Music videos can promote an artist's music and image in several ways. They often include a performance of the song by the artist, which may take place in unusual locations. Music videos also sometimes tell a narrative story or use symbolic imagery to represent the themes of the song. Women are sometimes portrayed in an objectified or sexualized manner in music videos according to theories like the male gaze. Common types of music videos include performance, narrative, and spectacle videos which may address the viewer directly or follow a story structure.

1. Music Videos

2. Purpose of a music video:
• Promotes a single or an album
• Promotes the artist or band
• Creates, adapts or feeds into a ‘star image’
• Entertains the audience
• Sets the ‘meanings’ of a song by the use of
images

3. Often contains a number of different
elements:
– Performance
– Narrative
– Thematic
– Symbolic

4. Performance
• Many music videos include performance of the artists as part of the video-It was
from clips of performances that music Videos developed
• Often contain shots of the artists performing
• Can be a live stage performance, with shots of artists and audience
• Can be the artists in “real life” situations eg warming up, talking, fooling around
• Often includes lots of close ups of the artist and there can be a particular visual
style that goes with the artist (a motif) eg particular clothing, actions, props, type
of images.
• Often the artist can appear to perform in an unusual place - all lip-synched eg a
field, a rooftop
• E.g One Direction: History. Features the band perfuming live in front of fans.
Provide a live performance to the audience
• Another example includes The Killers Mr Brightside. In the video, the band
perform live

5. Links to Videos
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdGFtw
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• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjmp8Co
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6. Spectacle
• -In the case of men, this involves the look of the character towards
the viewer. The male is seen to be addressing the viewer directly.
He is supposed to be singing directly for you.-The female figure is
often an object of an erotic gaze, object of male desire which is a
voyeuristic gaze. A Voyeur is someone who looks at someone for
pleasure. This means females in music vids are often dressed and
posed in very sexual ways
• -examples include Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball
• -often in a spectacle video, women singers are overly sexualised
and are often more objectified than men
• -Mulvey's Male Gaze theory and Barthes enigma code can be linked
to these music video
• -This is also seen in the anaconda music video by Nicki Minaj. A
male example is Sam Smith's stay with me

7. Links to videos
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2FRPA
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• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB-5XG-
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8. Narrative
•Often the video tells a story either that features in the lyrics or is suggested in the
lyrics eg girl dumps boy
• •This narrative can be like a Mini film, with a beginning, middle and end
• •Or it can suggest some links to a story
• •It can promote a film with clips from the film included telling a story
•
narrative music videos often follow the equilibrium theory by beginning with the
equilibrium, this is disturbed and by the end of the video, a new equilibrium is
established. this theory is followed to tell a sequential series of event to create a
narrative that the audience can follow. furthermore, this type of music videos use
Proppian characters because they are easily recognised by most audiences. it
makes the narrative easier to follow for the audience because they will know the
roles of each character
•
An example of a narrative is Katy Perry's Last Friday Night

9. Link to the Video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlyXNRrs
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10. My own example:
All Star
• All Star is an example of a spectacle,
the singers directly address the
viewers. in addition, the video
includes visuals which partly tell a
narrative to the audience.
• Furthermore, All Star could also be
described as narrative. The video
includes a narrative of how society
looks down on Smashmouth, the
video shows how the band prove
themselves to be heroes and gain
societies approval. The video shows
scenes of the lead singer, Steve
Harwell, proving himself to be a
hero. This is demonstrated in one
scene when he lifts a bus to save a
civilian. The narrative at the
beginning shows the band are
looking for a hero to cast