What is the purpose of music videos?

1. What is the purpose of music videos? The purpose of a music video is to promote the song. This is the artist chances to visual express the song and relate it towards the audience. Music videos are used to invoke a reaction from the audience creating a memorable visual for the song. There are many styles in which they can express the song if the song is telling a story they can you use a narrative style also there are other styles like performances, abstract, combination, animation or pastiche.

2. I have chosen two videos that have very different genres and style. NENEH CHERRY TYLER THE CREATOR

3. Tyler the Creator is a Hip-hop artist, Hip-hop music is usually associated with urban black youth because of where the genre originated from. Tyler’s music video is set it in a studio, the studio productions moves away from the urban environment and a lot of the imagery that is associated with it. Tyler's video is high budget and has quality effects, but also has a certain classy element to it ( with the black and white theme). The lyrics tell a narrative but the visuals are abstract. The lyrics include a stream of consciousness with paradox and contradictions, he wants something and then he doesn’t this is to do with the Hip-hop culture and image. He wants the idea of being the typical Hip-hop looking artist by having green paper and gold teeth and that’s all he wants then he says he don’t want then he says he doesn’t want money or diamonds ( which would be in the grills of gold that is in his teeth). His image stands out a lot because he isn't the ‘typical Hip-Hop artist’ when compared to Snoop Dogg who is a well known Hip-Hop artist Snoop is very macho man and portrays sex and drugs, he has very flash cars and jewelry and mentions this a lot in his lyrics too. Whereas, Tyler doesn't’t have an females in his video or anything that is flashy, however, he does over exaggerate in his video when he hangs himself and all the dark elements through out this makes it appealing towards his audience because although its dark its also refreshing and something different and new as Hip-hop is usually over exaggerating the macho rap star lifestyle.

4. Neneh Cherry is a vocalist artist, the video is set on location and in an urban environment. It looks like its set along time ago because of the grainy quality of the black and white shots that are used. The editing has many layers and the scenes have been over lapped and juxtaposed with each other in time with the music. The images are of people on the street from all different ethnic backgrounds and ages. These illustrate the lyrics which are about her being anti–prejudice and that the first seven seconds in life are the most innocent because we don’t know anything about race, religion or sex.

5. Audience Tylers video would have a much smaller audience that Nenehs video, Tylers video and a lot like the rest of his music target young teens, I understand this through the lyrics and also because of his child like persona in the video. Whereas Nenehs music and video would have a wider audience because its very soft video and she is a vocalist which doesn’t have a main target ( although it does appeal to everyone), you can see in her video that she can aim towards different age so because she doesn’t aim her music at a specific age group, she would have a wider audience.

6. Tyler – YONKERS Tylers style of video would be a narrative because he is telling a story while he is lip-syncing. Hip-hop isn’t one for telling stories in videos it usually just tells a story in a rap, but Tylers story is one that is political within Hip-hop culture. He uses a lot of symbolism in his story,- Tyler eats a cockroach, the cockroach is what he thinks of Hip-hop music today being rubbish so he eats the ‘metaphorical music’ and then vomits it out’. The audience would find this interesting because Hip-Hop is a very competitive industry and people battling each other in there lyrics is something that has always been a part of the culture. Tylers video has a clever use of edits, it has a recurring in and out focus which makes him stand out. The video has a dark and shadowing theme to it but also keeping the element of surprise at the end when he commits suicide. The extreme video is something that is memorable and is a talkative aspect with the audience because this type of extreme darkness is not seen in many videos not even just Hip-Hop videos.

7. Neneh Cherry - 7 SECONDS Neneh has strong morals and shows this in her music, "7 Seconds" is about the first positive 7 seconds in the life of a child just born not knowing about the problems and violence in our world - She is anti-prejudice. She shows people in her video that are different ethnic backgrounds and ages, this would suggest that her target audience is everyone- her main audience would be women because she is a women and she is a ‘girl power’ idol. Neneh is not portrayed as a sex object Neneh attracts her audience with a different style, she uses a very old style theme and the scene over lap and juxtapose with one another. It gives a subconscious message of the people who are walking past that are oblivious to all the negative things that are happening around them like all the racism and prejudice.