Stay - Rihanna

Stay by Rihanna is a simple, heart-felt video set in a bathroom and centered around the artist portraying the emotions of the song in a very honest, vulnerable performance. The room is dimly light which helps to show the sadness of the song. Rihanna is naked throughout the video which helps to present the image of vulnerability. I personally like how raw and emotional the performance by Rihanna is, which is amplified by the use of close-ups and extreme close-ups, and feel that this is what keeps the audience watching as it is a rare view on the artist who is usually shown dancing around to an upbeat song.
This has shown me that for our music video performance can be key to the video and we should not try to over complicate things.

Rock N Roll - Avril Lavigne

The music video for Rock N Roll by Avril Lavigne is an upbeat, light-hearted, narrative based video. It begins with an opening before the song comes in which shows Avril having conversation which references and pokes fun at her early song 'Sk8er Boi'. It then goes into a comic book styled world in which Avril is fighting to save rock and roll. The video features funny things such as Avril hitting a baby away, a knife wielding lobster and a bear-shark. These unusal humourous things are what keep the audience watch and also rewatching the video as they may have missed things. I think this is a good video as it is really fun and silly, it is the type of video you'd want to share with people which is part of its success.
Technically, the editing is quite fast paced which keeps up with the tempo of the song on the light-hearted nature of the video. The lighting and style of the video is generally quite bright which links in with the comic book style it is trying to portray.




The video has been thought to be a tribute to Guns N Roses as the video features an intertextual reference to the iconic video November Rain in which there are multiple shots of the guitarist outside a church from a helicopter.

Can you feel my heart - Bring Me The Horizon

Can You Feel My Heart by Bring Me The Horizon is a video typical to metal genre. It is performance based video with a shocking side narrative of a male being chased by menacing hooded creatures which climaxes with the boy being held down and cut open. The performance shows a lot of close-ups of the lead singer Oli Sykes as it tries to connect with the audience, there are also close-ups and slow motions of the band playing to try to emphasize the importance of the instruments. The shots which involve the band play a lot with lighting, allowing it to be gloomy but at the same time have streaks of bright light, which I think my be symbolic of hope as the song and most of the album deal with issues such as suicide, so I think it may be trying to show that there is still hope. The main thing that makes you want to continue watching the video is the narrative.

Personally I think that the narrative is based around the lyric "I can't drown my demons; they know how to swim." as the creatures chasing the boy could be symbolic of how he is trying to fight his own demons, which is a subject that occurs in a lot of Bring Me The Horizon's music videos and songs e.g. It Never Ends which features the lyric 'you said this is suicide, I said this is a war, when I'm losing the battle' and shows Oli allowing the demonic people to kill him.

Domino - Jessie J

This video is all about star image and performance as it consist of purely the artist singing and dancing around with changing backgrounds. Green-screen and editing are key to keeping the interest of the audience. The editing is extremely fast paced with a cut being made at least every 2 seconds even during the slower part of the song, this paired with the interesting mise-en-scene, bright lighting, star performance and animated backgrounds helps to keep the viewer watching.
This is typical of the pop genre as the majority of pop videos look to sell the artist and project the artists image rather than using maybe a concept or narrative as it is to sell to the masses and it is easier to project an image of the star for people to connect with than a story. Also, narrative would not suit this type of song as it is easier to keep up the tempo with just shots of the artist than a story as a story would need more time in order to be understood properly.
This has shown me that concept and narrative are not necessarily key to the success of a music video.

Sacrilege - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The video for Sacrilege by Yeah Yeah Yeahs is purely narrative based in which we slowly see a story pieced together of how a group of people end up shooting a man and burning a woman alive from end to beginning. The pace of the video is quite fast with each shot being explained by the next, which is of the same shot but moments before and from a slightly different perspective. This is what keeps you watching and keeps you interested as you want to know what would push a group of people to go so far and also to seemingly take pleasure in burning a woman alive. The fast paced cutting helps to keep interest, yet with the cuts only showing what happpened moments before it helps to reveal to story at a slower speed (keeping the audience in suspence) but still keeping a fast paced feel to it. The video ends with a light image of the girl as a bride about to walk into the church, this is very contrasting to the opening dark image of the towns people gathered around the fire.    
The video has a very powerful concept which highlights the hypocrisy of the people who are shaming woman as they themselves are the adulterers. It is open to interpretation, however, with many people seeing the shots of the girl having relations with the people in the town as just the peoples own fantasies rather than real affairs, as the girl is being seen to take on many different roles e.g. a sophisticated woman, an innocent teen, a housewife. And so when the girl is found by them to actually be having an affair they take pleasure in hunting her down and killing her as to them she is seen as an object that they posses and that only they should be able to have such a relationship with her.

Why'd you only call me when you're high? - Arctic Monkeys

Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High by Arctic Monkeys, much like a lot of other recent music videos, has a opening before the music comes in. In this opening we hear 'Do I Wanna Know?' playing diegetically, this is a subtle way to promote the rest of their album, this is done by a lot of artists nowadays. The opening helps to set the scene, in which Alex Turner (the lead singer) is out for a drink at the pub. We soon find out from the video effects (the clock smiling/ frowning at him, the multiple reflections, the fire) that he is high. This captures the audiences attention and keeps them watch the, what should be very boring, video. I say it should be boring because it simply shows Alex walking from to pub to a girls house, however, it is what he 'sees' (e.g. a man jumping off a building and running away or the multiple sexual acts the female character 'Stephanie' is seen in) on the way which keeps us watching as we are wondering what might be shown next. There is a humorous ending, in that we are being led to believe that it is the girl who is texting him whereas when we finally see Alex arriving at the wrong house, which is made funnier by an old woman peering through the curtains, we find that it is actually him who has been texting her and that she is just ignoring him which links in with the song lyrics. I like this video because i think it is quite cleaver how they have made such a mundane of walking home into the entire music video, and that it is not boring but actually holds the attention of the viewer as it is seen to be quite unusual.

In one ear - Cage the elephant

In One Ear by Cage The Elephant shows the band trapped in a mental hospital in which the lead singer Matthew Shultz eventually escapes from. This video is mostly performance based as the audience is captivated by Matthew's exaggerated portrayal of someone with mental health issues, in which he makes weird faces and generally acts insane. This could be linked to the meaning of the song in that the song is about people criticize them, yet they don't even care to understand the music. This is shown by them being in a mental hospital as people don't get them, so they just think they're crazy. In this video I think it is the performance, fast paced cutting (which is tied in around the music. e.g. at the beginning of the video as each new instrument comes in a cut is made) and key concept which keeps the audience interested.

There are two other music videos for this song, one American release and one which was released at a much later date. Both in my opinion aren't as good because they aren't very concept based they mostly just feature the band performing. In the later release it does also feature shots of people messing around and a few weird shots (e.g. the topless man with an owl head) however I still personally think that the first video is better as it has more meaning behind it and is generally a more unique video.

 

What you want - Evanescence

As with most videos in the metal genre What You Want by Evanescene is mostly performance based, featuring the band playing an intimate gig. However, the video does inter-cut between the main performance and shots of the lead singer, Amy Lee, running through New York City. This slight bit of narrative helps to keep the audiences attention as you are wondering where she is going, which later in the video is shown as we find her joining up with the rest of the band who all then begin to wade out into the ocean. Other than this the rest of the video is kept interesting by the lighting, editing and camera movement which all fit in with the song perfectly.
The entire video has a dark and gloomy feel to it created by a sort of sepia or just dark/cold tint to it. Some of the shots of Amy running through the city have an after effect on them which makes it look like an old video tape, this makes it feel as though we are watching her on CTV maybe, which helps to create a sense that she is doing something that she shouldn't be; sort of links in with the song lyrics of do what you want as she is possibly rebelling. The lighting of the performance has a lot of contrast going from very bright light to darkness with the beats of the drums, this helps to keep audience interest. There are also a lot of close-ups on the singers face which helps to show her strong emotions. The general editing varies from fast to moderate paced, however even when the shot is not being cut during the performance shots the camera will being continuously moving helping to keep the audience interested and in a state of suspense.
There is also a lot of iconography of the metal genre shown in this video from Amy's dramatic make-up and outfit to the shots of the guitarist head banging and the crowd using the devil horn hand which is symbolic to the genre.

Panic cord - Gabrielle Aplin

The music video for Panic Cord by Gabrielle Aplin is a standard narrative based video for the singer/songwriter genre. It features the singer playing the song to herself in the same bedroom of the couple who is also played by the singer. There are many close-ups of her when singing, as the song is about a break up and so it is essential to convey her emotions. The narrative begins with the couple being happy and in love which helps to keep the audience watching as we know that the song is about how they break up and so we are drawn into wanting to watch how things will end.
I really like the overall light and airy look/feel of the video which is created by the soft natural looking lighting and probably some after effects on colourisation to give it a slightly more warm tone. I think this really helps to portray the homely feel to the video which is quite common in the genre of music video.
I think the main thing that keeps people watching and re-watching the video is the narrative and sad performance of the singer as you feel connected to her as a person and want to watch what happens to her (even though the narrative is most likely fictional). It is also a relateable theme and so most people will be able to have some sort of emotional connection to the song and or the video. I feel that this is further enhanced by the editing as it is cut on beat and even further amplified by cutting on the words when she sings 'doe ray me far so la tea doe' as it creates a hightened physical response within the viewer drawing them in more.

Call It What You Want - Foster The People

Call It What You Want by Foster The People is a typical music video of the indie genre. It opens with the phrase 'Idle Minds Are The Devils Workshop' this paves the way for the rest of the video which features seemingly random shots of the band doing abnormal things in a mansion. The song itself is about how fed up the band is about wanting to fit in and how if you don't follow the social norms you are considered weird, and so the lack of normality in the music video is a perfect fit. This is one of the reasons why I think this video is good, in that although all of the acts portrayed in the video seem really weird and random they all somewhat link together and have meaning in terms of the song, for example the fangirl groupies are an image carried throughout the video and are symbolic of the bands new found fame and when the lead singer Mark Foster is seen to shot them it could represent the rejection of such fame. Another image show in the video is of Mark with his head inside a goldfish bowl, which may on first viewing just seem odd but it does link in with the lyric of wanting to be free as he is trapped in the bowl.
The style of the video is also linked to the style of the music in that the music has a sort of new age electronic feel to it which is shown in the video with things like the shining of the lights into the sky, the fireworks and also the general effects toward the end of the video which they use to create a sort of psychedelic feel.
Also it is cut on beat and as the pace of the music becomes slower the amount of cuts decreases, this decrease in tempo is also show by the drummer beginning to slowly come down from when he started levitating at the beginning of the video.
I think the video is very good because it has a lot of variety to it and interest which helps to keep you watching and also makes you want to re-watch it as you might not have understood it the first time, or that you might have missed something, or just because its a really unique video.