Music Video Styles- Animation

An Animation music video is the combination of cartoon styled graphics in with moving image to create the narrative to the story of the music video. Animation can create the band portray a story or just an animation as a narrative or a performance. Typography can also be used within for lyrical per poses to be seen by the audience as a subtitle, and to also then create movement and influential shapes into the lettering to turn the words into part of the scenery.

Some Examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Qp38qT-xI Gorillaz- Feel Good inc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGBhQbmPwH8 Daft Punk- One More Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTP2RUD_cL0 Dire Straits- Money For Nothing

Dire Straits Money For Nothing video is clever in the use of animation, as the lyrics of the song link the animated character actions well and the 'television' screen sung about and shown displays real shots of the band. This then create an interesting focus for the audience as reality is distinguished and is a theme of the song itself.

Music Video Styles- Notion Of Looking

The Notion of Looking music video style is the visuals of the artist or character within the videos narrative viewing something from a certain perspective which can then be portrayed to the audience. The audience can grasp a sense of emotion as they can see what the artist is viewing from they're aspect however not through their eyes which means close up camera angle shots of the artists/characters face is seen by the audience and the emotion upon their faces work in conjunction with what their viewing for an audience reaction. These visuals then link to the tone and pace of the music, for example and angry facial expression and action being watched would link well with a heavy aggressive music genre.

Music Video Styles- Concept

The concept style of music video follows the idea of creating an almost abstract obscure feel/focus to the video which is often based around artistic interpretation, sometimes not linking to the songs feel/ lyrical meaning. This then creates a surreal feel the the video for the audience.

The video which stands out the most to me about this is 'Cant Stop' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers which uses abstract to make the scenery 'weird'. Erwin Wurm is credited for the style behind the video; as an abstract sculpter Erwin create 1 minute sculptures of abstract styling which the directors used as a focus of the video. Scenes of the band members balancing water bottles on their heads, flying through the air, pink foam peanuts and jumping out of trash cans can be seen as examples of the abstract essence of the video, however in retrospective they arbitrary actions which follow and took inspiration of the themes and ideas used in Wurms work. I personally like the use of concept in the video, I like how the twangy spanky tone of the music has a feel of brightness which can sort of link to the almost spontaneous wackiness of the actions within shots which creates a happy vibe.

Music Video Styles- Cameo

The 'Cameo' style of music video is when other artists often from the same recording label are collaborated with an artist in the songs visuals of the music video. This still involves the artists usually singing through the video with but backs to them performing whilst a sense of narrative is still evident.

Some examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2AitTPI5U0 Michael Jackson- Black or White
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpUYjpKg9KY Limp Bizkit- Break Stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXvzzTICvJs Ed Sheeran- You Need Me

My favourite out of these three 'Cameo' styled videos would be Limp Bizkit's Break Stuff video. This is due to the effectiveness of the many people featured within the video including 'Snoop Dogg' and 'Eminem' in which makes the visuals relatable to many people. There isn't a full narrative, however scenes of multiple relatable settings are shown like the Skating scenes which then links to the theme of the music being rebellious and then the heavy tone of the music linking to the aggressive actions of  the band members and the featured artists shown on screen.

Music Video Styles- Narrative

A 'Narrative' style music video is the mix of a 'Performance' styled video where the band/ artist is focused on however a mix of this along with a basic story line is portrayed in time with the music. This style of music video helps portray a message/ story behind music lyrics and tone to the audience. This style of video is seen within many music genres but often seen in pop, hip hop and dance music as the lyrics in pop and hip hop are often deep and about life lessons/experiences and the visuals help portray, whereas dance music can have no lyrics at all yet the emotion behind the visuals of the narrative can match the tone of the music.

Some Examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M97vR2V4vTs Rudimental- Waiting All Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JjqTinl-VI N.W.A- Straight Outta Compton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zR6ROjoOX0 Iggy Azalea- Work

Rudimentals video of 'waiting all night' was pieced together from footage of Bmx Champion Kurt Yaeger and his accident making him an amputee and his journey of recovery ending the video with him back on his bike with his friends and he is happy. Emotion plays a big part to the connection between the music itself and the visuals of Kurt and is seen when there is the middle section through to the ending where there is a build up in the music towards a loud expressive finish. This build up in music from the middle to the end then matches Kurt training to build up strength after his accident and his attempt of riding his bike again in which there is a peak and he is able to ride with his friends again which matches the musics tone and pace build up which then creates emotion as the audience and empathise and there is a relief in the audiences mind that the struggle is finished for Kurt. This then makes this style of 'Narrative' music video very effective and is personally my favourite music video of all time.

Music Video Styles- Performance

There are 5 main types of music video styles which categorise music videos made to present day. Performance, Narrative, Cameo, Notion of looking and animation are the five types which I am going to break down and explain.

Performance:

The 'Performance' style of music video mainly focuses on the band/artist blandly playing by themselves or in front of a crowd. They usually do not have a narrative structure at all in the video and would include a wide variety of camera angles and regular repeats. The performance style of video is popular within the rock genre due to a band focus which is fun to watch through individuals actions playing their instruments, the effort put into their performance and chemistry within bands which makes the performance style video interesting to watch with out a narrative.

Some examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w7OgIMMRc4 Guns N Roses- Sweet Child O Mine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boanuwUMNNQ Metallica- Whiskey In The Jar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30w8DyEJ__0     Arctic Monkeys- Brainstorm

All of these music videos use repeated shots of band members and instruments as a focus of an exaggeration of the music playing. The energetic movements of the members create a focus for the audience and the pace of the visual playing and movements match the songs beat, pace and tone which engages the audience and makes them move. This then makes the basic shots of just the band members interesting to watch and makes a successful 'Performance' music video.

Film Noir

Film Noir is a visual style used within film which is often thought of as a genre, in which was current in the 20th century. Though exploring the 'genre' I can learn about cinema history and can maybe use the style within the creation of my music video.
Film Noir as a genre groups many dramas of the 40s and 50s typically the hard boiled crime fiction, action, mystery texts which involve the use of cynical darkness and sexual connotions. The use of metaphorical visuals add to the style to create certain imagery of symbolism which presents messages of the crime mystery to the audience, for example the image above presenting she is trapped because of the shadows of the horizontal lines which could be symbolism of being 'behind bars' etc. The visual style also encapsulates low key, dramatic lighting depicted in black and white cinema and high contrast between light and darkness which makes this cinema style iconic.
The use of silhouettes is also used as it brings the actor out of the darkness they are filmed in and creates a vignette shadow which continues the contrast of light and dark as a binary opposition.

I personally enjoy the Film Noir 'genre' as depth in which scenes are planned and filmed are clever to watch and an audience can think about foreshadowing scenes and about the characteristics of characters on a different yet creative level. I think I can apply this or gather inspiration from camera techniques into the music video I will be creating to match or contrast well to the music genre I choose for a different approach to modern styled videos.