Purpose of a music video

Due to the fact that I have no experience in the making of music videos, I have decided to start researching them and also the purpose of them and what they aim to achieve. This will help me understand what will need to be included in the music video to ensure that it is successful. I also help it will provide some inspiration and ideas of what to include in our music video.

I found that there were five main purposed to a music video:

1.) To sell the song in a memorable way, in a way that the audience will remember it.

2.) If the video is narrative, it will give the audience a better understanding of the lyrics.

3.) To entertain ( perhaps link to the uses and gratifications theory ) - this is an opportunity for the artist to show off any other talents which they may have including dancing or acting.

4.) Creating a memorable music video increases its chances of selling and therefore a music video is an opportunity to sell the song and the single/album.

5.) To get the artist known is the last purpose of a music video - to raise their profile.

Although these are the main factors of a music video, some people would however argue that the only reason for a music video is promotion. The visual is an opportunity to sell the artist and the song and serves no other purpose.

An example of a successful music video which totally sold the artist and the song is Gangnam Style:

I researched some facts from the music video release and this is what I found -

-The first online video to received 2.5 billion views so far on YouTube

-The music video won best video at MTV Europe Music Awards

-Social networking held responsible for making the video popular on such an incredible scale

-Led to possible collaboration opportunities for PSY with other artists e.g. Justin Bieber

-Caused the share price of the record company to increase by 568.8%

The video was extremely successful and raised the artists profile in just weeks from unknown to being worldwide famous and recognised due to the humorous and unusual not to mention, memorable music video.