Research on Form

A music video is a short film that integrates with a song that accompanies visual images. Music videos are there to promote a single or artist, as well as introducing new artists to mainstream music. Music videos often contain a narrative with a concept, and a performance by the artist or artists themselves. However, different genres have different conventions. For example, Rock music videos include the artist lip syncing the song into a microphone, and Rap may have shots of cars and money. The rest of this blog post is analyzing two music videos from two artists and genres (Taylor Swift and Amy Winehouse) (Pop and Jazz).

1) Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift

The song "Wildest Dreams" by Taylor Swift is a synth pop song, in which Swift is reminding her lover to remember her, despite the inevitable end of their relationship. The song includes soft-rock guitar precussion strings, as well as Swift’s own heartbeat as songs’s actual beat. The song's overall mood and tone is quite empty and fulfilling, as it talks about a doomed love. there is also some positive imagery of love in the lyrics (sunset, red lips, nice dress). The contrasting imagery of both the negative and positive aspects of a romantic relationship prove Swift's point of how love never lasts forever, and that she wants to remembered by her lover after the affair has ended.

The music video was directed by Joseph Kahn, and is a narrative, which follows an actress named Marjorie Finn (played by Swift) filming a movie in Africa alongside her lover, Robert Kingsley (played by Scott Eastwood). The portagonists affair ends when the movie finishes filming. At the movie’s premiere, Finn notices Kinglsey with his wife; the video ends with Finn running away from the premiere in a limousine, with Kinglsey running on the street. According the Kahn, the video itself is an homage to classical Hollywood movies, such as “The African Queen” and “Out of Africa”. The romance depicted in the video is based on that of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who were a famous couple in the Golden Age of Hollywood, and had a notorious turbulent relationship. According to Andrew Goodwin’s Music Video Theory, the video contains an intertextual references to the Classical Hollywood era (like I have mentioned before), and in some instances, Swift looks and the camera and lip syncs the song. It also contains cultural references to Africa (where most the video is set), as a lion and elephants are featured in the background. The video mostly uses warm tone colours, as well as showing some cool tones (yellow, orange red, blue), which further emphasises the atmosphere and mood of the song, which is empty and fulfilling (as the lyrics talk about the inevitable end of a romantic relationship). I decided to analyze this music video because I thought it had a a lot of hidden meanings and symbolism behind it, and also the fact that I think it is very visually stunning.

2) Back to Black by Amy Winehouse

The song Back to Black by Amy Winehouse is a jazz and soul song, that is about a heartbreak that occurs after a breakup, and Winehouse being grief strikened by it. The song includes piano, drums, guitar and bass and is in a D minor. Due to the song’s lyrics and beats, the song portrays a bleak and dark mood and tone. The song is inspired by Winehouse’s breakup with her boyfriend.

The video was directed by Phil Griffin, and depicts Winehouse attending a funeral. The video was shot in black and white, which amplifies the dark and sad mood and atmosphere of the song. Winehouse is shown lip syncing the song in various scenes. The funeral can be seen as a metaphor for the dying love between Winehouse and her former boyfriend. The video follows some of the conventions of Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory. It follows a narrative (Winehouse attending a funeral), there are shots of Amy lipsyncing the song and looking directly at the camera, and there is a link between the music and visuals (the song itself is very slow and not upbeat, and the video is shot in black and white, emphasising the dark tone of the music). I decided to analyze this music video because I think the actual song conveys a dark message that is real, and I quite like the atmosphere of black and white visuals.