Music Video Analysis

In order to help us see how media language is used and how the codes and conventions operate in a indie music video I decided to analyze a video. However, instead of analyzing an ‘indie’ genre music video I decided to analyze a song from an alternative genre. This is because I felt that it would help in the planning of our music video: knowing what other genres consist of may let us adapt certain things towards our own genre in order to get something indie but yet still unique and different to what is typically shown in indie videos.
I decided to look at RnB/hip-hop artists JayZ & Beyonce – Their hit song ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (This being one of my favorite music videos).





The music video is mainly based on narrative story rather than performance. The narrative of the story and its visuals run in relationship to the lyrics. As most music videos that have a narrative, what the audience see’s reflects the lyrics. In this case the artists main message in the song is ‘all I need in this life of sin is me and my girlfriend,’ this is what is shown through the visuals. We are able to see JayZ and Beyonce as a couple doing ‘SIN’ but all that matters to them is the support of each other and being together. In addition to this there is also a relationship between the music and the visuals as the sequence is edited in pace of the beat of the music. As the beat slows down or speeds up so does the action in the shots and the length of each shot.


The artists are shown in a very glamorous way, driving their expensive cars and having what appears to be expensive jewelry. This reflects the image that we are given of celebrities and artists etc in the sense that they live a life of luxury and lavishness. Often when watching a music video we expect to the artists to be shown in a superstar manner. Their glamour is further emphasized through the rich bright lighting; the warm sunny lighting emphasizes on the artists spectacular image. Although some scenes of the music video are shot in what may be called ‘the hood’ the artists are shown to be ‘street’ in a very glam and stylish way.


The music video is not edited in any extreme way as it tends to be very simple and realistic in order to reflect the reality of the lyrics. Because of the fact that is a narrative based music video any extreme editing would cause the music video to look strange and out of place from the lyrics. Throughout the video mainly invisible cuts are used from shot to another. However there is use of fades and dissolves but this is only to show the passage of time and to show to parts of action running concurrently at the same time. The speed of some shots is also edited at times e.g. slow motion, this to emphasize on what is happening in the scene and cause the audience to pay more attention the artists and their movement. There are several bird eye view shots also used in the video to show settings and to follow the police chase. The camera shots have also been used in a way to make the artists look powerful and dominant, there are several shots that are from a slightly low angles. In contrast to the police officors are shown in a vulnerable way through the high angle shots.


The music video also uses voyeurism. Beyonce is shown to be very glamorous and provocative, appealing to both men and women. Her perfect body and her beauty has all been emphasized on in a way which engages both men and women to the video. Women see her as someone they want to be and men find her sexually appealing. At one point of the video she has a hot red Mexican style dress on which makes her look very hot and provocative. She is the only one that has red on compared to all the black and grey’s in the room. This makes her stand out. Beyonce is the only women we see in the music vide which emphasizes on her importance and makes her the centre of every man’s attention. Beyonce appeals to all women of all ages and races, not only do African black women find her appealing but so do women of other backgrounds. Compared to JayZ, Beyonce is shown in a much more sexualized way; her clothes are very revealing yet not ‘sleazy’ but this is only to emphasis on her perfect body.


Overall the visuals of the music video are mainly focused on the artists and are filled up with close ups and medium close ups of the artist in order to promote and sell the artist. This is able to not only promote the artists but even the genre as we are almostly instantly aware of the genre when watching the video. The music video is able to exert a pull on both female and male audience of a range of areas (mainly teenagers).


Taking into consideration Goodwin’s six points of the codes and conventions of music videos it appears that this video has been able to satisfy all of these points.

Further analysis of music video
I decided to ask a few people 6 quick questions about what they think about the music video and what it is about the music video that appeals to them. These are the results I found:


1. Do you like the music video?
-Yes
-Yes, but don’t like these type of songs
-Yes
-Yes
-Yes
This shows that even someone who is not very keen on such a genre may also find the music video interesting and may like it.


2. What do you like about the music video and what engages you to watch on?
-The story line
-I love beyonce
-It has good narrative
-The artists
-Its different to majority of Rnb/Hip-hop music videos
Here we have a mixture of responses. It shows that people like music videos that are different and although they may not have much artist performance that good narrative can interest the audience.


3. Do you feel the lyrics go well with the visuals?
-Yes
-Yes
-Yes
-Yes
-Yes
All of our responses agreed that the visuals go well with the lyrics. This is a key part we have to think about when creating our own music video -> there must be a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals


4. Is there anything you don’t like about the video or is there anything you would change?
-more performance
-more girls
-nothing
-I like it its different
-some dancing by beyonce – great dancer
Many people enjoy seeing artists perform and especially because Jayz and Beyonce are great performers audience enjoy watching them and some would like to see more dance coreography etc. A section of the male audience also perfer to see more females in their music videos and more sex appeal.


5. Does Beyonce appeal to you and in what way?
-Yes, Shes a great artist and her songs are great
-Yes, She’s really fit. Any guy would want to be with her
-Yes, she’s so beautiful shes my idol
-Yes, I would love to have a body like her
-Yes, she’s even though im not a big fan of her I think shes a great singer with a great style
This shows that beyonce appeals to both men and women. Men see her as someone who they would want to be with and women see her as someone who they would want to be.


6. After watching this music video would you go and purchase this song?
-Definately
-Yes
-Maybe
-Yes
-Yes
This sums up the fact that music videos play a great part in promoting the audience and also making sales.


Both males and females were questioned ranging from ages 16 – 20. I decided to only put down a few of the responses I received because I realized I had got similar responses from many people. The reason I carried this questionnaire out was just to see whether others feel towards the music video and what is it exactly that people like. By knowing what people would alter about the music video it also helps me think about what type of issues should we keep in mind when producing our music video? After all the main targeted age audience is the same.