Ed Sheeran - A team

The colouring of the video A team straight away gives off the essence of class and trendiness, this is in contrast to the actual character in the video as she is in the low end of society. The lyrics also suggest that she is of an upper class as it says "They say shes in the class A team" this lyric has a dual meaning as she is a pretty woman and the city that is shown in is upper class, but she is a prostitute that takes A class drugs which relates to the phrase 'A team.'

Prostitution is the main theme highlighted within the video and the handheld camera recording the girl makes it seem as if the viewer is there which helps the audience understand what their life is like. The still camera watching the girl sell "Big Issue" on the street is shot in fast motion and is metaphorical for the world passing her by as she is still stuck on the street. The fact that the girl is selling "Big Issue" is very important for the audience as people always see these homeless on the street and essentially gives the reader an insight to the life behind the homeless.
There is a shot of her at Angel train station which is ironic as she is a beautiful girl but does sinful things to survive, at the same time she is looking at flowers on the street which are unnatainable. This explains how she is desperate to 'blossom' and be in the light, but her financial status doesnt allow her to do so as she has to resort to prostitution.
From a feminist point of view this video would create a bad image of men as it shows how mens sexual desire drives them to treat women as sexual objects. The artist on the other hand is the positive character and essentially puts him in a positive light as he sits down and comforts the woman. These shots of him talking to the girl and caring about her presents him as a positive person and wuold be seen as a good role model for young men.
Marxist theorists would be able to see this negative lifestyle and relate it to the girls economic state. I personally agree with the response a marxist would have which would be that no matter what somebodies financial status is, they should never have to result to self harm or in any sense or form put themselves at the hand of others.

Plan B Music Video Generic Analysis

http://youtu.be/ByvQ8ExmXq0

The music video Plan B – Mama is a narrative explaining the relationship that the artist’s mother is having with a man and she is being treated badly. When the husband is in the scenes the lighting is dark and the scene appears to be in greyscale portraying his character as negative.

The song involves a guitar and a drum which would really give off the impression that the song is of an Indie Genre. As the artist starts to rap and the drums turn into a Skippy beat we can quickly identify the hip hop genre and this is parallel to the song as the clothes that the artist wears are typical youth clothing. The beginning of the video suggests that men are more powerful than women, the actual position of the characters explain this as she is cooking and the man is in a vest on the table. The relaxed nature of the man with his back turned can denote how there is no equality in the relationship and explains the negative relationship. Other critics could denote hints of racism within the lyrics as he sings “Its so black and white” which is ironic as the couple are contrasting races which could suggest that these kind of multicultural relationships don’t work due to contrasting views. The quick cuts are metaphorical as they separate the scenes (couple) and emphasise the severity of the situation. These cuts go from the couple, then to the artist (child) and then back to the couple. This has been edited in a way that emphasises how the child is in-between the relationship and is slowly being pushed out as the man treats her badly.

Goodwin's Theory

Goodwin -"Dancing In The Distraction Factory"-Music video demonstrates genre characteristics
-There are relationships between lyrics and visuals
-Relationships between music and visuals
-Demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists and may develop motifs which recur through their work
-Frequently reference to notion of looking in particular at the treatment of the female body (reference to voyeurism, the idea of pleasure of looking)
-There is often an intertextual reference post modernist perspective (relying on cultural knowledge)

Generic Elements of the Product

The way that the artists are seen is extremely important in a music video. The song can show how the artists are in person and explain the meaning behind the song.
Rap songs for example would usually go with the stereotypical nature of hip hop and would use materialistic items such as lots of money and nice cars and be shown in a wide shot ect to emhpasise the amount of items that they posess.

Definitions

Genre is essentially the way in which a text is put together (constructed). This can be important, for example, when distinguishing between a horror movie and a thriller, which can deal with similar subjectmatter, and look the same — lots of action set at night — but belong to separate genres (a horror film takes the audience into a supernatural place, where a thriller sticks to reality).
A media text is said to belong to a genre, as it adopts the codes and conventions of other texts in that genre, and lives up to the same expectations. Texts from different mediums may belong to the same genre (e.g. a tv programme like Dr Who and a comicbook like The Incredible Hulk can both be categorised as Science Fiction.)
By definition, all media texts are re-presentations of reality. This means that they are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are entirely artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us. When studying the media it is vital to remember this - every media form, from a home video to a glossy magazine, is a representation of someone's concept of existence, codified into a series of signs and symbols which can be read by an audience. However, it is important to note that without the media, our perception of reality would be very limited, and that we, as an audience, need these artificial texts to mediate our view of the world, in other words we need the media to make sense of reality. Therefore representation is a fluid, two-way process: producers position a text somewhere in relation to reality and audiences assess a text on its relationship to reality.
A text is classified in a genre through the identification of key elements which occur in that text and in others of the same genre. These elements may be referred to as paradigms.
Audiences will expect a certain happening within the text by seeing what genre it is. If somebody wants to expect being scared and being thrilled they are not likely to buy a love story.

Development Of the Medium

Music videos have progressed so much since their kickstart but they were not the type of music video you would automatically think of. In the 1930's the term "Music Video" wasnt used yet and their was cartoons made by walt disney with text at the bottom which was essentially Kareoke. This 'Kareoke' was called 'Screen Songs' and was nowhere near as entertaining as the music videos that we have now. Thanks to technology we have been able to do so many things with video's and new levels can be reached, also ways in which artists can prommote their product have reached new levels as sites such as Youtube and Myspace can spread the video's viral.

Conventions Of the Product

A music video essentially an insight into the lyrics and portrays the artist in a certain way which puts them in a positive light. The majority of Music Video's contain a narrative or storyline which is paralel to the song and exposes the meaning behind the lyrics. The way in which the video is shot also resembles how the artists are shown, for example the camera angles could be POV style ect and can all resemble different things.