5 points about what a music video is and why it's used

I believe that music videos have become more important for our generation because it the online age where everyone accesses everything through the internet, be it TV programmes, illegal downloads, interacting with people, or even getting your groceries delivered. The public is now interested in creating a bond with the artist, not just slapping a CD into their walkman like they did a few years back. The media has recognised the peoples want to interact with the artist. A music video promotes its song to the target audience, creating a connection between the artist and the audience. Music videos have become even more of a key element in viral marketing.

There are key strategies in delivering a product to the viewer in result that the song is successful. If music videos became too alike to one another the label looses their audience because it’s been seen before. For example, if Beyonce and Britney both came out with a video where they are following to much of the same story line, wearing similar outfits and kissing similar boys, the audience becomes bored and can’t separate the two. It would be much easier for two different genre artists to do this because nobody would be comparing them since the music style would be completely different. The label’s job is to find a unique selling point within the artist and expand upon that, for example Shakira’s hip, which is universally recognised as her signature move.

The younger generation people get bored quickly and their attention span is limited. "People are genreally capable of a longer attention span when they are doing something that they find enjoyable or intrinsically motivating". This psychological term is describing how we only really pay attention to what we are interested in. Applying this to music videos, we can see that attention span can be limited if the media product does not appeal to the viewer. For example, a Beyonce fan is unlikely to be interested in a metal band video. For more on this, click on the link to the right to get onto this page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_span

Joe Saltzman from USA Today discusses music videos and says, “They now provide pictures for the songs in our heads. All kids have to do is watch and listen, stare straight ahead.” I can imagine Saltzman watching a music video and like many other people, see a montage of images with a tune playing to the sequence. In a physiological analysis, by not seeing an image your hearing senses are heightened because you’re listening NOT looking. Music videos leave no room for imagination because its story is presented to you on a screen.  

Of course the record companies would see it as a market, because they can use a clip from a big star's music video and place it as an advertisement between TV commercials. This then leads to a rise in festival and concert sales because people want a further connection to the artist. Festivals have increased in popularity and it has become almost a tradition each year for the young people to go, drink and enjoy music with their friends.

 

The major conglomerates, Universal, EMI, BMG, and Sony make up 76% of the UK music industry and 26% is made up of the independent market.  Since conglomerates finance music videos, they decide what the budget should be. Depending on the budget, recording companies manage where the money should be spent. Lady Gaga's 'telephone' sold 7.4 mil copies, which was probably pre-determined which is why the budget was exceedingly high.

There is a ridiculous amount of product placement throughout the video, racking in at least nine different brands. A telephone company that appeared in the video paid 180,000 dollars in order to be a feature in the video. Because of the current credit crunch situation, most music videos are kept below $10,000 but Gaga’s ‘telephone’ went staggeringly above that and lasted ten minuets long. I believe that Lady Gaga will remain relevant as long as she keeps dressing wacky and outrageous because that’s her star image. She is still exhibiting a wild and interesting image, which is keeping the audience tuned in, but as soon as she gets too old for that image she will most likely go off the grid.

Lady Gaga demonstrates a very high budgeted music video budgeted by a major conglomerate. In comparison to Lady Gaga, Snow Patrol’s ‘Chasing Cars’ video, for example, was fairly low-budget yet the single sold over 6mil copies worldwide in 2008. Snow Patrol is part of an independent market and so is given much less of a budget then Lady Gaga but managed to sell up to her standard of copies with that particular song.