will have a large amount of close ups during their music video and this is seen as:
- Artistic Branding - As an artist, it is important for your face to be known to your audience.
- Celebrity culture
- Artistic portrayal
- Implications on looking good
An example of this 'Beautiful' by Eminem. The close ups in this music video are for Eminem to be seen in a different aspect and another side to him as an artist to his audience. As Eminem is already branded as a huge artist, i believe the close ups used in this music video was for artistic portrayal.




5. Star Iconography
This is similar to the concept of iconography that i mentioned early but this is based around a star artist having a signature part to their video, through their branding or style. There are two differetn types which can be considered. Change and evolving or showing similar features. Michael Jackson was very well known for being an artist that would evolve and change his style of music video through his career and because this is what he was known for, it wasn't a huge shock to the audience to see something different. From the best dance routines to stories to match the lyrics, it kept his audience enticed, waiting to see what he would bring out next. Here are to examples:
Although in both videos he is wearing a red leather jacket, it is clear to see the difference.

Michael Jackson:

Another style is having a similar style for your music videos. Some artist take this route as it is what their audience will recognise them for. An example of an artist is La Roux. She is well known for her crazy make up and songs with dark lighting and the fact that it is used in more than one video can portray that this is the style she felt most confident with and the style her target audience knew her for. Here are two examples:

La Roux:

6. Voyeurism, is something unusual for the audience to see and can range from explicity to the movement of the camera.

An example of voyeurism in a music video is 'Stay' by Rhianna. The reason this is unusual for the audience is the fact that Rhianna looks very vunerable and this is not the look she goes for so it was a huge change. In addition, there is parts of nudity as she is in a bath for the majority of the video. 

Another example of voyeurism is  'Rule The World' by Take That, as they have a frame within a frame. This keeps the audience interested as it is not used in many music videos and it is very obscure.

7. The last feature that Goodwin discussed is intertexuality. This is when a form of media contains other forms of media. This is seen the majority in music videos but is also used in films. An example of music videos is 'We Made You' by Eminem. During this video, Eminem refers to diifferent news and continues to mock it.

Different types of music video

The different types of music video:

Abstract:

An abstract music video's is create to give a certain feeling through the use of art. The majority of abstract music videos do not relate entirely to the audio, which is the reason abstract music videos are so unique as they have no story within it or little connection between the two, for example a fast paced song with unusual movement from the images or characters in the music video. An example of this is 'The lens' by Thee Oh Sees. The images during the video have such little connection, only the word "fly" from the song can be considered to have relation. This can cause the audience to become confused and puzzled as the whole video is animated and doesn't feature any real characters for the Thee Oh Sees to be recognised as, adding mystery to their character, leaving the audience to question the visuals. Another example of a artist who's music videos are confusing to the audience is Lady Gaga's.

The second example is narrative music videos. Narrative music videos are used to portray a very meaningful storyline that is directly related to lyrics of the song. This allows the audience to gradually have a better understanding of the song and usually are able to relate to the song. This makes the audience feel as if they can relate to the characters as be going through something similar or have dealt with the problem before. An example of this is in the song "Naïve" by The Kooks. This is a perfect example as he tells the story about a female that is naïve and the fact that she doesn't accept what she did and is quite denial. The visuals are used to explain this well as it clearly reflects the lyrics of the song.

r music video's are those that are usually very high in artistic performance, from the artist themselves, with a group of dancers or individually. The music video will include a range of different dance routines to really entice the audience and keep them engaged in the music video. They consist of a variety of fast paced shots and angles relating to the song. An example of this is 'Hung Up' by Madonna. Madonna uses a lot of unexpected dancers and different scenes to keep the audience watching, from her dancing in a studio to her dancing in an arcade surrounded by a crowd of people. Madonna's music videos were very similar around this period of time as she wanted to let her audience know that she was changing as an artist and her video's became more extravagant and a different Madonna.

As much as these three are different types of music videos, they are all intertwined because the main focus is how the song writer wants to grab the attention of the audience using a range of techniques (either imaginative or relatable). The majority of music video's are based around preformative and narrative genre and aim to be emotional and convey feelings towards someone or something meaningful that the audience will also feel passionate about. All three types aim to engage their audience but they vary in the style, one may use ordinary images whereas the other will use a structured story full of romance to construct their storyline. This is usually for the artist recognition to rise dramatically as visuals can make an mediocre song, amazing.

Introduction

Welcome,

Hello my name is Tyrelle and this is my A2 Media coursework blog. I am working in a group of 3 and we will be making a music video based of ab existing song and a song of our choice. To ensure that this music video will appeal and entice our target audience, we will be using a range of camera angles, shots and locations, making it as interesting as possible and keeping the shots clean and professional. This blog is to capture every moment from pre to post production. The knowledge i gain and research will be shown over the year.