Music video analysis

Music videos are still used by artists today for several reasons. One of the main reasons being to uphold their ‘star image,’ and sell the artist further. The 2018 music video ‘this is America,’ was performed by Childish Gambino as the main focus of the video showing the reality of America nowadays. 

His video touches on controversial subjects such as gun violence, gun control, racism, cultural appropriation and many other subjects which he shows through semiotics and intertextuality. These controversial topics take up part of Gambino’s star image. 

As him and his manager have painted Gambino to be someone who speaks out and spreads awareness about important social issues, while not being afraid to expose the government and show that not everything is a positive as it seems. People are immediately drawn to this as the rebellious nature makes people feel like he is speaking the truth and gives his listeners a sense of freedom.

Gun control is a major controversial theme shown in this video. One view that Gambino brings up is the fact that people in the South place a higher importance on guns than they do the people who are killed by them. This is shown for example, in the first 30 seconds of the video. Gambino shoots a masked man tied to a chair with the gun and walks away like nothing happened, which could demonstrate the lack of empathy people have for the senseless murders happening to minorities as a result of their ethnicity and race.

Also, whilst Childish Gambino is walking away he places the gun gently in a red cloth whilst the dead body is violently dragged away. The red is referring to red America aka the South, and the contrast between the body being dragged and the gun being placed really emphasises what the states seem to value more; have access to guns.

Along with clear themes like gun control, there are also deeper moments of intertextuality throughout the music video, all having the similar theme of racism and violence. There is a moment in the video before the repetition of the chorus, where Gambino enters the shot through a door and dances towards the camera. In the background, there is a Gospel choir singing wearing black robes and red scarves. His facial expressions suddenly change from happy to what looks like ‘disconnected,’ and angry. 

He is thrown a gun and it graphically shows him shooting the gospel choir of all African Americans. This imagery can be directly related to the mass shooting of an all-black church by a white supremacist in 2015 in South Carolina, Charleston. This horrific event made millions question whether the gun laws put in place in America were actually beneficial and questioned whether the laws actually kept the citizens of America safe. It also raises awareness about how this was a hate crime, and yet the gunman was not handled as brutally as some African Americans are, even when they haven’t done anything wrong.

Gambino shortly follows the shooting of the gospel singers with the phrase, ‘this is America,’ implying that stuff like this is the reality of America. Shootings have become a regular thing seen in the news, and even though it has caused so much uproar, there has been very little change to prevent this from happening, especially seeing as this was a hate crime.

This links to near the end of the clip, where Gambino mimes holding a gun and points it out In front of him. This is the only part of the music video where everyone runs away from him, even the school children which have been dancing with him throughout. This symbolises the topic of the police and media seeing a black man who is weapon less as more threatening than an actual armed gunman. 

Soon after this shot, there is a panning shot, showing a police car and people carrying bats and running out of shot. This could link to the LA riots that took place in the 90s, after four police officers had beaten a man to death and none of them were sentenced. 

As a consequence, a whole set of riots broke out over LA, demanding justice. In fact, throughout the whole video, there seems to be rioting and chaos behind Gambino for example people fighting, running with weapons and vandalising cars. This links in with another theme in the music video, which is the unfair justice system, including the police force and how they uphold racism. 

Finally, in the very last tracking shot of the video, Childish Gambino looks like he is running for his life from a group of people who are chasing, all of which are white. This imagery could hint to the award-winning film made by Jordan peel, ‘get out.’ This movie is centred around a white family meeting their daughter’s boyfriend, who is black. However, this film takes many dark turns and is heavily focused on systemic racism and microaggressions towards black people which is fitting for this video as it is what Gambino is trying to spread awareness about, which his star image is partly based on.

There are also semiotics used in this video. One of these is the symbol of a masked figure riding a white horse across the screen. This symbol is relating to Christianity, and how it symbolises ‘judgement day,’ in which all of the human race will be brought forward and judged on how good of a person they are, and as a result, are sent to heaven or hell. 

This implies that judgement day is near, and makes us question about whether we would, in our current state, be accepted into heaven, or put into hell. Finally, Gambino uses exaggerated facial expressions and accentuated poses throughout the video. 

This is especially prominent in the beginning of the video.  These actions can be associated with mimicking a fictional character called ‘Jim Crow,’ who was made by white people to project stereotypes of African Americans, and keep them oppressed, e.g through this character they try to show why African Americans cannot be equal to white people even though none of the argument is logical and paints a false image of the race to the rest of the US through the media.

feedback on my album cover

 

Album cover

One of our tasks this week was to create an album front and back cover so I decided to make an indie band's first album. Here is my development process:

I started off with this picture of my friend and began editing it.

The next thing I did was add a dust effect to the image which is pictured on the right above this text.

Then I started playing round with the name, the font and positioning of the text.

I decided that I liked Blu best, as I felt like the name Red would sound too rock/ punk like as the colour is usually associated with this. However the colour Blue is quite a cool tone which I associate with being calm, which reflects the alternative/indie music, therefore I ended up calling the artist Blu. 

I wanted to make the central colour orange/ yellow to add irony to the name Blu. It also matches the back cover's colour scheme as it is a picture of inside a bus. I also decided that the album needed some more detail, so I took some more shades of yellow and added some sketches to the cover to make it more eye-catching.

This is what I had consequently come up with. However I felt like it needed more colour, so I added a border as well. 

Next I did the back cover, this consisted of my choosing an image of the bus and adding the dust effect much like I did with the front.

I then added the names of the songs in these text like bubbles as I thought they looked cool, and the black and white matched with the colour scheme of the front. I also then added the barcode and legal info at the bottom

However, I felt like it needed more. so I changed some of the text bubbles to white and black rather than black and white. I also added the name of the artist down the side of the album to fill any negative space, and to make it look related to the front cover.

Below this is the final image for the album covers.

Artist/Band Logos

Logos are little images which sell the artist further. For example it could be an image like a flower, or just the name of the band/ artist in a cool font. It’s initial purpose is to generate extra money, however it is highly effective at spreading awareness of the band, and in some cases, the logo itself has become more famous than some of the band’s music. It can be put on t-shirts, bottles, badges etc, any kind of merchandise.

There are various different kinds of logos. A few of the names are:

An abstract mark

A pictorial mark

A combination mark

A word mark

An example of a logo is the red hot chilli pepper’s logo.

It has the name of the band going round in a circle. The font is quite average looking and is in a black colour. The inside is what looks like a star/ snowflake like shape, and is red. This captures our attention as red is quite a bold colour. 

We also associate red with being hot as it is often the colour of chilis, much like the name of the band. Therefore, the logo matches the name of the band. From this logo, I would guess that this would be a rock/ alternative band, as the image is well rounded and not to ‘aggressive,’ i.e lightning bolts, however the symbol in the middle is quite eye catching and the colour scheme is usually associated with rock colours (white, black, red.)

I decided to make my logo as the same as the bus stop logo. This is because the back of my album cover is in a bus. I also want to make my artist clearly British as it would be part of their ‘identity,’ and what makes them stand out from other international artists. The British bus stop logo can accomplish this. However, I wanted to change it from the classic red to the blue to make the colour match with the name of the artist. The bus logo is also quite well recognised therefore it would appeal to the UK audience and may become a popular logo to put on merchandise. It is also a simple but effective design, which can be said for most successful logos. 

 

The importance of album artwork

Album artwork is still around today even though we have online streaming platforms with no need for physical album artwork, so why do we still have it? It is still around for various reasons. 

The first one is that people buy albums for the aesthetic look of it. For example, some people will decorate the walls in their room with album covers, even if the album itself doesn’t work/play.

A second reason is all to do with the artist that the album belongs to. The album artwork helps sell the artist and the artist image, not just the music itself. This is shown through the names of the songs, the title, the imagery on the album etc… It also helps target specific audiences as each artists image is often targeted towards a specific audience, e.g teenage girls.

It also establishes the genre in a similar way to portraying the artist’s image. We associate certain genre’s with different colours, and this is used very effectively in album artwork. Fir example black and red are usually used in rock, whereas purple and pink are usually used in pop.

Finally, album artwork is important as it can show what the artist stands for in a sense. For example, the girl band spice girls are all about girl power, and bands like Green Day are all about rebelling against the system. This is also reflected in their album artwork through imagery which is appropriate for both messages.

 

conventions of album artwork.

 Albums need to have certain aspects to them in order to be sold to the correct audiences. There are different things needed on the front and back covers for reasons as simple as the name of the artist. Firstly, the front cover consists of having things that are there to catch the eye of the audience. It has the title of the artist’s name which is usually bigger than the actual name of the album. This is because the album is selling the artist as its primary goal, not the music. 

Secondly, they would establish the genre of the music. This can be shown through colour, font, imagery etc… for example, pastel colours may be associated with pop/ indie music, whereas black may be associated with more heavy metal/ rock music. This is also the case with imagery, for example, most pop albums have the artist themselves on it as the main focus of the album like Rihanna's album 'loud.' 

However other rock albums may have more violent symbolism on them like blood, or someone playing guitar. This imagery may be more subtle once the artists becomes big, however when they first start off, the imagery in the albums are highly stereotypical, as the album is selling the artist, and the artwork will directly reflect what the audience thinks of this artist. 

Finally, the album may have a ‘parental advisory sticker on it. This is more for legal reasons, as it is a legal requirement to have that sticker on any album that has any form of swearing in the songs in the UK.

On the back cover there is more information on the music itself. For example, there is the track list which tends to be the most prominent aspect of the back cover. There is usually 12-16 tracks on an album, each different. 

The font and names themselves are also conventions. They indicate genre and target audience, much like the imagery on the front cover. For example, if you have a very bold slick title, it may be classed as pop, but if you have a title that looks like graffiti that may be considered as hip-hop. 

The album will also include legal info at the bottom of the cover at the back and may include the studio logo. Finally, it would have a barcode on it because it is a product that can be bought.

Music videos for the YouTube age

Back before YouTube, people only saw music video on television. As a result of this, the music videos had to follow guidelines e.g top of the pops was early evening so they couldn’t show mature themes in videos. 

MTV was similar because it was also shown on television. The first kind of music videos you would get would be live recordings of the artists performing the songs. Top of the pops was highly popular in the 70s and 80s. 

The next kind of music videos you would find is from MTV and they would make their music videos slightly more, ‘creative.’ For example, the artist would not just be performing their song they may use background effects or set. This was popular right up until around 2005 where YouTube was introduced.

When YouTube was introduced the number of music videos dramatically increased. This is because uploading to YouTube was free, unlike on television. It meant that these music videos were more daring, violent, sexual etc because there were less guidelines than when it had previously been on TV. As a result of this, the competition between increased too.

 This lead to artists creating even more extreme personas to the point where they artists themselves became characters in these videos. YouTube introduced a whole new generation of artists who are linked/ recognised from the music video rather than the music itself. These videos were set up for the soul objective of promoting the artist/ separating them from the rest.

Top of the Pops

To explain 'Top of the pops,' in more detail, I will give an example. In 1984 Queen featured on top of the pops and performed a 'live,' performance. 

They were just lip syncing to a pre recorded track, but it was made to look like they were performing live. These videos were purely there to play the music and not really focus the whole video purely on the artist, as they band was already well known. You can see this through the use of the whole band being present with their instruments on stage, and Freddie lip syncing the words. 

MTV

MTV was a step up from top of the pops in the sense of rather than a staged live performance, the videos are more creative and incorporate a 'storyline,' through the use of characters and set. In 1983, Michael Jackson released his music video 'Billie Jean,' on MTV. 

It is clear from this video that the style of music video has changed dramatically in the last couple years. Firstly, you can see the clear location that has been built for the music video. This contrasts to the one location used in Queen's video.

Secondly, you can see Michael wearing a sort of costume, and a man dressed in a trench coat, shades and a hat, which isn't common attire for the normal person. This makes us suspect that he is a detective. This re-enforces the use of made up characters in these kinds of music videos, in contrast to Queen simply playing their song in 'Top of the Pops.'

YouTube

Finally when YouTube was added, like I mentioned earlier, the artist was made with the music videos. They were turned into a character which would fit a certain target audience. For example, Katy Perry Released Hot and Cold in 2009. 

You can see in the image on the left that there were lots of close ups if Katy's face. This is because the people behind the video are trying to establish what she looks like as this was one of her first videos, and her artist persona is based around the video. 

I believe that this video is trying to show us that Katy Perry is a pretty, talented, but funny/ not taking herself to seriously artist. This character probably suits the target audience of teenagers/ mostly early teens. The genre of music is quite clearly pop, as there are lots of bright colours and colourful costumes which suits the theme. 

The whole video is based on how her boyfriend is 'hot and cold.' In other words he changes his mind all the time/ sends Katy mixed signals. Katy takes the role of the girlfriend in this who is getting married. She adds comedy to this role by various images such as her crying dramatically down the phone/ crying in her wedding dress. 

Finally, one main change with these kind of music videos is that a lot of money is invested in them. This is very apparent in Katy Perry's video, as there are lots of different locations, including a wedding, concert, carpark, garage and others. There are also lots of costumes which won't be cheap as there are back up dancers/ extras involved in these too.