Analysis of Dance Music Videos
Avicii - 'The Nights' Music Video 2014
The music video for Avicii's song 'The Nights' consists of a narrative montage of a boy who travels around the world, living life to the best he can. This reflects the central message of the video: 'live a life you will remember' which is mentioned at the start, where a man's voice is heard saying "When I was 16, my father said you can do anything you want with your life, you just have to be willing to work hard to get it. That's when I decided when I die I want to be remembered for the life I lived'. While this is being said the actor spray paints Avicci's branding seen in many of his videos from this album of the two trianlges which is recognisable to the audience. This branding is also shwon at the end of the video with the words 'Live a life you will remember' also spray painted by the actor on the wall as a final moment of the video. The features of the video include timelapsing, slow-motion and hand held viewpoint filming from the actor. The video correlates with the lyrics tightly to address the message Avicii is trying to portray. Avicii's style of music video is quite different from many other dance music artists as usually a narrative isn't used, especially in the way Avicci uses it. The style of the video purposefully makes it look like home videos from the actor to thouroughly portray the central message and show the idea of travelling and this boy living his life and documenting it.
Beyonce - 'Single Ladies' Music Video 2009
Beyonce's video for 'Single Ladies' includes a simple one shot of Beyonce dancing with two dancers behind her. The video uses different camera angles, mainly wide shots and zoom outs and ins to show the whole dance that they are doing. The camera moves sometimes to rotate around them or go closer and further from them to add more variety in angles to watch. The video is in black and white and uses many lighting effects, made in production instead of post production, to add mpre dimension to the video. The main purpose of the video is clearly to promote Beyonce as an artist and idol and make her recognisable to her audience as it was released in 2009 when Beyonce's fame was still on the rise from being an unknown artist. The dance in which they perform fits with the beat and rythymn of the song which makes it more appealing for a watcher. It is also an iconic dance which is very recognisable as one her more famous music videos. The style for the video is to be as unedited as possible as it attempts to look like it is done in one take, although it does cut occassionally, and uses in-studio lighting as the only effects other than the black and white filter. This could be due to the directors intent to make a more simple yet effective video or becuase it is older and therefore not a technologically advanced as a video.
Rihanna - 'Umberella' Music Video 2009
Rihanna's 'Umberella' music video is split into different sections which all have the intention to promote Rihanna as an artist by having her as the only focus in all of them. The first section begins with her sitting on the floor in a bodysuit and hat in an attractive manner, it also includes shots of Jay-Z, her co-artist in the song, to promote him too. The shots of Rihanna in this section are mainly close ups gto show her face and lip-syncing. It then moves to Rihanna doing some dancing with a heavily used blur effect in each shot where the camera goes in and out of focus at regular intervals. The shots are a combination of wide shots, close ups and longs shots to show all of her at different parts. It then moves to a water focused section to correlate with the 'umberella' idea which uses slow motion and overlapsing edited effects where Rihanna pushes water and her face is also made up of it. This is to demonstrate the semantic field of umberallas by using water and rain imagery. There is then a ballet section of Rihanna dancing in rain with an umberella which also includes extreme closeups of her lip-syncing the song. The director, again uses the focus effect to add more variety and dimension to the video. It then moves to a section where she is more neatly dresses with a fancy background, showing maid/hotel correlations. A filter is used where the top of the screen is orange and the bottom is blue. She is again dancing with an umberella and dances to the exact beat to emphasise it. It then moves to a very artistic section where Rihanna is painted entirely silver and moves in interesting shapes. It also plays with the colours od black and white by switching from black to white in short bursts and showing the reflectiveness of Rihanna's silver body. During the slower section the video only includes close ups of Rihanna lip syncing to focus in on her purely as an artist before moving ingto the more interesting and dramatic section. The final section is a larger dance routine with back up dancers, falling sparks and water on the floor with Rihanna central. It uses a variety of shots and techniques to show her as an artist and conclude the video effectively.
Calvin Harris - 'Summer' Music Video 2014
Calvin Harris' 'Summer' music video includes elements of montage and narrative. It revolves around a girl and Harris as an artist. There is an element of a car race which occurs with the beat drop in which the main actress participates with Calvin appearing in the crowd and then racing in a car at another point in the video. There are moments of Harris by himself walking down a road to promote him as an artist and make him recognisable as an artist. The video also includes many images of women in bathing suits or with seductive wear on to portray a certain view of women and possibly entice some of the watchers into watching. It also concludes with a huge party scene with slow motion effects in olace of eople dancing and great wide shots of the lights above the crowd to show the energy and excitement that comes with the song and also as this genre if sings is more likely to be played at parties such as that it links in that way too. The lyrics and presentation of the lead girl suggest a summer romance as the lyrivcs do start with 'when I met you in the summer' and shows the kind of things occuring in these charaters lives during their summertime.
Dua Lipa - 'IDGAF' Music Video 2018
Dua Lipa's 'IDGAF' music video is cleverly directed as it is shot in one long take with a dual effect, duplicating the dancers and Dua and making them interact with eachother. There is a Dua in red and a Dua in blue which also applies to the backup dancers. The set is a simple blue oval at the start with stairs in one corner which Dua uses to sit on, it then changes in the bridge as white, ceiling high blocks roll in to cut off the Dua's from the background dancers. The camera starts the video with a following close up of Dua but then pans into a wide shot to show all the dancers, it also moves over Dua at one point where both versions of her are lying on the floor before panning back to a wide shot for the chorus. The video took 21 hours to shoot due to the complicated nature of the video however, it is successfully effective at creating an amazing visual for a watcher and also a different style of music video for Dua Lipa's music.
Fall Out Boy - 'Young and Menace' Music Video 2017
Fall Out Boy's 'Young and Menace' music video is an alternative, narrative video. It follows the story of a child who finds a magazine showing that their reality is not the same as the normal, causing them to run away from home. The parents of the child are shown as odd monster-like creatures to get the child's perception of them clear to the audience. A variety of camera shots are used as there are many jumpcuts used to make the video more effective. A key feature of the video is the use of the colour purple which features when the child is running away, in the club and generally everywhere which is effective at portraying Fall Out Boy's branding for their album 'Mania'. There is also branding for this particualry in the bar scene where Fall Out Boy are playing with the word 'Mania' in purple lights behind them reflecting their album's title and colour scheme and promoting them as the artist. The video also has a section of montage flashbacks where there are short clips and cuts of all that has happened in the video and also the twist of what his parents actually do look like behind the child's portrayal and that they are actually human just alien in the way their family works as they are always arguing and rent happy, whereas the child experiences a happy family for the first time in the magazine. There are also many effects such as blurring, switchbacks and filters to add more dynamic and dimension to the video as it compliments the techno-music aspects of the song which is a new area that Fall Out Boy has explored in their music so they want to highly emphasise it.
Skrillex and Diplo ft Justin Bieber - 'Where Are U Now?' Music Video 2015
The 'Where Are U Now' music video made by Jack U is a combination of stop motion and montage. It shows how all the drawing were made through timelapse shots of artists coming in and drawing on images of Bieber which are used in the video. The video starts by fading to a shot of Bieber who is lipsyncing. The video only shows Bieber as one of the artists as in 2015 he was the most well-known in front of the DJ's Diplo and Skrillex among the general pop culture audience so to gain more attention just using Bieber was an effective move. In the chorus sections it then shows stop-motion where Bieber is dancing and all the drawings the artists made are shown in stop-motion form. There is also a part where digitally made paint is rising up the body of Bieber and soon fully immersing him, changing his eyes and dripping down his face. This creates the iconic thumbnail for the video. Effects such as duplicating and blurring are also used to add more dimension to the video and different camera shots, such as close-ups in the verses and wide shots in the chorus.
Panic! At The Disco - 'Say Amen (Saturday Night)' Music Video
Panic! At The Disco's 'Say Amen (Saturday Night) music video is a narrative style video with an extended storyline within it. It is cleverly made as the prequel to the music videos for 'This Is Gospel' (2013) and 'Emporer's New Clothes' (2016). The video starts with a news report about a missing "devils key" which has been stolen. It then moves to a house with masked criminals searching through it looking for something, with suspenseful music playing in the background. The camera pans over to where Brendon Urie, the lead singer of the band, makes his appearance with the devils key around his neck which is clearly what the masked men are after. Urie stays calm as he goes over to his phone to receive a text from his girlfriend saying "see you in 10 baby", this is where the song starts as Urie replies "make it 20". It is unclear to the watchers as to what Urie is doing during the first verse as he grabs some ties out of the draw and stares at the masked men, however when the chorus starts the video shifts into a very violent and graphic fight where the masked men are being thrown around and killed in clever ways by Urie. Urie still stays calm and like a mastermind which makes it more comical for the watcher as well. However, there is a twist once all the other men have been killed as the music stops after the final explosion and the doorbell rings to reveal his girlfriend. They make their way romantically through the destructed house and when Urie takes off his shirt to reveal the devils key his girlfriend decides to beat him up to retrieve it off him, which is surprising to the watcher as Urie was just clever in killing all the previous men. It includes many comical moments too such as where Urie is kicked in his male parts as he hits the high note of the song. The video then finishes with him on the floor with the sound of a heartbeat which leads into the next video of the series 'This Is Gospel'. The video uses a variety of camera shots but little overrlayed effects as there is so much action happening within the video.
The music video for Avicii's song 'The Nights' consists of a narrative montage of a boy who travels around the world, living life to the best he can. This reflects the central message of the video: 'live a life you will remember' which is mentioned at the start, where a man's voice is heard saying "When I was 16, my father said you can do anything you want with your life, you just have to be willing to work hard to get it. That's when I decided when I die I want to be remembered for the life I lived'. While this is being said the actor spray paints Avicci's branding seen in many of his videos from this album of the two trianlges which is recognisable to the audience. This branding is also shwon at the end of the video with the words 'Live a life you will remember' also spray painted by the actor on the wall as a final moment of the video. The features of the video include timelapsing, slow-motion and hand held viewpoint filming from the actor. The video correlates with the lyrics tightly to address the message Avicii is trying to portray. Avicii's style of music video is quite different from many other dance music artists as usually a narrative isn't used, especially in the way Avicci uses it. The style of the video purposefully makes it look like home videos from the actor to thouroughly portray the central message and show the idea of travelling and this boy living his life and documenting it.
Beyonce - 'Single Ladies' Music Video 2009
Beyonce's video for 'Single Ladies' includes a simple one shot of Beyonce dancing with two dancers behind her. The video uses different camera angles, mainly wide shots and zoom outs and ins to show the whole dance that they are doing. The camera moves sometimes to rotate around them or go closer and further from them to add more variety in angles to watch. The video is in black and white and uses many lighting effects, made in production instead of post production, to add mpre dimension to the video. The main purpose of the video is clearly to promote Beyonce as an artist and idol and make her recognisable to her audience as it was released in 2009 when Beyonce's fame was still on the rise from being an unknown artist. The dance in which they perform fits with the beat and rythymn of the song which makes it more appealing for a watcher. It is also an iconic dance which is very recognisable as one her more famous music videos. The style for the video is to be as unedited as possible as it attempts to look like it is done in one take, although it does cut occassionally, and uses in-studio lighting as the only effects other than the black and white filter. This could be due to the directors intent to make a more simple yet effective video or becuase it is older and therefore not a technologically advanced as a video.
Rihanna - 'Umberella' Music Video 2009
Rihanna's 'Umberella' music video is split into different sections which all have the intention to promote Rihanna as an artist by having her as the only focus in all of them. The first section begins with her sitting on the floor in a bodysuit and hat in an attractive manner, it also includes shots of Jay-Z, her co-artist in the song, to promote him too. The shots of Rihanna in this section are mainly close ups gto show her face and lip-syncing. It then moves to Rihanna doing some dancing with a heavily used blur effect in each shot where the camera goes in and out of focus at regular intervals. The shots are a combination of wide shots, close ups and longs shots to show all of her at different parts. It then moves to a water focused section to correlate with the 'umberella' idea which uses slow motion and overlapsing edited effects where Rihanna pushes water and her face is also made up of it. This is to demonstrate the semantic field of umberallas by using water and rain imagery. There is then a ballet section of Rihanna dancing in rain with an umberella which also includes extreme closeups of her lip-syncing the song. The director, again uses the focus effect to add more variety and dimension to the video. It then moves to a section where she is more neatly dresses with a fancy background, showing maid/hotel correlations. A filter is used where the top of the screen is orange and the bottom is blue. She is again dancing with an umberella and dances to the exact beat to emphasise it. It then moves to a very artistic section where Rihanna is painted entirely silver and moves in interesting shapes. It also plays with the colours od black and white by switching from black to white in short bursts and showing the reflectiveness of Rihanna's silver body. During the slower section the video only includes close ups of Rihanna lip syncing to focus in on her purely as an artist before moving ingto the more interesting and dramatic section. The final section is a larger dance routine with back up dancers, falling sparks and water on the floor with Rihanna central. It uses a variety of shots and techniques to show her as an artist and conclude the video effectively.
Calvin Harris - 'Summer' Music Video 2014
Calvin Harris' 'Summer' music video includes elements of montage and narrative. It revolves around a girl and Harris as an artist. There is an element of a car race which occurs with the beat drop in which the main actress participates with Calvin appearing in the crowd and then racing in a car at another point in the video. There are moments of Harris by himself walking down a road to promote him as an artist and make him recognisable as an artist. The video also includes many images of women in bathing suits or with seductive wear on to portray a certain view of women and possibly entice some of the watchers into watching. It also concludes with a huge party scene with slow motion effects in olace of eople dancing and great wide shots of the lights above the crowd to show the energy and excitement that comes with the song and also as this genre if sings is more likely to be played at parties such as that it links in that way too. The lyrics and presentation of the lead girl suggest a summer romance as the lyrivcs do start with 'when I met you in the summer' and shows the kind of things occuring in these charaters lives during their summertime.
Dua Lipa - 'IDGAF' Music Video 2018
Dua Lipa's 'IDGAF' music video is cleverly directed as it is shot in one long take with a dual effect, duplicating the dancers and Dua and making them interact with eachother. There is a Dua in red and a Dua in blue which also applies to the backup dancers. The set is a simple blue oval at the start with stairs in one corner which Dua uses to sit on, it then changes in the bridge as white, ceiling high blocks roll in to cut off the Dua's from the background dancers. The camera starts the video with a following close up of Dua but then pans into a wide shot to show all the dancers, it also moves over Dua at one point where both versions of her are lying on the floor before panning back to a wide shot for the chorus. The video took 21 hours to shoot due to the complicated nature of the video however, it is successfully effective at creating an amazing visual for a watcher and also a different style of music video for Dua Lipa's music.
Fall Out Boy - 'Young and Menace' Music Video 2017
Fall Out Boy's 'Young and Menace' music video is an alternative, narrative video. It follows the story of a child who finds a magazine showing that their reality is not the same as the normal, causing them to run away from home. The parents of the child are shown as odd monster-like creatures to get the child's perception of them clear to the audience. A variety of camera shots are used as there are many jumpcuts used to make the video more effective. A key feature of the video is the use of the colour purple which features when the child is running away, in the club and generally everywhere which is effective at portraying Fall Out Boy's branding for their album 'Mania'. There is also branding for this particualry in the bar scene where Fall Out Boy are playing with the word 'Mania' in purple lights behind them reflecting their album's title and colour scheme and promoting them as the artist. The video also has a section of montage flashbacks where there are short clips and cuts of all that has happened in the video and also the twist of what his parents actually do look like behind the child's portrayal and that they are actually human just alien in the way their family works as they are always arguing and rent happy, whereas the child experiences a happy family for the first time in the magazine. There are also many effects such as blurring, switchbacks and filters to add more dynamic and dimension to the video as it compliments the techno-music aspects of the song which is a new area that Fall Out Boy has explored in their music so they want to highly emphasise it.
Skrillex and Diplo ft Justin Bieber - 'Where Are U Now?' Music Video 2015
The 'Where Are U Now' music video made by Jack U is a combination of stop motion and montage. It shows how all the drawing were made through timelapse shots of artists coming in and drawing on images of Bieber which are used in the video. The video starts by fading to a shot of Bieber who is lipsyncing. The video only shows Bieber as one of the artists as in 2015 he was the most well-known in front of the DJ's Diplo and Skrillex among the general pop culture audience so to gain more attention just using Bieber was an effective move. In the chorus sections it then shows stop-motion where Bieber is dancing and all the drawings the artists made are shown in stop-motion form. There is also a part where digitally made paint is rising up the body of Bieber and soon fully immersing him, changing his eyes and dripping down his face. This creates the iconic thumbnail for the video. Effects such as duplicating and blurring are also used to add more dimension to the video and different camera shots, such as close-ups in the verses and wide shots in the chorus.
Panic! At The Disco - 'Say Amen (Saturday Night)' Music Video
Panic! At The Disco's 'Say Amen (Saturday Night) music video is a narrative style video with an extended storyline within it. It is cleverly made as the prequel to the music videos for 'This Is Gospel' (2013) and 'Emporer's New Clothes' (2016). The video starts with a news report about a missing "devils key" which has been stolen. It then moves to a house with masked criminals searching through it looking for something, with suspenseful music playing in the background. The camera pans over to where Brendon Urie, the lead singer of the band, makes his appearance with the devils key around his neck which is clearly what the masked men are after. Urie stays calm as he goes over to his phone to receive a text from his girlfriend saying "see you in 10 baby", this is where the song starts as Urie replies "make it 20". It is unclear to the watchers as to what Urie is doing during the first verse as he grabs some ties out of the draw and stares at the masked men, however when the chorus starts the video shifts into a very violent and graphic fight where the masked men are being thrown around and killed in clever ways by Urie. Urie still stays calm and like a mastermind which makes it more comical for the watcher as well. However, there is a twist once all the other men have been killed as the music stops after the final explosion and the doorbell rings to reveal his girlfriend. They make their way romantically through the destructed house and when Urie takes off his shirt to reveal the devils key his girlfriend decides to beat him up to retrieve it off him, which is surprising to the watcher as Urie was just clever in killing all the previous men. It includes many comical moments too such as where Urie is kicked in his male parts as he hits the high note of the song. The video then finishes with him on the floor with the sound of a heartbeat which leads into the next video of the series 'This Is Gospel'. The video uses a variety of camera shots but little overrlayed effects as there is so much action happening within the video.
Comments
Post a Comment