WS - What I have Learnt So Far...

From the start of the course we have been getting a basic understanding of the conventions of music videos as well as just looking at and learning about them in general. 

In the first lesson of looking at Music Videos, we all made lists of the typical conventions and things that we expected to see in a Music Video. The lists were varied between each person, but there was also common ground, where people agreed on what they expected in a Music Video. The following list shows a number of things that we would expect from a Music Video:

• generally fast paced, quick cuts.
• Actors/dancers/a band.
• Glamourous females to fit in with the male gaze theory.
• Mise-en-scene; interesting settings, abstract or strange backgrounds.
• A singer.
• Narrative or a performance
• SFX

As well as conventions of Music Videos, we have also found out about the types of Music Videos such as Performance based and Narrative based videos.

• A Narrative based video is one where the focus is on a story, where the video actually tells the story of what is happening.
• A Performance based video is one where the focus is on the performance of the band, for example the band on stage and performing the song to camera.

In more general terms of music videos, we have looked at the history behind them, where they originated from and the basic history of the videos. This is very different to learning about the videos in themselves and has given us a broader understanding of the genre than we would have had from simply looking at Music Videos in themselves.

An example of something we have learnt about Music Videos in general is that "Video Killed The Radio Star" By The Buggles, recorded 1979, was the first Music Video to be shown on MTV. This was on August 1, 1981. By learning about this we have found not only where the Music Videos have originated from, but also the time frame we are looking at for when they first began to air on television and to the world.

A further bit of Music Video information we looked at included looking at "Scream" By Michael and Janet Jackson, the most expensive Music Video to date. Airing first in 1995 the video cost $7,000,000. We also looked at the fact that, despite some artists still producing very expensive videos (Lady GaGa for example), the amount of money is falling in the industry and the videos are been made on smaller and smaller budgets. A main reason for this is Digitilisation and how simple piracy now is with the internet. Because it is available free vis piracy, less and less money is being made from the industry and therefore less money is been spent on making the videos.