Editing to the beat

What we had to do during this lesson, was to be able to take different parts of a music video, which was given to us, with the the music, and editing the clips to the beat of the music. The reason why we had to do this, because when it comes to making our own music videos, it would of given us some practice to edit the music video on the beat. This makes the video look more professional and better presented.

In this lesson we were also taught a few skills which could come into good use when it comes to creating our own music video. One of the skills which were taught to us was to be able to put two videos onto one frame.

Star Theory - Richard Dyer

Star Theory And Pop Videos

There are 3 ways in which music videos work to promote a song;

• Illustrate - the music video matches the lyrics to the song
• Disjunctive - the lyrics/meaning of the song is ignored
• Amplify - the video portrays the artists narrative but there is no clear distinction between the video and the lyrics. Layers of meaning are added.

Richard Dyer believes artists are constructed through artificial images e.g through advertising, films, magazines and music videos. He also suggests that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain, they do this by appealing to the celebrities/icons target audience. Record labels have to market different artists to cater for certain target audiences. Dyer claims that certain artists can also act as trendsetters, the wider audience and their fans will follow their clothing and hairstyle.

Britney Spears

One example of a pop star who has been constructed is Britney Spears. She was originally viewed and constructed as a role model to teen girls, as she appeared on the disney show 'mickey mouse club' along with another well known singer, Justin Timberlake.

However as she begun her singing career, her innocent image was changed into a more sexualised one. An example of this is in her music video for the song 'womanizer'. 

This video could be related to Laura Mulveys male gaze theory. This is the theory that women are viewed as objects of male erotic desire in media. This is shown through various camera angles, and reflects patriarchal (male dominated) society. An example of this in 'womenizer' could be shown within the first 16 seconds. The camera angle and mise en scene of Britney Spears do little to move the plot forward.

Music Video Branding - The Spice Girls

Music Video Branding - The Spice Girls

When it comes to branding, it is a process of assigning a brand name towards something. Branding is important, this is because it leads to a better marking process for the artist, or a band, in this case "The Spice Girls". "The Spice Girls" are a heavily branded band. They were formed in the year 1990, competing against a large amount of dominant boy bands. When it came to "The Spice Girls" over 100 girls auditioned to be part of the girl band. Six girls we accepted, but then later reduced to only five girls. The five girls were Victoria Beckham, Melaine Chrishelm, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Brown and Emma Bunton.

Every girl was given a different portrayal in the media. They were known as baby spice, posh spice, scary spice, sporty spice and ginger spice. The marketing of each girl in the band was successful around there personalities. There were lots of products which were to do with them, some examples of this were including dolls. It could be argued that without them heavily branding, they may of not been as successful as they turned out to be. They were also popular because of the competition they had with other boy bands, boy bands used women as their sex appeal to attract a female audience, on the other hand "The Spice Girls" used girl power to show that a female audience that women are more than just a sex appeal.