Research - Music Genres

Metal
· Videos consist mainly of performance and some plotline often in a 60:40 ratio.
· Band members (excluding the drummer) will often be stood with legs wide apart in a strong stance.
· Band members will often play parts in the plotline of their videos.
· Band members will wear their own clothing often with other bands merchandise like t-shirts or hoodies.
· Band will play their own instruments and sing their own lyrics with un-enhanced voices during filming.
· Live performances are very common, often a band will spend 200 days a year on tour.
· Often completely male band, sometimes female lead singers and rarely an all female band.
· Metal has many different sub-genres such as; Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Viking Metal, Folk Metal, Pirate Metal, Reggae Metal and Trance Metal.
Rock
· Videos, similarly to Metal, will consist mainly of performance but often have a plotline within the video.
· Band members will often dress in their own way sometimes wearing other band merchandise like t-shirts or hoodies.
· Band will play their own instruments and often sing their own lyrics with un-enhanced voices during filming.
· Similarly to Metal live performances are done very often.
· Rock has many different sub-genres such as; Punk Rock, Pop Rock, Emo Rock and Electronic Rock.
Pop
· Boybands will have their dance routines choreographed by a professional and wont play their own instruments.
· Girlbands will often have their dance routines choreographed by a professional and wont play their own instruments.
· Both boy and girl bands will be objectified to create voyerism and attract their audience.
· Sometimes bands will have their voices auto-tuned post-recording to make them sound better than they really are.
· Live performances are sometimes mimed rather than actually live.
· Pop has a limited amount of sub-genres they are either boy bands, girl bands or singer/songwriters.
· Bands will be given clothing to wear to reveal them in a distasteful manor to attract the oposite sex.
Rap
· Videos often consist of provocatively dressed women generally in bikini’s, expensive looking cars, the rapper in question dancing/rapping with the previously mentioned women.
· Rappers will often write their own raps based on previous events or life experiences.
· Live performances are never mimed and a stand in band/sampler is used for the music as the artist raps.
· Each rapper usually has their own style of rapping often their style makes them famous. For example Eminem is famous for paradying numerous celebrities or acts that a certain celebrity carried out recently in some of his songs e.g. Rock Star on his Relapse album.
· Rappers always wear their own clothes, often excessively baggy football jersies or basket ball tops with equally baggy jeans or trousers.
Drum and Bass
· Videos often include some graphic visualisations added at the post-production stage.
· Videos will often be purely plotline and no performance as a lot of the performance is done post-production.
· Even though most of the music is created post-production live performances are still common for more popular performers.

Research - Music Video Analysis - Avenged Sevenfold - Bat Country

The second music video I have decided to analyse is the video to is Avenged Sevenfold’s video to ‘Bat Country’. From the beginning of the video it is very clear to the viewer that there is an intertextual reference to the film ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ as there is the singer, M. Shadows, and another band member in a large red car with leopard print interior. As M. Shadows drives the other band member is in the back seat with a fly swatter attempting to shoo away bats flying all around the car. This is a very memorable moment in the film as it is also near the beginning, as also is this in the music video. Further on in the video attractive women are seen dancing for the band members on tables. This forms part of the bands ‘Star Image’ as it shows they have the money to hire strippers and this is also a very ‘manly’ act to carry out. However the strippers are seen to have long lizard like tails and tongues, as seen directly in the film. During the first shot of the video the quote “He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.” Is seen, this coincidently is the first lyric of this song showing a link between visuals and lyrics. The chords of the lead guitar are heard during the beginning of the song, the strumming of these chords are in sync with the fast straight cutting between shots, this fast cutting is a typical feature of a ‘Metal’ genre video and also shows a clear link between visuals and music. A stage performance is also seen during the video, set in an iconic apartment seen in the referenced film, this is a typical format in a ‘Metal’ video. Close up’s are frequently seen throughout the video often zooming and reverse zooming to create a drug trip effect as this is a common theme in ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’. These close up’s used allow the viewer to achieve an intimate connection with the band as you would not often get that close to the band in a live performance.
Similarly to Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Avenged Sevenfold have created their own image and have eventually been moulded into a new and exciting band by both themselves and their record companies. Their first album was in a very Heavy Metal genre but they’ve slowly changed into a flamboyant Metal band as seen n the ‘Bat Country’ video.
In conclusion there are numerous different theories seen in Avenged Sevenfold’s video to ‘Bat Country’ which have made this video very exciting, interesting and very popular for fans and non-fans alike.

Research - Music Video Analysis - Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Scar Tissue

The first music video I have decided to analyse is the video to ‘Scar Tissue’ by Red Hot Chilli Peppers. This video demonstrates the realism of being on tour at the beginning of a music career; this is shown through naturalistic lighting and damaged equipment combined with unclean skin, messy hair and torn clothes that the band is wearing. Richard Dyer’s (Stars, BFi, 1981) ‘Star Image’ theory can be applied to this video as it attracts the male audience that are interested in living rough and touring frequently. The video also suggests that some anger or violence has occurred judging by the injured band members in the car; this is also a common value of the ‘Star Image’.
In comparison to Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ previous singles an audience can clearly see how they have been nurtured and evolved into an obviously successful band. The bands earlier songs are quite relevant to the time period. For example the 1984 self titled album ‘The Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ was much more of the ‘Funk’ genre than the album ‘Californication’ (June 8, 1999) of which ‘Scar Tissue’ was released. Keith Negus’s ‘The Organic Ideology’ can be easily applied to this as the release of 7 albums after such an incredibly disappointing first album and tour proves how EMI and Warner Brothers have moulded Red Hot Chilli Peppers into a multi-platinum record selling band.
There is a clear contrast in lyrics to visuals in this video to ‘Scar Tissue’. The video is set in a desert wasteland and so there are no birds, or at least an unobvious amount of them. This visual of a lack of bird life contradicts the lyrics of “With the birds I’ll share, this lonely view.”. This being a Funk/Rock genre, typically there should be some performance from the band. This is seen when the lead guitarist, John Frusciante, picks up a guitar with no strings, a broken neck and seamlessly plays the solo (another key feature of a rock song) adding to the bands ‘Star Image’. Many close ups are used throughout the video of the band’s faces, injuries, car, ruined possessions and instruments which also adds to the bands ‘ Star Image’. There is also a subtle intertextual reference to the film ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ (Terry Gilliam, 1998). This is seen through the use of driving a car through a desert. Although this is very open ended it could still be a possible reference to the film. Therefore you may apply Andrew Goodwin’s music video key points in Dancing in the Distraction Factory (Routledge, 1992) to the video to ‘Scar Tissue’.
In conclusion there are several different music video theories applied to this video which make it a good video as there are different aspects to the video which attract different people.


Red Hot Chili Peppers - Scar Tissue Video