How to analyse

How to analyse … Music videos

 The following is meant as a general overview and is designed to help youachieve a minimum of a level 3. It is not meant to be definitive, but it doesoffer a basic spine.

How to prepare

Step 1. Select your genre of music.

Sounds obvious, but too many students simply analyse videos they know rather than videos from the genre of musicthey will be producing. Whilst you may not have a specific song in mind yet,you should have a specific genre. If you have no idea what genre yourfavourite artist is simply Wikipedia it. Lets use the example of Mumford AndSons, they fall under the categories of Folk Rock, Indie Folk and Bluegrass. Just click on the hyperlink and you’ll be greeted with a list of similar artists. Indie Folk lists Bon Iver, Bright Eyes, Jake Bugg, Ben Howard, to name but a few Step 2. Watch lots of music videos. To understand music videos you musthave watched a lot of them. Before you analyse anything spend a few hours just watching videos, this will help you get a feel for the genre and enable youto spot any recurring themes or styles.From our genre search we can watch the following:http://youtu.be/0KrmxavLIRM http://youtu.be/g6MnpD5_4GI http://youtu.be/3EL20VKlvbs http://youtu.be/ADP65wbBUpc Straight away you notice a similarity between just these 4, there is nature,forests, woods, slow motion shots, soft focus, performance isn’t dominant etc.HOWEVER if you begin to watch more from these artists you’ll notice performance does play a key roll, BUT those basic elements of nature, softfocus and slow motion remainStep 3.Be realistic. if most of the videos you’ve watched feature expensivesets, beautiful women, special effects, a cast of thousands etc then you probably wont be able to recreate them, therefore ‘is this the genre for you?’ If yes then… Step 4. Select at least 3 songs to analyse and read the lyrics. Now you’ve seen lots of videos select at least 3 which you enjoyed. Before analysingthem,read the lyrics. You’d be amazed how many people either have no idea what the words to a song are or, if they do, what they actually mean. How to analyse Step 1. Use the grid to make notes ONLY In your summer booklet is a gridit is designed to help you prepare an overview of the video. As you watchsimply note down the key events/features (make sure you have the lyrics tohand)Step 2. Write up a brief overview of the video you’ll be analysing.

Beforebreaking the video down into key shots give the examiner (and me) anoverview of the whole video, explain the narrative and the style (is it aperformance video?) and then explain whether it conforms or challenges theconventions of the genre.Step 3.Select 10 key frames.Try and analyse just 10 key frames, treat themlike the AS exam and analyse the mise en scene, discuss cultural codes, linkto Music theory. THE MORE GCSE THE BETTER so POINT EVIDENCETECHNIQUE ANALYSIS LINK (to genre)Step 4TUBE CHOP/SCREEN GRAB. The best way to show your thinking isvia a screen grab or tube chop. This will enable you to annotate the imageand really show what you have spotted. This help sheet HERE will help Step 5.Evaluate. After every analysis evaluate what you have learnt aboutyour genre, try and break this down into what you could recreate and whatproblems you might face in trying this style.Step 6 Experiment. Remember is research and PLANNING.If there is a shotyou like then use your camera phone and try to recreate it.Final advice. The best students don’t

just write essays, they create.Why not do a directors commentary over the music video you are analysing? Could you make a video montage of all the conventions you’ve spotted? If you spot an intertextual reference, link to that film/TV/game in your analysis. Try andstay up to date, try and restrict yourself to relatively modern videos.