Controversy in music videos

I have read an article concerning controversy in music videos which focuses primarily on Rihanna's 'Bitch better have my money' which has proven to be one of the most controversial of the year. This article explains how it is quite common for an artist to have a fall in popularity and reach a stage that is almost like a mid-life crisis where their standards drop. It uses examples of 'Guns N' Roses' and even Taylor Swift being among these artists. It goes in depth about how several artists purposely create a controversial video in order to make the video infamous and therefore make it well known (even if it is for the wrong reasons). This allows the artist to make more money from the video as the charts now take YouTube and vevo etc into account when compiling the top 40.
To me, this seems like a very clever idea for an artist to make themselves well known, however it is very risky as Robin Thike proved with 'blurred lines' giving him a bad reputation.
This article does mention however that such controversy has become a trademark for many artists in the past and is what they're loved for such as Oasis' "hardman character" in several of their videos.

Genre Theories- Kasabian "Fire" Textual Analysis

Over the past couple of lessons, we have been looking over some theories revolving around music videos which we can apply to our own work. These theories, which concerns genre specifically, consist of:


Hartley (1994)- Genre limits creativity- Hartley argues that genres are agents of ideological closure which limit the meaning-potential of a given text. In this case, it appears that this is not true. This video could have quite literally been anything. The bizarre subject matter and theme of the video prove the expanded limits that the video may have been held to. However, it is true that the video was limited in its mise en scene as the artist opted to use instruments as props, a common feature of the genre.

Hodge & Kress (1988)- limits creativity by conforming to audience expectation- Genre controls the behaviour of both the producers and potential consumers.
With the genre of rock stereotypically appealing to more of a male audience, the producers appear to have made the music video for 'Fire' appeal to a male audience by revolving it around a violent setting wich will appeal more to a male audience.

Fiske (1987)- the crucial ideological concerns of the time they are popular- genres tell us something about the time in which they are popular. 

In the music video for 'Fire' by Kasabian, the issue of bank heists and armed robbery is addressed in a way which suits the genre by replacing weapons with guitars and money with sheet music. While bank robbery isn't such an issue in the UK as it is in the US, the video very well addresses it as it was popular at a time when this was happening a lot.

Preliminary task evaluation

The aim of our preliminary task was to illustrate quite a deep and, in truth, slightly confusing narrative of someone trying to find themselves. As a group, we all decided to go a little on the strange side of things and focus on impriving our knowkedge and skills in editing rather than the camera shots and movements with a result which seems quite interesting. We used a variety of effects such as speeding and reversing footage in addition to fades, feathers and keying. Overall, the video was a success in my opinion but I believe there was much more potential in the concept.

I was personally took charge of creating the website for our group and opted to use the website 'weebly' to create it. While it was easy to use and create a web page that suited the genre of the video, I felt a little limited frequently due to the restrictions of the free version. This meant that there was so much more I felt I could do without the limitations.

After an abundance of printing, sizing and trimming issues with the CD covers we were eventually able to complete the final piece. I feel the artwork accurately reflects the themes associated with the genre and I'm pleased with how it has turned out.

Band website and CD cover

We have created a band website in order to promote our video:
www.aspreliminaryleavingyou. weebly.com
We have also designed and created a CD front and back cover:

Finished Preliminary Task

Here is our finished preliminary music video of 'Leaving you' by Savoy & Sound Remedy: