Posted by Nick
Why are music videos considered post-modern?
All music video's are considered to be adverts, advertising an artist and their music, (this is why there are often close up 'meat shot's' of the lead singer of a band so that the audience can find out easily who the song is by, and will thus proceed to potentially buy the music).
Producer's wish to advertise a band's music, but they know that the audience will not watch if they are not entertained so they use exciting and artistic videos to engross an audience who will subconsciously enjoy watching them.
Video's could also be considered post-modern and avant-garde as they are used by their audience in strange way's, as, before the turn of the century, song's were normally just listened to, videos only being produced for large band's, but now, audiences want a visualisation of the music with every song they listen to, placing an image with the lyrics so they can easily identify any song, whilst also adding a new layer of enjoyment through the visuals.
Videos are also post-modern, as they now define who we are, a person will often ask new people they meet what kind of music they're into as a conversation starter, we are now defined by what we consume, people can make judgements about us regarding our fashion and music tastes.
Music channels can be considered to combine advertisement’s with music videos to an extent in which they 'blur boundaries', adverts and music both being artistic to an extent where the whole running of a program, with adverts and videos, is considered 'art'.
How do audiences consume music videos?
There are two ways in which audiences will watch music channels, adverts and videos combined.
The first is focused viewing, watching with an active choice of what channels one wishes to watch, committed to viewing the video in depth, analysing perhaps the dance move's and fashion displayed in a particular video to be used as our 'social currency' trading ideas and news about the latest bands and trend's in order to build conversation with those in one's social circle.
The 'opposite' viewing mode would be ambient or secondary consumption; the audience not particularly taking a large interest in what is playing, perhaps watching them for background music when getting ready to go out or when friends are over. When one is simply rotating through channels, not largely interested in what is on, this would be called casual viewing, and this is why producers will use repetition in music videos and easy to understand narratives, so that a casual watcher can come to a song in the middle of a video, and they will still understand what is going on and who the song is by.
A complex narrative with lots going on will confuse the audience and they may feel they cannot continue watching a video because they haven't watched it from the start, thus producer's will have lost an audience member who could have potentially bought the artist's music.
What can we take away from this task when planning our work?
When planning our music video production, it is important that we know how to cater for both an ambient and focused viewing audience.
Obviously a colourful and vibrant video will grab the attention of any audience, but this may be seen immediately as a ‘pop’ or ‘dance’ song, due to the conventions of bright colours and amplifying visuals and this is not always to everyone’s taste.
We must also create a video which is seen to be in keeping with music channels ‘exploratory’ persona, making a video which will ‘be better than the last’ thus, taking influences from previous successful ‘indie’ music videos.
The idea of postmodernism is also important as we must create a video which is new, exciting and interesting, creating new styles and motifs which can be associated with the artist, and using the idea of bricolage, making a video wherein we use a variety of styles already available and cross them over with our own individual style, hopefully creating a complex, layered and appealing music video which will grab all audiences attention straight away.
Why are music videos considered post-modern?
All music video's are considered to be adverts, advertising an artist and their music, (this is why there are often close up 'meat shot's' of the lead singer of a band so that the audience can find out easily who the song is by, and will thus proceed to potentially buy the music).
Producer's wish to advertise a band's music, but they know that the audience will not watch if they are not entertained so they use exciting and artistic videos to engross an audience who will subconsciously enjoy watching them.
Video's could also be considered post-modern and avant-garde as they are used by their audience in strange way's, as, before the turn of the century, song's were normally just listened to, videos only being produced for large band's, but now, audiences want a visualisation of the music with every song they listen to, placing an image with the lyrics so they can easily identify any song, whilst also adding a new layer of enjoyment through the visuals.
Videos are also post-modern, as they now define who we are, a person will often ask new people they meet what kind of music they're into as a conversation starter, we are now defined by what we consume, people can make judgements about us regarding our fashion and music tastes.
Music channels can be considered to combine advertisement’s with music videos to an extent in which they 'blur boundaries', adverts and music both being artistic to an extent where the whole running of a program, with adverts and videos, is considered 'art'.
How do audiences consume music videos?
There are two ways in which audiences will watch music channels, adverts and videos combined.
The first is focused viewing, watching with an active choice of what channels one wishes to watch, committed to viewing the video in depth, analysing perhaps the dance move's and fashion displayed in a particular video to be used as our 'social currency' trading ideas and news about the latest bands and trend's in order to build conversation with those in one's social circle.
The 'opposite' viewing mode would be ambient or secondary consumption; the audience not particularly taking a large interest in what is playing, perhaps watching them for background music when getting ready to go out or when friends are over. When one is simply rotating through channels, not largely interested in what is on, this would be called casual viewing, and this is why producers will use repetition in music videos and easy to understand narratives, so that a casual watcher can come to a song in the middle of a video, and they will still understand what is going on and who the song is by.
A complex narrative with lots going on will confuse the audience and they may feel they cannot continue watching a video because they haven't watched it from the start, thus producer's will have lost an audience member who could have potentially bought the artist's music.
What can we take away from this task when planning our work?
When planning our music video production, it is important that we know how to cater for both an ambient and focused viewing audience.
Obviously a colourful and vibrant video will grab the attention of any audience, but this may be seen immediately as a ‘pop’ or ‘dance’ song, due to the conventions of bright colours and amplifying visuals and this is not always to everyone’s taste.
We must also create a video which is seen to be in keeping with music channels ‘exploratory’ persona, making a video which will ‘be better than the last’ thus, taking influences from previous successful ‘indie’ music videos.
The idea of postmodernism is also important as we must create a video which is new, exciting and interesting, creating new styles and motifs which can be associated with the artist, and using the idea of bricolage, making a video wherein we use a variety of styles already available and cross them over with our own individual style, hopefully creating a complex, layered and appealing music video which will grab all audiences attention straight away.
Good - focused research feeding into analysis
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