Introduction:

As years progress, music videos have become just as important of an

entertainment aspect just like the song is to us as customers.

This goes towards promotional aspects and extend to their income,

assisting with the connection from an artist to a listener, leaving the
audience remembering their song but as a result, there is an immense
amount of music video, which makes the music industry a difficult area to
enter.

In this video, I would like to analyse the following 3 music videos filled with
different codes and conventions; Thinking of you, Bohemian Rhapsody and
No Surprises.

KATY PERRY - THINKING OF YOU

Katy Perry's music video for 'Thinking of you' is created with narrative
settings used to tell us her story which relates to her lyrics. Created in
2009, Katy revealed on her blog how she was creating her second music
video specifically made for commercial release. It addressed the impact
women has to withstand during World War II as her beloved left for war.

Camera angles and editing are used to exaggerate the World War II theme
by activating the audience’s emotions. This is displayed through a close up
taken from her shoes and when Katy reaches out towards her drawer
removing a picture of close ups of her lover who appears to wear military
clothes symbolizing the era as those would most commonly be worn during
that period.

Katy Perry stares into the mirror with a full face of makeup. The motif for
this is how makeup is used as a cover up the full story of her emotional
truth as its hidden away. As a result, there would be an increase in her
overall promotional factor in her records being sold due to the increase in
interest. Soon after, a pan movement is used as we see her new lover
asleep filmed in an aspect of how she views him as the camera moves to
his face and built body.

A new established shot conveyed her previous life before her lover went to
war. Lighting elements became brighter and settings more romantic. These
romantic gestures, such as their bright smiles around each other or
spending time during sun set while sitting in a field is used to convey their
happiness around each other. The director uses video editing cuts which
are usually seen in pop videos to a panning shot from Katy Perry to her
new lover lying down as she sings ''I guess the second best is all I will
know'' which implies its temporal love as she tried to replace her first love
but the looks on her face implies she knows he’s irreplaceable.

In the fighting scene, we see her lover get shot down to the ground which
suggests there is need to hide as there is danger ahead. There is no color
besides black and white enhancing the World War II theme which helps in
setting the audience's mood. This also helps to show without each other,
they don't have colour in their lives linking to scenes where they are
together, you see a range of bright colours used.

In the last scene, Katy sings ''And bust in the door'' as she desires for his
presents to reappear but the tragic nature is depicted visually as she's
forced to close the door implying he won't return. A long shot is taken as
Katy is seen walking away on the same road her lover walked in which
could mean that the guy she was in bed with was temporally as her lover
will always be in her heart no matter where she goes, but the only place
she's going right now is to attend his funeral.

To further emphasis features in this video, we are introduced to Mise En

Scene which assists the story visually while also attracting audience with
potential interests. Costumes were specially picked to emphasize their
genders. Men are dressed to masculine standards such as this man, who
wears a rugged shirt to showcase muscles or her lover, who wears army
uniform symbolizing power and strength. Katy wears provocative clothing
which is rather flattering and revealing which as a result is attractive to her
audience.

Lighting was used keenly during throwback scenes such as bright lighting
which symbolized the happier periods. The director pays a lot of attention
to lighting as it reflects on the lyrics as all she longs for is to be with her first
lover which is shown 1 min 44 seconds we see her new lover kiss her but
he's in the shadow which portrays unlike her first lover, he doesn't make
her as happy as she’s covered by the shadow.
The main narrative role is played by Katy in order to promote her music as
she’s the main focus of the video. This is beneficial as her audience would
look up to her as she sings and acts attracting attention from other
industries increasing her chances to make profit and fan base. More
makeup is worn with her new lover than when she was with her old lover
symbolize how she’s self-conscious of herself with her new lover as she
can’t show her true self to anybody else besides him.

Props are used throughout to help tell the story better such as 'the
notebook.' It has a picture of her first love which helps amplify the story line.
The overall settings assist the enhancing of the romantic and tragic
storyline as we see they use romantic location for the house, summer
setting in the fields when they are in love showing us you don't need a lot to
be happy in life. When it's more tragic, we see that people are shouting,
falling down, everything becomes black and white which shows us her true
happiness has gone. In conclusion, this make the lyrics of the song stand
out more as it explains to us her pain and his irreplaceability.

QUEEN - BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

(PERFORMANCE)
Secondly, I will now move onto my performance video created in 1975
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. In a performance based video’s, what we
usually would see would be artist performing, whether that's dancing, lip
syncing, live concerts or even musicians playing their instruments. This
music video however, was created to resemble darkness just like the lyrics.
It's about a young man who has accidentally killed someone and sold his

The performance video is intended to capture the power of Queen’s live

show: the talents of Freddie Mercury’s vocals and Brian May’s guitar work.
Camera work helps to address gloom and mystery in the beginning of the
music video as we get a glance of the full band with a medium-full shot in
pure darkness with only a vertical light slightly showing their faces just
enough so you could identify everyone. The video becomes completely
dark and a close up shot is taken to show Freddie Mercury which is a great
method to keep your audience entertained while still including elements of
the same mystery used in the beginning. As a result, this helps identify the
lead singer for the song increasing attention from audience to him.
Different elements of Mise En Scene is shown as the band members
costumes rotate. At first, you see the band members firstly dressed in
black, symbolizing power and strength alongside with the darkness behind
the songs actual meaning. This however towards the masculine standards
as we see Freddie dressed in silk showing wealth and sexual appeal
towards females which as a result, increases views. The director pays a lot
of attention to lighting as he made sure the lighting reflects towards their
faces. Moving on to the band members, during the performance scene, we
see the entire band play in order to promote their music which
automatically makes them the centre of attraction in the video. This is
beneficial as this was one of the first performance based videos so people
automatically would watch with amazement, classifying them to be multi-
talented. Just like other rock bands, they wear makeup as a way to mask
themselves from the world. By doing this, they create their own unique
identity especially since makeup on males wasn't as popular the 1975's as
it was very unusual increase curiosity in their fashion taste along with their
makeup. This is significant as most people wouldn't dare to wear makeup
as it used to go against society's normality but they did it anyway!

RADIOHEAD - NO SURPRISES
(CONCEPT)
To move on to the last music video, I will be covering Radiohead's concept
video 'No Surprises', which was created to address how he craves for 'No
alarms and no surprises' in his surrounding environment and lifestyle.

Camera shots and camera movements are very odd as we see a 'One shot
wonder'. It’s named like that because one camera shot/movement has
been used through the video. As a result, this generally assists in drawing
attention towards the imagery found in the music video with a sense of
continuity. I would say the close up shot is rather effective as the director
has allowed Thom Yorke, who is the artist to be not only the centre of
attention with his performance and emotion, but also it automatically forces
the audience to recognize all the visual elements that take place. Naturally,
Thom's facial and emotional expressions would be more focused due to the
rather uncomfortable sensation associated with close up shots unlike long
shots. Thom, who acts to be sad and distressed creating an uncomfortable
tone and mood towards the music as it progresses. The more the water
raises, the more discomfort is enforced as in the video, we see he has to
hold his breath for a long time in order to capture the shot that he's looking
to portray. Just like other music videos, close up shots are usual to
represent the artists image to the audience increasing overall identity and
brand image. Lyrics that go with this scene. Drowning in modern society - in
the banality.

To move on from this, we are brought to Mise En Scene since the start of
this video. We first see this in the first few seconds as a range of neon
lights light up and immediately place their reflection onto Thom which helps
illuminate his facial expressions whilst corresponding to the guitar which
showcases the link found which connection between the visuals the music
itself. As a result however, this gives us a sinister vibe which makes it
worse due to how dark the video is with the disturbing lights which keep
flickering. In 0:33, we see intertextuality when a pale light showcases a
very rich audio-visual universe in the video. We also see what we call
pattern repetition as there's a fight between light and darkness which helps
to emphasize the settings as there is an event at 01:20 when we see a
bigger neon light shine directly on Thomas right cheek which seems to
symbolize an attack. This could imply how the light in this music video
could resemble an antagonist. Referring to the use of water, seeing how it
relates to emotions might show gender stereotypes and mainly more typical
for men as they are forced to hold in their emotions more than women. The
concept role is played by the artist himself, (Thom Yorke) which as a result,
assists in his way to promote his music as he is the only person in this
video. He does not have any other person acting with him which may have
been done deliberately to come out with a beneficial for his audience as he
has already labelled himself indirectly as the hero would we would look up
to. We see one individual prop used in this music video which would be the
source of water. We see Thom forced to hold his breath which could
symbolize how he has to hold in his emotions. When the water is released,
you see him taking a gasp for air which shows the stability which is
associated after those kind of negative feelings impact your life. Lip sync is
used in part of the song as we see he drops in and out of the lip sync when
the astronaut's helmet fills up with water which stops when submerged
creating the realism effect as there isn't as much movement. There is an
event at 01:20 when we see a bigger neon light shine directly on Thomas
right cheek which seems to symbolize an attack. This is because the close
up shot becomes more opaque and the music fades in and out,
emphasising both Thom and the song’s isolation. This symbolises a quiet
pain that we repress when living in modern society.