Planning - Analysis of Rihanna - Cheers Music video

When analysing music videos we look for things like common motifs, controversy and if the lyrics fit the video. To analyse a video we must first read the lyrics and see if they tell a story, if they do not we look for an overall theme such as love or heartbreak. In some part of the music video the lyrics do fit the video such as when Rihanna says 'Cheers' and the characters hold their glasses up and cheer.

In Rihanna's music video Cheers there are many of these things throughout. The beginning of the music video starts with video footage from Rihanna's concerts, this is a common theme that occurs among music videos. This is a screenshot from her video showing one of her concerts.

Next we see Rihanna putting on make up in the mirror while having her hair done, this is clearly an example of intertextuality when an artist recognises themselves as an artist, this is done by showing shots of cameras/sets/directors or artists looking at themselves such as Rihanna. Below is Rihanna's example of intertextuality.

Fragmentation of the body is the most common theme used in music videos, mainly female. Rihanna is not exempt to this and shows examples in her music video. Her example of fragmentations of the body is of women's bums which not only shows fragmentation but also the exploitation of the women in music videos. this is controversial as it implants the idea that women are only seen as sexual objects and nothing more. 

Ritual celebration is another example of a highly used motif, often these are parties as in Rihanna's music video. As an theme in these celebrations the black artist is usually happy while the white artists are the opposite. In Rihanna's video we see her at a party with friends and family, this also matched the lyrics as the song is all about partying. 

Other features often seen in music videos include shots into bright lights, breaks in narrative for the artist to sing and clips from the film the song is featured in. Within Rihanna's video we see an example of this with a shot of a firework in the sky.

As we can see from all the common motifs used in Rihanna's music video that they feature in all types of music videos, from Madonna's 1989 hit Like A Prayer to Rihanna's current 2011 song Cheers. 

Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Analysis of Madonna - Like a Prayer Presentation

Presentation2 madonna like a prayer

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Presentation created by Aisleen Dunne
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Planning - Presentation on Aspects of a Music Video

Presentation on music videos

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Presentation created by Mitchell Pace
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Aspects Of A Music Video

The main goal of the music video is to keep the viewer watching, this is done through a series of techniques. Most music videos are 3-5 minutes long and longer videos are usually compressed. However there are anomalies to this from the 60's and 70's such as Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody which was 6minutes long. Music videos are kept short for a number of reasons firstly to keep costs down, as the longer the video the more expensive it will be. Also as people have short attention spans they are made short to avoid tune outs. To gain maximum profit it is beneficial for producers to play as many videos in a short amount of time therefore this is achieved by being shorter. They have become this way as producers are aware that we are passive viewers and are able to do many other things at home, such as doing homework, while watching T.V. As music videos have become this way there are many things missing as there is no time to develop characters we instead get stereotypes so we can quickly understand the person. There fore characters and plot are weak to accommodate the song, not the other way around. Music videos attempt to rather than tell a story, convey an overall message. To do this multiple clips are shot and edited together, these clips make little sense on their own, such as someone getting beat up, but when seen with the other clips and accompanying music they give an overall story.

Aisleen and Mitchell

Planning - What Has Been Learnt From Looking At The History of the Music Video?

Looking at the history of the music video has taught us a lot, we've gathered that they have become more and more controversial overtime, this is as viewers have become desensitised to the previous controversy and therefore artists have made their music videos more graphic and more sexual than the previous videos to keep viewers interested. We can see evidence of this by looking at different music videos from different periods of time, for example in the 1920's and 30's the soundies showed women dancing with their legs on show and black people as the stars of the videos, at the time this was controversial. By the 1950's people were immune to this so the scopitones went further with their sexual exploitation, focusing mainly on women in even skimpier outfits. Comparing videos from different time era's we can clearly see the differences in what was seen as controversial for the time. Factors such as these wont really affect our music video because we are not aiming to be controversial as we are limited due to this being an A level project. However we do need to keep in mind the progress of the music video in order not to return to old conventions, we also need to think about our target audience and what they expect to see from our video to keep them interested and keep the video popular.

Aisleen

Planning - History Of the Music Video

Over the years music videos have changed dramatically, there were five main stages to the music video, each more controversial than the next. Music video's first started in the 1920's/30's with 'Soundies', these were three to five minute music sketches which could be seen in the cinema. An example of an early soundie can be seen below.

This fits in with the conventions of the time as Soundies usually showed a live band on the left hand side of the stage followed by dancers on the other side of the stage. The women are dressed appropriately, in a long elegant evening gown, in keeping with the conventions of the times.

Next came the Scopitones which were developed in France in the late 1950's, these were the early video jukeboxes and became the model for the music promo. After the end of the war in the 1940's there was a cultural explosion and views became a lot more liberal, such as more drinking, drugs and women dressed more provocatively. The quality of the song itself decreased as there was a lot more focus on the sexual exploits of the video.





This Scopitone meets the newer conventions as throughout the entire video it is focused on woman dancing in bikini's, and therefore has a very sexual theme throughout the video. As with many music videos of today it returns to one main woman again and again in this case the woman in the orange bikini. The sexual influence means the music video has no real meaning and is made as a way of attracting attention.

The 1960's introduced the music promo, many famous rock artists began to make music videos to promote their albums. As the 1960's brought the hippy movement a lot of music videos were heavily drug influenced. This is seen with artists such as The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd.



This meets conventions as it is clearly drug influenced by the bright colours and swirling patterns especially at 1:18 of the video when the blue pattern seems to come towards the viewer. The drug influence overrides any narrative or story line a normal music video may contain as there are no characters or settings.

The Glam Rock era arrived in the late 1960's/ early 70's, these music videos were made as a way of keeping fans entertained when away on tour. The main idea of the Glam rock era was to push the boundaries of the time, in this case the idea of sexuality. Some artists that pushed the limits include Queen, David Bowie and Adam Ant.



This video pushes the boundries of homosexuality as David Bowie is wearing heavy makeup during the entire video, he is also wearing tight clothes that would usually be worn by a woman and were ultra feminine at the time, this can be clearly seen 30seconds into the video. Not only is Bowie wearing make up and dressing feminine but so are all of his male band members completely eclipsing the usual perception of the 'straight male'. This new approach to music videos was meant to push the boundaries from the last era and therefore grab attention and gain popularity.

The Birth of M.T.V
M.T.V was created in 1979, on August 1st 1981 they played their first music video which was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. Music videos now started to compete to be played and almost all artists were producing music videos.

In the 1990's the definition of Hip-hop began to change along with their videos. Music videos were now being given budgets the same as motion pictures. The Hip-hop artists began to embrace their gangster lifestyles and drug use was exploited.



Early hip-hop videos such as this were fairly tame as there is no exploitation of drugs or women, the raps themselves were quite innocent, as this song by the Sugar Hill Gang shows it is about rapping skills and having a good time. This video also shows old style rappers dress sense was very different from those of today, they're dressing up as red Indians as it matches the song. As time goes on we start to see music videos focus on drugs and partying as seen below.



This video is much more in keeping with the new Hip-hop genre as it involves parties with drink and drugs. there is a major reference to girls throughout the video and in the lyrics, we can see how women are treated in the "gangster" society at 2:25 in the video, they are seen as sexual objects. this is backed up by the lyrics "And before me dig out a bitch I have ta' find a contraceptive...Ain't no pussy good enough to get burnt while i'm up in it." The gangster lifestyle is now embraced by these new rap artists as this video demonstrates gangsters hanging aroung their hood enjoying life, 'Ain't nothin' but a G thing'  means that this lifestyle of parties and drugs is casual and common to a gangster and not a big deal.
We can see from these different music videos how the music video has progressed over the years.

Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Introduction to A2 Media - Vlog

A short introduction to our music company.



Aisleen and Mitchell

Planning - Our Project

Our project is to create a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a promo of a new music video together with a website home page for the band and a digipak for the albums release.

Aisleen and Mitchell