Music video analysis

1. Music Video Analysis
Ben Wakeford

2. 1st Music Video
Song: Where are you now? Artist: Justin Beiber, Diplo, Skrillex

3. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in
metalvideos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).
• Pop, EDM music (electrical dance music) this
has become the new popular thing and
Skrilles and Diplo are two of the main EDM
music creators and normally get people to
sing over their music.

4. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented
withimages. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
• The lyric ‘where are you now that i need you’ is
represented through the artist being on his own
throughout the whole song.
• He also looks visably upset during the song and
the deep lyrics show that he needs someone who
is not there for him.
• It is an amplifying music video as Beiber is
actually singing the lyrics as the video goes on
which includes the actions and people being part
of the music video.

5. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and
atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative,
amplifying, contradicting)
• The music fits in with the visuals when Beiber
is on screen therefore it is an amplifying video
as all the singing is in line with the way that
Beiber is acting and miming to the song for
the video.

6. The demands of the record label will demand the need for lots of close ups
of the artist.
• Beiber is the main artist in the video and it is
obvious as he is the only person who is
recognisable in the video also you see Skrillex
and diplo who are also very famous but they
are not as well known as Beiber and this is
obvious because he gets all the attention.

7. There is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly
voyeuristic treatment of the female body
• There is no reference of particularly
voyeuristic treatment of the female body in
this music video. Even though it is sung about
a women but this video has mostly shots of
Beiber in it because his fans want to see him
as most of his fans are teenage girls. This
means they don’t want to see other girls in
the video they want to see him.

8. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a
visualstyle)
• Diplo and Skrillex are a duo that is called Jack
U but the U has two small dots above it. These
two dots symbolise them and are used and
seen quite a lot during the video.

9. There are often intertextual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music
videosetc).
• The opening scenes has a very recognisable
art exhibition look. This has been used in
many films and TV programmes and probably
in music videos because it is quite a
sophisticated thing that people do if they have
money. This shows that the video may appeal
to a person who like art as there is an arty
feature about the video.

10. Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Song: Californication

11. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in
metalvideos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).
This band is Punk rock or just rock

12. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented
with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
• This video is more Illustrative because the
music is showing a lot of animated characters
going through animated situations. Also there
is the lead singer singing lines from the song
but mainly it is of the animated video game.
The lyrics and visuals go very well together.

13. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and
atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative,
amplifying, contradicting)
• This would be Amplifying because the music and
the visuals fit together very well when the band
comes up playing there instruments the sound is
in the right place and time for the video.
• It could be argued that it is also a bit
contradicting because it has the animated bit on
the video and that is a little bit random but does
also have some connections with the song.

14. The demands of the record label will demand the need for lots of close ups
of the artist.
• The video has kind of a second music video
which is just the band playing the music in the
corner. This means the people watching the
video will always see the band in one way or
another.

15. There is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly
voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• There is graphic use of the female body being
used as a sexual object as they are recording
the sexual scene for a pornographic film.
•

16. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a
visualstyle)
• They have a symbol which comes up on all
their videos which is the symbol of the band
and this comes up on the video a few times.
Everyone who knows the band know the
symbol.

17. (to films, T" programmes, other music
videosetc).
• In the video there are references to star wars
and star trek at one point in the video. Also
one of the lyrics is about Star wars.

18. Artist: The Weekend
Song: Cant feel my face

19. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in
metalvideos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop).
• Pop/ EDM

20. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented
withimages. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
• Amplifying as artist is standing performing the
song on his own and you can see him singing
all the words.

21. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and
atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative,
amplifying, contradicting)
• The music fits with the visuals so it is also
amplifying as it fits in with what the performer
is doing on the stage.

22. The demands of the record label will demand the need for lots of close ups
of the artist.
• The whole video is of the artist singing and
performing his song so all the attention is on
him therefore the people watching the video
will understand that he is the main person and
the video is all about him.
•

23. There is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly
voyeuristic treatment of the female body
• There is no voyeuristic treatment of the
female body in the music video.
•

24. The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work (a
visualstyle)
• His hair is very recognisable therefore people
will know him for his hair. This is kind of a
motif and a personal thing for him.

25. There are often intertextual reference (to films, T" programmes, other music
videosetc).
• In the video it is an open mic session and this
has been seen in different TV programmes
and it is in a bar which is seen in pretty much
every TV programme and film because it is a
very socially acceptable thing to do go out and
drink