The performance of
this song in a music video will
be a conventional pop-country genre. I intend
to have different scenes for different ‘moments’ in time looking back at
different parts of their relationship. The narrative of the music video will
directly link to the lyrics of the song, having the presentation of the song as
mainly performance based. The narrative storyline linking closely to the lyrics
and meaning of the song, where the guy in the relationship is very ‘unreliable’
she doesn’t know whether he will just get up and leave or when he will come
back, but he will always come back, the story is that she has had enough and
doesn’t know whether to let him back into her life anymore, she has fallen for
it too many times. The idea is to have the two characters indirectly singing to
each other from either side of a door, this allows me to portray both sides of
the argument separately or together on a split screen, and also allows more opportunities
for edits into their memories to happen- it will link it in better.
The ‘flash backs’
will hopefully be filmed in sunshine if the weather is good, showing what their
relationship used to be like, but for the present performance aspects of it the
performance will be in a dull lit house and raining outside to reflect the mood
of the song. I plan to have more than one performance setting, the one in the
house and another singing at each other out in the rain!
It is good that I
will be filming in winter because I plan to make this quite a sad music video,
preferably with rain, which shouldn’t be too hard to find in England, however
this may present a problem for the flashbacks in the video.
For the majority of
the music video’s costumes it will be a more modern day country pop as the
music comes across as more ‘pop’ than country, and a modern look will help the
audience to relate to the narrative of the music video.
The settings of
this music video will be in the country side with a normal house, nothing to
grand or anything that displays a rich background as I want this music video to
relate to the audience in as many ways as possible. My ideal would be a small
American style farm house with a large porch, but this might be hard to find so
I will have to see what I can find!
It is so hard to find the perfect song to do a music video for especially when you are looking at a quite niche range of artists that do country-pop, however I have been able to find some jems that would be great to do a music video for!
The Band Perry - All your Life
The song 'All your life' already has a music video however I really like the storyline of the lyrics and i would do the music video slightly different to how they have done it!
Lyrics
Would you walk to the edge of the ocean
Just to fill my jar with sand Just in case I get the notion To let it run through my hand Let it run through my hand The sun, the moon, and all their light I just want to be the only girl You love all your life You love all your life Yeah, put them in a lamp to light my world All dressed up in a tux and bowtie Hand deliver to a lonely girl To a lonely lonely girl The sun, the moon, and all their light I just want to be the only girl You love all your life You love all your life Mostly I sing them to the walls, You could be the center piece of my obsession If you would notice me, at all yeah The sun, the moon, and all their light I just want to be the only girl You love all your life You love all your life Life
Well, I don't want the whole world
Would you catch a couple thousand fireflies
Well, I don't want the whole world
Lately I've been writing desperate love songs
Well I don't want the whole world,no
You love all your life
The story line in the lyrics could be applied to many different situations and could effect the mood of the song. I like the way that they have told the story in the music video as it doesn't entirely focus on just two people, it includes many different 'pairs' of people. This also allowed room for some montages of different scenes to happen making the music video interesting to watch.
If I were going to make a music video for this I would have also used a narrative but in a slightly different way. I may have applied this to a story where the two people have the predictable 'fall madly in love' stage and for some reason he has to move away, I would have portrayed this as a letter that she writes to him, picking out different memories as a montage. Another large aspect that I would have included was a performance side to it, for this they would have been in one particular place that was relevant to a memory, making the performance almost personal. The performance aspect would feature all of the band in a relaxed manor as they do in many of their existing music videos, to display their attitude towards music.
Taylor Swift -
Taylor Swift has so many songs with out a music video for and 'Last Time' and 'all too well' are the two that i would be most interested in doing one for.
Gary Lightbody:
Found myself at your door,
Just like all those times before,
I’m not sure how I got there,
All roads they lead me here.
I imagine you are home,
In your room, all alone,
And you open your eyes into mine,
And everything feels better,
Both:
Right before your eyes,
I’m breaking and fast,
No reasons why,
Just you and me.
This is the last time I’m asking you this,
Put my name on the top of your list,
This is the last time I’m asking you why,
You break my heart in the blink of an eye.
Taylor Swift:
You find yourself at my door,
Just like all those times before,
You wear your best apology,
But I was there to watch you leave,
And all the times I let you in,
Just for you to go again,
Disappear when you come back,
Everything is better.
Both:
When right before your eyes,
I’m aching, run fast,
Nowhere to hide,
Just you and me…
This is the last time I’m asking you this,
Put my name on the top of your list,
This is the last time I’m asking you why,
You break my heart in the blink of an eye, eye, eye…
This is the last time you tell me I’ve got it wrong,
This is the last time I say it’s been you all along,
This is the last time I let you in my door,
This is the last time, I won’t hurt you anymore.
Oh, oh, oh,
This is the last time I’m asking you this,
Put my name on the top of your list,
This is the last time I’m asking you why,
You break my heart in the blink of an eye.
This is the last time I’m asking you this, (this is the last time I’m asking you this)
Put my name on the top of your list, (name on the top of your list)
This is the last time I’m asking you why, (this is the last time I’m asking you why)
You break my heart in the blink of an eye. (You break my heart…)
This is the last time I’m asking you this,
Time I’m asking you this,
Time I’m asking you this,
Time I’m asking you this.. (x3)
For my music video i have decided to make a video for Taylor Swift's song Last Time, I feel this gives a better storyline and chance for me to combine the pop-country conventions better. The only problem with it is that it is a very long song... 5 minutes so I might have some trouble trying to fill it and keep it interesting, however I might be able to cut the audio at a shorter place. I like the narrative of the story in this song and feel that i will be able to display this in an interesting way.
After looking further into performances of this song I found a shorter version of this song, and although it takes out the instrumental and some of the repeated choruses that built cresendos in the song I feel this would be easier to create a realistic and professional looking video.
Pop-county is an unusual genre of music combining pop and country music- this increases the target audience making it appeal to a wider range of people.
Take, for example, the american country singer Luke Bryan. He aims his music at yearly to late 20's, male and female audience, with a fairly limited target audience.
However.....
When you mix country with pop however, the target audience increases dramatically from early teens to early 20's. This increase in target audience is how artists such as Taylor Swift have become so successful in the music industry.
This kind of music still has the traditional elements of country, such as, the instruments used but starts to incorporate a much more dance like quality in the music.
When asking a group of 20 people about pop-country music videos this is what a few of them said...
From this research I found that the music videos play a big part in keeping an artists popularity and presence at large! It also helped me understand that an unconventional music video can be just as successful as a conventional one as it may stand out in the right way.
This year I went on Holiday to the lovely Loire Valley in France, where I found the perfect setting....
The thing that I really like about these two settings is the traditional look that they both have and this is something that I will be looking for when I decide a song and locations.
We also visited a beautiful Château which inspired me a lot! The interior of the property was amazing and the gardens where just as beautiful as the inside, I wish I had taken a video camera to record sequences....
Being someone who does not religiously watch music videos this project presented a task which had me thinking about the different ways that artists like to present their genre of music, and how creative some music genres can be!
Pop-Country Music
Country solely on its own is not the most popular music genre and originally a country artist Taylor Swift has developed her music to combine more pop elements into it so that it stays popular in the charts and gives her a more successful career. The characteristics of this genre combine the traditional side to country with the modern day pop music videos. With Taylor Swift, she combines the elements of dance through acting to the beat of the music and having a narrative based video as well as a traditional country music video which stays 'true to the lyrics' with many performance based scenes but not as many as the rock genre.
The Rock Music Genre
I love how with this genre your ideas can be limitless. The music video itself can have no relation to the lyrics or the song, which is something that I would love to explore as you can be a creative as you like. I also like the idea of the band/artist performing in sections or throughout the video as it gives a real sense of style and personality of the performers.
Pop music
With this genre I am pulled towards it from the upbeat, colourful and dance aspects usually shown in a pop music video. The typical focus on the artist displaying their style is also a key feature that i would love to use in my music video. They aim to appeal to a general audience and not to make their music or music videos specific to one audience, so they have general simple themes usually love or relationships that would effect everyone!
The Genre of music that i would love to focus on in this project is pop-country as it has both elements of performance and narrative that i would love to explore when producing a music video!
As you can probably tell i am a fan of Taylor Swift and love the style and variation she uses in all of her music videos. She focuses on the lyrics a great deal consistently throughout all the music videos and enables the audience to connect more to the song, this is something i would love to achieve when making my music video.
22- Taylor Swift
This being a recent Taylor Swift music video we see a slightly different side to her music videos which stray away from others like Fifteen which are considerably viewed as being a country style, nowadays to stay popular she has broadened her ways and produces a very mixed music video 22. It mainly incorporates a pop style with lots of different sections to a year, pieced together in a random way. I like this approach because it makes the music video interesting to watch and also fits to the emotion of the song.
I love the styling that is used because it is very casual and something that anyone could wear, relatable to the audience and also the locations are very normal in a sense that it feels as if this is where the artist goes and spends time with friends, i love the white wall in the middle of a field (it seems) because it doesn't make it feel professional and clean, it makes it feel more home made, it feels as if you are getting an insight into the 'real' Taylor Swift and her personality. The bright natural light is also something that I would like to use in the making of my music video.
The Band Perry
This band still has the main focus on the country music aspect with traditional performance conventions throughout the music video that I would like to include in my music video. I love the styling of the 'old fashioned country gal' with traditional instruments.
The setting and styling in this music video is something that i would love to use. The pastel colours used is also something that i would love to use in my music video as it isn't too dazzling and fits the genre of music.
The use of traditional intstruments demonstrated in the music video expresses the bands genre and style.
This is a band that i would consider doing a music video for one of there songs.
be a conventional pop-country genre. I intend
to have different scenes for different ‘moments’ in time looking back at
different parts of their relationship. The narrative of the music video will
directly link to the lyrics of the song, having the presentation of the song as
mainly performance based. The narrative storyline linking closely to the lyrics
and meaning of the song, where the guy in the relationship is very ‘unreliable’
she doesn’t know whether he will just get up and leave or when he will come
back, but he will always come back, the story is that she has had enough and
doesn’t know whether to let him back into her life anymore, she has fallen for
it too many times. 
The idea is to have the two characters indirectly singing to
each other from either side of a door, this allows me to portray both sides of
the argument separately or together on a split screen, and also allows more opportunities
for edits into their memories to happen- it will link it in better.
The idea is to have the two characters indirectly singing to
each other from either side of a door, this allows me to portray both sides of
the argument separately or together on a split screen, and also allows more opportunities
for edits into their memories to happen- it will link it in better.
