Promotional Music Videos

Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin’s TheoryAndrew Goodwin’s theory of narrative is that visuals illustrate, enhance or could possibly contradict the lyrics and music. Genre’s will have their own music style, such as in rock and indie videos, the band are usually seen playing instruments and performing to an audience and in R&B videos, they usually include things that show

their wealth and women. Goodwin also argues that the female performer is frequently objectified principally for display purposes, often through a combination of camerawork and editing, focused on parts of their bodies,

sexualizing the artist.

He has also said that ‘music video is not primarily a commodity form, but a promotional one’ and promotional music videos often promote several things such as the artist/band, the song, other products by the artist/band (album, tour, merchandise), location where the music video has been shot and if the song has been put in part

of a movie then it will promote the movie and the soundtrack.

Before Miley Cyrus released her music video to ‘We Can’t Stop’ she released what would appear to be adverts or album artwork on her social media and created the hash tag #wecantstop where fans of her music were free to discuss the

song, their excitement and when the video was eventually released, the video. By doing this Miley has almost advertised social media such as Twitter and Instagram where she has posted these images several times for all of her

fans to see.

Throughout this video there is use of wireless speakers, known as the ‘beats pill’ and is used at the beginning where she turns on

the music of her song by playing the play button on the speakers which automatically focuses attention on to the speaker and

what she is doing with it and then the song fades in as if it were being played on the speakers. By doing this at the beginning it is the first thing that you really see and take in meaning its quite fresh in your memory due to it being the first thing you have seen. By using a colour such as red it means that it contrasts

against the background and catches the audiences eyes.

There is also product placement of an eos lip balm, which also appears to be red, allowing it so stand out from the background. After the music video there was a craze worldwide of the eos lip balms from her music video of ‘We Can’t Stop’ as she was now a popular pop music artist and influential to many teenagers due

to her new rebellious side.

Since Miley has come back into the spotlight with her song ‘We Can’t Stop’ and her new appearance, she has caused a lot of

controversy over her music videos and clothing that she has been wearing, meaning that Miley has been in a lot of the press at the

minute so she is constantly being debated whether the ‘new Miley’ is better than the ‘old Miley’. Whether she is being shown as negative or positive there is still an element to advertising to her and her videos through magazines discussing her therefore,

she is gaining more and more attention

Like Miley Cyrus, Katy has promoted several things, for example in an interview with director Marc Klasfeld and co-director Danny Lockwood they said the video’s storyline was inspired by Sixteen Candles as well as ‘all those great 80s high school movies’ and at the end of the video the series of outtakes was influenced by The Cannonball Run. By the

directors mentioning this it means it brings a nostalgic feel to the video and could also promote these films to the audience and if the individual really liked the music video then they may search up the films and watch them. The same thing goes with the Katy Perry saying that the costume was inspired by Betty Suarez in Ugly Betty which people may also go research and watch. She also went on to create Facebook and Twitter profiles for her alter-ego, Kathy Beth Terry, who

stars in the music video and other various skits that she has previously done, therefore, this promotes the use of social media and almost an idea that no matter who you are you can have a social media account.

The characters within the music video begin to play ‘Just Dance’ which is a rhythm game developed and published by Ubisoft and is only available for the Wii therefore, it doesn’t only promote the game it promotes the console which is a Wii to the audience. By using someone like Katy Perry to promote their product it allows a variety of people to see the product as she is known from quite a range of people

therefore, it means that she has a broad market for people to purchase the product which allows Wii and Katy Perry to

gain more money.

Throughout the music video there are several special guests such as Rebecca Black, Darren Criss, Kevin McHale, Hanson,

Kenny G, Debbie Gibson and Corey Feldman which also gives a promotion to these people and possibly to the

television show ‘Glee’ as Darren Criss and Kevin McHale star in the music video and are known for being in Glee.

There is also subtle product placement at the beginning where she is on her bed and opens her laptop which

appears to be Apple and obviously is a well known brand and known for its iconic range of products. By Katy Perry

using this in her music video those who idolise her will think they need this laptop to be like Katy Perry along with her

appearance and other things so by Apple doing this it means it will boost their sales of their laptops as those that idolise

her might purchase one so they’re like Katy Perry

Beyoncé – Pretty Hurts is seen as an art form opposed to a promotional one as the music video explores the idea of perfection and pageants therefore, it displays the ideas of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. As Beyoncé is

such as well known female role model it means that this message is displayed to many people across the world therefore, it may help those in need or it could even help raise awareness of the seriousness of eating disorders and how you don’t need to fit in to society to necessarily be pretty. It also shows how people deem perfection and in the video Beyoncé herself doesn’t fit in with the idea of pageants beauty as in a shot we see her on a set of scales where the man in front of her looking at her weight gives her a negative look and then also we see when she is getting her waist measured she gets another disapproving look. The lyrics also run alongside the idea of the music video as the hook of the song is ‘pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever's worst, perfection is a disease of a nation, pretty

hurts’ which shows that people are often viewed by their physical appearance opposed to personality and Beyoncé then gets across to the audience that individuals negatives always tend to out rule their positives

Just like Beyoncé’s music video Thriller is also seen as an art form opposed to being a promotional. It appears as if it were a short film which was Jackson’s very intentions, in an interview with MTV he said ‘I like having a beginning and a middle and an ending, which would follow a story. I'm very much involved in complete making and creating of the piece. It has to be,

you know, my soul. Usually, you know, it's an interpretation of the music’. The music video itself is 13 minutes long and was released on December 2nd, 1983 where it was video was MTV’s first world premier video and in 2009 it was the first music video to ever receive an honour for being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant in pop culture. The music video

was directed by John Landis who has achieved ‘a watershed moment for the music industry’ for its unique joining of filmmaking and music and was listed in the Guinness World Records ‘most successfully music videos’ list as it sold over

nine million copies. It follows the narrative of Michael and his unnamed girlfriend and the strange happenings of the forest where Michael turns into a werewolf and his girlfriend then runs away. The next shot shows us that they’re in cinema

where it was the scene but his girlfriend leaves terrified and Michael teases her about it then they walk past a graveyard where bodies rise out of the graves and then Michael also turns into a zombie and his unnamed girlfriend runs off.