looking at music videos and the industry with matt

Today we had a session in the editing suite with Matt. We had a talk about the music industry and about the differences between bands and solo artists. Matt gave us some facts and some opinions about the industry and where it's going.

He started by showing us Spotify's '50 most streamed artists of 2020'

It was evident through this list that solo artists are far more successful than bands and the bands that were still being streamed were mostly pretty old. This is due to many reasons such as:

• bands often split and the lead or a member of the band is pushed forward by the label as a solo artist
• if one person does something wrong in a band it's over for them, especially now with cancel culture
• bands are harder to create in the first place as you have to all be able to practice and perform at the same time and people are busy
• bands can be harder for record labels to sell
• they have to have a lot of personality and each of them have to be interesting or again, one of them will be pushed forward, for example, Beyonce leaving Destiny's Child

However, Where Bands do sell is at festivals, they make most of their revenue through live music. This happens because:

• Bands can create a fuller sound onstage where music artists, especially with synthesised tracks, can struggle and sound weak
• bands create a good atmosphere, connection and relationship onstage together
• live music is very enjoyable and bands often record music with a much more raw and untouched sound whereas lots of solo artists edit there voices and add loops and lots a reverb etc so can sound disappointing live in comparison to a band

We then had a look at different artist first music videos.

The first video we looked at was Dua Lipa's first video. Matt said that he felt she probably lacked personality and therefore the video leans into an utilises the fact that she looks like a model.

The video has around six sets within the whole video and each of them display her as fun, attractive, young and fashionable.

 

The video also has location shots which helps create an atmosphere and makes the artist/video seem more interesting. 

Another thing they do is have a contrast between light and dark shots which adds some depth to her character and personality, it makes her seem slightly less surface level basic.

The next artist we had a look at was Lady Gaga. She is full of personality and the video has a very different vibe to Dua's. 

Unlike with Dua Lipa, this video feels as if all of the engird stems from her rather than the set or costumes. Although there are multiple sets and stand out costumes, the video feels as if it wouldn't work for anyone but her. 

Although lots of the video is very over the top, it doesn't seem unnatural to her personality. 

She is very interesting to look at which builds interest around her. Although this is her first video it seems she has already figured out her style and aesthetic.