Music Video Research

1970's

This video consists of performance, by the band, and some basic narrative which is parallel to the song lyrics. The video makes relatively frequent cuts between the band and the actors in the video, but tends to avoid making them on certain beats, which brings an un-predictable edge to the music video, as it fails to fit into a particular pattern. There is a lot of focus on the lead singer, and similarly on other members of the band when their particular instrument becomes predominant. This goes hand in hand with the fact that there is also a portion of focus on the actual instruments being played. This makes the video recognisable to its audience, and easy to relate to for people who enjoy music of this particular genre. Furthermore, the 'zoom' effect is used a lot in this music video, as it puts emphasis on particular shots, such as the one used to enhance our view on the lead singer. I would conclude that it appears to be a rather low budget music video, but this is expected considering the time period in which it was made (1970's) and possibly taking into account that the basic narrative method was used in order to create ad simple, yet effective, and easy to follow storyline.

1980's

However, in this music video by Michael Jackson, there are many camera cuts on the main underlying beat, and this is relatively consistent, predominantly at the beginning of the video, but also throughout at particular points. This creates the effect that the video is in sync with the music, and therefore makes it all the more visually stimulating and intriguing throughout. The opening to the music video is completely narrative, and it is not until about one third of the way into the video that it becomes mainly performance based. Moreover, what is interesting about this video is that it is shot as one continuous scene, and it does not jump away from the narrative storyline we are set up to follow much like many other music video's tend to, it almost creates the implication that it is being shot like a scene from a movie, although there is a lot of focus on the performer (Michael Jackson) throughout. Additionally, it is intriguing to see how effects have been used in this media text, as there are sections where the screen is divided into three parts, and pauses are adapted in at particular moments. This could be in order to boast Michael Jackon's dancing ability and highlight it, but I also think it has been incorporated in order to visually stimulate its audience. Bearing in mind the fact that Michael Jackson was a global superstar at the time of this video, it would have been particularly high budget to shoot in regard to the time era, and so therefore it is interesting to see how the use of effects in music video's and generally media texts overall has changed and become much more of a priority since the shooting of this video.

 1990's

This is an interesting video, as although the typical mise en scene, particularly costume and setting, creates the depiction of any stereotypical 'gangster rap' media text and suits all of its genre conventions, it goes on  to add wit and shows a degree of intelligence and humour within the making of it. For example, the way that the cuts are used whilst showing a boy playing some kind of orchestral musical instrument creates the idea that he is playing the main beat to the song before its first verse has begun. Of course, as an audience we understand that he is not in fact responsible for the sound we are hearing, but nevertheless it brings a humour-us edge to the music video. In addition to this, quick cuts are made throughout the entirety of the video to match the quick and up-beat tone. This video consists of performance and narrative, and what is interesting is that they are edited so the narrative is portrayed in black and white, whereas the performance, although they are quite bleak, is shown in colour. Also, the music is dominant to the song, and the video has been constructed around the song in a way that even without the sound, you can establish the general tempo of the song.