Comparison of Music Videos

The first music video I am analysing is Jessie J- Domino. It was directed by Ray Kay, and it is the genre of pop music. The characteristics of the pop genre the music videos has is bright outfits and complex dance routines. Jessie J is a popular pop artist who is famous for her ‘out there’ outfits and complex dance routines. The second music video I am going to analyse is Rudimental ft John Newman - Feel The Love. This video is the genre of drum and bass. The director and producer of this video is Rudimental and Mike Spencer. The characteristics of the drum and bass genre that this music video has is the fact that theres no performance, there’s just several stories interlinked, that don’t even relate to the lyrics in the song. There is usually slow motion when the song begins to speed up also. Jessie J’s music video is a very performance based video. Throughout, most of the lyrics are illustrated with lip syncing and performing of the lyrics. For example, as she sings ‘you spin me out of control’, she spins her head in an exaggerated way. Another example of this is when she sings the lyrics about a bass drum, she begins to play the drums in the air with her fists. However, in Rudimental’s video, no lyrics are illustrated or even amplified, as the story has nothing to do with the music, it just seems as though it has been put over a random story. However, the video has been cut to the beat, with scenes changing with the beat changing. The video changes pace with the music, as the music speeds up the video begins to go slow motion, but it is during the action, as the characters in the video are horse riding so it is quite effective. The solo instrumental bits are not illustrated in the video, only illustrated by the pace change. In Jessie J’s music video, the video is cut mainly to the beat, as it goes into the chorus, the scenes change 3 or 4 times in 3 seconds of the bridge. The video changes pace with the music as the chorus speeds up and the scenes and outfits change. In this video, the artist has so many different outfits. This is one of the ways the record company tries to sell the artist and the song, and it appeals to fashion fans and fans of Jessie J’s fashion sense. Also, as all of the outfits are ‘out there’ with different patterns and tassels etc. The video relates to most of the others done by this artist as they are mainly performance based with the outfits and the artists fashion being the centre point of the videos, so this video shows all the usual motifs for Jessie J’s music. However, Rudimental’s record company attempts to sell the track by using a storyline and following it throughout the song, even though it doesn’t associate with the lyrics at all. As this is one of the first tracks Rudimental has brought out, it is unsure of what motif as an artist he wants to put across, however the video follows the normal motifs and connotations of drum and bass videos, which usually follow a storyline instead of a performance based video. Jessie J gives off the impression that she is openly performing to the audience, with some of her dance moves indicating that she is on sexual display. Some of her costumes can be quite skimpy or tight which implies to the audience that she is on sexual display. The sexual dance moves may have been chosen to appeal to a wider audience instead of just Jessie J fans, so perhaps people may be attracted to her in her different outfits or from dance moves, and they would be more likely to be interested in the artist in the future too. The Rudimental video doesn’t have any sense of sexual display, and it seems as though it is just a song over a different video as none of it links. Jessie J’s music video is very much performance based, as it features her lip syncing the majority of her lyrics and performing a big dance routine. There isn’t even much going on in the background, the majority of the video is her just dancing in a room with a variety of close ups, costume changes and the occasional prop, for example a big chair during the chorus.