What is a music video?By Charlie Lane

What is a music video?A music video is a videotaped performance of

a recorded popular song, usually accompanied by dancing and visual images interpreting the lyrics.

Each music video will usually have a different style which is suited to the artist and their genre of music.

What does a music video involve? Music videos are not easy to make and take lots of preparation.

There is usually lots of filming and takes to make a music video perfect. As we can see below from the screenshots, One Direction put in lots of preparation when filming ‘Drag me down’.

Editing the video is very important before it is released. For example the song must be in time with the lip sinking.

Lots of hours go into making the music video when filming and lots of preparation before hand.

Music videos with bands usually have a lead singer and the lead singer usually dominates the music video. Harry styles (below) dominates the music video and often looks into the camera to engage with his audience.

Music videos are also different to Movies as a movie will usually have different shot types which are not repeated but in this music video the shot of the four boys together outside is shown several times throughout the music video.

How MV help the music industry Music videos have become very important in the music industry and play a

vital function in the success of the artist and the sales of their singles and album releases.

It used to cost quite a lot to release a music video before YouTube came along. This made it then easier for artist to promote their music which helped make higher profits which helps the music industry.

Because YouTube specialise in music videos and because it’s a free service this also brings more people to visit YouTube and watch music videos which does again increase profits by fans and this helps the music industry.

YouTube now offer so many music videos and this helps the music industry.

The high level of views (366Million) shows how YouTube help spread music videos to larger, wider audiences.

What is the main purpose/function of a music video?

There a many purposes to a music video but the artist will mainly make a music video to promote the single or the album that the single is in. The music video also promotes the artist too and might help to increase their fan base.

The artist (One Direction) make the video to then promote the single for people to buy.

Creating music videos defiantly helps increase fan base. One Direction Twitter follows 2011 (left), One Direction followers 2015 (right).

How to promote single using MV’s To promote the single or the artist, the artist themselves

must;(1) Sell the song in a way that can be easily remembered when a fan listens to the video of the song. One Direction’s ‘Drag me down’

song is easily remembered when listening to it audibly because of it’s catchy chorus of ‘Not being dragged down’.

The video helps make the song remember able too as the video is set in America in a NASA space shuttle centre. There is also lots of representation to make the song memorable to fans such as NASA logos, NASA robots and the NASA space suits which the band wear.

The video also links with the meaning of the song as the purpose of the song is them not being dragged down by anybody or anything and them going to space shows they wont be dragged down as there is no gravity in space. This meaning helps fans to remember the song better also.

How to promote single using MV’s (Part 2)The artist must also;(2) Be able to provide the audience or fans with a better understanding of the song from their video so that the viewer can engage with it both visually and audibly. This usually comes across better when the song tells a story because the artist creates a video very closely based the lyrics.

Krept & Konan’s ‘My Story’ song has lyrics with deep meaning and tells a story in the lyrics but the video is good because it provides the audience with a even better understanding of the story the lyrics portray.

The video allows the audience to engage audibly and visually with the artist’s story and from the video gives a better idea of the emotions from the characters physical personality which helps make the lyrics stronger.

How to promote single using MV’s (Part 3)Finally; (3) The artist must entertain the viewer by highlighting the talents of the artist such as dancing, singing, performing and physical appearance. This is important because the viewer or audience is more likely to watch the video and then purchase the video or single if they see the physical appearance of the artist and possibly performing.

In One Direction’s ‘Drag me down’ they help to promote their single/music video because they entertain the viewer more by dancing and singing.

They also use their own physical appearance in the video which helps promotions and sales as a 1D fan is more likely to watch, enjoy and possibly buy the video if 1D themselves are in the video performing.

Conclusion So, Music videos are very important because

they are a marketing tool that is used as a visual aid to help the artist, brand and their products; whether it be a single album or gig and this helps to create as wide an audience as possible.