Analysis of music videos

Different music videos have a variety of ways to empower the lyrics of a song or simply create an emotion from an audience through the use of camera work, editing, colour and mise en scene.

To begin with, the music video for Ed Sheeran's song called "Lego House" has an interesting way of showing the narrative through the use of camera work. Unlike most of other music videos, in "Lego House" close ups are not used to promote a brand or a unique selling point of the artist. Instead, the clear USP combined with the camera moving towards or away from the protagonist (0:15-0:25) makes the audience feel like they are inside of the video, however might not neccessarily supposed to be there, which is a great example of voyeurism. Comparing "Flood" by Take That to "Lego House" it is clear that in "Flood" the close ups are used to build an image for each of the artists as they are represented as strong and consistent (00:30-00:40) which creates star iconography as the audience will now portray the artists as seen in the music video. It may be argued that this is a better way for branding artists, however Ed Sheeran has a USP where he only occasionally acts in his music videos, making him enigmatic and making the audience more intrigued by his culture and music.

The editing in "Lego House" is in beat with the visuals to make the video flow better with the music. An example of this is shown when the protagonist drops the lego helicopter and as it hits the ground the thump is there. This is effective as it makes the audience more involved with the music as well as the video which will result in them wanting to watch another music video of Ed Sheeran. This kind of editing is not as visible in "The Flood" which could be caused by the fact that the video is more performative and mostly doesn't have much relationship with the lyrics. However, this doesn't mean that it is ineffective; the to beat editing might not be used in "The Flood" to represent how hard and uncomfortable the journey to success is. This links with the fact that the shot of the artists carrying the kayak is about 10 seconds long which could further suggest the struggle on the artists' way to success.

The use of colours in "Lego House" is smart due to the fact that the lighting used in certain shots represent the mood of the action performed by the protagonist. This is exceptionally  effective as the audience will be guided through how they should feel while watching the music video, for example when the protagonist is walking down a hallway with a smirk on his face the lighting is bright making the audience feel more enthusiastic. Furthermore, the use of colour in this music video is a great way for the audience to understand the enigma of the very basic narrative that the song offers. Due to the use of colour the audience can foreshadow what will happen next. In comparison to "Lego House", the music video for "The Flood" uses bright colours throughout which sets the mood for the whole song to be the same. This might be effective because the audience can understand the message that the song is giving them. Overall, the colour in both of the music videos sets the mood for the song, however in "The Flood" the audience can't foreshadow what will happen next based on the lighting and colour.

Lastly, the mise en scene in "Lego House" is what makes the narrative of the video much more in depth because, for example, the locations of some of the shots, like the seaside, could connote that the protagonist is feeling the freedom at that moment, however when he walked through the corridor towards the stage he seems angry or maybe motivated. This could be representing how Ed Sheeran feels, however this enigma is what created his iconography which he is still building up. This makes his audience attracted to him on a personal and emotional level which might be one of his unique selling points. This is different in "The Flood" where the mise en scene represents the motivation of the artists towards what they do. Their uniforms are matching which connotes team effort to achieve the greatness that they have achieved. This will also, just like in Ed Sheeran's case, attract the audience to the artists due to their determination which might be their unique selling point.

Analysis of 4 different genres

Moodboard

Madonna's image development

Madonna is a globally known singer who was born on the 16th of August 1958 in the United States. Her music was extremely popular since 1980 when Madonna created visuals alongside her, as some may say, phenomenal music. However, what has made Madonna so recognisable and well known was her unique style in each of her music videos in which she had a clear message to give. This has been visible in music genres other than pop, such as in the acoustic genre where Bon Jovi had also been showing clear messages. This could be seen in their song called "Wanted Dead or Alive" where the artists clearly talk about how they want to live their lives the way they want to, which is extremely similar to Madonna's image in the mid 1980s.

In one of the earlier Madonna songs, named "Borderline", she portrays herself as an independent woman who will not live her life as someone else wishes. Women in the mid 1980s were supposed to be beautiful, glamorous and colourful and Madonna has chosen to break that stereotype by wearing black leather jackets and dark make-up at 2:42. This has given her an excellent star image at the time because the audience could relate Madonna to a rebelious, free singer who lived her life the way she wanted and cared only about herself. However, Madonna's star image has changed throughout the years, an example of this is a song named "Ray of Light" which was made in 1998, 14 years after "Borderline", and has a completely different style and image that people did not expect from Madonna. In the song "Ray of Light", the artist is not in every shot of the music video, unlike in her previous top selling songs. Instead, the music video as well as the lyrics are society related which gave Madonna a completely new star image. She was then, although still rebelious, seen as more caring and empathetic; this transformation has gained Madonna new American audiences which made her single sell 793000 copies in the US itself.