What makes a great music video?

As we of the MTV generation know, music videos are a great medium for artists with only a few restrictions. One must convey a message within the two or three minutes designated for the song (expect for rare ones like thriller). It must be entaining enough to get multiple viewings.

So what makes a good music video here are some answers:

1. It must be unique. This is a given. We have all seen enough angst-ridden m.v.s where the crying/angry/hurt girl/guy rides the bus/train/car, etc. Same goes for rapper videos with scantily-clad female dancers.

2. It must tell a story. Even if the story is bizzare at the start but makes sense at the end then it still does it purpose of telling a story.

3.Makes a lasting impression and/or is memorable. This applies more to the older music videos, the forerunners to great music videos, that might not have the best production values but people still remember them and are often sampled by other artists & mediums. An obvious example is Aha's original Take on Me and Family Guy's version.

4.The artist or director must not feel confined to matching the visuals of the video perfectly with the lyrics. While good in some cases ( Aint' No Other Man ) it tends to be a sign of a novice (bad) video director. A good example of non-matching visual-to-lyrics is the video Weapons of Choice by Fat Boy Slim.

5. The most important is realising that a great music video does not mean a great song with mediocore music video, but that a fabouls music video can have a mediocore song. There have been many great songs with ok music videos and therefore the song being remembered more than the video, but a good music video can help add value to a song that is just ok which has been the case a number of times.

The main success to making a great music video is it being unique and standing out from the rest even if the video is completely random which is probly the reason why the song "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel in 1986 is still remebered today because of the music video standing out from its sheer randomness.

Contreversial Music Videos

A topic that has been around for years videos that are contreversial and i thought it would be an interesting topic to post. I managed to find a website that had the top 10 most contreversial videos and the song "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails toping the list. Although the song was a big hit for the band in that time and was also popular it is considered contreversial by its strange imagery. The videos discusses sex, religion, animal crutely and terror it what appears to be set in the 19th century. The video inculded a naked woman with a crucifix mask, a monkey tied to a cross, a pig's head spinning on some type of machine, a diagram of a vulva, and Reznor wearing an S&M mask while swinging in shackles. Despite this it is considered to be a work of art i'll let be you the judge of that.





There were two other videos on there that i also thought should discussed one is the song "Like a Prayer" by Madonna. Today this video wouldnt seem so contreversial but back in 1989 it was for several reasons one is the burning cross imagery, the scene where Madonna has stigmata and where she kisses a saint. The saint in question (Matin de Porres) thought the video depicted Jesus, so that caused a big kerfuffle as well. Pepsi soon cancelled a advert staring Madonna.




The other video i also wanted to discuss is the song "Call on Me" by Eric Prydz. The music video is directed by Huse Monfaradi and features an aerobics class of women wearing 1980s styled aerobics outfits performing sexy gym routines led by Deanne Berry, much to the enjoyment of the sole man in the group, played by Juan Pablo Di Pace. Many politicians and family groups have pushed for the video to be banned, but there are actually two videos - an edited one shown in daylight hours and a late night version which is uncut. The song reached number 1 Singles Chart in the UK, Germany and Republic of Ireland. In Australia, "Call on Me" debuted and peaked at #2. The video was the highest-downloaded music video of all time in Australia.Due to the popularity and high demand for the video, a feature length aerobics DVD was later released, titled Pump It Up - The Ultimate Dance Workout, which featured the dancers from the "Call on Me" video performing aerobics routines to various popular dance music songs.



The rest of the 10 contreversial videos can be viewed via this link http://www.oddee.com/item_96813.aspx

Bit of a problem

I told you before that i had successfully found a song which i did but the problem is that they are not replying back to their email that i sent them through hotmail. However i noticed that they did have a myspace and so i sent them an email through myspace and hopefully they respond back to that.

Ideas for music video

When i found the song that i was going to us for my music video i was already starting to think on what my music video should be. I was thinking that because the song is about a girl i would get a boy and girl being boyfriend and girlfriend and show the video of them being happy and having a good time. Hopefully i will be able to get my friend and his girlfriend to be in the video. I have already spoken to my friend who has a band to be in the music video as the band playing a song lip synching and i am still awaiting my reply from the Silent Saturdays.

Found a Song

I have found a song for my music video on www.unsigned.com from a band called the Silent Saturday a rock band from Sheffield the song is called My Angel and the song has already got my thinking about ideas for the music video already. An email has been sent to their yahoo address asking to use their song for the media music video.
I had problems uploading a screen shot of the the email can be viewed on the line here:

http://uk.mc236.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=742749086&&abnumadded=1&abnames=&abids=16777226#_pg=showMessage&sMid=0&fid=Sent&filterBy=&.rand=67521060&midIndex=0&mid=1_9775_AC1z%2BFcAAB%2FfSrj19ATQR1C0YR4&f=1&m=1_9775_AC1z%2BFcAAB%2FfSrj19ATQR1C0YR4,1_176_AC1z%2BFcAAHMBSrEBrgsCymga908,1_491_ADiwktkAAEC2SOUR2w0eknShIvQ,1_811_ADewktkAAHpVSOPElAwqljnNh8k,1_1104_ADawktkAATYhSN5QYQ8pTXB2C9c,1_1413_ADOwktkAARMmSNwKHQo%2BJwBLW38,&sort=date&order=down&startMid=0&pSize=25&hash=d5b42aeaa5cae67ddf5708a7d3b59aee&.jsrand=4661233

The Link to the song can be viewed here:http://www.unsigned.com/silentsundays

Johnny Cash Hurt

This is a music video from johnny cash that i found interesting and moving my what people see as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th Century. The music video is so moving because it is sowing the life of Johnny Cash in 4 minute video. Because of his deep distinctive voice it also helps make the video moving. What so moving about this video is that you can see that this his last song and that he is going to die and what is even more moving is that you know that he knows that it is the end and that he is hurting inside and looking back on his life and his feelings of his regrets. His song received critical and popular acclaim. 6 moths after making the song Johnny Cash died aged 71. This is one of the most moving music videos i have ever watched.

Godley and Creme- Cry

This is a particular music video that i found very interesting and that i thought i should share. While i was researching on music videos and watched Channel 4's best music videos this came up and i thought was very interesting. The video shows face blending throughout the whole video and was popular at the time i found it interesting for its use of analog cross fading and i thought that it was a video that you should see.



It was Godley and Creme's most successful single reaching #16 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching #12 on the UK Singles Chart.

Music Research

first i would like to apologize for not posting sooner but i have been researching for my song for the music i found a website called www.unsigned.com which has non copyright music. I have been watching the 100 best music videos and seen a lot of different videos and different camera shots from these videos and will be posting them soon to show what is going on in these videos and why these videos are so significant.