Analyzing the Key Conventions of Music Videos

The music videos I have chosen to analyze are 'Peso' by ASAP Rocky, 'Boyfriend' by Best Coast and 'Way Too Cold' by Kanye West featuring DJ Khaled.

Peso by ASAP Rocky is in the Hip Hop Genre so it has some of the genre characteristics such as cars, jewellery and alcohol. Although he shows some difference to normal Hip Hop videos as there are no expensive settings, it is set where he grew up in Harlem, which isn't seen as the nicest area and it shows what he gets up to in everyday life, he his showing us his experiences. There are a lot of close ups of the artist because he is a new artist, so he needs to be recognized and become established. The label obviously want to focus on his persona mainly. There are relations between the visuals and the lyrics, as when he raps "And I don't need a necklace", he pulls a simple gold chain through his grills which shows that he doesn't need flashy jewellery like other rappers to get a girl he wants. Another link between the two is when he raps about his style "Raf Simons, Rick Owen - usually what I'm dressed in" and the camera flicks to his shoes, which are made my Raf Simons. Thirdly, ASAP Rocky raps "smoking sections" then he lets out a puff of smoke in slow motion to put emphasis on that lyric. Lastly, ASAP Rocky says "Your bitch just said I'm hot", then he points to the female sitting next to him as if to imply that the girl sitting next to him is another guy's girlfriend. The relationship between the pace and tone of the music and visuals is very similar, the pace and tone is neutral throughout, along with the visual,, there is no change in ASAP Rocky's voice or the tempo of the song, it is thoroughly chilled and even-toned all the way through. The music video is performance based, he is mainly in the video mouthing the lyrics while there are some clips of Harlem, where he is from. There is a notion of looking at a part where ASAP Rocky is sat next to a female and he points to her, she is also looking at him throughout the scenes in which they are together in although ASAP Rocky doesn't pay much attention to her, as if to say she is not worth anything to him other than to show off.

Boyfriend by Best Coast is in the Indie Rock genre, so it has some genre characteristics such as in majority of Indie Rock videos, there has to be an inclusion of a performance element and it has to display a band's authentic image in which this music video does both. There are close ups of the artists, mainly the lead singer, as when the song was released, they were a new band so they needed to be established and recognized by their target audience. I found one relation between the lyrics and the visual which was, when Best Coast sing "I wish he was my boyfriend", the main character in the video looks across the table at her love interest. The relationship between the pace and tone of the music and the visuals, is that the music is surfy, laid-back and mellow, the pace of the song is the same throughout the song, it doesn't speed up or slow down dramatically and the video is also mellow, it depicted the same theme and tone of the music. The girl finally gets to be with her crush, which is quite a simple idea to go with a song with such simple lyrics. The video is 50/50 between performance and narrative. There is a notion of looking between the main character and the love interest, when they share eye contact across the table.

Way Too Cold by Kanye West is in the Hip Hop genre and it has some of the genre characteristics, such as a woman dancing sexily in skimpy clothing and expensive settings such as High Fashion clothing shops. There are no close ups of the artist, as the origonal artist isn't featured in the music video because Kanye West is already an established and known  figure around the world, unlike the other two artists. There are several links between the lyrics and visuals as when Kanye raps "Need some theraflu", someone starts pouring Theraflu (a medicine) onto the floor and into the models mouth. He also raps "From the project one day to project runway" and begins showing expensive shops such as 'Gucci'. Thirdly, Kanye raps "La familia, Roc Nation" and the little boy in the video puts his hands up in the 'Roc sign'. Lastly, Kanye raps "Can a young n***a get money anymore?" and the visuals show white politicians who Kanye has previously shown a disliking to over their treatment or attitudes towards black people. The relationship between the pace and tone of the music and the visuals is very similar, the music hyped up and energetic as is the characters in the video. There is not a time when the music changes drastically and either does the music video. The music video is performance based, although clips of a woman sexily dancing and people with politicians masks on. There are intertextual references to other media texts, as George Bush, Condalisa Rice, Donald Trump and Sarah Palin are featured in the video (a actor is wearing their mask), it shows Kanye's strained relationship over the years with politics, such as when Kanye said "George Bush doesn't care about black people" during Hurricane Katrina and he has previously said in his song, So Appalled, "Balding Donald Trump taking dollars from ya'll" so it is referring back to that lyric.

Music Video Evaluation

Our group were asked to create a music video to a song of our choice lasting three to four minutes. In terms of planning, we watched videos that inspired us and took ideas from those which did (e.g. Video Games – Lana Del Rey), we created a storyboard so we had a rough idea of what kind of shots we wanted to include and we visited the location where we wanted to film the performance based part of the music video to have a rough idea which areas were best for lighting. Our initial aims for this music video was to create a performance and concept based video showcasing the themes of love, hurt and distress and we wanted a grimy, moody feel to the music video. The genre of our music video is indie-pop/sadcore as it reflects the song, our primary target audience is female students between the ages 16-26 as most indie-pop videos are aimed at students and I have chosen females because it is a known fact that females love heart-break songs and may relate to the song.

The video has some indie-pop characteristics such as we have used a rundown area; the location is generally dark although there are moments when the lighting is quite light which shows the ‘POP’ side to the genre. The artist is also wearing make-up; jewellery and abstract clothing which makes her stand out. We have also used footage from different scenes which is also a main characteristic in Indie Pop videos. The link between the lyrics and visuals is evident and amplified, as when the lyrics become more emotional so does the artist in the video which is shown by her facial expressions and body posture. There is also a link between the music and the visuals as the song is slow, dreary and monotone throughout the song and the model in the visual is emotionless and has no expression, the visuals amplifies the feel of the song. To create a certain image of the star in our music video, the record label demanded close-ups. As she's a solo artist, she needs to always be the center of attention when she is in the shot so the public familiarizes with her. In this music video, we attempted to not make any intertextual references to other TV shows, music videos or films as we wanted the video to be seen as unique, creative and original which will also help the star of the music video create a image of herself being a unique individual musically and creatively. In this music video, our star has challenged familiar stereotypes such as female artists in the music video must be skimpily dressed to gain viewers. If we look at the most popular females in the music industry; Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, they all wear skimpy clothes and most of the time their music videos include something sexual of the sort. That is something we wanted our artist to challenge, which also takes us back to the idea that we wanted the artist and the video to be seen as unique and original. 


The music video will be shown on channels such as MTV Rocks and Q as they are the channels that mainly play alternative videos. Other channels, such as 4Music and MTV Hits may occasionally play our artist's music video, as they play pop music and our artist does sing pop music, but they normally play mainstream music which is in the UK Top 40 or artists who are well known so only rarely will our music video be making an appearance. The video will also be available on websites such as YouTube and Vimeo, which can then be posted on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. It is important that the video is available online as the internet has a huge impact on the charts and is a way to get the music video available to everyone across the globe. Our artist heavily relies on the internet as our target audience are known to use the internet a lot so it is an easy way to reach our target audience. 


In our music video, we have used a mixture of original clips that we filmed ourselves and clips that we have found on the internet, so the copyright law affects us as we have to get permission to use the found footage. We would have to hire lawyers or solicitors to approach the owner of the video clip that we took so we could get permission from them, if we do not gain permission there is a chance we'd have to change the music video drastically or get rid of it completely. We have taken into consideration these possibilities so we have come up with a few back up plans if things go wrong. OFCOM which is a regulatory body for Television have a code of practice which applies to our music video (complete later). 


Our music video has many strengths, as it is original and creative, the main reason why we wanted to do a music video was to be different. We decided against just having a clip of our artist singing the lyrics as we thought that would be extremely boring and not appealing to our target audience. We also decided against making the music video predictable as we wanted something that was unexpected not cheesy or boring. We feel that the direction we took this music video in has worked perfectly for us and is appealing to our target audience as it is different from what they normally see on the music channels and will catch their eye. We feel our editing skills in this music video was good, as we had never edited a music video before, we synced the music well and I believe everything has a nice flow. We also used all different kinds of shots in different lighting, so we have a variety in our music video rather than it all being in the same location and the same lighting which can get repetitive and boring. We made sure we had close-ups, full body shots, our artist was sitting down, standing up, standing on a rock in the middle of a dirty pond... variety was important to us. I believe that our music video only had one weakness, which was video quality. In some areas, the video quality was not as good as other parts which is not entirely our fault but we felt that it could of been better in some parts. Other than that, we are extremely proud of our music video, we believe it gives a good representation of our group as people and our creativity. I think it meets our audience needs, as our audience was 16-25 female students. That age group are mainly interested in pop as it is the most popular genre, also our music video is about love and relationships which is suitable for teenage girls as they can relate the music video to situations in their own life. It is also meets our target audience's needs as the artist is of similar age so the target audience is more likely to relate to our artist. 

Music Video: Filming Schedule

Music Video Ideas