Andrew Goodwin states that music videos will often demonstrate characteristics that are specific to certain genres. As my videos are mostly based in the dance genre, I will be comparing them to what can typically be expected of that genre.
First off, let’s have a look at what is expected of the “typical” dance genre music video. LOTS of them are set in clubs and showcase the artist’s talent. This is usually because most dance tracks are created by well-known club DJ’s and producers – and therefore, they’d want to showcase their production qualities through the music and (usually) showcase their DJ’ing abilities through footage taken from club nights or special events. You’ll also typically get lots of male/female eye-candy with an awful amount of clothes missing.
Copyright: Ultra Records (2008)
The Deadmau5 video could be considered as dual style – both a concept and a narrative. It is fair to say, that most people in their day to day lives will rarely have thoughts like “Hmm. I wonder what it would be like to be a ghost?” Therefore, in that respect you could say that the ghost idea is concept based. However, you could also argue that it is a narrative that is chronologically organised, as it shows a progression from human, to ghost (and his day to day life) and back to a human again.
The Space Invaders tattoos also add to the concept side of the video – surely just random!? Deadmau5 is actually the man/ghost in the video, but it doesn’t showcase his DJ skills.
Copyright: Loaded Records (2009)
The Eric Prydz and Freemasons video is mainly narrative based, arranged in a chronological order. The tale is of a bloke that has been invited to a party full of scantily clad females, then he’s proceeded to “get it on” with anyone with a pulse, then realised “OHMYGOSH – my girlfriend’s here – I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do later…” It doesn’t show the DJ, but it does show a HUGE amount of attractive female content, as is conventional.
Copyright: Columbia Records/Sony Music Entertainment/Rinse (2011)
Now. Katy B. Surely one of East London’s finest singers.
This video differs from the above 2 in various ways. The song itself is slightly more “poppy” than the other 2, but is still considered a tune with dance genre origins due to the dubstep style that Katy uses in her productions. I would say this is a more performance based video, primarily down to the fact Katy is visible in the video for over 90% of the time lip-syncing to the track. Conventionally for a performance video, there are tons of mid close ups and close ups of her face and body to showcase her singing capabilities. Also the shots are often repeated (namely the one looking straight at her face @ 00:11/00:26/00:45 etc.) and become slightly repetitive. This video is conventional as it showcases the artist’s talent, and offers a voyeuristic pleasure through Katy’s appearance.
Also, a potentially simplistic narrative shown is Katy showing her ability to entice any man that she wants through her “witch like” capabilities. Last time I checked, I wasn’t able to tie anyone to a chair using tree-roots. That could be a handy skill really… could I get that on the NHS?
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