Genre Research - Music Videos

As part of genre research, I found some music videos which fit the chosen music genre and included them here to analyse.

The first music video, 'Breathe' by Borgeous follows the artist whilst on tour performing at different venues and clubs, including Dreamland festival. I picked this music video because it shows real-life performances and thus, the kind of people in the audience, how they are dressed and the venues which artists perform in. The venues which feature in the video are always lit with bright, colourful and often strobe lighting though the venue itself is fairly dark, similar to a clubbing environment. Generally, the audience are quite young, usually twenties, and are dressed in 'clubbing' outfits or just casual, fashionable clothing. Often in the darker venues, they wear bright, fluorescent clothing so that they stand out. The video itself is very fast-paced with a lot of flashing lights and transitions as it is intended to emulate the clubbing environment. This gives us a good idea of the kind of things to include within our magazine, what colour schemes and images we should consider including, and who we should be aiming it at.

This second music video is done in a similar fashion to the previous one. The track is 'BFAM' by Martin Garrix and Julian Jordan. It, again, follows the young artists on their travels to perform in Ibiza, including clips of them at the airport, on the plane and in their hotel all the while incorporating clips of them performing live in various venues and clubs. I chose this video because of the Ibiza setting, which is a little bit different to that of the previous music video. Ibiza is renowned for its clubs, and clubs are renowned for playing electronic dance and house music. The audience are young, around their twenties and dressed in bright, often fluorescent clubbing outfits. Usually these outfits are very minimal due to Ibiza being a hot country and, undoubtedly, the venues themselves being quite hot due to the amount of people dancing in one small space. Just like in the previous music video there are bright, colourful lights and fast-paced editing. The audience and DJs are dancing throughout, also reflecting the fast-paced atmosphere of clubs.

The third music video is 'Toulouse' by Nicky Romero which is very popular with over 183 million views on YouTube. The music video is in a very different style to the previous two music videos as it (somewhat) tells a story. All the people who feature in the video are approximately in their twenties, dressed in quite casual outfits suitable of their age which reflects the general audience of EDM and house quite well. The setting is urban which, again, reflects the EDM and house audience well as I have found through conducting research into reader profiles that the majority of people who read magazines based around that music genre tend to come from urban areas and live in cities. Finally, the masks which are featured in the video are Guy Fawkes masks, however are more commonly associated with the online activist group 'Anonymous' who are anti-cyber-surveillance and censorship. This links well with the EDM and house genres as they are generally distributed online, thus, the general audience are more likely to be associated with the organisation.

Lastly, I have included the Tomorrowland 2014 Aftermovie. Though it is technically not a music video in itself, it is a short film summing up the Tomorrowland festival weekend and so includes some very useful information about the audience of EDM and house music. Almost all of them are evidently in their twenties and are dressed in fashionable summer clothing suitable for a festival. There appears to be an almost equal divide of men and women who attended, though it is still a predominantly male audience. The artists which perform in the video such as Avicii, Martin Garrix, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Alesso are some good examples of artists which I could include as feature stories within the magazine in order to grab the attention of readers. Lastly, the mise-en-scène of the whole festival (generally bright colours and lights and a dream-like atmosphere) gives some good pointers to general themes and colour schemes for my magazine.