Analyzing a music video

1. Analyzing a music Video
I am going to analyze music videos that come
from the genre of Jpop

2. According to Andrew Goodwin There are 5 aspects in a
music video in which the audience should look out for.
They are as followed:
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Thought beats – Seeing the sound
Narrative and Performance
The Star Image
Relation of Visuals to Song
Technical Aspects of Music Video

3. Narrative sounds
The structure:
In the traditional Japanese view of music theory, the music should assist the lyrics. In older Japanese songs,
the melody repeats less often than in Western music. In many cases Western music repeat sections like the
verse and chorus. The traditional Japanese music may have lyrics that do not repeat at all, so often
Japanese composers wrote poems and composed music to fit the lyrics. However modern music such as
Jpop (Japanese pop) and Jrock (Japanese rock)who are influenced by western music have adapted to
repeat sections. On the basis that it is more flexible and appealing to the younger generation.
The artist voice:
The Japanese's Jpop groups have roles for each
member, if the group size varies between 5-7.
However there are groups that have to 90+ members,
this means that most of the members are dancers,
while a couple of the members are appointed as
vocalist. Such as “E- girls "In this group only 5 girls sing,
while the others dance, however it does not mean that
the dancers do not get any screen time, but it just
means the singers just get slightly more screen time
than the dancers. Each singer has a different tone of
voice, which makes it easier to deduce who is singing.

4. Narrative and performance
Generally in a Jpop music video the lyrics does the narrating, while the actual music video aims for
the audience to enjoy the music, rather than getting emotional. Which is why many music videos get
a dance version and a music video version or the dancing, acting or singing is merged in to one music
video. Moreover for promotional purposes many songs may have a Japanese version and another
version with another language such as Korean or Chinese, a group that does so is SNSD (girls
generation) who promote in Japan as well Korea their song Run Devil Run is a great example:
Japanese Version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJReD9chwFk and Korean version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_gfD3nvh-8
As per for performance various of these music videos like to portray a cheerful side of the
world rather than the unfortunate side of the world. This means that a lot of the close ups
are of the artist smiling. Furthermore it is important to state that Jpop songs are songs
that are danceable, which means that nearly all of their songs will have a form of dance,
that the audience can learn or follow.
A scene from Candy smile by E girls

5. The star image
The main focus of a Jpop music video for women is to look cute, funky but attractive than to
look sexually attractive. But for men to take on a masculine roles. This can be because overall
people in Japan prefer women who are attractive in a cute way rather than in a sexual manner.
Therefore it leads to the women wearing not too much revealing clothes, but there are some
body parts for women that are revealed like the legs, arms and stomach, other than this other
parts are covered.
People in Japan prefer males who are attractive in a manlier way. However this does not mean that
they are racist to those who are more feminine, to the point that in Jrock many male artist wear
heavy makeup. what is interesting is that it is different for male artist, as they can reveal as much as
they want. However in Jpop since the audience is of young teenagers they are limited to only
showing their upper body, apart from that they are restricted.
E girls album cover
2pm album cover

6. Relation of Visuals to song
Since in the genre Jpop the main target for women is to look and act cute, which means that
the main focus is on the lead actors point of view and it is the same in a male artists video, but
with a more masculine feeling. Most of the music videos use the lyrics and pick out a scene
that translated the lyric being sang at that moment, this does not happen regularly because as
we know dancing is a very important part of a Jpop video. Another point to make is that when
the singer is synching in the video the word or phrase would either be extremely emotional or
extremely joyful. The reason for this maybe because the little time have for close ups must
have an effect, so by using important phrases will add the effect along with the singers facial
expression. An example would be :
Her she is saying “your
crazy” so by pointing at
camera and showing a
cunning expression she
is translating the lyric as
a visual. Scene from
SNSD “I got a boy”

7. Technical Aspects of Music Video
In his theory, Goodwin also considered the technical aspects of a music video that help to
keep the entire music video looking professional. Using different types of camera shots it is
keeping the music video innovative. The usual camera shots used is the close up and long
shots.
Out of the camera shots the most used is long shots, because generally there are many members in
Jpop group, so by using long shots they are fitting in all of the members. In addition most of the
members are the dancers, in order to show the dance moves long shots are necessary. A very
important aspect when the artist are dancing is their formation, in my opinion Jpop artist have the
most original formation. Which is why the cameramen use long shots to show these like:
Generations “Brave it out”
SNSD “I got a boy”

8. Technical Aspects of Music Video
The least used shot is close up, as I have explained before the focal point in Jpop music videos is
the dancing and the originality of the music video. This means that most of the time is used up
by the long shots. It may seem unfair to those who sing and get very little screen time, however
in a live performance it is the opposite, which balances the screen time out. Moreover when
there is a close up it is the artist face completely in front of the camera, so the music video gives
full view of how the artist is looking in their new music video. Like this:
Sunny from SNSD “I got a boy”
Jimin from BTS “Bulletproof”