The history of the music industry 1990's - Present

The history of the music industry 1800's - 1980's

Video analysis - The script

The script are a pop/rock band first formed in Dublin in 2001 and are still very present on the music scene. The band is made up of three members; Danny O'Donoghue the lead singer, Mark Sheehan the guitarist and Glen Power the drummer.  It wasn't until years later the band was signed to Sony label group and in 2008 they released their self titled debut album. The first single released which was on the album called 'We Cry' peaking at only 15 in the UK charts, the band still became heavily supported by radio presenters and fellow bands at that time and the song was performed in the hit CW tv series 90210.

As we cry was their first official single and music video it had to be a video that would give The Script a foundation for a growing fanbase. The video is both a studio performance and narrative although the narrative is a little less easier to see. The studio scenes of the video showed the band off and not just Danny. Typically when launching a new artist, management tend to focus on the lead singer as he is the one who leads the band and is the most important aspect of the band. This why in the narrative part of the video we see just Danny and not Glen or Mark.  The studio scenes saw Danny reading the lyrics off a piece of paper which could emphasize that they are a new band and are supposed to be new to all of this. Although in the studio, its very easy to see the emotions being conveyed because all members are putting 100% effort and you can tell that the song has meaning to all three of them. The narrative of the video see's Danny walking through the heavily graffitied streets of New York. The video is supposed to be about people the band knew back in Dublin and the stuggles they were facing.  By having this as the story to the music video is what a lot of new artists do. They want to bring themselves into the music industry and that means songs about their past both good and bad.

When speaking about the song, Danny said that his inspiration was that he lost his father five month after an old bandmate had lost his mother and how such big events in a persons life can bring people together to be strong together after the event.

A2 media music videos - Rather be

Rather Be originally by Clean Bandit is a love song about wanting to be with their partners and not with anyone else. The original video and this interpretation of the song are very different which is a good thing as they stayed as far away as possible from the original.

The video is a flash back. It starts with the boy and girl together about to kiss (which we see also at the end of the video) and the girl receives a text from the boyfriend saying that he's ending it with her. This then leads to all the flashbacks of the good times they had together. She lip-syncs part of the lyrics but the scenes in which she is standing in the field you can easily tell how uncomfortable she is lip-syncing and so it looks like a very bad attempt. The other scenes in which she's in front of a white backdrop her lip-synching improves and she doesn't look so stiff and uncomfortable. The third set we see a white sheet spattered with paint and the couple are being all very lovely and romantic and play fighting. There is clear continuity through out the video but very little in terms of effects to make the video stand out more. The only scene in which effects are used are the scenes where she is singing in front of a back drop and the shot changes colours.

A2 media music videos - Of the night

Of the night (a Bastille cover) it is a mash up of two 90's dance tracks; The rhythm of the night and Rhythm is a dancer.

This students video concept is that his girlfriend has passed away and he's missing her a lot so he visits the places they went together. It starts of with the boy visiting the girlfriends grave and then he drives away and then his 'life'  begins without his girlfriend and he goes back to visit the places they went to and has flashbacks of when she was still here and then it will cut to her not being there but him still in the frame as if she is.  The entire video has a layered on off grey effect to emphasize the loneliness he is feeling. As a video, I think the concept is pretty basic although they do get credit for shying well away from the original video . Some lyrics do match the visuals of the student for example "There'll be nothing left for me to yearn" matches the visuals because the girlfriend has died and he no longer has anyone to yearn for. The original song is about a breakup and not a death so you could say that the video is over exaggerated. The video includes lyrical elements; some lyrics mainly from the chorus flash up on screen with the video still playing in the background and not on a plain backdrop which is typically seen in videos.

A2 media music videos - Applause

Applause originally by Lady Gaga is very well known for doing weird and wonderful things with her video and this student really did take that into consideration when producing her video for Applause.  With the video starting of with the actress walking slowly off stage behind the curtains it then cuts to b;acl and white with her dressed all in black not yet lip synching. The shots then start to overlap eachother which gives a very good effect to the music video. Then it cuts to the next scene in which the shots are coloured red and blue and her lip synching proves to be in time with the backing track. There are also some scenes in which she has a paint splatter ladder and shes behind it singing which gives it the "Lady Gaga" effect because its weird but it works. There is also some special effects added in post filming like the bright  yellow eye and the silhouette of the girl dancing. I feel as if the student who produced this music video wanted to convey the craziness of Lady Gaga but put her own little spin on it as well.

A2 music video search on YouTube

After researching into my own five videos that inspire me I thought I would look into other A2 music videos on YouTube to gain some more inspiration! The videos I found were very interesting and to see what other students did with their videos is fascinating.  By looking at these videos I am able to see what kind of standard there is and what elements are key to a good music video. This includes a lot of performance aspects of the video with good lip synching skills. Bad lip synching can very easily ruin a video as I saw from watching precious entries. Another aspect that can make a music video is how good the editing is and how smooth it flows through out the middle. If there is very little editing and looks as it they just cut random parts of their footage together then it ruins it but if there is a good flow of editing that is almost not clear to the eye then it improves the video quality. Some music videos I watched containd some excellent special effects such as changing the colour of certain shots, layering one shot on top of another etc. the videos have given me a lot of ideas and advice on what I need to include in my video to get the best possible grade 

Video analysis - James Arthur

On going weekly production diary

Conventions of a indie/rock music video - You me at six

Conventions of a folk rock music video - Mumford and sons

Mumford and sons are a British folk rock band consisting of Marcus (the lead singer), Ben, Winston and Ted. They formed in December 2007 from West London. Their debut album 'Sigh no more' was released in October 2009 and then in February for the US. Peaking only no.2 in the UK but the band is still known to be one of the biggest band of their genre. Their popularity came in 2010 as they performed for larger audiences. They have since received two Grammy award nominations.

Little Lion Man is the debut single from the band. The video is the band performing in an empty venue. They are dressed in casual suits playing their instruments. The video shows off their talents as not only singers but real musicians. Talking about the lyrics, lead singer Marcus said that "it's a very personal story... it was a situation in my life I wasn't very happy with or proud of and sometimes when you cant describe a feeling with your own words, its almost easier to express in a song". This could be the reason the video is so simplistic. They didn't want to put a very personal story across in video.

Winter winds is the bands second single. The song is about a man who gets into a relationship for the pure reason of not wanting to be alone during the winter and no matter how much he tries, he just cannot fall in love with the girl. The song does end with the reality of being alone doesn't last forever and eventually he will find love and not just for the winter.

Lover of the night is their second single from 'Babel'. The video starred and was directed by famous British actor Idris Elba. He plays a blind man telling a story who leaves his walking cane and runs free to a cliff edge shouting his freedom. He wakes up to a new life (light) inside himself which makes him run for his freedom. He previously felt trapped by his blindness and his cane. The 'light' is referring to his freedom.

I will wait may be one of their most famous song and the song they are known for. It was there first single from their second album 'Babel'. The video is a live performance of the band in Colorado. It contains close up of the band playing their instruments and wide shots of the audience cheering and enjoying the concert. By the shots of the audience and the audio clips of their screams you can tell how popular the band has become since their first album. The are one of the best if not the best folk rock band in the world currently.

Conventions of an RnB video - Chris Brown

Summer homework

This is my summer homework. The homework we were set was to put our summer pictures/videos into one video and put music to the video. My summer was spent looking after my nephew so the video is pictures and videos of him. I used iMovie to create the video as I found this app easy to place all the footage and add the music.

MKTO - Classic

MKTO are an america duo who are very new on the music scene, releasing their first single 'Thank you' in January 2013 with their follow up single 'Classic' being released in June. The video for classic has only recently been seen on music channels such as 4music and the box. It has been in the charts for 9 weeks. The video ia situated in a fancy dress party and on stage which the duo are performing. The lyrics match the visuals in some parts of the video. For example, the reference to girls being so 'classic' and their are girls seen wearing fancy dresses with a face full of make up. The song has a very 'pop' feel to it so the beat and lyrics stay in your head which makes you want to listen to the song even more.

Taylor Swift - Shake it off

Shake it off is the first video Taylor has released since her number one selling album Red. Before the video was released, she gave her fans signs that something big was happening on the 18th of August. Fans were guessing both a single, album or video release. All of which became true when she released the video for Shake it off. This created a worldwide sensation to watch the video as it was dropped out of nowhere. The video includes Taylor dancing along to others like ballerinas, gymnasts and break dancers.   The majority of the reception for the video was positive but there were some negative comments about the scene in which she tries to dance and uses girls in short shorts and trainers showing hardly any of their faces. There are some scenes in the middle in which she is infront of a white backdrop with her band simply singing down to the camera. This gives the video two totally different angles.


The song is Taylor laughing at herself and what people say about her in the tabloids. She's always been this sweet innocent girl that lets all the negativity go over her head but now she's taken a huge U- turn and is pretty much laughing in their faces. She purposely danced terribly to match the lyrics "Im dancing on my own I make the moves up as i go". She's almost making a joke on herself about whatever happens to her she'll just dance like an idiot and "Shake it off" because she doesn't really care. She knows that no matter the negative press she's always got her fans the 'Swifties' to make her feel okay "saying, its gonna be alright" she's reassuring both herself and her fans that she's no longer going to take all the bad press. She's going to be okay.

On going weekly production diary - What did you notice about the different conventions?

This past week we have been studying the conventions of different music genres. We studied Kings Of Leon, Katy Perry and individually I studied Maroon 5. The genres range from rock, pop to pop rock. As artists they are all very different and their videos range with various themes. We looked into all aspects of the artist; the videos, the lyrics, the background of the artist and the artist itself.  By doing this, I had a better understanding of what conventions fit into each genre. For example,  a rock band would typically include footage of them playing instruments to show of their skills and a pop artist would have lots of bright colours included with a very catchy and memorable song. Learning this on the last week as year 12 allows me to go into year 13 with some knowledge on music genre and conventions.