MUSIC VIDEOS IN THE NEWS

EMILY ROSE

TAYLOR SWIFT- LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO

Being a huge pop star, Taylor Swift has always been in the eye of millions and the media. In recent years a feud between Taylor and Kanye West has occurred. It began in 2009 at the MTV awards where Taylor Swift had won her first MTV Video Music Award but during her acceptance speech Kanye walked onto the stage and into the microphone stated that he believed Beyonce should have won. The media went crazy and this clearly wasn't appreciated.  Tension was immediately seen between the two stars. Skipping to 2016, Kanye had released his song 'Famous'. The song was controversial in itself but the line "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous" was clearly a dig at Taylor. He also released a explicit music video which contained naked celebrity wax works, including Taylor, laying in a bed. Taylor made it clear that she never gave permission for the lyric but she was shut down by Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian, who released audio and footage of Taylor agreeing to the songs lyric. Taylor faced major backlash from media and people all over the world for lying and being a 'snake'. In 2017, she has released her new song, "Look What You Made Me Do", off of what will be her sixth album. The song gained a massive response with the songs style contrasting her other work as well as the lyrics talking about the feuds she has faced, one being the situation between her and Kanye. The music video then was released which created even more attention as the high budget video represented augments, previous media headlines and a summary of Taylor's new attitude.

BTS - DNA

BTS are a seven member, South Korean boy band. They debuted in 2013 with the song "No More Dream" from their first album, 2 Cool 4 Skool, for which they won multiple New Artist of the Year awards. The band achieved being in the first-ever top 10 for a K-pop act on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Their music is catching more and more attention. Most recently in the news BTS' 'DNA' music video has drawn a mass of views. The video is colourful, energetic and full of choreography which many people are enjoying and discussing among the internet. The band is having a break through into the music of the UK and America which isn't usually seen. Not many foreign languages songs climb the charts or gain attention in masses. Despacito, for example, was Spanish but still had Justin Bieber's name to draw in the English language listeners and fans, where as BTS doesn't have anything to help them relate or be marketed initially to English speaking parts of the world. Over 50 million YouTube views were gained in under a week and now the video has over 77 million views, since being published on 18th September, 2017. The bands exposure is rapidly increasing as well as their fan base.

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SIA- ELASTIC HEART

Sia has become a huge sensation in recent years with her music reaching millions of people, climbing the charts and gaining recognition of her creative music videos. Although back in 2015 Sia released a stylistic, concept based music video for her song 'Elastic Heart'. As an idea it sounds like her other work and there doesn't sound like there would be a problem. Actor Shia Lebeouf was featured in the video with dancer Maddie Ziegler. The stylistic elements seen in the video were sadly overlooked because of the reaction over the age differences between the two. Shia, who is now at the age of 31, dancing with Maddie, who is now of the age of 15, wasn't appreciated by viewers as many stated it was perverted and unacceptable. An up roar was caused among viewers. Sia's other music videos have seen similar stylistic dances but sadly this video was taken the wrong way. After the reaction created, Sia took to twitter to apologise saying "I apologize to those who feel triggered by 'Elastic Heart.' My intention was to create some emotional content, not to upset anybody".

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CHARLI XCX - BOYS

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Charli XCX (Charlotte Emma Aitchison) has been in the top charts multiple times through the last couple of years with her singles 'Boom Clap' and most recently, 'Boys'. The song 'Boys' was written and produced by Jerker Hansson. Charli didn't write the song but she said "As soon as I heard it I completely recognised that it was a really great pop song, but mainly it was because I had a really good idea for the video". The music video ,which she directed, has around 60 male celebrities all doing "things that women are usually stereotypically doing in music videos". For example Oli Sykes, who is an English musician, best know as the lead vocalist from the band Bring Me The Horizon, is in the video and is filmed laying down on a red duevt, whilst looking into the camera. Often females in music videos are objectified by the camera and are for the purpose of the male gaze. This is were the camera films for male pleasure and from the masculine and heterosexual point of view. Charli clearly switched this around with all of the male celebrities, like Oli Sykes, being objectified and filmed in this romanticised way instead.

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BEYONCE- FREEDOM

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Being an extremely well know celebrity and musician, Beyonce is looked up to and is seen as an inspiration to many. She is a huge success. winning around 299 awards through her career. In previous music videos, she has also addressed other issues women are facing, an example in her 'Pretty Hurts' song and music video.  For International Day of the Girl, she and British director MJ Delaney created a music video for her song 'Freedom'. Through the video music young girls are seen lip syncing and dancing with powerful and strong facial expressions. The video made it into the news as the subject is a powerful matter and the fact that Beyonce is such a big name, fans of hers and people from around the world would have watched it and discussed it. The music video is inspiring in itself and would have helped women to feel empowered

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Music videos are created often with a purpose to grab attention and allow an artist to get noticed. Judging by the music videos now a days, a lot of them do revolve around some sort of controversy or unique selling point. Sia's music videos are the clearest examples here as she makes sure that the music videos always channel some sort of 'weirdness' through movement and dance. They stand out from the majority of other music videos which in any type of creative business, pulls more people in. From big artists, such as Beyonce and Taylor Swift, a controversial music video isn't as important but the high budget and interesting visuals/ story telling draw in masses of fans and always seems to help the artist grab media attention. Artists are always determined to produce a music video that is different and will allow them more publicity. The online world is obviously massive and visuals are considered very important so artists are determined to stay on board with their audience by creating visuals to match their name and brand. Music videos can also make people invest in certain music more than they would have other wise, meaning that musicians wouldn't pass this creative opportunity to create a intriguing music video and bring more viewers in.