Analysis of Music Videos

Steve Appleton- City Won’t Sleep

I think this is a good video to analyse as the artist is quite young and new so it has its own sense of style from others of different age groups. It’s firstly set in a cheap hotel room as you can see the room is quite plain and dull, straight away you see Steve go up to the window and look out into the city showing he’s an outdoors person and wants to explore the world. This song has a performance based section where Steve is playing guitar on top of city buildings showing n establishment shot of all the lit up buildings behind him linking with the ‘city theme’. You see Steve join with friends who are quite dressed up, for example the females are wearing dresses and high heels looking as though they’ve been out partying out all night linking with this ‘City Wont Sleep Tonight’. I would say the audience age range is 16-21years old because you see a straight cut of a piercing place showing it’s an environment for youngish people to be in to young adults as there are night clubs in the mise en scene.

Example- Watch the Sun Come Up

I have chose to analyse this music video as this is a newly released song and it’s different from the other videos as it’s got its own technique of animations throughout the video which is quite unique. The music has a fast beat and they use animations to turn the person into a cartoon which makes this video interesting and different from others. I would say the target audience is probably 17-25 year olds because its set on holiday with a young loved up couple having fun spending time together. The animation picks out key lyrics from the song, for example it says ‘you in that red dress’ showing that’s the girl for him and the colour red represents love. I personally think the animation is used really well in this video as it changed the scene throughout and makes the video more interesting to watch because its been cleverly done.

30 Seconds to Mars- The Kill

I’m analysing this video because the genre is different to the other music videos ad has an unusual style’ Straight away from the mise en scene you can see by the bands clothing/make up that the genre is Rock. The clothing is mostly all black and the males are wearing black eyeliner. Te lyrics in this video match the visual as it says ‘what if I fell to the floor’ and you see a male skate boarder skating boarding which shows a sign of risk and bravery to take chances in life. This music video has an intertextual with the film ‘The Shining’. As the genre is Rock the video has a performance of the band singing on stage where you see close ups of the artists faces which relates to Goodwin’s theory which he believes is what a music video needs to be successful. The word ‘Burry Me’ is sang quite aggressively and relates to in which the lead singer s wearing which is a black suit so once again lyrics and visuals link.

Kings Of Leon- Use Somebody

This video shows many establishment shots showing the city life which could be representing there quite internationally based and like to visit new places. This video is performance based as you get wide shots of fans at their concerts and also every time the band is shown playing its been edited in Black and White. The mise en scene shows that the band are quite Indie/Rock as they are wearing skinny jeans, rough/dirty looking tops and have quite shaggy hairstyles. This video is concept based as it’s quite random as there are no relationships between the lyrics and music. The beginning of the video and ending link well together as the same shot has been used of the lead singer quite close up to show expression to the audience. I would say the target audience is probably 18-25year olds because it shows smoking and drinking in the video which is more popular amongst young adults.

Cheryl Cole- Fight for This Love

I have chosen to analyse this music video as it’s a new release and will be interesting to compare to an older music video to see how different they are from one another. Mise en Scene is very effective in this video, for example Cheryl has dark eye make up on which reflects to a theme of a boxer/fighter as they get black eyes ‘fighting for love’. At one point she is wearing a red military outfit which corresponds with an army theme going into war for love; this proves that the lyrics have a relationship with the visuals in the music video. By making the military outfit more fashionable this links well with making the music video trendier and modern to appeal to a younger audience. This video has a performance based section in it where Cheryl is dancing with other dancers in the background, making her the main focus in the foreground especially since she’s wearing a different outfit to show she’s the artist. Many animations have been used in this video, such as the letter with the lyrics on the screen and splashes of red which could represent blood proving that you have to ‘fight for love’, proving it’s quite a tough job. The letter looks like it’s been ripped out from someone’s personal diary which could have been used to write about someone’s love life linking in with the song lyrics. Cheryl repeatedly uses the word ‘fight’ at one point where she’s wearing a hooded jacket which yet again represents a boxer/fighter.