Why do bands Make music videos?

Bands create music videos to go with their tracks for many different purposes. The most obvious reason for creating a music video is to promote the band and the song in a wider variety of genres. Creating a video means that the band has extended outlets, ranging from TV, on shows like T4 and other music channels, to the internet, on channel site, youtube and as adverts on sites like myspace. The bands producer, record label or either the artists themselves will produce the music video often with the intention of extra income. Another way bands can use music videos to raise their profile is to create a synergy. Such as the video Paramore did for the film, Twilight. This means the song is used in the film and a lot of the adverts and the film is then included in the video. Videos such as these help get the band in the public eye a lot more, helping them to become more famous, pick up more fans and gain awards and status.

Music Video Analysis

Bullet for my Valentine - Tears Don't Fall:

Synopsis: The story of a couple, travelling around the world. At the begging they are in love and enjoy spending time together, then they start falling apart and not wanting to be together. They start having a fight because he doesn't want her anymore. He drives off and leaves her to meet another girl. She catches up with them and finds them together. In anger she covers them and the room in petrol and pretends to light it but after scaring them all leaves.

Editing: Clean cut shots, no transactions, to show that it's all blunt and instant rather than soft and poetic.

Costume: Quite punk/emo style clothing. All dark colours to fit the target audience as they would be typically wearing the same style clothes.

Lighting: Dark, low key. All the colours used are dark and cold, simulating bad weather, arguments and deep meaning.

Setting: The band are set in like an abandoned wood/car park and are singing in the pouring rain and artistic affect and linking the rain and bad weather back to darkness and depression. The cut away filming is set in deserted motorways and run down hotels in the middle of nowhere, showing that everything is lower class and that the couple are alone and deserted.

Coldplay - The scientist

Synopsis: Man walking round town/city. Everything is in reverse except his face as he is singing the song. The video starts with a man with no belongings lying on a mattress in the street then goes back through time and reverses back to a car crash where his friend/girlfriend is dead and the reverses back further to them laughing and joking in the car before the crash.

Editing: Filming is reversed, and some of the footage is in slow motion. The cuts between shots are pretty basic but between different locations shots fade in and out to black to show a change in place and time.

Costume: Starts the film with only a t-shirt and jeans on, looks quite grubby and isn't well shaved, suggesting he has been on the street a while. As time goes back he becomes less grubby, well shaven and gains a smarter looking black jacket. All this showing that he has become unstable and caring less about his appearance after the crash, although we don't realise this until the end.

Lighting: All shots are well lit and bright, all filmed in the day time, natural lighting is used to show a calm realistic effect.

Setting: The different scenes are faded into each other. All scenes are calm and happy environments, not giving away that anything is wrong until the end of the video. They use juxtaposition with the setting and the music to deter the viewer away from the outcome, using calm, happy music and pleasant shots so that the viewer is not expecting the sad outcome.

Gorillaz - Dirty Harry


Synopsis: A mostly animated video about army men in the dessert. There are also lots of children there and they all sing together.

Editing: The video cuts between completely animated shots to real life shot and also mixes the two, overlaying footage with real singers in the dessert and the graphics from the animated scenes.

Costume: Traditional army costume to automatically set the scene and make the characters instantly recognisable to the viewer.

Lighting: Naturally high key lighting from the sun as it is in the dessert and this is then reflected in the animation using bright colouring and shadows on the characters etc.

Setting: All of the video is set in the dessert. Blank canvas for the video not giving too much away and is also a simple location to draw on the animation.