Music Video single's shortlist- Usher

Usher is an American recording artist, dancer, and actor. He rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way which included the number one single “You Make Me Wanna”.In his follow-up albums 8701 (2001) ,Confessions (2004) ,Here I Stand (2008) ,Raymond v. Raymond (2010) ,Versus (2010) have all been very successful in the charts. Usher has sold over 65 million albums worldwide. He has won numerous awards including seven Grammy Awards, four World Music Awards, six American Music Awards, and nineteen Billboard Music Awards.

In early 2010 Usher collaborated with singer song writer Nikki Minaj to create the some Lil Freak. The song was from Ushers 2010 album Raymond v. Raymond but did not make it higher then 40 on the u UK singles chart.Click Play below to hear song With Lyrics

The lyrics in this song are very sexual and provocative lyrics such as “Really f*ckin with me” lyrics such as these are mainly to show love and passion.throughtout the whole of the song we hear usher telling us about a journey he had with a girl would like to impress and be with He does this by singing what he is doing like the lyrics “You let her put her hands in your pants”.

Click play above to hear the songs without lyrics

The music sounds like people clapping and a drum kit with string instruments this R&B and Hip-Hop single has many of the music conventions like a temped beat being the bass throughout the whole song.

If we chose to do this song we would have a club party environment with the men and the women dancing to synchronised dance routine in parts of the video, a lead male which is trying to impress a lead girl it would also have a back story which could be blended in with club scene and a intimate scene where the lead male and woman are enjoying each other. The club scene would be in low lighted room where there are many people dancing and drinking.

In this video we would see loads of R&B and Hip-Hop conventions for example ,a key bass beat ,women being represented as a sexual object.

For this particular video we would need a club like setting with low lighting and flashing disco lights we would also need loads of other people dancing in the room whiles the lead male is lip singing to the song .for the props and costume we would want a contemporary look witch the actors can provide themselves with but also we would need drinks and glasses to make it look like people are drinking alcohol.

Music Video single's shortlist- Bashy

Bashy is a British recording artist and actor. He rose to fame in 2007 after the release of his controversial track "Black Boys”. He has won two awards in music at the Urban Music Award for Most Inspirational Artist and Screen Nation Award for Best Music Performance in Film/TV. Also he stared in Noel Clarke’s 2010 movie 4.3.2.1.

Bashy-How to pick a wifey(click paly to hear song)

Bashy – How To Pick A Wifey

How would you interpret the lyrics

The lyrics in this song are all in relation as to how females behave. In this song the artist ‘Bashy’ speaks about the reasons as to why he doesn’t take females seriously in terms of relationships. He does this by explaining the different situations he has encountered in relationships in the past such as finding out that his girlfriend has brought back other men to their house and seeing promiscuous text messages in his partners phone. Bashy goes on to explain how men should find their ‘wifey’, he says before you take a relationship seriously you must find out how many guys they have slept with and who she used to hang around with as this should give you an accurate indication as to how they are. On the whole the lyrics are aimed at single males considering entering a relationship, there is no positive lyrical content about females or directly negative lyrics however the context of the song will make the audience question female activity. The lyrics are almost warning males of the heartbreak females possess and the honesty issues which are likely to come in a relationship.

How would you interpret the music?

The instrumental that this song has is slow with a female singing a repetitive vocal the whole way through. If the audience was to listen to this on its own without the artists lyrics it would be understandable if they perceived the actual song to be love or romance based, this is because the instrumental gives of a calm and relaxed feeling to whoever is listening. However with the lyrics to song along with the instrumental gives off a different feeling one of which relates to love in the form of bad relationships. I believe if the lyrics were put on a different instrumental maybe a deeper one the song would have a more aggressive feel however as it doesn’t the audience can sympathise with the lyrics much easier.

What original ideas would you bring to the music video?

As there is no original music video the video I will make to accompany the song will include ideas that have not been used before. My music video will be carried through ensuring most of the visuals are artist based as I believe this enables the audience to sympathise with the artist far more easily. This is because the artist will be expressing the deeper meaning to his lyrics

Music Video single's shortlist- Plan B

Plan B also known as Ben Drew is a British rapper, singer-songwriter, actor and film director from Forest Gate, East London. Plan B first emerged as a hip hop artist releasing his début album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words in 2006. Drew has also has a successful film career as an actor, with roles in Adulthood (2008), Harry Brown (2009) and 4.3.2.1 (2010). In 2011, he will feature in Turnout, he will also release Ill Manors his first film as a director.
Plan B Suzane(click play to hear song)

Plan B – Suzanne

How would you interpret the lyrics?

The lyrics are based on the notorious Camden ripper named Anthony Hardy who was convicted with all charges and sentenced to life imprisonment. He picked up prostitutes and decapitated there body parts and threw them in the canal. The story is based on one of his victims Suzanne.

How would you interpret the music?

The music is very ironic in a way because the rapper talks about her being killed whilst the music and rhythm is very upbeat and happy. I think this helps give an effect to storyline and song as a whole.

What original ideas would you bring to the video?

Using the lyrics to create our own interpretation of the song, whilst making strong links between the lyrics and visuals, also introducing some of our own personal skills to help make a connection to our research.

Questionaire anaylsis

For this project we gave out 20 questionnaires to help us find out what kind of music people linen to and what type of videos they like and why they like them.we also asked them for specific video they like and what factors make this video so good.

From our questionnaire we were able to conclude that 14 males and 6 females done the music video questionnaire. Most of the people that filled our questionnaire were aged 14-18 years of age and 9 people were 19 years and over.

Looking at the results we have discovered out of the given genre choices rock, pop, R&B, hip-hop, soul and classical that hip-hop was the favourite choice. This helps us narrow down a genre for our music video. Because we asked a majority of young people the choices soul and classical we’re not selected because of the lack of exposure to these genres.

We asked people how often they watched music videos with connection to how they would view it and a majority said 5-10 times out of the options 0-4times, 5-10times and 11+. When asked how they watched the music videos the internet was the most popular out of television, and CD-(with extra features).

We think that there is a connection between the amounts of music videos watched with the popularity of the internet this is because the people we asked were between the ages of 14-18 and are more likely to be on the internet.

When asked if it was important for the artist to have a music video to make the single much more successful and what they think makes a good music video. We come up with the results that 19 out of 20 people said it is important for an arist single to have a music video. The results also showed that half of the people who done the questionnaire think that a story line (narrative) is important in a music video to make it successful, the second thing that they think is important is the use of special effects for example computer input and green screen .performances by artist/band and the use of animations were two of the least picked factors that they think makes a good music video.                             

 Music videos such as the video named below are people’s favourite videos:

• Katy Perry- Firework
• Big Bang- Forever with you
• Justin Timberlake- What goes around comes around
• Jay Chou- Thousands Mile away
• Beyonce- Videophone
• Monica- love all over me
• Eminem- love the way you lie
• Kanye West- Runaway
• Plan B- Love goes down
• Jeremiah ft 50 cent- Down on me
• David Guetta ft Rihanna- Who’s that chick
• Rihanna- S&M
• J Cole ft Drake- In the morning
• Lady gaga- Born this way
• Adele –Rolling the deep
• Ke$ha- We R who We R
• Tinie Tempah and Ellie Goulding- Wonder man

What do other media sudents think about;Cee lo Green's video Forget You ?

Forget you also known as duck you is by American singer song writer Cee Lo Green. This single is the first single from Cee lo’s third studio album The Lady Killer. At the 2011 Brit Awards Cee Lo won best international male for forget you.

How does it make you feel?

We feel that this video is all about money and how love only will work  for  The heartbreaker(the girl Cee Lo fancies)if  the boy she dates is rich also  it makes us feel  sorry for  Cee Lo as he jets rejected by The heartbreaker throughout all the years in his life. Also the way we see all the stages  in his life we get a inside view of how he is treated by The heartbreaker throughout  the years.

Is there any correlation between the lyrics and visuals?

When the lyrics  “ I guess the change in my pocket,Wasn’t enough i’m like” we are introduced to Cee Lo crush with a expensive car with added animated titles, so from the start there is a reference  to  money related to the  girl. Another  relationship between lyrics and visuals is  when young  Cee Lo sings “Yeah I’m sorry, I can’t afford a ferrari,,But that don’t mean I can’t get you there” he is walking and talking to the heartbreaker with  a  garbage truck toy. When he says “Said, if I was richer, I'd still be with ya” we see the backing singers fanning money in the hands.

Are there an references to any other media form?

There is a reference to expensive cars such as a Ferrari. The whole video has reference to money and how money makes a girl happy. There is also constant reference to money and fame throughout the whole video.

Do you think there is a reason to why Cee Lo Green made this video as he did?

He may have made this video because when he was a child he was bullied for a short period of time about his size but it all stopped when people got to know him.