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Styles, conventions and techniques in music videos

Writer's picture: Mahin KaraniMahin Karani

Updated: Jan 25, 2022

Parody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7QE62FDn08 Gangnam style Parody by Annoying Orange





A lot of the scenes in the parody are similar to the original video with the shot, costumes or mis-en-scene are similar.


Beginning of the song. Person cooling of the main guy while there is a banner behind them with the name of the song on it.





Beach. Red umbrella and Orange is wearing white




Stables. Matching shot of Orange in the middle of a stable.




Party. Flashing lights everywhere while trying to create a foggy atmosphere.



Garage with the other person. Similar Costumes like the yellow and blue outfits. Similar sunglasses on the people that they are trying to imitate. Red car in the background.




Elevator. Pear is green anyways which matches the green costume of the guy in the elevator and Orange is wearing the black suit again like PSY does in the video.



The main reason that the song was created as a parody was because at the time, Gangnam Style was the biggest song and so everyone was copying it and making their own versions of the song and so the creators of annoying orange decided to remake the song in their style.


Styles, Conventions and techniques of the parody


Styles:

Animation

Surrealist

Parody

References to their own channel with the same characters and even smaller characters like squash


Conventions:

Refers to PSY the original artist and the original music video as well

Cut to the beat

Includes the main characters singing the song makes the young audience feel like these fruits are actually talking to each other and old fans will be able to easily recognize these characters and their odd form of comedy which is reflected in the lyrics and


Techniques

Cutting to the beat

Effects of making the fruits talk and animations of the rock candy monster and the fruits moving

Lip sync

Not a lot of camera movements the fruits are just images of the fruits so it’s difficult to have a moving shot. There is a moving shot in the stable, in space and usually when the human is dancing.

Most likely chroma key shot of the human as there are lights behind him



Pastiche:

Michael Jackson’s Thriller and a few of his other songs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA)

Nonsense Ki night from Happy New Year (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llZasorsis8)






Their costume and a lot of their choreography was inspired by Michael Jackson. The music isn’t similar in any way.




They did the foot lean step from smooth criminal



The actors in the song can be seen wearing MJs signature single sparkled glove throughout



the whole music video. (Screenshot taken from Billy Jean Performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOj_xsc-EBM)





The actors showing a new way to do the moonwalk from Michael Jacksons Billy Jean (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3t9-kf7ZNA)





Hip hold step that MJ usually does in his performances. (Screenshot taken from dangeroushttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vj1af59byE)


Happy New Year is a heist film that takes place at a dance competition but the people doing the heist can’t dance. This song specifically is pastiche as it celebrates Michael Jacksons styles and how he is known for dancing while changing it up enough to fit the plot of the film.


Total Styles conventions and Techniques


Styles:

Pastiche

On stage

Dance Routine

Reference to the film


Conventions

Refers to MJ

Cuts to the beat


Techniques

Cutting to the beat

Miming/lip sync

Mainly wide to extra wide shot angle to fit the whole group

Camera movements are either subtle or the camera moves in the direction of the performance.


Homage:

Michael Jacksons Black or white https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2AitTPI5U0

Godly and Cremes Cry




Styles, Conventions and Techniques:

Styles:

Homage - Micheal Jacksons song pays homage to Godley and Creme's Cry by using a similar morphing effect. The effect is more advanced in Black or White as technology had advanced in the 6 years between the release of this music video and Cry.

Black or white




Godley and Cremes Cry





In concert/as live

Dance routine with MJ and the rest of the dancers is used in the music video to show off his dancing along with his singing.

Narrative at the beginning with the boy listening to music too loudly


Conventions

Cut to the beat

Features the artist


Techniques

Cut to the beat

Effects – Morphs

Miming and lip-sync with Michael Jackson but even with the people at the end

Camera movements

Long animated camera movement in the beginning which lasts for almost 30 seconds

Crab right movement with the set change





Constantly switching camera angles from LS to MCU or




Chroma key when the dad is flying off in the beginning



Animation:

No time



Styles, conventions and techniques


Styles

Animation - I think the entire music video is animated to help show all of planetary and time effects which could be done as live but probably wouldn't look as good. As an animation, the animators could include a lot more references to the artists that his fans would recognize even if KSI no longer owns the item.

Interpretive as the artist has No Time as the title suggests and the watch is able to slow down time for him

References to his channel and accolades throughout the music video:



His fight against logan paul

His 3 diamond play buttons

His gold play button

His platinum album reward

The white teddy bear is a joke from reddit

Old xbox controller from his history playing FIFA


Popular series on the SIDEMEN (YouTube group that he is a part of) channel which imitates tinder but in real life


The podcast that he did with Logan Paul



His old purple and orange Lamborghini that he had



Actual chain and pendant that he owns

His signature bandana that he constantly wears


Surreal with the planets, portals and being able to stop time




Conventions

Cut to beat

Lyrics are interpreted in the music video with KSI controlling time even though he is always said to have no time

By having constant references to the people around him and his awards, people that enjoy the song will also get to know a little more about the artist as there is so much about him in this one music video and people that know the artist would want to try and spot these details in the music video.

Cut to beat

Animated KSI

Animated Lil Durk also in the song as he has a feature in the song


Techniques

Cutting to beat

Whole video is animated so not a lot of effects

Glowing effect


Portal effects



Lipsync

Lil Durk in the parking lot


When KSI is falling



Camera movements

Since the entire music video is done in animation. There is camera shake in almost every shot which makes it seem slightly realistic. There are also a lot of camera movements that would be very difficult, expensive, or impossible to do like when KSI is falling, set change for Lil Durk. There are also some impressive camera movements mixed with the cameras focus like when KSI first sees the portal as it pans behind him as he looks away.





Camera angles

Since there is a very small watch which has some power, most of the shots with the watch are high close ups or canted.



Even most of the shots in the other worlds are canted.



Interpretive:

Main aisa kyun hoon (Why am I like this)



In concert/as live

The choreographer, Prabhu Deva, was given 2 awards for the choreography in this music video. It was given they national film award for best choreography and the Filmfare award for best choreography.

Interpretive. It is easy to see how the character is feeling in the since at the beginning he is in a straitjacket surrounded by adults and throughout the song he looks at himself confused and lost. The costumes used in the music video also suggest this as the main characters costume is in all white while the rest of the dancers are in black




Reference to the rest of the film as it reflects his current emotion in the film.


Conventions

Cut to the beat

Doesn’t technically have the artist but the character is supposed to sing the song as this music video is an interpretation of what his character is feeling in the film when this music video was seen.


Techniques

Cut to beat

There isn’t a lot of editing effect in this music video other than maybe this iris effect



There is a lot of cinematography effect with the mirrors instead



(Slightly confusing frame as it is a very quick pan as he looks at different mirrors and questions his reflections)


Camera movement

One amazing camera movement is a shot where he moves forwards, and the camera moves closer to him. it makes it seem like hes under a lot of pressure and he can’t keep up with the world.



Dance Routine


ABCD 2 is a movie about a dance competition and this group almost won it but it turned out they were cheating. The dance routine in this music video is amazingly choreographed and is a redemption performance after they stole choreography in the last competition. The entire stage is full of dancers in small groups and as one big group. All of the dancers are professional choreographers or dancers except for two that are mainly actors that had to keep up with their pace. While the choreography doesn’t always connect together the performers still manage to make it look good.


The song does also pay homage to the original song, Bezubaan, from ABCD. It is set in a similar circumstance where the dancers aren’t allowed to dance but then they do an amazing performance and can dance again. A lot of the cast is also the same in the first movie. The music video is also like the original as in the original it was raining in and in this song a water sprinkler gets kicked and sprays water on them.




Other Styles, Conventions and Techniques

In concert/as lice

Dance Routine

Impressionist – showing their anger

Homage

Reference to ABCD and ABCD 2


Conventions

Cut to the beat

The choreography interprets the lyrics as Bezubaan means someone who cannot speak and these performers are holding their mouths shut with their hands



Techniques

Cutting to the beat – often transitions between 2 different yet similar shot to help hide a cut

Lipsync

Camera movement – Not a lot of camera movements as there is a lot of motion on the stage and having the camera move a lot as well would confuse the audience and would take away from the performance. The cameras movement is mainly slowly zooming in and out or is still with added camera shake to follow the performance.

First frame of camera movement



Final frame of the same shot


Camera angles – Mostly just eye level or high XL shots of the stage because there are so many people on the stage at one point. CU of the foot hitting the sprinkler.



Effects – slow motion both in camera and live action.




Narrative:

There is a set narrative in the music video of how the music is being passed on from one person to another. Even though there is a slight deviation when Eminem is dancing alone but most of the video follows the disease like nature of the music being passed along from on person to another which ends up going to eminem at the end of the music video

Venom - Eminem

Styles, conventions and techniques


Styles:

In concert/as live

Slight narrative of how venom goes between people

Slight surrealism as its about an off planet CD that makes people sing


Reference to the movie Venom with the same effects and Eminem turns into Venom at the end




Coventions:

Interpretation of the music - the music follows the same pacing as the film by starting off slow, speeding up quickly and then slowing down again to repeat the same cycle.


Alludes to Venom by showing the character at the end and by also showing off the strength that he gives to his host as well.


The person that Venom took control of made him jump out of the building that he was in.

At one point, Eminem refers to spider man in the lyrics who is known to fight against Venom

He also makes references to both Eddie Brock, Venoms primary host, and Marvel, created the iconic character.


Eminem does also mention Dr. Dre in the lyrics.


Cut to the beat

Features the artist


Techniques:

Cut to the beat.

Effects - Venom Biting Camera at the end. Head twitching effects to show the music passing from one person to another. Head twitch effect

Lipsync throughout




In concert/as live:

The music video is from a movie called Yeh Jawaani Hai deewani (This youth is crazy) which is about a group of friends forming and breaking relationships with themselves and other people. Having the music video be in concert/as live wouldn't deviate from the movie and also showed the character getting closer since the music video is set during Holi, the festival of color, which is like one big colorful party. Having the music video be animated in any way wouldn't seem like a good choice since you wouldn't see moments like this where you know that the characters are connecting.




Before this party the character in red was pretty distant to the rest of the friend group so having this massive and fun party to make them come closer was a good idea since her character was nerdy and having her be like this at a party was like showing the audience that you can change if you want to.


Other styles conventions and techniques

Styles:

In concert/as live

Dance routine - which may seem odd for a party like this but they are just trying to show the people at the party are enjoying themselves and the dance routine helps simplify the chaos formed from of all the colors flying around.


Conventions:

Cut to the beat


Techniques

Cutting to the beat

lip sync

Camera movements - usually slightly moving and if following the choreography . A few moments where its a long take there are quick pans to the left and right and slow zoom in and outs.


First frame of a zoom in


Final frame of a zoom in


there are even a few long shots that are done with hidden cuts.


Track in

Crab left

Arcs around them

hidden cut while still arcing

finishes arc shot and crab right

track out while slightly panning left

camera angles. Mainly at eye level.



overhead shots




high shots to show the amount of people and the scale of this celebration


low angle shot to show what it looks like inside this colorful party.


Surreal:



The song is about a computer that is telling people what they can't do and it starts off small like littering then turns into killing. The surrealism is used in the music video to help create a sense of uneasiness. Such as the pig/dog/lizard hybrid could be seen as a symbol for all of the wrongs mentioned in the lyrics of the music video.


While the colors are appealing, the animations feel off putting and odd. I think creating the music video as an animation makes sense since it's easy to create a more surreal environment as an animation instead of as live.



Styles, Conventions and Techniques:

Styles:

Surrealist

Narrative - talking to humans about their rights and freedom

animated

interpretive


Conventions:

Animated to the beat since there isn't any editing

interprets the lyrics with the animations following the lyrics

"You have the wrong to discriminate"



"You have the wrong to kill"


Techniques

Animated to the beat

Multi-image


Impressionist music video

Impressionist - The artistic style of the video shows event that cannot naturally occur like people scuba diving in the sky or popcorn cooking in a volcano. It makes the viewer think more about the visuals instead of lyrics of the song. The music video for this song is different as not a lot of artists would take a more artistic approach to their music video. However, by doing this, they make the music video more memorable which means more people will listen to the song, even if its just to watch the video.


Other Styles, Conventions and Techniques

Styles:

In concert/as live

slightly surreal


Conventions

Features the band/Artist

Cut to the beat


Techniques

Cut to the beat

Miming and lip sync

Multi-image - Layering of different videos to create one clip


Camera angles and movements - For shots where they used drone shots to capture the video, they would have to program the movements of the drone to match the movement of a motion controlled camera that would move in the same way to composite the 2 layers together.


This shot was of the artist laying down on this map and the rest of the map and the plane were CGI



Chroma key/Green screens were used a lot in this video as a lot of newly recorded footage had to be placed on either older or stock footage.


All of these techniques are used to create the impressionist style of the music video.


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