Music Video: Representation and Audience Appeal.

Music videos are marketing products, designed to appeal to the target audience by portraying the artists as somebody they aspire to be like or could relate to. Watch The Vamps Somebody to You and Little Mix Black Magic music videos below and consider how the way the band and characters in the video are presented are designed to appeal to their own music fans.





To analyse the music videos effectively, you need to find three frames from each one to look closely at. Once you have your frames, you need to pick out the following using moving image terminology:

• Camera Angles/Movements (Establishing, Long, Medium, Close-up, Point-of-view, Over-the-shoulder, Zoom in, Tracking, Panning, High Angle and Low Angle shots).
• Mise-en-scene (Costume, Lighting, Setting or Location, Props).
• Editing (How is the story cut together? Is it in time with the music?)

You could also consider how the video is structured. Many music videos use:

• lip-synching (matching the singing action to the soundtrack) and direct mode of address (looking straight into the camera) - so it appears as if the artist is singing directly to the audience.
• Performance (the band are performing their music track as if on stage).
• Narrative (the story behind the video).
• Montage (the story just around or speeds up to fit the narrative in to a short three-minute video).

Here is an example of how you could write an effective analysis:

In the opening of the music video, Little Mix appear as students with very little style. The mise-en-scene suggests the group are 'geeks', unable to style themselves to fit in with the popular crowd, as they are shown wearing glasses and knitted wool sweaters as costumes. They are clumsy and awkward as they fall down the stairs in the opening establishing shot. The video is based on a narrative of the girls using magic to change their looks and their luck. They become popular with boys and get their own back on the popular girls who were laughing at them at the start.
This would appeal to a young target audience who will be able to identify with the cruelty of bullies and how popularity is based on such superficial things as clothing. They would enjoy the narrative of the characters growing in confidence just as young teenagers may like the idea of aspiring to be more confident in their own life.