Music video! (Blog Entry 9)

This music blog entry is dedicated to….. *dum dum dum*…. the music video!!!

Pick a music video (made by the artist, intended to accompany the song) and evaluate the effectiveness of the video in relationship to the song. We must assume that, given the nature of music video as a type of genre in and of itself, that the goal of any given music video is to promote the music attached to it (in sales, popularity of the artist and/or label, etc.).

“Evaluate the effectiveness” means: use your skills of visual rhetoric analysis! Critically engage with all of the directorial/artistic choices of the video (colors, clothing, setting, characters, lighting, texture, film editing, juxtaposition) to evaluate the video’s purpose, audience and context. Is there a narrative in the video, or do the images not “build” in any logical way? Are there multiple story lines at work, or just one cohesive visual without multiple cuts? Is the video intending to “sell” anything: a concept, a product, a genre? Or just the likability or personal image of the artist (as in a video that mainly relies on a visual performance of the song)?

Chose wisely and find a way to make this posting analytically rich… after all, a lot has happened since “Video Killed the Radio Star.” 😉