Research and Planning: Music Video Research

Ok Go - This too shall pass.
Goodwin suggests that the visuals in music videos represent the music, a video that follows this suggestion is Ok Go's This too shall pass. In this music video the visuals represent the style of the music, it's quirky, upbeat and colourful, the video shows a chain reaction starting with dominios causing other random everyday objects to fall and carry the chain on. The images work well with the music; often throughout the video objects move in time with the beat. The colour scheme is bright, bold and colourful which represents the style of music.


OkGo have become famous for their unusual music videos, this has overtook their music and become their main selling point, making them a huge youtube hit. This video shows that the stars are slightly strange and unusual as it ends with them being shot with giant paint guns, however this endears them to the audience because it shows them as fun and  willing to have a joke.

The video uses everyday objects to create something amazing and unusual, this makes it much more enjoyable to watch, the audience is captivated because it is clever and inventive. This video is one continuous shot, although this is unusual for a music video, it works very well in this video because there is so many different things happening the audience interest, this also means that the audience can see the process of the chain reaction, showing them that it is real and not camera tricks and editing, this makes it more impressive.

This video would generally be considered as disjunctive as the events of the video are nothing to do with the song. However it could be considered as amplifying as the events represent the style music and the band is in the video singing along to the lyrics.




Jason Mraz - Wordplay

Goodwin suggests that star image is a vital part of music videos, major labels will have lots of close ups of their star and expect them to portray a certain image. The video forms part of a broader narrative of the star persona. In this video the star is being mocked, the people are throwing rocks at him and acting as though his music is awful, this appeals the star to the audience because people perceive him as funny and willing to make fun of himself.

The general image that the star is giving off is friendly and funny, this fits in with the kind of music that he plays and the overall story of the star.


The story of this video is Jason Mraz sat by the side of a dust track playing guitar and local people walking past and throwing rocks at him, to keep video moving we don't see the crowd growing progressively bigger, they just appear, this means that the audience don't loose interest. this is punctuated by shots of the star playing with the rest of his band, this helps keep the video interesting, so it's not all one shot or one part of a story and doesn't become boring.