The document summarizes and analyzes three music videos from different eras: Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" from 1977, The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" from 1997, and Flo Rida's "Let It Roll" from a more recent time. It discusses the evolution of music video styles over time in terms of camera work, editing, sound, and other elements. Key points include that earlier videos like "Stayin' Alive" were more performance-based with basic shots and editing due to technology limitations, while more recent videos like "Let It Roll" utilize many special effects, creative shots, and electronic sounds.

1. Music Videos Through Time
The first video is: Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive
The video was released in 1977 and is performance based,
common for music videosof that time. Thisis shown through
camera work, where mid and long shots dominate the video,
showing the whole group of three, while they lip sync to the
music. A pan movement is used at the start, followingthe
group as they walk
around, allowingthe
audienceto take in their
surroundings and to
create a sense of mystery
as they can’t be fully
seen, obstructed by the
buildingin front. Thiswould make them want to watch on for
it to be revealed. The shots and movements, therefore, are
not adventurousand are quite basic. However, they are still
effective. Camera qualityis bad here compared to what it is
in recent years, such as the last analysedmusic video. Thisis
down to technologyand there not being better quality
cameras around. For its time, though, it would be deemed as
good due to the audience not knowing any better.
The mise en scene of setting is based outdoors in locations
such as a house and train station. It is representative of the
lyrics, using Goodwin’stheory, as they say: ‘we’re going

2. nowhere’. Thisfits as the state the places are in is derelict so
the train is not functioning;they can’t go anywhere.
With costuming, they wear what
was trendy at the time of the
late 70s, such as tight jeans and
silver shirts. Thiswould make
them relevant to the time of
release and appealto a lot of the mainstream audience,as
discussed by Blumler and Katz.
They have used minimalediting for creativity, but where it
does appearis near the
start, where it gives credits
to a ‘special guest star’.
The lack of editing would
be due to lack of
technology and editing
software. However, the
song does use editing at the ending, where a fade is put in
place to bring the video to a close, as shown below.
Sound wise, there are
no effects used, again
due to there not being
anything commonly
available.It uses
natural sounds,
meaning the vocal and
instruments so nothingwas added in post-production.

3. All considered, the purpose of the video was most likely
made for band recognition and income.
The second music video is: The Verve – Bitter Sweet
Symphony
This video was released 20 years later in 1997. Again, this
video is performance based as the artist lip syncs the whole
way through while walking down the street. However, it has
elements of narrative as there are still other people involved
such as the girl
shouting at him for
standing on her car.
Despite this, the story
line is unclearso it is
mainly performance.
In sound, there’s an
echo effect used towards the end of the song, when lyrics
overlap and repeat each other. Thisshows that at this point
in time, there was more creativity and development within
sound and editing.
The camera work is made simple and is used more for effect
rather than visual
creativity as the character
he is portraying is
careless, reflected
through the point of view
shot used, before he

4. bashes into the woman. Thiscould be because it began to be
recognised, that peoplecared for the music video as well as
the song or band members so they wanted to reflect their
audience’swants and needs by putting it together in a
certain way.
The mise en scene connotes the band’salternative rock
genre identityas the colourscheme is dark, shown by the
dull lighting and black costume he wears. In addition,the
setting promotes their genre as the street is dirty with
rubbish, engaging niche audiences as it is their aesthetic.
The editing comes into play for the colour gradient, as it
looks like it is tinted blue and desaturated. Thisagain, is
being more adventurouswith editing than the previousmusic
videos.
These two videos analysedare less significant in terms of
appealas contextually, music videoswere not hugely
recognised at the time. It was only in the following years, in
1981, where MTV made the genre increasingly relevant due
to an entire show being dedicated to airing these. The show
then made other artists’ make their own videosin order to
be featured so they could gain more publicityand popularity,
becoming a marketing strategy. Nowadaysmusic videosare
more popularthan ever due to the numerous platforms
which showcase them, includingTV shows like the charts,
YouTubeand iTunes. It allowsfor the audience to have easy
access to viewing these as it only takes seconds to find a song
to watch.

5. The third music video is: Flo Rida – Let It Roll
The concept style used here takes on the idea of ‘good
times’, also a repeated lyric in the song.
The editing in this music video shows how much music videos
have changed overtime as it uses many effects not seen
beforehand such as creative camera movements and shot
transitions. It also uses black outs to replicate strobe lighting,
as well as the pace, which links to Versallis’ theory of music
video editing.
There is also text at the
start of the song, giving
people recognition such
as the director and Flo
Rida himself. There are
more intertextual
references in recent videoslike this one, for example, at the
end of the song he promotes his website as well as his album.
Another editing pointis that merge shots are used to create
the look shown to the left. Thisadds style and interest as it is
a new developmentin
editing, visible from the
editing of the other two
music videos compared to
this one.
For sound, unlikebefore, different and new sounds are used,
constructed electronically.Before, they wouldn’t have had

6. the means to achieve this sound effect so they had to use
instruments whereas now, there is a lot more choice and
variety. For example, withinthe video, there is a whirring
noise. Another example is where ‘let the good times roll’ is
repeated, and every time is gets less distinct and fades. At
this point it shows him falling into water, mimicking the fade
as talking against water sounds unclear, shown at 2:14.
In camera work, a lot of close
up shots of the artist rapping
are used to maintainthe
audience’sknowledge of his
identity, giving him a better
branding as he can be seen.
Long shots are also used to give an overview of the situation
so the artist can be seen but so can other characters,
especiallygirls, and
the sunny setting.
Jump cuts are also
popularin this music
video, showing the
people moving
quickly.

7. The mise en scene for the video is bright and vibrant in terms
of colour as it has the setting of the beach, relating to
summer as there are blue skies and colourful costumes. The
character choice relates to Laura Mulvey’smale gaze as
attractive females
were used in the video
and are seen wearing
bikinis. Thisis for the
male advantageas it
prompts voyeurism. It
causes the female
audienceto think they have to look a certain way in order to
reach the standards as shown in the video. This supports
John Berger’s theory of ‘Men Look Women Appear’;the girls
are made to feel self-conscious due to the men making a
judgement about them, reverting them to being objectified
and only admired for their physical appearance.This also
relates to Hall’s preferred reading as the directors intended
for the male audience to feel this way when viewing the
music video, and perhaps for the female audienceto as well
in order to fulfil patriarchy.

8. Impacting my own product, this research has taught me that
my skills will need to be up to date, especially in the post
productive stage of editing, using recently developed
techniques such as animation or to have multipleclips seen
at once.
Another area is with the actual filming of the music video; I
will need to ensure my camera qualityis of a good standard
so that it looks modern and defined, rather than how it
looked before, being unclear and dark as a result. To do this, I
will compare the recording qualityof cameras I already have,
to make an appropriatechoice of what to film with.
Something I may however change, in an effort to move music
videosaway from representing females as sexual objects, is
to have any female characters dressed modestly and appear
more realistic and relatableso the audienceis more focused
on the video’smessage and narrative.