Research for Music Video: What is the FUNCTION of a music video?

Music videos usually rely on repetition through images. It is these images that allow the audience to identify which part of the song is considered to be the chorus and which part of the song is seen to be verses. 

Through this, the audience begins to have a general idea of what the genre of the song being played is as well as, begin to build expectations on what they would think they would see in future music videos. 

The following things can make up the function of a music video: 

• Music videos normally builds up a climax or to a constant repetition before fading away.
• The visualisation of the song doesn't always have to go along the lyrics of the song - it could go beyond its meaning. 

• The actual visual of the music video could encourage audiences to watch, which goes on to promote the song. 
• Videos could be used as other marketing tools to promote other media texts such a film. 

There are three types of relations between songs and videos: 

1) ILLUSTRATION

This is where the video tells the story of the lyrics; dance is usually used to express the feelings/mood in the song. 

2) AMPLIFICATION

This occurs when the video introduces new meaning that does not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning. 

3) DISJUNCTURE

This is where there is little connection between the lyrics and the video. The video can also contradict the lyrics of the song. 

Features that the audience will be familiar with, when watching a music video include: 

• Pop videos often have recognisable features that the audience can connect with. E.g. Michael Jackson yelping or twirling in his videos. 

• Women can be seen to be objects in music videos - artists such as Rihanna and Katy Perry are known for doing this. 

• An important feature is that videos try and appeal to as wide range of an audience as possible without alienating the core target audience - The Weeknd and Drake does this whenever featuring in a track together by stating the phrase "OVOXO" (a way of joining two fan groups together and reaching out to a wide audience). 

• Videos that are written for films usually include images from the movie into the video. An example of this is Bruno Mars's song 'It Will Rain' which featured in one of the Twilight films.