Today my group and I decided to start our research of music videos, we will get our research from a variety of sources, but we choose the internet as our first source. While on the internet we looked at “pop up video” on YouTube this was a show that was shown on VH1 that de- constructed music videos while they were playing they did this by a series of pop up displays. We looked through a variety of websites and made notes as we went along, this is what we found:

• By law and definition, a music video is not an art form in it's own right, the way music and films are, but is a promotional tool (similar to an advert) that promotes Singles, Albums and Artists.
• However many still have their own Artistic Merit, are highly technically accomplished and aesthetically pleasing.
• Music Videos have been called the Ultimate 21st century text as it captures the best and worst of modern pop culture, which is:
- Visual Style over Substance
- Things must look good instead of having a profound meaning
- Post Modern erosion from reality
- Intertextuality, the including of lots of cultural references
- These are not meant to be hidden, the audience are meant to be pick up on them
A few examples of cultural references in music videos would be Eminem's Without me, it includes many cultural references like:
Elvis Presley

Porn star Jenna Jameson and fitness model Kiana Tom appear in bed with Eminem at the beginning of the video

Robin played by eminem

and Osama Bin Laden

• Music Videos use textual and visual schizophrenia by jumping from many unrelated clips.
• Music Videos have turned music into a commodity, a product rather than a live music experience.
• Music Videos have been criticised for taking away the viewers freedom to interpret a song, this relates to the concept of Synaesythesia when a piece of music sparks images in the minds eye.
We also found 3 different types of Music Video, they are:

-Illistration Videos - Literally shows on screen what is happening in the lyrics.
-Amplification Videos - Take the lyrics or mood of the song and develops them into a bigger, related concept.
-Disjuncture Videos - Are completely random or abstract with no obvious link to the song.

We also exploited another media technology by watching “making of video” on MTV, which gives the viewers an insight of how the videos work and how they are put together. We watched the making of “Best of You “by Foo Fighters from season 12 of the show as we were considering a Foo fighters song to do for our piece. It was very helpful in showing us about the fast edits, close ups of singers guitarists and drummer and also how to put across visual indicators such as death and love.