29.1 Understanding the purposes of music videos

Introduction

The purpose of music videos is to promote the artists and promote brands. But it's mainly to promote the track. A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes.

Promotion of a particular song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6CfVQqZ75o

The song I chose was Fuse ODG featuring Tiffany - Azonto. The music video is focusing on different people wearing masks showing off their dance moves. This way this music video will make people who listen to the song feel united and it would make them get heavily involved whether at home, outside public or many different places.

The message the music video is trying to portray is that people should not be afraid to take part in the dance movements.

There are a lot of close-up shots of the two people that are dancing to the moves in their all black clothing wearing masks. There is also different camera cuts when the dancers are showing off their dance moves to the public for example and there was another example when one of the dancers was doing the azonto dance in front of a man which he was quite pleased about it.
In terms of the setting it is set in a town. The use of colour it is under cold dark lighting, they have probably done this to achieve the real effect of Fuse and Tiffany dancing to the rhythm of the music.
There was one point during the course of the music video that Tiffany was dancing in front of many people. However, it was warm lighting then, the reason they have done this is to create a different scenery of the music video and to make it a little interesting. Probably they didn't want to show the music video under cold, dark lighting for longer periods of time to stop the music video from being boring in terms of miss-en-scene.
The song was released in the United Kingdom as a digital download on 29th September 2013. The song reached the highest point at number 30 on the UK singles chart and at number 38 on the Scottish singles chart. It was also charted in the Netherlands.














Azonto (fuse ODG song) (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azonto_(Fuse_ODG_song) (Accessed: 26 September 2016).                             




Promotion of the artist's album
Another one on of the main purposes of making a music video is to promote the album. This can be achieved in many ways. For example the title of the album could be the same as one of the singles (this is called the title track). The album could feature clothing, sets and images that are used in a music video to help the audience attract the album and will eventually persuade them to buy it.
For example Fuse ODG featuring Tiffany - Azonto can link to promote the artists album, because more people will listen to the music video since it is in the album called 'TINA' which is also the name of the song itself. The music video 'Azonto' is ranked number 9 in the album.
On the album there is a extreme close up shot of Fuse wearing his black snapback and in white writing it says on his snapback TINA representing the name of the album. It has the name TINA on the album and underneath it says what it stands for which says 'THIS IS NEW AFRICA'. Also Fuse is wearing a smart shirt in bright colours to make the appearance of the album attractive for the audience.
The album was first released on 31st October 2014. It was a financial success, peaking at number 7 on the UK singles chart. "Azonto was released as the second single from the album.
The "Azonto song has 1,187,082 views on youtube this shows that the music video has vastly become popular amongst the audience since it was first released in 2013.

ODG, F. (2016) ‘Tina (album)’, in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_(album) (Accessed: 30 September 2016).

Promotion of the Artist
The song - FUSE ODG - Dangerous Love ft. Sean Paul can promote Fuse ODG as the artist, because the song is set in Ghana with many girls involved, but there is also some men involved however, mostly it is girls. This could draw more ladies to listen to Fuse since the song is called Dangerous Love and when you mention anything about love girls draw in more and more. (refers to boys and men).
Fuse is showing his dance movements and that would definitely promote the artist around the world and especially Ghana. The reason it would promote the artist more in Ghana, because the music video was set in Ghana, Fuse may be well known already in Ghana, but it will promote him even more. The reason being is because more people in Ghana will tell other people that may not know about Fuse and then eventually more and more audiences around the world will find out about the artist and would want to listen to his music videos.
The song Dangerous Love ft. Sean Paul was released in the United Kingdom as a digital download on 18th May 2014. The song has peaked to number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, number 4 on the Scottish Singles Chart and number 55 on the Irish Singles Chart. "Dangerous Love" was nominated for Best Song at at the MOBO Awards 2014, following his win in 2013 for Best African Act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cdpbjfV4e4














Promotion of and synergy with another media product
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK-FsdSMeno
The song I have chosen to talk about is called the 50 Cent - 'Big Rich Town'. This song promotes synergy with another media product, so for example this song introduces the very first TV series of 'Power' and it was first premiered on 7th June 2014. The episodes continued until 28th September 2016 - 28 episodes of power have aired, concluding the third season. The reason they have possibly chosen this song as the intro of the TV series, because the TV series 'Power' is set in United States and when the audience think of United States most of them think about New York. New York is a well known city in the United States and it is very busy as well. Everyone would want to go to New York just to explore the town.
Also the opening introduction of 'Power' introduces a mirror image movement of the town which is set in cold, black,  and dark lighting to signify the genre of the film which is a crime drama. Also the illustrator has used black to signify death, fear and mystery to the TV series to grab the consumers attention and to let them ponder what the episodes could bring in the near future of excitement as well as danger.
As the intro continues there is use of iconography involving the rings. There is a extreme close up shot of the rings and the reason they have done this is to catch the audiences eye that the rings could symbolise something huge to the series. So for instance, the main character in the TV series is an actor called Omar Hardwick and he is playing the character James "Ghost" St. Patrick he is married in the TV series, to actress called Naturi Naughton. (Tasha St. Patrick). The audience will know when watching the TV series that the two main characters are very secure together and nothing will break them apart. However, James "Ghost" St. Patrick relationship with his wife is not as smooth than everyone would have thought, because he is also in a relationship with an agent called Lela Loren known as (Angela) in the TV series. That would suggest that James is not showing 100% commitment towards his wife Tasha and he is basically living a double life with two ladies.
The use of handcuffs, guns and money (which all appeared as close - up shots) will further enhance the TV series genre which is a crime drama. Because 'Power' involves drug dealings as well that would raise further danger to the TV series and it will make the episodes more entertaining for the consumers to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGLwbMX0o5Y
Power (TV series) (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(TV_series) (Accessed: 1 October 2016).

Increasing the income for the record company

Katy Perry started her record label in 2014 and named it  Metamorphosis Music. She has signed her first male artist known as Ferras. He is described as a talent who has and a unique and lyrical way of communicating his point of view of his life that makes you feel connected to every note when you listen.
The first album that appeared on the record label was called "Legends Never Die" which Ferras and Katie Perry performed as a duet. The song alongside four other songs were released on ITunes to distribute the media products for the audience so they can listen to it. From there Metamorphosis Music as a record company would have gained loads of income, because Ferras and Katie Perry performed that particular song it has sent messages around the world, from an audience point of view it would persuade them to buy the album and the fact, the song has been first published the record company would be benefiting a lot in terms of money.
Metamorphosis Music record company is owned by Capitol Records.














https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWQ8k7ju1Dc

Grow, K. (2014) Katy Perry launches new label metamorphosis music. Available at: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/katy-perry-launches-new-label-metamorphosis-music-signs-ferras-20140617 (Accessed: 3 October 2016).
Ferras (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferras (Accessed: 3 October 2016).
Metamorphosis music (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphosis_Music (Accessed: 3 October 2016).

Increasing the range of media artist active in

The artist I am going to talk about is Jaden Smith. He is an an American actor and rapper. He acted in 2008 in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and the 2010 remake of the Karate Kid. He was also in the film of "After Earth" with his dad.
Jaden Smith started rapping alongside Canadian Justin Bieber in the song "Never Say Never". October 2012, Jaden released his first mixtape, "The Cool Safe". Based on the song "Never Say Never" it was also used as the theme song for Karate Kid, which Jaden Smith was in.
This is showing that Jaden Smith is breaking the media industry, because he may be an establish actor, but he can also rap as well. For example he rapped alongside Justin Bieber for the song "Never Say Never" and he also released his first mixtape.
So he is basically showing the world that he can do different things in the media industry and in terms of the audience he would be easily noticed. He will even get more fans than expected due to his increase range of media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5-P9v3F8w

Never say never (Justin Bieber song) (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Say_Never_(Justin_Bieber_song) (Accessed: 4 October 2016).

Jaden Smith (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaden_Smith (Accessed: 4 October 2016).

Conclusion
Music videos are used to promote products, which is anything from a single track to the company selling themselves. It warrants popularity to rise and sell more.

Lloyd