Blog 2- Exploring music videos

The first music video i am going to evaluate is "Single ladies" by Beyonce. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyHVQT8aIBM Genre-RnB/hiphop Audience-Teenagers aged 11-18 and people who like to dance (mostly women). Representation-the genre is shown by using lots of dance and Beyonce is a mixed-race women which incorporates mostly in the genre RnB. Narrative-The song is about telling a man that if he loves the women, ask her to marry him. The feelings that Beyonce is saying in the lyrics convey that of annoyance towards the man. She wants him to marry her but he hasn't asked her yet and she is annoyed by this. This song is basically telling the man that if he loves her, marry her. How the video communicates the meaning-the song is about marriage and "putting a ring on it"(engagement/marriage) and this is shown through the dance moves a lot by moves like pointing at their fingers. The song is also about independant women and this comes across in the video well by using no male figures in it and strong compositional movements. "Firestarter" by the Prodigy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmin5WkOuPw Genre-Rock/heavy metal Representation-this genre is shown through not only the singers/bands appearance where we can see tatoos, piercings and "ripped" dark clothes but also with the fact that the whole video is edited into Black and white which shows darkness and having no colour indicates a sad or dark emontional song. Meaning-the lyrics seem to indicate that the song is all about rebellion and telling other people what you believe your personality is. For example, most of the lyrics start off with the word "I'm" ("I'm the bitch you hated..."). The lyrics are also quite repetitive which may indicate trying to get the message across fully. Audience-I believe that the audience who would listen to this band and music video would be teenagers aged between 16 and 23 and probably mostly men as its quite an aggressive song. They would be the sort of people who have got their own individual style and could be outspoken and rebellious to the ways of society. "hurt" by Johnny Cash. www.youtube.com/?v=o22eIJDtKho Genre-Country/acoustic Representation-We can tell the genre of this music video through the mellowness of the song and also the instruments we can hear in the song. For example, Johnny Cash plays the piano. Also Cash is that of a certain age where the music he sings reflecting the culture and era in which he was at his peak in the past. Narrative-Their is a strong and emotional storyline in this music video that we can see in the music videos composition and format. We can see that a story is being told through this by Cash singing and seeming to be looking back on his life and images come up that link into this. However the lyrics also tell a storyline, through the words and also the fact that Johnny Cash is singing. Meaning-the lyrics are very sad and seem to be full of hurt. The lyrics start off by saying all the things that he believes he is and says that basically he wishes he had done things differently and we especially get this feeling at the end of the song where he sings "if i could start again a million miles away, i would keep myself, i would find a way." this series of lyrics are translating that he wishes that he would have started his life in a different way. The lyrics "i would keep myself" i believe mean that if he could start again he would not have got addicted to drugs or alcohol (supposedly). He would have preferred to have been the "real him" and keep himself. Audience-the type of people that would listen to this song etc would probably be older aged people who remember listening to Johnny Cash in his peak and/or are a fan of him and his music. "vogue" by Madonna. www.youtube.com/?v=GuJQSAiODqi Genre-Pop. Representation-We can tell this music video is pop by the strong electronic sound, for example, the strong beat. Also Madonna has a "pop" look about her in the video for example lots of classic makeup and hair style. Also, there are dancers in this video that are doing classic dance moves of pop artists. Meaning-The meaning of this song and music video isn't a very deep or song one but is simply a fun message that dancing can make all your troubles go away. Like the lyrics say, "i know a place where you can get away, its called a dance floor". Audience-the type of audience that this song would be aimed for is people who enjoy dancing and have a fun sense of character. Ages would probably range from 14-30 year olds and would mostly be women. Narrative-the story of this song is basically that Madonnas trying to get people to dance and forget everything bad in their lives and dancing is fun and imaginative. There is also the link of the song title "vogue" into the famous fashion magazine. The well dressed and classy look presented by everyone in the music video reflect the magazines format and style.