Section 1: Initial notes on music video.

The public perceive music videos as purely light entertainment. The majority of music videos make the artist seem sexy and as a piece of eye candy to an intended audience. They also demonstrate post-modernism, by using signifiers such as superficiality, irony, playfulness, emptiness and of a serious meaning. Another way a music artist can connect with it's audience is through humour.

However, from the point of view of the record company, music videos are purely for promotion and for advertising the band. Sometimes they advertise other things too, like a film. If an artist agrees to put one of their songs to the soundtrack of a film, most likely the music video will have clips from the film in it. Overall, the aim of the music video is to raise visibility of the band, almost like a visual radio. The music video can then be shown on music TV channels, like MTV; which is famous for beginning the trend for a channel showing only music videos.

The most common element to be used in music videos is some sort of a performance involving the singer and instruments, which usually shows the artist miming/lipsynching live or in a studio. This is important for their star image as it allows them to bond with their audience. A good way of achieving this bond is having the artist singing to the camera. Another element that's frequently used is a storyline/narrative, which conveys some sort of message or meaning. Sometimes both performance and storyline elements are used, using a cross-cutting effect between each scene. For the music video to be successful and praised by critics and the fans, it needs to be stylish. The video's style needs to reflect the style of music, whether that's in the special effects, montage editing, camera use/shots or mise-en-scene. Sometimes artists choose to put extra sound on the video, which isn't in the CD version of the song.

The basic function or purpose of a music video is advertisement. The realisation of the importance of a music video to the industry came in December 1975 when the rock group Queen began its 9-week run at the top of the UK singles chart with the epic single 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' which came with an epic video. Most record companies employ somebody whose task it is to commission videos. This person can be called by a number of titles, for example commissioning editor for video or head of video. A music video usually takes 2 weeks to produce. According to Andrew Goodwin, the 3 different ways in which the visuals in a video can relate to the lyrics of a song are:


The basic function of making a music video is to advertise the song.

Illustration:
The video closely illustrates the song.

Amplification:
The video builds on the song, adding to something to it.

Disjunctive:
The video has no connection to the song.