Rihanna digipak

The dominant colours of the whole digipack is clearly red and other warm colours. This suggests the connotations of love, lust, sexiness and luck. This reflects the Rihanna as an artist and suggests that the album 'loud' will be portraying these meanings, maybe through her songs and attitude. The digipack includes a lot of roses - which we also relate to these specific connotations. 
The images used portrays Rihanna in a sexual way, using the colour red and the flowers effectively. As you can see, the image on the left in slide 2 shows Rihanna holding a red rose between her two fingers up near her mouth - as if she is holding a cigarette. Without the rose there it would look as if she is in a 'smoking' gesture but with the rose being there defeats this purpose and automatically makes her more feminine. 
The actual CD has an image of a pastel pink rose transferred on it. This calms down the dominant reds that are included on the digipack.
Overlaid on the images throughout the pack is lyrics and quotes of her songs that are included in the album. These are written in an elegant italics font similar to the tattoo situated on her collar bone/neck. This reflects her personality in the album pack. I think this digipack clearly shows the target audience of the artist - thought to be an older target group aged maybe 18+. I think this because of the way she is being portrayed sexually and its more likely that this age group would be drawn to her... either as a role model or a sex symbol. I also think this due to some of the explicit references made in the albums songs. 
The font used on the cover and throughout the pack is the same thin writing. It looks very elegant, smart and simple which doesn't clash with the striking images.

Katy Perry Digipak Analysis

 

This is a series of photographs showing Katy Perry's - Teenage Dream albums digipak.
The artist Katy Perry is represented as sweet and innocent with the candy and colours that represent candy emphasizes this. You can see this from the images that are used on the front cover and in the digipak (slides 8, 18 and 19). For example the front cover is of Katy laying naked on pink clouds which represent her as some sort of 'angel'. The pink clouds also represent candy floss, which goes with the 'candy' theme of her albums digipak. After doing some research the candy theme is a repetitive theme through her career as it is included in her video for California girls featuring Snoop Dog. The candy theme was also taken to her 'California Dreams' Tour where Katy wore giant cupcake outfits and filled certain venues with the aura of candy floss. The images are very 'pop' and are very appealing toward both teenage girls and the younger generation due to the pale pastel colours used throughout. The design definately reflects the artists style.The colours have been used to attract the target audience as it strongly appeals to them. It has also been used because it relates to her theme which I mentioned briefly. Katy Perry is represented as angelic which also attracts her target audience as she comes across and very fun and friendly.

You can see what the genre of music is from the packaging really easily. The colours and softness of the images just show that that the artist must be 'pop'. The colour pink is genuinely what everyone associates with this genre.
The digipak is a very simple booklet which includes songswords to all her songs. The simple layout suggests that the album is for a younger target audience, so it is easier to open and read rather than the fold out ones where they tend to tear easily. The lyrics of her songs also suggests that shes aiming her album at a younger generation and young girls like to know the lyrics of songs so they can sing along to them. On the front of the digipak (cover) it says that the album is 'Parental Advisory Explicit Conent'. This logo indicates that it is not suitable for young children as it has 'explicit' words or phrases in it. I thought this was rather strange as her target audience is toward a younger generation, but more toward teenage girls - so It is understandable. After researching why this was the case it does state that there is also a 'clean' version to purchase aswell as this one which shows that she does actually consider a wide variety of audiences. I think the 'parental advisory' logo contrasts with the album cover as looking at the cover you wouldnt expect it to be remotely explicit. This suggests that the artist is actually quite a Diva and shows her 'rockyness' which she does include in her songs aswell as pop.The title of the album is 'Teenage Dream'. The cover image does link with the title as it's representing Katy as a 'Teenage Dream' aiming it more at male audience.The image is of her naked covered by the candy like clouds. This seems to bring out the sexy side of the artist whilst at the same time keeping it angelic and moderate.
The packing is promoting the  artist in every way. As I mentioned before it is promoting her self image, her tour and of course the songs (and videos) on her album. It also promotes her as an all round artist with quite a wide range of audiences.

 

What is a Digipak?

 

Digipacks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipacks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one part of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center section. Usually the part of the digipack that holds the CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case CD - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background.


Digipaks usually made with 300 gsm card, it can be 'Glossy' or 'Varnished' A 'Pop Girl Band or Artist' would use glossy because it portrays their glamour and femininity.The colours in the digipak also determine the target audience. If I were looking to buy a pop CD I'd look for colours that are bright a feminine such as pink.The most common size is the 4pp Digipak which measures 139.5mm x 6mm x 125.5 mm. This CD packaging comes in double thickness card, hardback or textured cover options made from environmental friendly materials. 

A2 Media Music Video Draft

I have made a short practise video using some shots that will be used in the final music video. I have just quickly uploaded the footage I already have and put this together using iMovie. I have made sure the visuals link with the music and lyrics to make this taster video look good. I overlaid a pink tint on top of the clips, also changing the contrast and exposure of the clips to make it look good and to suit the theme that I was going for. The reason why I went for pink was because it suited the style of shots that were including in this video. The colour also made the artist stand out more in terms of skin, make-up and clothing. I like this effect and think this video is effective and I will use this in my final video. In my final music video I may also change the tint to different colours... making the video very 'pop' and colourful. I think the pink overlay also add emphasis to the way I want my star to be portrayed.
From looking at this video I have decided which shots are good to use in my final video and which ones don't really fit.

Final Shooting Schedule

Location Photo's

Here are some photos to show the location where I will be filming scenes to my music video. I have taken pictures of the overall shopping center (last picture). This is roughly where I plan to film.. I have also taken images of the shop 'River Island' where I am filming a high majority of the video. I thought that these locations were appropriate because they fit my song choice. For example when I was choosing my locations I had the lyrics and pace of the song in mind. Therefore thought a shopping center would be a great idea as it has a very hectic, fast pace atmosphere about it which I also wanted to show through my video (and the setting would help this a lot). I chose to film in this specific shop because to me it best reflected glam, due to the colours, lighting and clothing that the shop has.

Location Permission

This is a short letter that I wrote up which will be shown to the manager of the clothes shop I am using. This letter explains exactly what I will be filming, including examples of shots that may be filmed and roughly how long it will take... I am aware of copyright in the UK so therefore wrote this letter asking for permission. I have also explained in the letter that it would interfere with any of the goings on in the shop as I do not need a lot of space and would go at a less busy time.. ie; weekday.

Settings and Props

Location List

Bedroom - First scene of the artist in her bedroom, pampering herself (dressing gown, hair in towel), reading 'Confessions of a shopaholic' the book by Sophie Kinsella. Also scenes in her room where clothes and shopping bags are everywhere.

Canary Wharf - For a majority of the scenes I will be filming in Canary Wharf, as I wanted the setting to be a busy shopping centre. For example for the walking scene (which I wanted to reference to 'The devil wears Prada') I would film it along the shopping centre foyer to show her walking past all the shops.

A Clothes Shop - Where I could get a variety of shots including her shopping, looking around, and admiring clothes and shoes.

White Backdrop - I will use the white backdrop for the 'Vogue' scenes that I wish to make, as having a white backdrop would make it more as if she is in a studio which is the effect I want and it would also be easier to edit/ overlay the magazine on top of these shots.

Changing Room scene - I hope to use a clothes shop changing room so I could include shots (montage edit) of different chamge of outfits for the chorus.

Cashpoint - Where the artist goes to withdraw cash but realises she has a low bank balance.

Prop List

Most of the props needed for my music video are very simple to gather. In the image above there are overall props that I will use in my music video. Here are a range of colourful items like..

Nail Varnishes - For the changing nail colour shot

Shopping bags - For the shopping centre scene

Shoes - Linking lyrics with the visuals 'I can hear my name calling from stillettos on display'

The Confessions Of A Shoppaholic Book - For the beggining when she is reading the book in a A Dressing Gown in her room..

Artist Profile

 Ellie McQuade

Ellie is a 17 year old student who has studied Drama in the past making her able to create and impersonate a variety of characters. Her bubbly, cheerful and bouncy personality would fit perfectly for the female music artist I wish to create. Her personalitly will shine through the music video creating a beleivable Pop artist.

Music Video Idea's

Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me

From Taylor Swifts - You Belong With Me music video I got the idea of the same character changing clothes within a short space of time in the song. I thought this was a very quirky idea and would really go with the rythm/ pace of the song. I also think it's a good idea because it reflects on the character/ artist aswell... making them seem quirky and quite comical.

Vogue Magazine - Cover Girl  

 

One of my ideas for my music video was to include a reference to Vogue magazine. The idea was to film the artist as if she was posing for Vogue, with the overlayed image of the Vogue Title Block and Puffs at the sides. I think the outcome would look really good and fit with the theme of the song and video that I'm going for. It will represent Vogue cover girls in the past like celebrities such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and even Music Artists such as Gaga, Katy Perry and Rihanna. By doing this it would immitate other celebrities slightly - but this is part of the 'artists' characteristics that I'm using. 

Brightly Coloured Nails

I have noticed in latest music videos that the female artists all have funky coloured nail designs. For example Pixie Lott in the image above... Beyonce, Katy Perry, Kesha and even the group 'Little Mix' On the X Factor. I thought that this research was relevant and appropriate and would be a good little thing to include in my video as it's very 'pop' and would fit with the style.

Money Idea

As well as using cash going up and down I will use coins aswell. Similar to this picture I will film coins getting higher and lower. This is because I wanted to show her 'loosing' money through the video.. therefore the cash that she has will turn into coins.



Animatic Storyboard

This is my animatic storyboard that I made to get a rough idea of the shots that I would use to make the music video. I cut the images to the time of the music and to the time where I would like the specific shots to last. Once I had finished my animatic on iMovie I watched it back and realised that I would need more shots to make the video more snappy with more shots. I also noticed that I need to film the shots at different angles to make the music video more interesting. There are many advantages to making an animatic. Doing an animatic storyboard would help me get familiar with the basic editing software. It would also help me see the timing and the pace that my shots should be when I film the actual scenes. The animatic storyboard also gives me a very good idea on if I need to include other scenes (if one scene seems to be too long). From the storyboard I think I have a good variety of shots to actually make the music video based on the animatic. 

Moodboard for music video

 

I made a moodboard so I could get some ideas for my music video, including settings, costumes and concepts. These images helped me think of some shots that I would include in my music video. For example the 2nd picture down on the right gave me the idea to montage edit a load of shopping scenes of the artist surrounded by clothes in shops. The moodboard also gave me ideas on costume for my artist.. So they will be wearing a lot of bright, bold coloured clothes with a lot of layers.

Synopsis of my Music Video

I want to reference some of my music video to the film Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) and also the book written by Sophie Kinsella, which the film was based on.
From listening to the song I felt that the artist (signing in first person) could be a ditzy/ passion for fashion character who has a love for clothes, shoes and money. I thought of this whilst listening to the lyrics. For example ‘Call me a perfectionist, addicted to immaculate. The hair right shoes tight’ and ‘got a catwalk for a closet’. I pictured scenes where the character would be getting pampered in a studio type room almost getting smothered by makeup artists ect... to create the effect that she’s a ‘Vogue’ cover girl.
Throughout the song the ‘shopaholic’ character experiences losing money with the video referencing to money, and what we associate with money, in this case - glossy magazines such as Vogue, clothes shops and glamorous makeup and clothing.
I will use a lot of montage editing as it will appropriately go with the rhythm and time of the song and make some parts of the song chaotic – which will be suitable for the theme I am going for. My video will follow Todorov's Theory (classic narrative) and will be told in chronological order with an Equilibrium-Disequilibrium-Recognition-Reparation and New Equilibrium.
The themes of my narrative will typically appeal to the female audience because of consumer culture. I think that this narrative will also link to politics and the government because of the way the country is dealing with the 'resession' - the narrative of this video will show the opposite of people are doing (saving money) and will give more of a positive vibe about the situation.

Survey Results

Here are the results of my survey to see what my target audience would like to see in my music video. By finding this information out I asked them what they would expect to see in a Pop Music Video now. The results showed me that I need to be dependant on Performance, Bright Colours, Costume, Props and Clear Settings. I definatly need to make my music video bright and vibrant. I will do this by thinking about the colours of the setting and costume and possibly think about changing the saturation of the scenes when at the editing stage. I have only shown a few comments for each of the last questions. The feedback shows me that I need to include a lot of 'singing and dancing' and I need to show a lot of 'personality' and character through the artist. I also asked who were my target audiences favourite female Pop music artist now.. A lot of the answers were Katy Perry, Rihanna and Lady Gaga. I will research more into these artists and see how I could make my artist similar to them.

Next I will build a artist profile of the 'artist' that I will be using for my video.



Target Audience Survey

I designed a short survey asking my target audience what they generally expect to see in a   Pop Music Video. The outcome of this survey will tell me what I defiantly need to include in my Music Video, even including certain colours they expect to see, or colours that are dominant in Pop Music Video's now... 

http://surveymonkey.com/s/XBS9BSG

I used the social networking site 'Twitter' to share my survey so I could collect the appropriate data to help me with my research. My twitter is full of my target group so I am hoping for great feedback!

Introduction

The song I am going to use for my music video is Free by Natalia Kills. The genre of this song is 'pop'. I decided to use this specific genre because I personally think it'll be more fun to work with, giving me a chance to use a variety of shots to portray a pop music video that we see now.
I wanted to portray the 'artist' in my music video as opposite than 'Natalia Kills'.

Annotation of 'Free' lyrics

Here I have carried out an annotation of the song lyrics. By doing this it really helped me with my research and planning. By reading through the lyrics it is easy to pick out ideas for the music video. Small annotations could then lead on to better research into a certain thing and create a good idea. This also links to Andrew Goodwins theory of a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. As you can see I already have an idea of intertextual references that I could use, relationships between the lyrics and visuals and music with visual. For example the piano beat at the beginning could be of a piano, along with the beat of the song (linking visuals with music). Here I have scanned in the annotations of the lyrics and ideas that I have came up with just from the lyrics.

Artist Profile

Natalia Kills

Natalia Kills is a 25 year old English singer and song writer , and short film director who performs under the name as Natalia Kills. She released her first single "Don't Play Nice" under the name Verbalicious in February 2005. She released her debut album, Perfectionist, under the name Natalia Kills in April 2011.

Birth name	Natalia Keery-Fisher
Also known as	Candy Rapper, Verbz, Verbalicious,Natalia Noemi Cappuccini,Verse
Born	15 August 1986 (1986-08-15) (age 25)Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
Genres	Pop, electropop
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, actress, director
Instruments	Vocals, drums, guitar
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Adventures in Music, will.i.am, Cherrytree, Kon Live, Interscope, Bozadya, Dandyville
Associated acts	Far East Movement, LMFAO, will.i.am
Website	nataliakills.com

My Song

Song's that I was considering...

Dolly Rockers - Gold Digger

If you click on the link above you can see the video 'Gold Digger'. I remember this song and video coming out around 2 years ago and not being very successful in the charts. I thought the song was very quirky and comical - along with the comical video going with the song. I want my video to be comical but only to an extent. I would like to take the 'ditsyness' of the 3 main singers to influence the artist in my video. The reason why I didn't wish to use this specific video was because I think that the existing video would influence my own too much as there is not much you could do with the lyrics (as I noticed that the lyrics are all the same throughout the song). Also, I do not think this song could have much of a narrative, which I would like in my music video.

Jessie J - Rainbow 

This is another song choice that I was considering. Off of Jessie J's 2011 album, the song 'Rainbow' seems to have a good narrative judging by the lyrics. I really like the way the artist sings and I can imagine the attitude and the way she sings it if she was ever to release a video to this song. The reason why I didnt end up choosing this song is because as a well known artist, her voice is very familiar and it would be hard to make a video of someone else covering her voice as it is so recognisable and unique. I like the tempo of this song and of the song above - so I definatly want a song with an up beat 'pop' tempo.

Star Image

Britney Spears

Labelled ‘Pop Princess’ since the late 90’s, Britney Spears was a pop sensation at the young age of 17. Britney was signed to ‘Jive Records’ in 1997, releasing her debut album ‘Baby One More Time’ two years later selling over 13million copies. Being in the limelight for 10 years the audience can see the change and differences in her career.

Britney’s first video ‘Baby one more time’ 1999, was filmed in a typical American high school – which is relevant as she was young at the time and probably wanted to aim the video at her teenage fans. The typical American high school is portrayed through the setting and costume. The costumes Include school uniforms with pigtails and pink fluffy hair ties which portrays her as sweet and innocent. In another scene she is wearing ‘gym clothes’ which may portray her as one of the sporty/popular girls in school. Every time was released 5 years later in 2004. The video was a response to Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me a River (2002), after they split in 2001. The video shows Spear’s as a star getting hounded by paparazzi and fans and eventually kills herself by taking an overdose of drugs and drowning in the bath. This specific suicide scene was believed to be a response to rumours that suggested that she had a mental disorder. The video portrayed Spear’s as angelic and vulnerable, due to the clothing she’s wearing in the ‘heaven’ after she has taken her own life. The director David LaChappelle wanted to give the video a cinematic feel, referencing to the 1955 film Leaving Las Vegas. Therefore this video is referencing to her life, and the pressure she has to deal with in day to day life. Her music video Lucky (2001) also has a narrative that slightly represents her personal life, as the video was based on a loved star (actress) that has everything but is still lonely and has something missing in her life despite having wealth, beauty and fame.
Being portrayed as angelic and vulnerable is a reoccurring theme throughout her videos and tends to be represented this way. For example in Sometimes (1999) – she wears the colour white, which represents her purity, as she stated herself to be a virgin until marriage. She also wears white and is represented in Every time (as said above) and is also acting as a guardian angel narrator in Lucky (2001) which again portrays her innocence.

As the years went by Spears’ image changed and her video’s and songs started to become more

(unfinished)

Textual analysis of Katy Perry’s – Waking up in Vegas music video

I am analysing Katy Perry’s video to Waking up in Vegas, directed by Joseph Kahn. The genre of this song is Pop/Rock. Nowadays genres are converged as they often do not fit just one of the genre characteristics. The term ‘pop’ used to be very limited, whereas now it’s very broad in terms of genre. ‘Waking up in Vegas’ has been categorized with pop/rock because of the elements of ‘rock instruments’ used in the song such as guitars and drums.
The general genre characteristic of Pop (popular) music is that it intends to encourage dancing, or uses dance beats or dance orientated rhythms. It should have ‘artistic’ qualities and an emphasis on recording, production and technology over live performance. Also, most importantly pop music/videos tend to follow recent and existing trends. This is important as it shows us who the main target audiences of pop music are... Such as teenagers/young adults who are always in the centre of existing trends. A lot of pop music videos are very vibrant, colourful and bold, including a lot of costume and scene changes of the artist/band.
In Waking up in Vegas, the artist Katy Perry has several costume changes that are shown through out the video back and forth.
The first of her outfits is a glamorous red ball gown that is worn at the beginning. The colour of her costume in this scene is very important because the dominant colours of the whole video is red and black – which are the colours we associate with Vegas and roulette. Sophistication and glamour are the connotations of red, representing Katy as very glam in her video. The other outfits that she wears are a ‘street’ style outfit (when she is gambling), a silver sequinned outfit with a Barbie pink blazer and diamond hooped earrings, a ‘queen of hearts’ card outfit, 2 ‘frapper girl’ style outfits and lastly glittery hot pants (when she’s in the money booth).  All these outfits are significant to her video, and link the lyrics and visuals together.

There is a very close relationship between the lyrics and visuals in the video as they link and go together very well. The visuals tell the story along with the lyrics. For example when Katy and her boyfriend are in a little white chapel style church getting married the lyrics say ‘Did we get hitched last night? Dressed up like Elvis. Why am I wearing, your class ring’. She sings these lyrics and points out the ‘class ring’ on her marriage finger whilst an Elvis impersonator is in the background. This is a typical stereotype of Vegas, (having a last minute marriages and not remembering in the morning ect).
The music also links with the visuals as the video cuts to the beat of the song. The fast pace of the beat links with the quick editing and shots. The video changes pace with the music. For example towards the end of the song the pace starts to slow down, the video doesn’t cut to other scenes and just focuses on one scene rather than loads at the same time.
There are many close ups of Katy throughout the whole of the video, making her the focal point of the whole video. There is voyeurism used in the song, when Katy is driving the Lamborghini, she looks at her iPod that is plugged into the car and the screen shows the song ‘Waking up in Vegas’ and her album cover. This is as if she is listening along to the song when we are, and also promoting her album/song and herself. The video relates to other video’s of the artists such as ‘Hot n Cold’, ‘California girls’ and her recent video ‘Last Friday Night’, as it is very fun and Katy seems to always play a very fun character in all of her video’s especially the ones I mentioned.

In this video Katy is obviously portrayed as an icon and someone her fans should look up to, and unlike most female artists, she is not on sexual display like other artists, as she is displayed more as a icon and suitable for all ages to watch eg children. This is important because it links with the genre of music, as a lot of ‘pop’ music artists have to be suitable for a younger target audience, as they are more likely to like the genre.

Narrative Analysis

Katy Perry - California Girls

The video I chose to look at is Katy Perry – California Girls. I am going to focus on analysing the narrative based on the three main theorists, Todorov, Propp and Levi-Strauss. I believe that this music video focuses specifically on Todorov’s theory which is ‘5 conventional stages’ as the video is told in chronological order and has an equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium.
The equilibrium in the video would be Snoop dog being the controller over ‘Candyfornia’ – the imaginary (game board) land where the video is set.
The disequilibrium would be Katy Perry discovering the land.
The recognition and reparation of the video would be finding and releasing the captured girls she finds in Candyfornia.  
The new equilibrium is when Katy Perry and the other girls all stop the controller of the land and bury him in the sand (Snoop Dog), as if they won the board game, beating snoop dog at he’s own game.
This video could also have references to Levi-Strauss’ theory and Propp’s theory. Because the video is only roughly 3 minutes long, it doesn’t have time to represent all characters in Propp’s theory. The characters that are shown is a hero (Katy) and villain (Snoop).  Levi-Strauss’ theory of the binary oppositions were shown in the video were good & bad. Good being Katy Perry and bad being Snoop Dog.

Though this is a music video, it still has a single diegesis, known as the standard Hollywood narrative structure (one main storyline). This is convenient because the whole video has a relation to Hollywood. For example the icing of the Hollywood sign suggests that the Candy world in the video is an imitation of Hollywood, for example a ‘dream land’ which we all link Hollywood to be.
I think this video has a lot of inspiration from the film Charlie and the chocolate factory, with a story of a strange land full of sweets and happiness (in the end). There is a strong sense of narrative structure in the video. It has been edited so that we know the background of the story. With quick shots that show Katy in many different locations and outfits we can see the length of her mission in the ‘board game’.  The video follows a clear linear narrative with a basic storyline.

Most 'Popular' Female Singers

Here are some images of female 'Pop' artists who's images will inspire me. I wanted to look at overall images of different female artists to see what their specific image and representation was and what the difference was between them. From these images you can see that not all of them are portrayed sexually, but some are. 

Target Group

When I was researching female artists (especially Pop artsits) I realised that they mainly target girls/ females over the age of 16/17. I noticed this as the music and videos now have quite a bit of sexual references and wouldn't include this in their work if their audiences were younger. I also noticed that the way they dress now is more sexy and suggestive than maybe they were 10 - 15 years ago. Girls of the age 16 - 20 tend to pick up more on an artists image and tend to want to become more like the artist at this age.. for example the clothes they wear, style ect...
I have decided to make my target group 16 - 19 year olds as I know that they are the main target group/ fans for female pop artists nowdays.
I will research into my target group and create surveys that will include them, giving me appropriate feedback that I will use to create a concept for my music video.

Genre: Pop

The genre that I will be showing through my music video will be Pop. This genre includes singers (mainly female) like Katy Perry, Rihanna and Britney Spears. These are current and the most popular female pop artists. The thing that made me want to do a Pop music video was the specific style that all pop videos have eg; fun, exciting, entertaining and energetic. I think that all the concepts of the artists and their videos would really relate to my target audience – as they are used to seeing this sort of thing and would be immediately drawn to it. Although it was challenging for me to find an appropriate pop song from a female artist that wasn’t already mainstream, I finally found a song that fitted the main idea that I wanted to communicate through my video. Pop videos are generally performance based with a huge reference to the artist, consistently having the artist on camera or in the centre of the videos attention. The main idea of making a pop music video is for the artist to be portrayed as very ‘popular’ showing a lot of character and personalities through their videos.

Destiny's Child Music Video Analysis

I will carry out textual analyses of music videos to become more familiar with the codes and conventions of music videos of specific genres. Also how music videos represent the artists and put a certain image across to the audience.


The video which I am analysing is Survivor by Destiny’s Child - Released in February 2001. Darren Grant was the director for this particular Destiny’s Child video, but has also directed many other video’s of theirs including ‘With Me featuring Jermaine Dupri’, ‘No, no, no’ and ‘Bills, bills, bills’. The music video for ‘Survivor’ was really successful, and won the 2001 MTV Video Music Award for Best R&B Video.

The lyrics are amplified and emphasized when the word ’survivor’ is sang by all 3 members of the group together (occurs mainly in the chorus). This is contradicted by the visuals the whole way through the video as it is basically the narrative of the music video. Also the lyrics of the song start almost by telling the narrative of the song. For example, ‘I’m a survivor, I’m not gonna give up’ - shows us that the music video is most defiantly and quite clearly about women being strong and independent. Another example of the lyrics that tell the narrative is ‘I'm gonna make it, I will survive, Keep on surviving'. These lyrics link to the video because after having the power by ‘surviving’ in the south pacific, they are finally rescued at the end of the video.
Also at the beginning of the video ‘Beyonce’ one of the group members is on the shore - she makes a gesture (pictured below) which signifies relief as a survivor.

The genre of this music/ song is R&B. This is represented through the music video by the typical choreographed dances that the group do including back up dancers and the way they are dressed provocatively.

In the music video the main interstitial reference was the narrative which was referenced to the American TV show ‘Survivor’ which was very popular in 2000-2001 (the time in which this music video was produced. The programme was basically about strangers being stranded on an island together and basically ‘survival of the fittest’. This interstitial reference makes the music video immediately recognisable - especially Americans who are familiar with the ‘survivor’ show. The directors are using popularity to promote this video/single.

The video cuts to the beat very fast like most R&B videos. The fast cuts and shots links to the feisty and strong representation that the directors are giving to women in this video.
The video cuts change pace with the music. For example at the end of the video the music is lowered and the visuals become slow paced which links the music and visuals together (as at this point the hecticness of the narrative is slowed down as they are rescued).

There are a lot of close ups used through out the music video of the group individuals. The close ups often cut quickly, with shots of each of the artists. The close up shots are not just of their faces. The close up also show parts of their bodies, which was obviously the directors choice of shots to almost portray the group as ‘sex symbols’.
They are mostly shown in a very sexual way in the beginning (notion of looking), when they are walking along the shore in torn clothes (which are revealing/shown below). It is almost as if they are using their gender and sexuality to gain power and promote themselves as a group. The music video is heavily based of the notion of looking in the point of view of the audience - making sure you are looking at the group at all times through out the video.

The group are portrayed as independent and strong throughout the whole video, and this also relates to other video’s that they made previously, for example Independent woman - where the group are represented as ‘Charlie’s angels’ which is an interstitial reference to the film Charlie’s Angels starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Lu.

Theories and conventions that will help me to produce a successful music video

Andrew Goodwin is a key theorist that will help me to create a successful music video using the conventions that he states. These conventions were

- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
- Genre-related style and iconography present.
- Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females
- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.

I will follow Andrew Goodwin's conventions in order to create a successful music video...