MTV vs Viral

MTV (Music Television), launched on 1st August 1981,  is a TV channel that specializes in showing music videos from the past and brand new songs that have only been released from a range of artists all over the world. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys,". In its early years, MTV's main target demographic were young adults, but today, MTV's programming is primarily targeted at adolescent and teenagers in addition to young adults.

Meanwhile viral is used to describe a music video or any video that becomes popular often through internet sharing, social media and email, along with word of mouth. This allows the artist and director of the video to become more recognized, and successful as a result of their video becoming viral, leaving the fans wanting more. Websites like Youtube and social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter are key ti making a video become viral, however TV shows that promote music videos also contribute to a video becoming viral.

Adavntages Of Promos For Sales

The main benefit of a music video to the artist and record company is of promoting their music. When a video accompanies a song, the exposure of the single will automatically double. This is because while the song can only be played on the radio and audio only Internet services, such as iTunes, having an accompanying video means the song will also be played on sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, as well as music television channels like 4music, The Box, Viva and MTV. Also, companies are aware that many consumers are more likely to share a video than an audio file, to talk about a video, and spread the song’s influence by word of mouth. For an artist this could mean more recognition, as a visual medium widens the possible scope of their creative ‘vision’, allowing them to get their message or self image across with more power. This benefits the sales of the song, as more people will be aware of the record through websites like Youtube and on TV, which will make them want to buy the song generating more sales and money. For a record company, the music video gives them the opportunity to include product placements and earn more revenue in the form of sponsorship through company's paying to have their product in a video with a popular artist.

Analysis Of Music Videos

I would grade this music video a very high grade because it has been edited to a high level. This is clear from the speed of the cuts, which vary in pace in order to match the speed of the music. For example, at the beginning the pace of the cuts were very slow, to match the slow start to the song, but by 3:21, the length of each clip was around half a second. This is a very difficult thing to implement into a music video, and the fact that they did this so well, further enhances the high grade that I would give this video. There are also a range of editing transitions throughout the video, such as fades, hard cuts and dissolve effects, which prove to be effective, in making the video flow and not look jaggered, which would make the video stand out from the music, which defies the point of a music video.

The video is also shot in black and white, which makes the video look really clear, and puts emphasis on the characters in the video. This is crucial to this type of video as it aims to tell a story through the characters, and if the audience can not relate to the characters, then the music video does not really work. However, I feel that the main reason that the video has be filmed in black and white is because it sets the emotions that are felt through the song, which are sad and depressing. These emotions are portrayed through the use of black and white as it represents that there is no happiness (colour) left in the world, which makes it the ideal way of filming the video.

The video is also filmed in a range of locations such as a forest, town center and several rooms of a house. This is enough locations to stop the audience getting bored of the same location, but also not too many, that the audience does not get overwhelmed, with the amount of locations used that it becomes confusing. this therefore makes the video of a high quality, as most people can be tempted to film in either too many or too few locations, which can ruin the video.

The lip synch is also very good throughout the video, which is key to ensuring that the video looks believable that she is singing the song. If the lip synch was bad, then the video would not look that appealing, and it will make the audience feel that the video is not related to the song.

Grading Of A Music Video

I would grade this music video a very high grade because it has been edited to a high level. This is clear from the speed of the cuts, which vary in pace in order to match the speed of the music. For example, at the beginning the pace of the cuts were very slow, to match the slow start to the song, but by 3:21, the length of each clip was around half a second. This is a very difficult thing to implement into a music video, and the fact that they did this so well, further enhances the high grade that I would give this video.

Defintion Of A Music Video

A Music Video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back even further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV’s format was based solely around them

Must Do's For Music Videos

This is what I need to do in order to make a music promo as good as possible.

Copy of letter to artist or record label must be on blog with their response to it.

Lipsync – you are graded on accurate lip sync

Know your lyrics and sing along

Performance – believable

Vowels – mouth movement

Play the song so it can be heard on camera (recorded) as well as by ARTIST

x1 ‘BASE TRACK’ is an absolute must ie sing through whole track at least once

Editing to markers is a MUST/alignment of tracks – research how to do this

Different shot angles

Keep locations straight forward – 4 maximum

Keep x2 weekends free to get promos shot

No sound tracks with DRUGS or SWEARING.

No more than 3minutes long

Editing to the beat of the music – this is what editing markers are for.

Use a genre that is clearly identifiable

Faster paced music will require more shots/slower paced music less – keep your idea simple – the simpler the better.

Must Do's For Music Videos - Copyright

•Examiner's report, I definitely need to get artist's permission:

For music videos, permission should be sought from the artist for use of the audio track. Where this was breached, centres either didn’t comment on the use of a found song, or acknowledged its use but did not reflect it in the marks allocated.

 In these cases significant adjustments were made to construction marks which potentially puts in danger the order of merit, thereby affecting the outcomes for those candidates who had followed the requirements of the Specification; such a situation may also result in all work being returned to the centre for remarking.


This is an example of a copyright letter that I will send to the people who hold the rights to the music.