Genre Research - R&B

- Minimal clothing  target markets young teenage girls and male gaze 

- Connotes a sense of sexuality 

- Majority of the videos are filmed in grey scale/sepia tone which adds imagery in the video 

- Showing off wealth through mise en scene for example jewellery and clothing 

- Focused on physical looks of artist or extras 

-A 'typical' R&B video often consists in some part miming to the camera, either performance based or telling a story in the video.

-Some sort of dancing, ranging from break dancing to hip-hop, to make known the artists ability as a dancer. Which leads onto alot of these videos being set in a nightclub or some sort of party atmosphere.

Ideas For My Music Video

The song i am using is about a couple breaking up and the women in the relationship has decided to leave as she feels it is the best thing to do.
In my music video i am going to use flashbacks of a couple together having happy and sad times, showing how much they loved each other but also showing the bad times causing the women to leave.
I will then have someone acting as the artist who will lip sync in the song and with lots of close ups which will promote my artist and have performance based shots. The shots of the couple will give the video a story line and will also give my video a narrative base.
I will use lots of different settings for my video as they will be mainly flash backs which will all be in different places. But the performance based side of the video i will not use as much variety of the settings, as then it will seem like the artist is being the narrator for the story and telling the story. Also the setting won't draw much attention to itself and i want the main focus to be on the artist and promote her.

Lyrics

I don’t want to be one who has to cut these ties every other way I have tried

and don’t want to be the one who has to walk away but it’s too late

, it’s too late, it’s too late too many mistakes

CHORUS: baby I can’t be the one to stay breaking every day oh boy that’s why I’m leaving and baby I can’t be the one to leave and if I have to choose me and my boy were leaving

I don’t want to be the one to have to tell our child daddy’s gone away for a while and I don’t want to be the one to wipe tears from his face no not me not this way, disgrace, disgrace, too many mistakes

CHORUS

I can’t be the one to save you and I can’t be the one to take you there

CHORUS 

Three Different Music Video Types

There are 3 main types of music video which are performance, narrative and conceptual. 

Performance based videos shows only the artist performing the song and showing them off as a brand. They have lots of close ups of the artist and also uses a lot of lip syncing. This type of music video is the cheapest type of video to make. One example of a performance based video is Miley Cryus's video wrecking ball where it has lots of close ups with her and every shot includes her. 

Narrative based videos includes mostly footage that shows and story line and runs through out. or sometimes several story lines that run parallel to each other. They sometimes use actors or the artists in the story and the story usually links to the lyrics of the song or the theme of the song. One example is Ed Sheeran's song The A Team. 

Conceptual videos are based around a single concept or idea, these videos are much harder to make and more expensive to make as they can use special FX. They are also not as popular as they are harder to relate to so not many artists use this type of video. One example is DJ Shadow and James Lavelle Rabbit in your headlights. 

Andrew Goodwins Theory

Goodwin beleives there are 5 features that are used in music videos, they are: 1.Thought beats - seeing the sound, a relationship between visuals and lyrics 2. Narrative and performance - relationship between the music and the visuals 3. The star image - music genres having there own music video style 4. Relation of visuals to song - demand of record company for lots of close-ups on the main artist 5. Techinal aspects of music video - references to either other music videos or to films or TV texts

Music Video Timeline

In the 50's musical films became very popular and everyone realised that putting images with a song made the songs more popular, and some used the scene in the film where there music was playing and used it as there music video such as Madonna's 1985 video for material girl.

In the 60's the Beatles starred in a musical film and they used the scenes from the film for music videos this made them much more popular. Also for Elvis Presley who started making videos to create a fan base for his music.

In the 70's the programme top of the pops was launched which only showed the best videos as they had a limit on how many they could show. This then made the songs more popular and increased sales as the viewers wanted to see the same song the next week.

In the 80's the U.S show MTV was launched and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this new outlet for material, the music video would play a central role in popular music sales. Many important acts of this period, most notably Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Madonna. 

In the 90's MTV began to list the directors for the videos in the credits of the music video which caused the auteur's medium Directors such as Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Floria Sigismondi,Stéphane Sednaoui, Mark Romanek and Hype Williams. 

In the 00's the internet became video friendly and such websites as youtube, google, Facebook, yahoo and myspace plays music videos which you could access easily and for free. This then made music videos more popular. The band OK Go achieved fame through the videos for two of their songs, "A Million Ways" in 2005 and "Here It Goes Again" in 2006, both of which first became well-known online. 

The Auteur Theory

The auteur theory is when the director uses a signature style with every production he directs. The director brings something personal and unique to their video. The auteur theory was introduced in the 1950's by french film directors. One example is Chris Cunningham who has adds a unique style to his music videos he uses dark colours such as blues, blacks and greys. He also conveys a dark message in his music videos, quite a horror genre.

Hype Williams is a music video director, you can see that the he has his own style for example Kanye West 'gold digger', Beyonce 'check up on it'. He uses coloured banners, the use of bold primary colours there is also a lot of sexualisation of women through dance and costume. He also uses a lot of shots of the artists singing/rapping into the camera which are close ups, he uses fish eye lens in his videos also. Williams also seems to focus on one type of genre of music which is R&B and hip hop, he has become much more known recently and puts his name on each of his videos as he will be recognised.