Music Video Analysis...

One of the videos which i have chosen to analyse is Justin Bieber Ft Usher - Somebody To Love.

 

 I've chosen to analyse the video for this song as i feel it fits with the genre which we have chosen our video to focus on, which is a fusion of R&B and Dance. We chose this as from looking at recent chart activity it is becoming more often than not that we see songs of this fusion genre entering high in the charts and remaining there for long periods at a time e.g. Usher's "DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again".

Another reason why I've chosen to analyse this video is that like Usher's song, this one also entered high in the charts and reached the number one spot for a solid three weeks. Justin Bieber focuses mainly on on R&B music however in the short time between first appearing before us with his hit single one time and now his music has since evolved slightly. Bieber now infuses Dance with R&B as we see in this single and in the video.

Bieber's "Somebody To Love" has a rhythmic, dance hall, club/party feel to it. It's very uptempo and as most say it's a song you can move to.

Andrew Goodwin had a theory about music videos. Goodwin stated that there are 7 key conventions of music videos:

• A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
• A relationship between the music and the visuals.
• Particular genres of music having their own video styles and iconography.
• Close ups of the main artist(s).
• The artist(s) develop their own iconography.
• Likely to be a reference to voyeurism.
• There are likely to be intertextual references.

Justin Bieber is essentially an R&B artist however however like his mentor, Usher, he too is now creating music from a different angle. Bieber and Usher both are now beginning to create music which fits in with our fusion genre. In terms of intertextual references I myself don't see any visual references to any other media texts. however i do think that the general theme of the video i.e lots of dancing, synchronised routines etc it is similar to other media texts such as: "Ne-yo - Closer", "Usher - OMG" etc. The video doesnt fit in with the lyrics of the song, it is completely unrelated to the lyrics, it is focused on the dancing talent of the artists and the extras. In regards to the genre having its own style and iconography from looking at other music videos of this fusion genre and I've noticed that songs of this genre tend to be up beat, catchy and have good lighting and have memorable lyrics. This song most definitely ticks all of those boxes, I feel the lighting is extremely good ad has been used in the best and most effective of ways. The song itself is catchy and memorable  and the music is upbeat and has a good tempo. The video has been edited to the pace of the song and effects have been put in place which at first glance aren't as noticeable e.g. in the beginning of the video a girl appears behind Bieber and disappears behind him when he moves revealing that nobody is stood behind him. In the video we see many different shots have been used, there are close ups, medium close ups and also long shots of the main artist and also the featuring artist.

I feel the video fits with the vibe of the song and synchronises well with the tempo of the song. It shows Bieber's fans what he's like as an artist and it also reflects his youth. For the listener it creates a party/dance mood as the beats are fast the kind of music we expect to hear when watching a quick-step dance routine. Simply from hearing the pace of the music makes it easy for the listener to comprehend which genre of music Bieber has chosen to follow, however this isn't a one off we see Bieber sticks to this fusion genre in other songs too such as "Baby" and "Love Me", both these songs also have a Quick-Step feel to them.

When the video starts off at first we don't pick up the party vibe, as in the beginning Low Key Lighting and Spot Lighting has been used, it first appears to be the typical scene we would see at a dance off, the low key lighting and spot lighting being used for dramatic effect along with the smoke. However as the video progresses we begin to get more of the party vibe due to the Strobe Lighting used making it very bright and signifying energy. In the video it is visually subtle that Bieber has gone for a party vibe in the song however the sound makes up for this subtlety.

This particular video was shot in a studio however a green screen was not used at any point, I personally do not see this as a bad things as the video relies on the talent of the dancers and the artists to keep the audience entertained and interested. It gives an idea of what fans look for in music videos of songs like this one when listening to this fusion genre. Even though a Green Screen hasn't been used to create the video or even bits of it, there are certain effects used many times in the video e.g. at many different points in the video the artist walks across the screen and the dancers in the background disappear. We can see that people like to see dancers, dance routines that people would see in dance-offs at a party, lights, things that don't completely fit, which in the case of this video would probably be the fire. All in all it shows us that people like to see things that make them feel good and want to get up and join in dancing.

In this video we see many different shots of Bieber and Usher, mainly long shots, medium shots and close ups. I feel this is effective as the video focuses mainly on dancing and showing off talent despite it being unrelated to the lyrics of the song. We see close ups of Bieber frequently throughout the video mostly when he's singing the chorus saying things which he'd say to a girl like the promises he'd make to one e.g. "I don't need nothing else, I promise, girl, I swear, I just need somebody to love". When we see the close up of him singing these lines, he uses a direct mode of address; looking right into the camera, i makes it look like he's speaking directly to a girl in the audience thus showing the emotion behind the song. When the medium and long shots are used they are used to show the artists while they're dancing showing they're dancing talent, the long shots also show the background dancers and their routines fully. We also see in the video that a number of different angle shots have been used for example at one point in the video we see a shot of Bieber from low angle shot with him looking down on the camera. 

In this video we see conventions of music videos which are typical of both R&B and Dance. for example in regards to Dance quite obviously we have dancers and as the main visual focus, after the artists of course. Typically in Dance videos we see that the lighting is a key component of the video i.e. in a number of dance videos which I have studied for example "Firestarter" by The Prodigy, the setting itself is quite dark but it is illuminated purely by singular scattered lights. In this particular video in the first half of it the setting is dark and spotlighting has been used to illuminate the artist and dancers. It is only in the second half of the video in which more lighting has been used, a number of strobe lights have been strung across the ceiling to illuminate the setting. I feel this is a good element of the video as I feel it is quite creative, also I like how in the very beginning of the video the spotlights come on one by one to reveal a different dancer.

This video has elements which i feel are quite inspirational e.g. the dancers and lighting etc. In our music video we hope to have elements such as the ones specified as we feel they would make our music video that much better. I particularly am very keen on the idea of having multiple dancers in our music video as this would link the dance side of our fusion genre into our music video. Though i have not discussed it in my analysis i find the costumes to be quite inspirational as they could give us an idea or two in regards to what our actor(s) will wear how, what props, if any are used, they will use. This video has been extremely popular, it's been edited in ways which reflect the artist's personality and talent. It has a catchy and memorable beat and well choreographed dance routines. We hope to create a video which is both entertaining and creative, which captivates and interests our audience, just like this video does.