Introduction –
Here I will be explaining the purpose of music videos, how they evolved and picked certain music videos that could possibly inspire me but what I find good in a music video itself, if it represents their brand, their music style, the video itself and if they used any certain codes of conventions or any other hidden meanings.
The Purpose of Music Videos –
There are many many purposes of having music videos, one to bring hype to the album and sell it. It’ll bring more attention, which brings more money. Money is also the main reason of course. That’s why you will often see product placements within the video itself, either subtly doing so or it being a major part for the sake of it. Which is a big issue nowadays since so many people illegally download the songs and listen to them for free and so that means the artist and the record label will get mo profit, so they rely on products and advertisements in their videos to gain that income. Along the years, music videos have changed drastically, back then, it was pretty simple, no main use of VFX or proper cinematography but yet some where amazing, like Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. A very cool and intriguing video back in that time, and still iconic to this day. This has happened in many genres, from Hip Hop mainly. Back then, it was to grow larger and for more people to hear, also probably making them listen to the album too, since no one illegally downloaded music they would have to pay for it. Music videos back then where basically advertisements and they could not have product placements as it was not allowed. They made people have a different take on it, they would sometimes begin to remember the video more than the song itself.
Nowadays, music videos have the same purpose, for it to be an ad to make money and sell more sales on their album. They are now allowed to have product placements which especially helps since a lot of the population illegally download music. But also, now a single or even an album could be specially made for a movie, film or TV show. One example is with Kendrick Lamar and Black Panther. He made a whole new album just for that film to both promote the album, and his film since the songs are played in the movie. Another cool example of music videos with movies is musical films like The Greatest Showman, the whole film is based off music and when the music plays in scenes it’s almost like it’s made to be a music video which can be uploaded onto YouTube and gain even more popularity and money. This can also happen with video games also. There was an old game for the PS2 about 50 Cent, within the game trailer he made his own music for the game which is basically self-promotion. The game had a cheat code system where if you put in a certain code it unlocked all music videos to all the songs made for the game. This again is self-promotion but a pretty clever way to make people watch the videos.
Select Three Music Videos and Analyse Them –
I will be doing 3 types of genres and music video, the first one is kind of different and still only know becoming popular. The video is from Blackpink called “Whistle” and is Kpop. URL; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dISNgvVpWlo
This is one of the first stills of the video. It showcases a pink Nintendo controller, which does have many meanings. The first is that it’s an obvious product placement and the second is that the colour is pink, it’s in their name. It’s just showcasing their colours and what their brand is.
Here we have one of the group members (Lisa) sitting on a chair along with a fast movement of the camera that goes overhead, it also continues to another scene here;
It moves to a medium shot of her sitting properly on the chair rapping the first verse of the song. This also continues to other members of the band, making them all the main spotlight of this video which is a typical trend in pop music videos.
This shot is one of the last overhead shots, I believe they all show off some of the future locations in the future. You can also tell they are looking straight at the camera, engaging in audiences attention and engagement. You can also tell that the video is very well produced and looks very high budget, which is the case with these Kpop videos. They’re all over exaggerated and has an insane amount of colours that are saturated.
This shot is the thumbnail of the video so whoever edited and uploaded this thought that this was the most eye catching scene for audiences to click. It’s a good use of VFX and also can show that this group or video are out of this world, which some people could agree on.
This scene is one of my favourite ones, it’s around a 60/70 degree angle and looks awesome, after this shot it zooms in and out of one of the characters which is also a popular trend within pop music. Since Kpop is becoming so popular so of course they will use popular trends to maintain that and their brand.
My second video
My next video is called “1-800-273-8255” by Logic. It’s a song about people who are suicidal with a powerful video ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb24RrHIbFk
This first shot of the video is a man running down the street in the dark, possibly either a jog, or something serious and he is running from that trouble. This will be showcased later, but for now it’s leaving us questioning. Logic’s brand is for everyone to be equal and loved, so by making a whole album on that subject and this being his most popular song will showcase that brand. You can also see that this video looks very cinematic, looking like a short film type. Which it is. 
This next scene is right after the first shot, showcasing a celebrity actor, Don Cheadle. This can be called celebrity endorsement to make the video more watched and known.
This scene is a few scenes after the previous one, it’s showing a few of them as the main character is a child, probably making us feel more emotion for this person.
This next scene shows us that the main character is gay, and his father has found his men magazine and continues to have a talk with him. Showing that he probably doesn’t understand it which makes the main character feel worthless, since his parents don’t seem to approve. 
Here we have the first scene but circled around to show his face, from the back it peaked people question what happened or even why he was even running in the dark. His face shows a lot after the scene with his dad.
These next two scenes show he stayed over his “friend’s” house and slept in the same bed as him, obviously showing they’re both in the start or in a relationship, then one of their dads walks in and finds them, while the main guy is embarrassed and walks out
The final shot I will show you is near the end of the video, where we have this wide shot of a bunch of people at their wedding. And their dads have understood their children and respect them. And although the artist is a rapper, mainly in hip hop, it just shows how his brand caters to so many other things and not just parties, clubs, cars, money.
The next video is another hip hop song but with an actual hip-hop style video.
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvTRZJ-4EyI”
This song called “Humble” By Kendrick Lamar came out in 2017 and became very popular. This first shot has a single beam of light flash onto his white robes from the window, probably to showcase the actual humbleness that he is trying to pull off.
Now, in this shot it seems like he is showing off his money, but in fact he is actually being ironic of the fact so many other rappers do this. It is most likely fake money, which also can show that other rappers use fake money in their videos pretending to be rich.
Here we have the 360 camera with the circled world effect, making it seem like he’s huge compared to the world. The shot seems to tell he’s a god, he’s someone to be looked upon but yet with the song talking about being humble may be ironic.
This is representing the last supper, not sure really what it means overall but probably shows that Jesus was very humbled and he’s comparing himself to Jesus perhaps, and also saying that there’s always a snake in the group like Judas who would rather have money than actual friends and would do bad things for money.
REFERENCES –
Blackpink; “WHISTLE M/V” Link; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dISNgvVpWlo
Director – Beomjin J
Release – August 8th 2016
Logic; “1-800-273-8255” Link; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb24RrHIbFk
Director – Andy Hines
Release – August 17th 2017
Kendrick Lamar; “HUMBLE.” Link; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvTRZJ-4EyI
Director – The Little Homies, Dave Meyers
Release – March 30th 2017
TV and Film Production 