Music You Can See

I had to analyze a music video for one of my other classes so I watched quite a few to find the one I wanted to write about. It was interesting to see the huge variety of music videos behind all these different artists. It got me thinking about what the purpose of music videos are and their place in the media world.

It seems like when a new song is released, everyone is listening to it. Your friends ask you if you've heard such-and-such song and if you haven't they immediately find it so you can listen to it. After the novelty of a song wears off the artist releases the music video to make their popularity last a little longer. As I thought more about the significance of music videos I decided that that it is the artist's (or the producer's) interpretation of the song. Music videos let the public see the inspiration for the song or a specific representation.

I think it would be fun to discuss music videos in a classroom and see why the students like them. The teacher could ask the students some of the music videos they have seen in the past month. The class could discuss the specific likes and dislikes of music videos in general. The teacher can get more specific by asking what kinds of music videos are liked by the students. The teacher could choose a "safe" music video and have the class analyze it. The teacher could ask about editing, picture choice, and portrayal of the band. This discussion could be quite interesting and many points of view could be seen.