This is an analysis of a music video from 5 different genres of music:
Nellly- Country Grammar
This music video is a typical early 2000’s hip- hop music video; this was a time in which hip-hop music videos followed a similar trend. Due to the fact that most rappers and hip-hop artists in the early 2000’s where male, their music videos where made for men, this means that they were made to appeal to black African American men, and stereotypically most of their fantasies includes all the African American men being rich gangster with big expensive jewellery and cars, all the women are beautiful and move their bodies for the men’s pleasure and would be their play things.
This music video follows that trend exactly; the artist ‘Nelly’ is wearing the latest hip-hop trending fashion and expensive jewellery, he is displaying the expensive cars that were known to be driven by rich gangsters and pimps at the time. Most of the women in the music video are half naked and moving their bodies in a sexual manner and the music video is bright colourful and showing a party scene.
Beyonce- Single Ladies
This music video is a pop music video by Beyoncé that came out in 2008, this was an era where music videos started to gain their own commercial rather than supporting the songs. This was when vevo and downloading music videos was becoming more popular. This music video stood out a lot against its competition because; though it was a pop music video and contained the usual elements of a pop music video, it didn’t follow the stereotypical pop music video features and themes.
Most pop music videos (especially the ones for upbeat music) feature the artist or the band, either performing, acting out a story, in a studio or all of them joined. This music video features the artist (Beyoncé) in a studio performing a dance sequence that goes with the song, but what makes this music video stand out from other pop music videos is its simplicity. Every single element in the music video makes this music video simple, from its black and white effect to simply all black and similar costumes and dancers. The simplicity of the music video is so different because most pop videos have a lot of layers, their usually fast pace, colourful and consist of a lot of different scenes, flashy costume and production like ‘Rihanna, We Found Love’ or ‘Lady Gaga, Telephone’
Behemoth- Ov Fire And The Void
Rock music videos (especially heavy metal rock) mostly follow a similar pattern, this is supposed to be a controversial pattern that is supposed to draw attention from the target audience and also sell an image. That theme is satanic, dark and evil, which is exactly what this music video follows, this theme is supposed to fit the music, which is also usually dark, depressing and evil.
This music video follows that trend very well, it also has the deep, dark satanic theme, which is expressed with dark lighting, scary (Halloween like costumes), suicidal and death or murderous related actions and subliminal fast passing satanic gestures. This all goes extremely well with the tone and pace of the music.
Country music videos are another type of genre that follow a trend, but one that is not as blunt as rock, hip hop or pop. In fact the only main similarities with country music videos is that they usually feature the artist playing a guitar (which is what most of country songs are made, sung and recorded with) or performing to a live crowd (e.g. Dolly Parton ‘Jolene and a more modern example, Taylor Swift ‘Mean’).
In this video by John Meyer, we see a contrast using a split scene technique, in which we see the past and the present where in the past it show the preparation for the show that he is performing in, and the present as the show. This video is a good example of the country music video trend of the artist being featured playing an instrument or live performance footage is used
