Artists That Have Influenced Me

The inspiration for music videos often come from the artists, I therefore felt that it would be helpful to compile and contrast 2 of my favourite artists as they often have a specific style that is consistent with their music genre seen throughout their videos.

Gabrielle Aplin

Gabrielle Aplin is an English indie/ folk artist who, despite her massive success continues to write and star in music videos which are very 'British', this is a contrast to other English singers who go to America after gaining success and their music and videos take on a very 'Hollywood - esque' feel such as in the case of Charli XCX. Aplin is therefore fairly unique as many of her videos contain shots of the countryside (like the photograph to the left, taken from her hit video ' Please Don't Say You Love Me') and focus on lights and the narrative which I connect to and believe to be effective. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxNYvk_0Onw

I particularly like the music video for Aplin's cover of Frankie Goes To Bollywood's 'The Power of Love', the video is simplistic but the use of location, artistic props; of dried flowers, stained sheet music, silk sheets and the camerawork/ angles that focus on the piano and the artist is unique and transfixing.  The use of fairy lights and candles creates an ambient feel and overall despite its simple nature it is a very well shot and carefully choreographed music video which appeals to the audience and keeps our attention, despite it being purely performance based with no narrative elements.

Demi Lovato 

Demi Lovato is a totally different kind of artist to Gabrielle Aplin. Lovato is an American pop artist who is massively popular in both the US and the UK. Lovato has had many hits in the Billboard top 100 with her albums going gold and platinum. Lovato's videos tend to be fairly simplistic in nature, (such as the photo to the right taken from her hit 'Skyscraper') and frequently conform to the generic conventions of a music video, the use of an exotic location and high key lighting/ bleaching to set the tone and series of close ups and different camera angles are typical of a music video but the lack of frequent cuts and slow pace editing gives the effect of continuity editing which is not so frequently used in music videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_8ydghbGSg

I especially enjoy Lovato's video for her hit single 'Heart Attack'. The video is slightly alternative to her ballad like songs and the accompanying videos but conforms to many of the generic conventions of the music video genre. For example, the editing of the video conforms massively given the frequent cuts to the beat of the music and fast pace which matches the tempo. The video is predominantly a performance music video but contains elements of the showcase given the alternative shots of Demi emerging from black paint, and shots of the paint on her hands which she precedes to wipe over her face - a certainly unique sequence! I particularly liked the use of mise-en-scene within the video, the contrast of black and white throughout in the costume and set of the video is extremely artistic and the effective contrast of low and high key lighting is effective in grabbing the audiences' attention.

Looking at, and researching some of my favourite artists has been extremely beneficial as I have analysed parts of their videos which I liked, I have noted techniques in terms of lighting and a consistent theme which make them so popular and I intend to mimic certain elements (such as the lighting effect of bleaching and the involvement of musical instruments in the video) of my favourite artists'  work when creating my own music video.