1. Music videos demonstrate gene characteristics (e.g.) stage performance in rock videos, dance routine for boy/girl pop band)
An example of a rock video which clearly demonstrates gene characteristics would be 'The Waiting Room' by 'We Are The Ocean' as the band members perform in front of the camera. At the beginning of the video you see two of the singers sitting opposite each other and singing towards each other, combined with shots of the band performing all together in what seems to be a basement. This continues throughout the whole of the video, although including a few concept shots of faces, drawings and someone tied up in wires. This fits in with the gene characteristics of the genre as it has no obvious story line and is mainly performance.
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals ( either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
A music video that demonstrates an obvious relationship between lyrics and visuals is 'For The First Time' By 'The Script' an Alternative Rock band from Dublin. The narrative based video follows the story of a couple and displays visuals that directly relate to the lyrics, such as 'she's all laid up in bed with a broken heart' (0:32). There is a direct link here as the audience of the video can clearly see that this statement is true from the introduction of the video as the girl writes a postcard to her family and is laying on her bed quite obviously upset about being far away from home.
Another direct link between the lyrics and visuals can be seen at around 1:20 with the lyrics 'we're going to start by drinking on cheap bottles of wine' and 'sit talking up all night', at which point images of a man drinking wine from the bottle and a couple lying down together are shown. These direct links between the lyrics and the visuals carry on throughout the video until the end when the man buys the girl tickets for him and her to go back home after loosing his job (links with lyrics at 2:05). The video then ends at this point with the lyrics 'Don't give up on me baby' therefore showing that there is still hope for their relationship.
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
Ellie Gouldings' music video for 'Guns and Horses' exhibits a relationship between music and visuals as the first 40 seconds of the song are quite slow paced, which matches the visuals of Ellie Goulding standing by herself in a calm and serene looking forest. As the pace of the song begins to build up there are shots of her walking slowly through the forest and at 0:50 seconds the pace increases and becomes more upbeat as people climb out from behind trees and start dancing with her. There is a clear link between the music and visuals in this video as when the pace increases or decreases, the visuals become more lively or calm.
4. The demands of the record label will include the need of lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work ( a visual style)
An artist who is well known for using motifs in their music would be Jason Derulo, who sings his name at the beginning of most of his songs, along with Dappy from 'N-dubz' who says 'Na Na Nai' as an introduction to his music thus creating an increasing brand name and making an image for themselves.
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens of screens, telescopes, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
An example of voyeurism can be seen in Avril Lavignes video for her song 'What the hell', In which she seems to have multiple men chasing after her for different reasons. In the video there are recurring shots of mirrors(0:36 and 2:42), laptops (0:09), televisions (0:10) and phone screens (3:03 and 3:18), and also an example of voyeuristic treatment of the female body as Avril walks through a basketball court full of men at around 1:28, who stop playing to talk to her.
6. There is often inter-textual reference (to films, TV programmes, post modernistic perspective, other music videos etc)
A song that uses a lot of inter textual references would be 'No Regrets' by 'Dappy' which uses a lot of snappy and clever references to both films and celebrities, in order to get across the message of the song effectively. Intertextual references are a clever way of making a piece of music more appealing and relatable to an audience, and thus more attractive to people interested in buying the music.
The following is an analysis of the lyrics of the song that demonstrate the use of intertextual references:
An example of a rock video which clearly demonstrates gene characteristics would be 'The Waiting Room' by 'We Are The Ocean' as the band members perform in front of the camera. At the beginning of the video you see two of the singers sitting opposite each other and singing towards each other, combined with shots of the band performing all together in what seems to be a basement. This continues throughout the whole of the video, although including a few concept shots of faces, drawings and someone tied up in wires. This fits in with the gene characteristics of the genre as it has no obvious story line and is mainly performance.
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals ( either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
A music video that demonstrates an obvious relationship between lyrics and visuals is 'For The First Time' By 'The Script' an Alternative Rock band from Dublin. The narrative based video follows the story of a couple and displays visuals that directly relate to the lyrics, such as 'she's all laid up in bed with a broken heart' (0:32). There is a direct link here as the audience of the video can clearly see that this statement is true from the introduction of the video as the girl writes a postcard to her family and is laying on her bed quite obviously upset about being far away from home.
Another direct link between the lyrics and visuals can be seen at around 1:20 with the lyrics 'we're going to start by drinking on cheap bottles of wine' and 'sit talking up all night', at which point images of a man drinking wine from the bottle and a couple lying down together are shown. These direct links between the lyrics and the visuals carry on throughout the video until the end when the man buys the girl tickets for him and her to go back home after loosing his job (links with lyrics at 2:05). The video then ends at this point with the lyrics 'Don't give up on me baby' therefore showing that there is still hope for their relationship.
Screen shots of examples:
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)
Ellie Gouldings' music video for 'Guns and Horses' exhibits a relationship between music and visuals as the first 40 seconds of the song are quite slow paced, which matches the visuals of Ellie Goulding standing by herself in a calm and serene looking forest. As the pace of the song begins to build up there are shots of her walking slowly through the forest and at 0:50 seconds the pace increases and becomes more upbeat as people climb out from behind trees and start dancing with her. There is a clear link between the music and visuals in this video as when the pace increases or decreases, the visuals become more lively or calm.
4. The demands of the record label will include the need of lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work ( a visual style)
An artist who is well known for using motifs in their music would be Jason Derulo, who sings his name at the beginning of most of his songs, along with Dappy from 'N-dubz' who says 'Na Na Nai' as an introduction to his music thus creating an increasing brand name and making an image for themselves.
These are two music videos which demonstrate a use of motifs in 'N-Dubz' music
An example of Jason Derulo using a motif can be seen in his video 'In My Head'
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens of screens, telescopes, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
An example of voyeurism can be seen in Avril Lavignes video for her song 'What the hell', In which she seems to have multiple men chasing after her for different reasons. In the video there are recurring shots of mirrors(0:36 and 2:42), laptops (0:09), televisions (0:10) and phone screens (3:03 and 3:18), and also an example of voyeuristic treatment of the female body as Avril walks through a basketball court full of men at around 1:28, who stop playing to talk to her.
6. There is often inter-textual reference (to films, TV programmes, post modernistic perspective, other music videos etc)
A song that uses a lot of inter textual references would be 'No Regrets' by 'Dappy' which uses a lot of snappy and clever references to both films and celebrities, in order to get across the message of the song effectively. Intertextual references are a clever way of making a piece of music more appealing and relatable to an audience, and thus more attractive to people interested in buying the music.
The following is an analysis of the lyrics of the song that demonstrate the use of intertextual references:
| 'This is my kings speech... if I St-stutter I'm sorry I ain't heaven sent' (0:14) This is a reference to the british historical drama 'The Kings speech' in which King George VI who suffered with a stammer, sees a speech therapist in order to subsequently make an important broadcast declaring war on Germany in 1939. The interesting and clever intertextual reference to not being 'heaven sent' links back to the statement that the song is his 'kings speech' as it was believed that royalty was a God given right and therefore portrays the idea that although he is not royalty he has an important message to get across to his audience. 'I'm a changed man now, Chris Brown' (0:21) This intertextual reference refers to the famous R&B singer Chris browns' song called 'Changed Man' which was leaked in August 2009 following the assault of ex-girlfriend and famous singer Rihanna earlier of that year. The use of this reference in Dappys song 'No Regrets' expresses the idea that like Chris Brown, he is no longer the person he used to be. 'I'm Kurt Cobain, but I just couldn't do it' (0:27) Kurt Cobain was the lead singer and song writer of the American band 'Nirvana' who was found dead at his home in Seattle on April 8th 1994 at the age of 27. During the last years of his life he struggled with heroin addiction, illness and depression as well as the difficulties of coping with his fame, public image and the lifelong personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, musician Courtney Love. His death was officially ruled a suicide. 'Back to the future, Marty Mcfly' (0:33) This is a intertextual reference to the very famous American science-fiction adventure film 'Back To The Future' which was released in 1985. The film tells the story of teenager Marty Mcfly who accidentally travels back in time from 1985 to 1955, disrupting the meeting of his mother and father and therefore threatening his own existence.   'Now I'm Flying with the birds, Richard Branson' (1:36) The intertextual reference in these lyrics refer to Sir Richard Branson, an English Business Magnate who is best known for his virgin group consisting of over 400 companies, including Virgin Atlantic Airways which was formed in 1984. Dappy makes an underlying reference to Virgin Atlantic through the lyrics 'flying with the birds'.  'I'm a prince and yes I will get get the crown, Kate stays in my dungeon when her sisters round' (1:39) This is an intertextual reference to the British Royal Family and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate, and her sister Pippa who rose to fame following Kates wedding in April 2011.  'I'll blow the bloody doors off, Micheal Caine' (1:46) Micheal Caine is a very famous English Actor who is well known for his part in 'The Italian Job' (1969) where he says the memorable phrase 'You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off' which was voted favourite film one-liner in 2003 in a poll of 1,000 film fans. The popularity of the film has lead to parodies and allusions in other films and productions, Dappys 'No Regrets' being one of them.  'Cos I'm famous, call me Gallagher cos i'm so shameless' (2:32)
This is an intertexual reference to both the hit British television show 'Shameless' and it's main character 'Frank Gallagher' who is well known for his alcoholism, drunken rants, making a fool out of himself and straying away from his responsibilities.
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Another artist who frequently uses intertextual references would be the band 'Blink 182' who are well known for creating controversial music videos that often mimic or parody other videos in a humorous way. A video that does this in particular would be the video for their well known song 'All The Small Things' which parodies a variety of different artists videos.
For example:
The first obvious imitation and rendition of another bands video would be 'I Want It That Way' by 'The Backstreet Boys'. To The Left there is a montage of screen shots from each video, The Backstreet boys on the left and Blink 182 on the right with a similar, opposing image in which they mock the Backstreet Boys and their video.
Another video in which Blink 182 mimic would be 'Genie In A Bottle' by Christina Aguilera, a female artist this time rather than a boy band.
The beginning of the video consists of her lying in the sand on a beach, surrounded by flowers and singing to the camera. Blink 182 poke fun at this by first imitating the shot with just singer Tom Delonge, and later all three of the band members who are seen randomly smelling and eating the flowers.Above is a montage of pictures that show this, the top left hand corner picture is a screen shot of the oringial and the other three images are of Blink 182's imitations.
The group also parody 'Sometimes' By Britney, in which she is seen looking through binoculars at a man on the beach with a large dog. Blink 182 copy these shots and ridicule them by showing 'the man' who is played by Mark Hoppus of Blink 182, getting attacked by a small Jack Russel, rather than a larger dog seen in the Britney video, and being seemingly dragged down the beach.
Blink 182 also ridicule boy bands through parodying the video 'Because Of You' By 98 degrees by imitating the shots of them singing on the beach, using over exaggerated conventional 'boy band' mannerisms and dance moves, as shown below.
The group also parody 'Sometimes' By Britney, in which she is seen looking through binoculars at a man on the beach with a large dog. Blink 182 copy these shots and ridicule them by showing 'the man' who is played by Mark Hoppus of Blink 182, getting attacked by a small Jack Russel, rather than a larger dog seen in the Britney video, and being seemingly dragged down the beach.Blink 182 also ridicule boy bands through parodying the video 'Because Of You' By 98 degrees by imitating the shots of them singing on the beach, using over exaggerated conventional 'boy band' mannerisms and dance moves, as shown below.
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