Purpose of music videos

1. PURPOSE OF MUSIC
VIDEOS
UNIT 1,16,29
BY ALEX PEREIRA

2. REASONS FOR MAKING A MUSIC VIDEO
• There are many reasons for making a music video, such as:
o Gain publicity
o Promote something e.g. artist or label
o Representation
o Sell more albums
o Synergy

3. SYNERGY
• Synergy is way of making money from different platforms. This allows you to attract
different audiences. This can be done by advertising songs, artists and albums.
Synergy can also be used by printing posters or leaflets, as well as making adverts.
Using a song in the background of an advertisement to both promote the advert as
well as the song and record label is a common use of synergy. An example of synergy
is Eminem. He has released many songs which have also been made into music
videos, but he has also featured in the movie ‘8 Mile’ and has also been in adverts.
This would create more publicity for Eminem and in turn his record label as it means
more people will see him and be more likely to view more of his material.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc

4. PROMOTION OF RECORD LABEL
• In music videos a record label is also sometimes promoted. This could be through
showing a logo in the video or the name of the record label in the video. It could
also be used to link other artists together from the same label. For example when
artists from the same feature on each others songs. An example of this is when Ed
Sheeran and Stormzy did a remix version of ‘Shape Of You’. They are both big
artists and this generates massive publicity for both record labels as they basically
have twice as many people viewing their company. This is an example of cross
promoting as they are both from different genres.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlJ_6ANrcy8

5. REPRESENTATION
• Representation is described as a reconstruction or recreation of reality. It can also be
explained as the way the media represents things to us. It is used to make people
think that things are done a certain way or the way the person acts in the video is
actually how they act. An example of good representation is in Michael Buble’s ‘Home’
it shows how he loves and misses his wife and just wants to go home to her. An
example of bad representation is in the song ‘Till It Happens To You’ by Lady Gaga
which has sexual abuse all throughout the video. Representation can work both ways
as it can influence the younger generation to think either way, this is why you have to
think about what you include in music videos.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbSOLBMUvIE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmWBrN7QV6Y

6. PROMOTION OF ARTIST
• When promoting an artist the main goal is to make the public aware of their appearance. This is why in
music videos they focus the camera on the singers face so that people are aware of their appearance.
It is also to give the artist a star factor, this means that they are the centre of the video. Promoting the
artist does not mean they need to appear, they could promote their brand or themselves by other
means. For example Kanye West uses a cartoon bear to represent himself in a video; this promotes him
without him actually showing himself. Another example is in Lady GaGa's video for ‘Telephone’ you
can see that one of the actors in the video is wearing a pair of headphones that are branded by Lada
GaGa.
•

7. PROMOTION OF ARTIST
• Another way in which an artist an be promoted is through featured on a more
well known artists song. This is beneficial as fans of the bigger artists can see the
person featuring and may be interested in them which in turn creates more
publicity. An example of this is Raleigh Ritchie featuring on Stormzy’s ‘Don’t Cry
For Me’. After he featured in this song he was more well known with a lot of
people and views on his on videos increased.

8. ALBUM SALES
• Sometimes a promotion of a song can lead people to discover the rest of the
album that the song belongs to. Also sometimes artists release songs in parts so
once you buy one part you want to buy the other to see what happens in the end.
An example of this is Kodaline’s ‘All I Want’. Also when someone features on an
album the person listening may check out the featured artists album which could
bring in more sales for the label.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtf7hC17IBM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzuXZfKg2YM

9. MALE GAZE THEORY (1975)
• The male gaze theory is defined as ‘Using women as visual pleasure for a male
audience’. Laura Mulvey describes how the audience, or viewer, is put into the
perspective of a heterosexual male. Mulvey believes that women should enjoy the
attention of attracting the gaze, and put themselves in positions to be looked at.
Examples of this are in the songs ‘Wiggle’ by Jason Derulo and ‘Blurred Lines’ by
Robin Thicke.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiP14ED28CA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiP14ED28CA