What is a music video?

A music video is a short narrative consisting of visual images used to represents the artist and interpret their lyrics. Music videos have many purposes but are most commonly used as a marketing tool, which promotes the artist, song and sometimes brand names. When promoting the artist a music video aims to help the audience build a relationship with the artist allowing them to an insight of their lifestyle. An artist may decide to make a music video to meet their fans needs who may highly request it and also make it more available worldwide. 

An example where a music video aims to build a relationship with its fans is Justin Biebers- Beauty and a beat. The music video starts off with private footage of Justin which had apparently been 'leaked'. It then goes on to show the audience Justin playing his piano and how he spends times away from the stage, ie playing table tennis with friends. By showing this to the audience it makes them feel as they know him more as they have more of a personal insight to his life. They also may feel like they can relate to him as they are seeing an ordinary side to him as he is doing activities that they might also do. When the beat kicks in is when Justin is shown joining his friends at a huge pool party which he had rented out especially. As the music video goes on the audience are introduced to some of Justin’s friends. The music video also aims to promote the video game 'Just Dance 4' as it is shown various times within the music video, fans of Justin would want what he has and therefor buy it. Overall the music video aims to promote Justin Bieber and represent him as a normal teen enjoying time with his friends, along with his songs by building relationships with him and the audience, possibly making him more money and gaining more fans. 

Music videos can have three styles to them, performance (singing/dancing), narrative (telling a story) and concept (selling audience ideas and themes). An example of a music video which has all three is Christina Aguilera- Beautiful. The video shows different images of Christiana singing the song throughout (performance), telling a number of different people stories within her lyrics (narrative) and selling a concept to the audience which is that everyone is beautiful in their own way no matter what they look like or how different they are (concept).

The music video I have chosen to analyse is Nelly ft Kelly Rowland - Dilemma. The music video was created to promote the artist and their albums (Nelly- Nellyville and Kelly Rowlands- Simply deep) along with the song itself. The music video follows the styles of performance and narrative as both Nelly and Kelly are shown performing the song singing and dancing to a camera along with them playing out a story of them both falling for each other although they both have partners. The song is a mix between Hip Hop and RnB as Nelly and Kelly’s rapping and singing are combined. 

The music video follows many of the conventions for the genre. RnB and Hip Hop videos usually start with a slow beat with a fast beat then kicking in which happens at the beginning of Dilemma. Stylish clothes is also a generic convention of Rnb/Hip Hop music videos. The music video to Dilemma follows these conventions as they are both dressed in the current style wearing expensive brands such as Gucci, which is promoted in the music video. Which leads me to another convention of showing the artists lifestyle, this convention is also followed as Nelly shows up in an expensive car and as a rapper Nelly would have expensive possessions as his music has made him wealthy. The last 2 of the conventions this music video follows is showing artists facial expressions and dancing together or individually (without a set routine). Throughout the music video the camera shows close ups of the artist faces showing their emotions towards each other and towards the end of the video long shots show the couple dancing together on the street outside their homes. 

The purpose of this music video is also to represent both the artists. Through watching the music video i have come to the conclusion that the artists want to be represented as young and hip as they have all the latest designer brands and expensive cars. Both artists may also want to represent themselves as having a 'romance' this is because the visuals will match the lyrics and narrative they are trying to portray and also possibly make the audience 'talk' and question whether there is a romance going on in real life, this will help both artists gain public and media attention. As well as promoting both of the artists new albums, the shots in the music video aim to promote the brands such as Gucci, Mercedes and nokia. 

This music video relates the an audience as it promotes the song amongst them as well as helping the audience buy into both of the artists lifestyle which fans may appreciate. The music video may also appeal to an audience who idolise both artist as it shows them with materialistic things they may also desire such as nice cars and designer brands such as Gucci.