Features in Music Videos

Pink - Dear Mr. President

  The main features in this music video are live performance and the use of stocked footage. Not many music videos feature actual live performances, instead they opt for a contrived performance, that's why this is one of the videos that stands out to me. As this song has political meaning and it is something that others can relate to (not the usual "its about my life" songs) the footage of her actual concert were used which makes this particular song more genuine and relatable.

  The use of the stocked footage we see in in background of the music video was also used at her concert is there in order to reinforce some of her points. To show both the music video and this stocked footage, it was edited in a way so that one could see both (pink and the stocked footage) at the same time.  This editing technique was very useful in the music video because not only did it show Pink's genuine emotions towards what she was singing but the stocked footage really reinforced what she was singing about.







Michael Bublé - Hollywood

  In this particular music video, intertextuality, is the main feature. However in this particular one, they are very explicit because Michael dresses up in different very popular characters which every person could at least name one of them. Some of the characters include Justin Bieber, Mick Jagger, George Michel and Clint Eastwood. Music videos that include popular artist can usually be parodies and as such this video is one. One other example that include intertextuality  which is made as a parody is the music video "We made you" by Eminem which makes fun of artists such as Ashley Simpson and Britney Spears.







Katy Perry feat. Kanye West - E.T.

  This music video has the feature of artist as Shaman. Artist as Shaman is when the artists represent themselves as "magical"/ "out of this world"/"powerful".  In this video Katy Perry is dressed up as an alien, she has the ability to fly and to revive some robot and change it into a man/alien. Whereas Kanye looks normal however he is also portrayed with Shaman as he is also flying.
  Shaman is used in this way because the artists often want to contemplate their own greatness or either to represent their unfulfilled dreams.
 



Royal Republic - Tommy Gun

This music video is more of an abstract/conceptual video as it is a bunch of random actions that are done to the lead singer
This will have the emphasis of further showing and accentuate the lead singer. The other members of the band playing the part of almost hazing him by doing all these different (maybe considered some weird actions). Although this being a abstract video it shows the great bond between all the members and overall making it a fun video to go with the upbeat music.
The music video seems to be done in only one take which most likely took extreme precision and time planning, however there might have been two takes due there being one cut.



Joan Jett - I love Rock n' Roll

Joan Jett's music video for "I love Rock n' Roll"starts in a bar as you hear a snippet of her other hit "Bad Reputation". This follows up by us seeing Joan walk into a bar, and to her first line "I saw him dancin' there by the record machine " visual representation is immediately used as it cuts to her with the talked about record machine with a boy dancing next to it in the background. For the chorus all people in the bar start singing and clapping to it too giving it a much bigger emphasis on the rithm of the song.
This all follows by Joan giving a performance presumably in the same bar on a stage. This performance looks quite real giving that there is an audience in front of her and shots are shown of the audience singing/clapping/dancing to it however it feels and it is a contrived performance as this was not an actual live concert of Joan.
However the main feature of course in the video is that all the way through it is in black and white. This actually had no specific meaning in this video, other than Joan Jett apparently did not like how the colour of her jumpsuit looked on her, therefore they changed the whole video to black and white.
And in 1993 the band re-filmed  the music video of "I Love Rock n' Roll" for "Wayne's World 2" (movie) as part of the soundtrack.





Queen -  Don't Stop me now

This music video by Queen has the major feature of contrived performance. However this music video was very well made to look like an actual live performance. The main contributor for it to be made look like a live performance is lighting. The first shot being a close up of the lead singer, the light seems to only be shining at him which makes the background dark. I find that this is sometimes very common in live performances. At the beginning the lighting tends to be dimmed down and possibly only shining the performer's face and as the music will start to pick up, the light increases too, making the whole stage light up in order to "reveal" the other members of the band or just the stage itself if it is a solo performer.
Another, very obvious feature, is that it is obviously performed on a stage, the thing making it a contrived performance however, is the fact that there is in fact no audience in sight. Thereby playing the instruments and having a microphone in front of every member of the band also gave the impression of a live performance because when it is a "normal" contrived performance the great example is that the guitarists of the band are usually very freely walking around the stage or whatever setting the music video happens to be in.



Paramore - Decode

The actual song for this music video was specifically released to be a soundtrack for the movie Twilight. Therefore the main feature in this video consists of intertextuality to further reference Twilight throughout.
The setting in this music video is very striking as the band performs and walks through this forest, this is a good feature of intertextuality because this forest is supposed to represent Forks (the town which most of the film is set) although it was filmed in Nashville.
Furthermore, throughout the video small clip and scenes are shown as the band is almost acting out some of the scenes of the film acting as some of the vampires that are seeking through the woods.
Together with the bad being filmed in a not so bright setting, in order to set the mood that the film,  intertextuality is directly shown as clips from the actual film are edited into this music video in order to further relate the song to be the soundtrack of this movie.


Linkin Park - New Divide

Linkin Park's song "New Divide" was a specifically recorder for the movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen".  As a result, the music video also related to this film, intertextuality is therefore the main feature of this music video.

This music video is heavily edited, containing shots of the band performing but through thermal cameras which along with some kind of digital/mechanical reality sets a fine line between also using a style of the artist as Shaman (the artist has a unnatural power) for it to relate to the Transformers movie. 

In the music video it merges and fades from their performance (which its setting is in some kind of cave that was in the movie too, therefore the music video was filmed at paramount studious) into scenes and parts of the film. Merging and fading in this video gave the desired impression of the link between the band and the film.

Mika feat. Ariana Grande - Popular Song 

This music video is based around a narrative. The music features Mika and Ariana in the story line as the kids in high school that were bullied. And in this video they get revenge on the "popular" kids who used to bully them. To show the story line, hard cuts are shown from the acts of bullying (the girl "stealing" a boy from Ariana, another kid shoving Mika's books on the floor and another one putting his head in the toilet and at the end the hard cut to where they (Mika and Ariana) were kids when Mika stomped on her toys). They are cut from those acts of bullying to them brewing a potion. As the mise-en-scene for this video does look a bit gory and dark the audience can assume that they are planning something for revenge. And as such, at the end we see all the bullies turn into stone and breaking, leaving only Ariana at the end.

This music video does have a reference to the Adams Family due to the setting of the high school and the outfits of the kids. It also promotes products such as the Sony Experia Z mobile phone (in which Mika texts the others) and the Mini Cooper.