Textual analysis 3 - Happy

"Happy" by Pharrell Williams

Happy was released on 21st of November 2013 and featured as part of the soundtrack in the animated film "Despicable Me 2" and has become a world wide phenomenon, which resulted in a craze to make home made versions and uploading these on to YouTube.

From looking at the theory of Halls reception theory, this song does have different impacts and interpretations by different social groups. Stuart Hall said that "The producer of the media text encodes the meaning". There are three different interpretations which people judge a piece of media text by, these include:
Dominant - Agrees that the person/viewer gives good views and likes the video/media text
Negotiated - the viewer will see some dislike within the given media text but still finds it OK
Oppositional - The viewer will dislike the song either due to cultural, religious views or just honest hate for the song.
Applying this theory, much of the world took a dominant view and meaning from the song "Happy". The article bellow from "The New York Times"- Published 2014 gives an insight on Pharrells reaction to the popularity of Happy and the positive views on the song.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/opinion/pharell-williams-on-the-happy-phenomenon.html?_r=0
As he says -"I'm thankful for all the people behind the song’s success". This shows that Pharrell Williams has acknowledged that it was the world that made it want the song is in today's society.
Of course there are some people and countries such as Iran and North Korea whom took an oppositional interpretations as these countries deny access to western culture - especially American society as these countries feel that western culture corrupts their citizens. This is shown through the Iranian government after a group of young adults were arrested over endorsing western culture.

Looking at the success of "Happy", this would not had been possible- especially on a worldwide scale without Web 2.0. This is the second stage in the development of the internet which focuses on people sharing information and idea's upon the internet. This video was successful because , through the internet, people have found and created their own version of the song to express how happy they are and others. Entire cities such as Paris, London and other countries have made videos which commercially endorse their city and also spreads the trend of the song. Here are a few examples of these songs.






Without Web 2.0, This song would not have become as popular as it would have been without the influence of the worldwide viewers whom made the song such an icon in everyday life as many can relate to the song.

5 recommended music video's Textual analysis 2

These are my recommended music video's which are to be rated from 1 to 5 and an brief analysis of the video.

1. A-PUNK - Vampire weekend-                Rating= 1 out of 5.                                                                                                                          The genre conventions of this song is pop. This song shows the artists and how they are represented within the music video through camera shots, through the location, and through the use of narration and performance within the video to tell a story.

The camera shots are used to show/market the band to gain a fan base. The video uses shots such as long shots, mid shots and close ups to show the individual band members as they play and perform. This follows one of Goodwins conventions which is the notion of looking at the camera. This would give the video the effect that the band is playing to the intended audience whom are watching the video. The use of Mise-en scene builds up the narration and shows a connection between the song and the lyrics. in this song they are at a beach which links with the lyrics and the attitude of the band which shows freedom.

2. Lady Gaga - Marry the night - 

Rating = 4 out of 5
The genre conventions of this song is a performance and rock. This gets a good rating as this music video is almost like a mini movie as its length is around 14 minutes long. This is shown as a cinematic piece to gain the audience which is the younger generation of teenagers. the song it's self is fast pace which gives the video an atmosphere which mixes in with the lyrics and the feelings of the performer. There is a mix of narration by Gaga and a performance of her singing the song on location. The shots included are close ups and establishing shots to show the artist whom is singing and to establish the setting of the music video. The reason why this video gets a high rating is the fact that this artist has broken a rule of music video and has created the lengthy mini film before the actual song to show the audience whom enjoys the song what her character is like and explores the aspect of the artists view in relation to the song.

3. Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel



Rating = 5 out of 5
This song is a personal favourite of mine as this music video mixes in performance with stop-go animation. This is a very complicated video in terms of the visual effects and the way this video is pieced together, but is very clever. The genre convention is pop. There are many close ups of the artist to promote his music and him, also of the visual effects to show the capacity of effects used within the video. The music is fast pace which fits with the lyrics sung and there is use of bright and dark colours in terms of background and on the plasticine effects to show the positives and negatives of the song which i thought was very clever.

History of music video

This blog post will look back at the significant moments in music video history.

The gramophone invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison enabled people to listen to music with out going to a concert for a live performance. This was a major break through in terms of music entertainment.

1940: Walt Disney releases the film Fantasia which consists of animated sequences which are combined with a piece of classical music which showed the correct impression for the animated piece, including emotional and physical pace.

The 1960's: This was the defining era for the music stars of the 1960's to use their music and perform them in video's. Notably the band "The Beatles" did this by airing on music shows such as the BBC hit programme "Top of the pops" where they and other bands in the 1960's would perform in front of a live audience.  This brought about new camera angles which adds to Goodwin's conventions. Cameras used High, low and close ups to show the artists at work singing their new single.

The 1970's: The 70's began to see change for music video's for the better. Top of the pops still brought the top stars to perform. The bands whom could not make it on to the show had made music video's along with the physical to be shown as cuts to show the audience. The main change for the music videos was the length. this was seen with Queens "Bohemian Rhapsody".



This was iconic because not only of the length but because of new uses of camera angles and special effects which this music video is full of.

The 1980's: On the 1st of August 1981 the brand new MTV. The first song which was shown by the new channel was by the Buggles– ‘Video killed the radio star’. For the first ever song to be played on this new channel it was quite clever because it was showing how television is going to hit big and this idea of seeing everything on television is going to kill the idea of radio because the idea of seeing what the viewers were listening to is fresh and new. This paved a way for the new era of music video's as now the hottest new music videos now can be shown on this channel, no matter about the length. In the early to mid 1980's , artists started to use more sophisticated effects in their videos, and added a storyline or plot to the music video. Michael Jackson was the first artist to create the concept of the short film. A short film is a music video that has a beginning, middle and end. He did this in a small way with Billie Jean , directed by Steve Barron , then in a West Side Story way with director Bob Giraldi's Beat It , but it wasn't until the 1984 release of the Thriller short film that he took the music video format to another level. 


Modern Day: Music video's have changed now with the introduction of  new technology, most notably with the internet (Web 2.0) and YouTube where 2 billion people a day watch these new and old music videos which increases audiences for the artists. With the change of technology comes with new ways to present the music video i.e. " Californication" by the red hot chilli peppers which used CGI and live performance to show the high intensity of modern day music and  gives meaning to its lyrics. 

This is just a brief history of music video. There is so much more on music video history which backs up todays music video's and music from the early 20th century.  
  

Practice storyboard of "Californication"

This is the practice storyboard of the song "Californication" by the Red hot chilli peppers.

Textual Analysis 1

The song in which i will be analysing is a song which was released before i was born is called "Video Killed The Radio Star", by the Buggles.



The song was written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley in 1978. It was first recorded by Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards) for their album English Garden, and later by British group The Buggles, consisting of Horn and Downes. The track was recorded and mixed in 1979, released as their debut single on 7 September 1979 by Island Records, and included on their first album The Age of Plastic. The backing track was recorded at Virgin's Town House in West London, and mixing and vocal recording would later take place at Sarm East Studios. The video is best known as marking the debut of MTV, when the US channel started broadcasting at 12:01 AM on 1 August 1981. On 27 February 2000, it became the one-millionth video to be aired on MTV. All the tracks of the The Age of Plastic ( Which this song debued on) deal with positives and concerns of the impact of modern technology. The theme of "Video Killed the Radio Star" is thus nostalgia, with the lyrics referring to a period of technological change in the 1960's, the desire to remember the past and the disappointment that children of the current generation would not appreciate the past. The lyrics relate to concerns of the varied behaviours towards 20th-century technical inventions and machines used and changed in media arts such as photography, cinema, radio, television, audio recording and record production.

Linking This music video Andrew Goodwins 6 features of music video,s there is a relationship between the lyrics sung and the visuals shown. This is shown as the lyrics in the chorus of the song which is the songs title and shows a little girl with a radio before it is blown up and is replaced by television. This is important as this song shows meaning as it makes a point on how older technology is changing and being replaced by newer technology. The way the singers voice comes through on the song is very technological as if it sounds like the singers voice is coming through a radio. The song uses the examples of the radio and the television as they were and still are a popular way that people gain entertainment in society.This is backed up by the co writer Trevor Horn in the book I Want My MTV: "It came from this idea that technology was on the verge of changing everything. Video recorders had just come along, which changed people's lives. We'd seem people starting to make videos as well, and we were excited by that. It felt like radio was the past and video was the future. The was a shift coming." http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=681 



When viewing the video the tempo seems very fast through the singer but the editing, cross cutting and transitions are not as much throughout, although there is change from the singers becoming the narrator to the band performing in front of the camera. The cameras present mainly focussed on the band members especially when there is the transition to the band performing. So linking this to Goodwins conventions and the six features of music video's that there is frequent reference to notion of looking. There is parts where there is voyeuristic treatment of the female body where a woman dressed in futuristic clothing glides down a clear see through pipe and looks scared because she is confined in a small area.

There is many close ups of the artists within this music video as they were known before this song came out but many listeners and viewers whom are fans of the Buggles will relate more of the group with "Video Killed The Radio Star". There is also mid shots and long shots of the band performing in a white studio area. The lighting present within the video is mainly bright which represents the positives in the change to technology but with the scene with the little girl and the radio the background is black which can show a negative aspect which is the demise of the radio.

The mise en scene of the music video shows the authenticity of the Buggles musical ability through the performance parts of the video as these parts show how talented the members are for example the man on the left of the picture above whom is playing the piano with one hand and another instrument shows the effort the band is putting in on the performance. The music video has the sense of the 1980's through the music as the 80's was a time of new technological and synthetic music and also with now styles of dress and clothing. The narration parts with the futuristic setting  adds the view of change for the world with new technology as emphasised throughout. 

Introduction to Blogger

Hello to all. The blogs which will be published will be towards my A2 project for Media Studies. The project is to create a music video as the main task. There will be much research within this piece to investigate music videos throughout the ages. I will be making a promotion package to the release of a new album which will include a music promo video, together with two of the following options:
A website homepage for the band
A CD inlay for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
A magazine advertisement for the digipak.