What is a Music video? Justin Bieber-As long as you love me.

A music video usually is the artist's interpretation on what the song would be if it was in visual form. It is used to put the connotations of song and the lyrics into visual form, express how the Artist is feeling or create an ideology surrounding the song's connotations. A music video is often a very good way for the audience to become familiar with the artist to create a connection, whether that be through relating to their image or by relating to the song. A music video is useful for marketing as it shows the audience who the artist is therefore promotes the artist as an individual. Music videos are also pivotal to the popularity of an artist because unlike other methods of listening to music like the radio where fans can't see their idols, you can in the video. Record labels often ask for as many close ups as possible as indicated in the Goodwin theory.

Choreographed dance routines often appear in Music videos with the artist often at the front, this is to make the artist look as good as possible to make the fans idolize them making the sale of records more likely.  There is often many chances to see the artist performing within the video to reinforce that it is them who is the artist.

Justin Bieber is a pop artist that dips in and out other genre through the use of collaboration. Popular music [or its abbreviated name pop] is a style of music aimed to attract a mass audience, for obvious reasons pop adjusts to the changes of its audience so that it can stay relevant. Bieber's target audience is a predominantly female audience between the ages of 10-19, the teenage years, this demographic allows Bieber to provide the fans with the product that they want because the ages are similar and the gender is often the same, therefore he's marketing strategy can remain the same throughout his audience. Pop songs often are shorter in length than other genres- to fit better into the radio strict format of timings. The genre of pop also has basic song structures of a verse chorus manor, the chorus’ are often repeated and are usual the same lyrics with few changes another characteristic of the pop genre is a catchy tune- a method to make the songs more memorable. The demographic for most pop products because of its nature excludes as little audience as possible, ages 12-34 and doesn’t target a specific gender however the balance does slightly tilt towards female audiences.

This music video whilst breaks many conventions of the stereotypical video, it also followers many. Unlike the common video this video has a high level or verisimilitude, with the narrative staying constant and easily relatable from the audience to the artist. An explanation for the artist choosing a video that is parallel or as close to real life as possible is that now he is famous and is in the media’s gaze it is the closest he will come to ‘normalness’, a plea to fit in as such, an example of this is seen at the beginning of the video where Bieber is walking freely and almost worriless within a train station.

From watching the video the use of theories and formulas become clear. Bieber and the character of the father show signs of the Oedipus complex throughout especially in the sequence of conflict. The conflict connotes the struggle for male dominance in the life of Bieber’s love interest. Laura Mulvey’s theory of Male gaze is also included, this is shown by the director by honing in on the ‘Virgin/whore dichotomy’ with the daughter being characterised as innocent and sweet teen who has a strong sense of family values, especially during the sequence of the conflict in which she cowers away in her bedroom. The final theory that is relevant is Goodwin’s theory. From the six points suggested by Goodwin; the relationship between lyric s to music, music to visual and visual to lyrics. There is a considerable amount of star image motifs included. This is illustrated through the countless close ups of Bieber and the use of mid shots to show Bieber performing, which is a marketing tool to raise brand awareness of the artist and record label.

The main different between this video to other is that it was created in the style of a short feature film. Although it has been done before it is uncommon to see, this makes the video feel more unique and giving it a competitive advantage on its rival products. This gives the product a higher popularity than its alternative because it has a sense of added value as Bieber is giving the fans more than alternative artists are, giving the audience more incentive to buy or watch his product.

Despite the narrative being slightly cliché it has a cloak of enigma surrounding it, captivating the audience and enticing them to watch it again. This is because the audience will want to pick up on parts of the story that they may have missed first time around or it may be to piece together unanswered questions. Most methods using enigmas deliberately miss  parts of the story out to disorient the audience by placing the audience in a state of confusion, although this confusion is never uncomfortable as this could deter fans from the song and the artist, but ultimately the record label. By the audience re-watching the video it increases the memorability and in turn t he reputation of the song and artist-which could help sell records and make the artist profitable.

Goodwin's theory, Ill mind of Hopsin 5 by Hopsin

This is a music video by the diverse rap artist Hopsin. It follows some of the concepts set by Goodwin in his theory although not all of them. Goodwin suggests that there should be a relationship of music to visual, music to lyrics and lyrics to visual. Goodwin also suggests that there should be clear genre characteristics, voyeristic notions, intertexual references it also says that there will be at some stage a sequence of star image motifs.

The first of the genre characteristic is the components of the mise en scene. The video follows a technique in which one location is used. This can be expected from a rap video of rap artists starting their career because using one location lowers the costs of producing the video. This is vital as new artists can be less well off than other established artists or even those of mainstream genres .For pop artists it is not unusual for the record label to pay for the video, however a disadvantage of this is that the music label take control of the video and it loses the authenticity of that when the artist creates them. Another aspect of the mise en scene that characterises the genre is the artist’s ethnicity and his outfit. The artist is African American which has become the stereotypical ethnicity of the genre; this is not always the case as artists such as Eminem have found ways to the top of the industry through Niche markets through being white American. Rap is often related to social positioning mainly surrounding the absence of wealth. The final characteristic of the genre found within the mise en scene is the lighting. The lighting is low key lighting, denoting a lack of basic homely needs which in turn connotes poverty or hardship for money, a reoccurring characteristic of the rap genre. The darkness can also connote uncertainty of the artist in terms of his career and mainly how his fans perceive this song. Or alternatively the darkness can connote the dark side of American society in which is a common theme of the song both in the lyrics and visual of the music video.

The relationship between lyrics and visual has a few pivotal points. One obvious one is when Hopsin includes lyrics surrounding girls getting pregnant irresponsibly, which is parallel to the visual when a pregnant teen. Another area in which there is a relationship is when Hopsin sings about drugs and alcohol with the actors having alcohol and drug looking items, these objects are iconography of some of the issues in America, for instance it has always had issues with alcohol in its history such as in the 20’s during the prohibition movement. The final and most pivotal link between the two is Hopsin himself. The way Hopsin performs the rap shows clear links especially as the video is primarily performance orientated. When the lyrics become more personal and more descriptive Hopsin delivers them louder or faster to illustrate his emotion towards the points he is making. This technique also draws emphasis to the connotations of the song, this style Hopsin has chosen to use also allows the audience to create a bond with him and even relate to the views-this effect comes under the star image motif Goodwin explains is vital to the success of a music video.

There are no relationships between music and visuals making the representation of Hopsin diverse to the conventional artists of the rap genre. Through being diverse Hopsin's fans will see him to be a more niche artist catering to a smaller audience, which will give the audience a feel of significance, as they could see that Hopsin would rather target them rather than the mass of a mainstream audience. Hopsin breaks this aspect of Goodwin’s theory. Unlike many videos in which there is a cut per beat this video has no set sequence to the time of a cut in relation to the beats. This makes the video more unique as it is more unpredictable and which makes it more exciting for the audience view. This unconventional style of editing can parallel the unconventional situation of the characters which is parallel to undesirable situation of America.

 

There is a strong sense of star image motifs in this video. The artist has many close ups in the video and he also wears tinted white contact lenses. Techniques like this are expected for new artists like Hopsin. Making him memorable allowing the formation of a relationship with the audience, this is an opportunity to cross promote two products of the record label (the song and artist). Unlike most stereotypical videos this video has no use of intertexuality, common ones used are; Television, Radio, Computer games and the most common one used it designer brands, often used to show wealth and the social position of the artist e.g. wether he is in gang or more a "social outcast".

On the whole this video could be classified to be 90% performance based with the most common camera shot to be focused on Hopsin, there is also rarely a shot in which Hopsin is not performing, the shots Hopsin is not in shot performing often has relation to when there are no lyrics in the song-Goodwin’s theory. By this video being so performance orientated it allows Hopsin to be more identifiable by his fans, increasing his popularity in the music industry, this is unlike some artists like Gorrilaz who opt not to appear within their music videos.

This video is 10% concept the selection of the actors and the characters they play portray the breaks in American society; the lazy male who doesn’t work or provide anything to the country. Then there is the slutty female who goes out in skimpy outfits too much. This conforms to Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory. The issue of teenage pregnancy whereby the parent is not in a position to bring up the child morally and financially is portrayed by the female who is pregnant and the pseudo gangster represents the crime issues in America and the vast amount of youth that fall into criminal activities. These points illustrate the connotation of a warped American society that is not attractive and breaks American ideology of the American dream.

I have scored the amount of narrative in this video to be 0%. The video stayed in one location with the same set of characters in the same stage position, with not much occurring to excite the audience or explain lyrics in the song. A reason for this technique is too limit any confounding variables that may draw attention away from the lyrics and messages of song as Hopsin may believe that the product is the most important aspect of what he delivers to his fans.