Music Video Research

♫♪♫♪♫♪

♫♪♫♪♫♪

We have chosen to evaluated the music genre of R&B Love Songs. We have chosen to look closely at this particular genre because it’s a genre we are beginning to look at when producing our actual music video. So we would like to evaluate these videos to help us more in producing our music video as it would give us an insight on what we will be doing. Also it will enable us to look closely on character, mise en scene, camera angles and the relevance to the music video.

“Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B and RnB, is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s.The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular.”

-Wikipedia

Many albums for R&B Love Songs have been made, some albums have been made every year, called ‘R&B Love Songs 2008’ for example, this has been done every year since about 2007.

Beyoncé- Halo

Beyoncé's Halo is a song in which she expresses her feelings towards her partner. By calling it Halo she is trying to put across that her partner is her angel and how he's everything she could of wanted and asked for. In my opinion I think that she is singing this to put across how grateful she is to have met her match, for example the line ‘I swore id never fall again, but this don’t even feel like falling’ could suggest that she has had a bad relationship in the past and she cant help but fall in love with her new lover.

This video was directed by Philip Andelman, in this video it focuses on two main characters. The slow movements by the characters contrast with the slow paced song and the many different clips slowly fade into each other, so all these features of the video really link in well and make the video look effective. Beyoncé is presented very graceful, slow and angelic like. This also contrasts with the slow paced song, and how she's singing about her new love which is so perfect to her. The main thing that struck my eye with this video is the relationship with the lyrics and the video. Everything matches up, because Beyoncé is singing about her new partner, the video is showing all of the good movements between them, such as them cuddled up on the sofa together, to them kissing on the bed and to Beyoncé's boyfriend watching her slowly dance. The lighting in the video is very light, for example when Beyoncé is with her boyfriend, the sun is shining in the window which is supporting the lyrics of the song, as it creates an angelic atmosphere, linking in with the title –Halo. Most of the shots in the song are close ups of Beyoncé, which is a very common thing within all of her music videos. This also adds to the calm peaceful atmosphere of the video by the viewer being able to embrace her beauty.

In the video there are no significant props used, everything in the video are natural things used in a household owned by a couple. As the viewer is more focused on the lyrics and Beyoncé and her boyfriends chemistry, props used such as newspapers aren’t that noticed.

Alicia Keys- No one.

No one by Alicia Keys is a song about being in love, but not just any kind of love, Alicia is singing about falling in real love and other people trying to interfere and trying to divide the two up. Overall Alicia is singing about how she knows she has fallen into ‘real love’ and that no one is going to get in the way and ruin what she has.

This video is directed by Justin Francis. The video is made up of the same scenes cutting back to one another, for example in one scene she is on her own playing the piano and in another she is in a nightclub with many people dancing in an urban style. We have an idea straight away that this is an r&b song because of her outfits in the scenes ranging from sequin dresses, jeans, jumpers and tight leather tops. The lyrics somewhat link in with the video, as Alicia is talking about her emotions and how happy she is feeling that no one can get in the way of how she is feeling, she shows this by showing that she is happy in her video, as she is singing the lyrics directly to the audience. Also the line “when the rain is pouring down” also connects to the video as she is playing the piano in the rain. Who Alicia is singing about never appears in the music video which I found unusual for this type of song, but it lets the viewer create an image in their head of who this man that Alicia is talking about and what he looks like.

The song is actually very peaceful and soulful but Alicia comes across very powerful and emotional, as if she is trying to sing a ballad which really links to the emotion in the song. The audience also focus on the piano in the song, which is the main instrument, with that throughout the song we can see close ups and shots of pianos and keyboards which contrast with the music.