Assuagement: Purpose of Music Videos

The purpose of all music videos is to promote a particular ambition. For example, an artist's purpose for releasing a music video can be for the promotion of the particular song, promotion of the artist's album, promotion of a new artist or promotion of an artist's change in musical direction or image, for the promotion of and synergy with another media product, can also be to increase the income for the record company and an artist can also release a music video for the intention of increasing the range of media artist is active in.

1. Promotion of a Particular Song

Firstly, when promoting a particular song, an artist should be able to know how a single is released. This can be established by registering a release then it's essential to register it for the official charts. Afterwards, before the product is registered, you would need to make sure your release complies with the UK's Official 'Chart Rules'. Then, the artist would need to make sure it is being sold through a chart reporting retailer; that's before the artist's release is registered and they are sure that it's going to be eligible for the charts.

Additionally, an artist can use several ways of promoting their music video, for example: they can use famous people; products that symbolize the record company or the artist's characteristics. Beyoncé dropped a new single and its accompanying music video a day before her scheduled Super Bowl halftime performance. Beyoncé promoted her single "Formation" in the Half Time Super Bowel 50, which had 30,278,209 views on YouTube, creating much awareness. Formation came as a surprise to fans when Beyoncé posted the song on her YouTube page on Saturday and made it available for free download on Tidal. 

The singer's daughter, Blue Ivy, also makes an appearance multiple times throughout the politically-charged, New Orleans-set video. The above image is a long wide shot of Blue Ivy - this is done as a flashback of Beyonce's childhood. It begins with Beyoncé on top of a police car in a flooded street and later cuts to a man holding a newspaper with Martin Luther King Jr.'s face on it with the title "The Truth." Later on, a young hooded black boy dances in front of a line of SWAT officers before the video cuts to a graphitized wall with the words "stop shooting us" tagged on it. The music video "Formation" has become the most political message she's shared - making powerful images of black culture pride, tragedy, resilience and oppression. Additionally the video makes two implicit references to law enforcement, which are: Hurricane Katrina and police shootings. Jenna Wortham summed it up best in The New York Times: "'Formation' isn't just about police brutality — it's about the entirety of the black experience in America in 2016, which includes standards of beauty, (dis)empowerment, culture and the shared parts of our history."

Stone, N. (2016) Beyonce drops new ‘formation’ single, music video. Available at: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/6867195/beyonce-formation-video (Accessed: 29 September 2016).

Caramanica, J., Morris, W. and Wortham, J. (2016) Beyoncé in ‘formation’: Entertainer, activist, Both? Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/arts/music/beyonce-formation-super-bowl-video.html (Accessed: 29 September 2016).

Getting into the charts - releasing your music (2016) Available at: http://www.officialcharts.com/getting-into-the-charts/releasing-your-music/ (Accessed: 4 October 2016).
2. Promotion of the Artist's Album

"Work" is a song recorded by Barbadian singer Rihanna  for her eighth studio album, Anti(2016), featuring Canadian rapper Drake, the song was released as the lead single from Anti on January 27, 2016 through Westbury Road and Roc Nation. Rihanna dropped “Work” Wednesday morning to the delight of millions of fans. The track, which is a collaboration with Drake, appeared on Rihanna's album Anti. Two music videos were released for the single; the first was directed by Director X who had previously worked with Rihanna on her debut video Pon de Replay while the second was directed by Tim Erem. 

The imagery above illustrates the chemistry between Drake and Rihanna is in the music video and how explicit it also is.Filming of the first accompanying music video took place at the Real Jerk restaurant in Toronto on February 5th Director X stated that when filming the video they wanted to make it look like they were in a West Indian neighbourhood, in a West Indian restaurant "but also you can throw a party in it." 

The close up shot above with Rihanna resting on Drake's sholder shows how intense the scenes are. Additionally, the difference between the first and second music video is the change of couler in the setting (1st video was more darker in a night club; also portarying Rihannah;s background/ roots, whilst the second video is only of Drake and Rihanna on a pink set - with things heating up between them.The second video for the single directed by Tim Erem was discussed between the director, Rihanna and Drake - they were attempting to come up with ideas to add a tropical vibe to their already existing footage. Eventually, they came up with the idea of shooting a video in a whole pink room. People are really enjoying the club hit. And like any club hit, one question keeps coming up: what do Rihanna's lyrics mean. The song is catchy, emotional, and relatable. Rihanna's single 'Work' is about working for a pay check no matter what else is going on in your life. It is also, of course, designed to get her that pay check. You might call the way it goes about attaining this goal brazen for anyone else but Rihanna: Tempting accusations of boringness, hacking, and crimes against art, the song offers a hook that practically parodies pop’s love of repetition—and then repeats it, a lot. But there’s something fascinating about the tune, something that elevates it beyond ringtone status. It doesn’t really go anywhere. It approximates what work feels like. 97% of Americans in 2016 still listen to music on the radio. Releasing song as a single, is the only way to get your song in the radio. Furthermore, there's a process: release a single that climbs into the Top 40 on radio play and streaming, drop a music video that (ideally) goes viral and gets hundreds of millions of views, then pass go and collect your pay check. In some ways, Rihanna is following this process. It’s almost exactly what she did to promote “Work.” The song has been sitting at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for five solid weeks, that promotion worked so well.

Hamblin, J., Kornhaber, S., Editors, T., Subramanian, S., McArdle, M., Green, E., Sims, D., Ford, M., Wagner, A., Ball, M., LaFrance, A., Fallows, J., Ajaka, N., Pollock, N. and Skurie, J. (2016) Why Rihanna’s ‘work’ works so well. Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/01/work-work-work-work-work-rihanna-drake-single-review-anti/431532/ (Accessed: 7 October 2016).

3. Promotion of a New Artist

'Supper bass' is a track from the deluxe edition of Pink Friday (2010). As portrayed above as a long wide length shot, "'Super Bass' is about the boy that you are crushing over," she said. "And you kind of want to get your mack on, but you're taking the playful approach." Additionally, After Taylor Swift stated that she's a fan of the song and played the track on air, Minaj indicated that the country star's unsolicited promotion of the track influenced the decision to release it as a single. Furthermore, "Super Bass" was selected by the editors of Billboard magazine as their best song of 2011. "Pop's perfect storm in 2011, and the song that (rightfully) made Nicki a star," they said. The song became an international top ten hit. In its seventh week on the Billboard Hot 100, the song had peaked at number 10, making it Minaj's first top ten placement as a lead artist. The song has since climbed and peaked at number 3 on that chart. On her Twitter, Minaj stated that if she reached one million followers she would dedicate a Ustream to her fans. On August 3, 2010, Minaj went on Ustream to call fans who emailed her their phone numbers and to reveal the album's title. Later that same day, Minaj revealed on Ustream that the album's name would be Pink Friday, stating, "To carry on a great tradition of Black Friday, we are going to switch it up this year in honour of the Nicki Minaj album and call that day Pink Friday, and call my album Pink Friday!" A deluxe edition of the album was also confirmed. Minaj released the official artwork for her album cover on Friday, October 15, 2010. 

Rap-Up commented on the album cover, stating "The cover features Minaj as a doll alarmingly staring at the camera, sitting armless on the ground with her elongated legs in a flowing silver corset, pink stilettos, and a stark pink wig. Nicki Minaj has used much in colour and awkward positions, with unusual facial expressions just as she used on he single 'Supper bass'. The song's title is also used as part of the title of a UK deluxe edition of the album, called the "Super Bass edition".[Supper bass ultimately reached number one and spent 73 consecutive weeks on the hart, ultimately reached number one and spent 73 consecutive weeks on the chart - promoting Nicki Minaj' style of music direction. Gyrating atop a crystal-clear motorcycle, Nicki is clearly upping the sex appeal. The Young Money diva explained the focus behind the video: "I just wanted to do something real colourful and cutesy. This is an icy world, it's a sexy world, it's a playful world. Of course I have lots of eye candy for my girls and my boys," she teased. Her music video made her fans aware of the type of artist she is and how she wouldn't fear of displaying a bikini body image via the internet and also how diverse she is. In her video it also portrays to her new fans of the choreography they would expect from her not just in videos, but live performances too. Minaj's style of music also demonstrates to the public about women empowerment, in the sense that she would want the women around the world to believe that they can also rap like men can do - she want to set a new generation of music for women coming in the music industry.

Songfacts® (2016) Super bass by Nicki Minaj Songfacts. Available at: http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=22369 (Accessed: 4 October 2016).

4. Promotion of and Synergy with another Media Product

See You Again" is a song recorded by American rapper Wiz Khalifa, featuring American singer Charlie Puth. The track was commissioned for the soundtrack of the 2015 action film Furious 7 as a tribute to the late Paul Walker, who died in a single-vehicle accident on November 30, 2013 in Valencia, California. 

The song plays at the end of the film (as a long, birds eye view shot), when we see Vin Diesel and Paul Walker drive their separate ways. Furious 7 sees the late Paul Walker in one of his final roles (he died in a car accident in 2013), and this song closes the film as a final tribute to the late actor. This made a speedy leap from #10 to #1 on the Hot 100 the same week that the Furious 7 soundtrack jumped to the summit of the Billboard 200 albums chart. The last time a soundtrack was the #1 album while one of its songs was also at peak position on the Hot 100 was on the charts dated January 18, 2003. The over the shoulder mid shot below, portrays an image of of Paul Walker on the first franchise 'The Fast and The Furious' - this is done as a (flashback) reminder of how the main long career of Paul Walker started - showing the purpose of the whole music video and what the lyrics of the song are relating closely to. 

Producers of the film were looking for a song that would be an "earnest and celebratory" goodbye to Walker, and put out the call for demos. Charlie Puth wrote the song thinking about his friend who passed away, and envisioning Vin Diesel sending a final text message to Walker, writing, "I'll tell you all about it when I see you again." Wiz Khalifa has had the No 1 song in America for four weeks running, See You Again. A tribute to Paul Walker from the Furious 7 soundtrack, it’s a massive hit, topping charts around the world. It’s easily the biggest thing Khalifa has been a part of, probably the most-spun hip-hop track since The Monster by Eminem and Rihanna, which was also No 1 for four weeks, in late 2013 and early 2014. 

Lipshutz, J. (2015) How Wiz Khalifa’s ’see you again’ outlasted the ‘furious 7’ phenomenon. Available at: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6605085/wiz-khalifa-see-you-again-furious-7-charlie-puth-song-of-summer (Accessed: 7 October 2016).

5. Increasing the Income for the Record Company

Singers Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas launched their record label ‘Safehouse Records’ together in 2015. They have now formed a new division in collaboration with Universal Music Publishing group to create Safehouse Publishing. Glee actor and singer, Chord Overstreet is the first artist to be signed to the publishing division. Demi Lovato too has signed on as a new artist for a global publishing deal with Universal, in the intention to increase income for the record company. Confident is the fifth studio album by American singer Demi Lovato. It was released on October 16, 2015, by Hollywood, Island and Safehouse Records. The album features guest appearance from Australian rapper Iggy Azalea and American rapper Sirah, while Lovato co-wrote most of the songs on the album, and worked with writers and producers. In some ways, Confident updates the adult-contemporary album archetype for tween graduates. On her new single, “Cool for the Summer,” Demi Lovato sounds like she wants to satisfy some bi-curiosity. In Lovato's music video 'Confident' the clip features a nightclub foam party, Demi sees girl on girl action and plenty of flesh on show.

 The video opens with a long shot of Demi driving along in a car, with a group of girlfriends looking like they are about to hit a club. The singer, clad in a skimpy bondage style top, sucks suggestively on her thumb and as she sings the line ‘Don’t tell your mother.’ This illustrates to her fans that she is a bi-sexual.

The video also featured her in a car with a group of friends, demonstrates a close up shot with one of whom can be seen running her hands across Demi's body. Christina Garibaldi of MTV deemed the video "seductive, sassy and smoking' hot" and noted the video marked "a new chapter of her career, as she exudes a confidence and sexiness that we haven't seen before." Hayden Manders of  Nylon wrote that the video "doesn't disappoint, but it somewhat misses the mark" explaining "it's odd that a video for a song about same-sex experimentation features none. You'd have to listen to the lyrics to understand the underlying message of the song because the video shies away from it." New York magazine's Dee Lockett called it "the most sexually liberated video Demi's ever done to go along with its empowering message." The video surpassed 100 million views in October 2015, making it Lovato's ninth Vevo - certified clip.

DemiLovatoVEVO (2015) Demi Lovato - cool for the summer (official video). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il9nqWw9W3Y (Accessed: 4 October 2016).

6. Increasing the Range of Media an Artist is Active In: 

Jaden Smith increased the range of media he as an artist is active in - transforming from an actor to a music artist. Additionally, he achieved this by featuring in one of most popular teen singers Justin Bieber. This music video advances the range of talent Jaden Smith has, therefore increasing the popularity of him - making him on top of both music and now the music industry. Many celebrities like Jaden Smith have transformed from actors to singers and visa versa; by doing this an increase of money can be made being active in two much money making industries (acting and singing).

Furthermore, by featuring in Justin Bieber's song 'Never Say Never', Jaden Smith will be recognized more widely by Justin's fans. Jaden smith's movie 'Karate kid' also promotes song, 'Never Say Never'. This is demonstrated as a long shot in the video, with both Bieber and Smith are sat in a studio watching scenes from the movie which closely relate to the lyrics.

For example the clip below is a close shot which demonstrates emotion, and emotions displayed to illustrate the suffering of the role Jaden Smith played in the movie. In addition to this point, the video and expressions shown in both the artists are to portray to the audience of the idea of never giving up. And the reason why the emotions shown in Jaden Smith is believable and comes naturally is due to the reason of experiencing the life of an actor.

Justin Bieber: Never say never (2011) Directed by Jon M Chu Paramount Pictures.

Travers, P. (2011) Justin Bieber: Never say never. Available at: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/justin-bieber-never-say-never-20110211 (Accessed: 7 October 2016).