Miss Miller- What is a music video ?

What is a music video ?     

By Benjamin Yarwood

A music video is a short film in which music and video is put together to promote the artist and to entertain the audience watching it, there are many reasons why a music video is made alongside the song. The main reason for a music video is to make the song memorable and to get a reaction from the audience. This will help the sales of the song and keep it in the charts as long as possible which will make the record company more money as it will still be prominent in music. Secondly the video is for marketing purposes, in that the video sells the artist and the lifestyle of the artist to the audience, this can be for both positive and negative things such as drinking and smoking or friends and relationships. This will also help increase the amount of money made by the record company and artist as fans want to be like the artist so will buy the artists merchandise. The video also helps the narrative of the song and lyrics, many songs will have a story and it may be hard to follow with just the music and no visual help. If there is just music then it would also be harder for the listeners to connect with the lyrics as with visual help it can connect both and present it to the audience. All these factors are just part of promoting the artist and the song to the listeners which is meant to increase the sales of the music, which would make more money.

The music video which I have looked at is Arabella by the Arctic Monkeys, the Arctic Monkeys are a English indie rock band who formed in 2002 in Sheffield. The band consists of Alex Turner as lead singer,Jamie Cook on guitar,Nick O'Malley on bass guitar and Matt Helders on drums. They have released 5 albums, the first album being the fastest selling British Album of all time, Arabella is part of their 5th album which is called AM.

Throughout the music video of Arabella the imagery matches the genre of the music they play. The Artic Monkeys being part of the indie rock genre normally have a part performance part narrative based music video. This is the case with Arabella with it being half performance half narrative. Indie rock is a genre of music where independent bands work with independent record companies.  Through the music video we can see the ways in which the indie rock genre presents itself and wants its fans to see the artist. It does this in ways such as partying through  mise en scene specifically iconography with the smoking,drinking,drugs and women that are stereotyped to be involved. This is the indie mentality of doing whatever you want and being free and not being held down by anybody which comes in the form of doing illegal things.Furthermore we can see that the indie rock genre is focused about doing what you want to do. We can see this through the mise en scene with individual clothing style and the tattoos, this is showing that they do what they want and don't care about what other people think. This reinforces the stereotype that indie rock music is about not caring about other opinions.

Another way that the music video Arabella is conforming to the convection is through the way women are presented as being objectified and as promiscuous. This is common in indie rock as men are often portrayed as more powerful than women which can be seen throughout this music video in many ways. For example with cinematography of a high angle when the woman is laying in her back topless surrounded by men it puts her in a vulnerable position when compared to the men standing. This shows how women are stereotypical  objectified in indie rock videos. Another way we can see this through mise en scene of costume in that the woman is always seen in  provocative clothing. This is showing how she in a way which to men makes her seem like an object as we can see in the video. She seems to be enjoying the extra attention she is getting in dressing more provocative.Overall the stereotype of women being objectified in indie rock videos is underpinned in this music video.

 The music video is in connection with the genre of Indie rock in many ways. One way they show genre is through the party lifestyle that the artist has and the activities that happen in the video. For example in the video they are smoking,drinking and taking drugs and we can see this through cinematography of a close up of a man holding a marijuana cigarette. This is promoting the artists lifestyle of taking drugs and drinking which helps the fans of the band buy into the lifestyle of the Arctic Monkeys.  As the artists fans buy into there lifestyle they will buy more music and products endorsed by the artist. This will make the record company and artist more money. This completely fits into the genre of indie rock which is having a good time and doing what you want. The illegal activities also put across across the idea that the people in indie rock can do what they want and are unfazed by others opinions on them.

The last way we can tell this is a conventional indie rock music video is through the way that the whole video is shot in black and white, This is continuous and does not show anything in colour, this could have many reasons and meaning for doing it. One thing that it could be is that it differentiates it from other music videos which have vibrant colours and could be a way that the band makes itself separate from other bands. Another reason could be that it is common with Arctic Monkeys videos and is one way in which they can help an audience identify there videos from other bands. Both of these points clearly show how using black and white the Arctic Monkeys have made themselves different from other bands which shows they are independent.

The target audience for this video is much older than many other mainstream videos, this is due to the things which are shown in the video which means that the target audience may have a range of 16 to 30. For example there is alcohol being consumed and cigarettes being smoked throughout the video, these are very adult activities which should not be copied by younger audiences. Furthermore if a child was to see this video they would see a positive image to drinking and smoking in a party environment, which may encourage them to do it. Additionally  there are images of naked women in the video which may be inappropriate for younger audiences. It appeals to an older target audience however with many things , such as a party environment in a gouse with lots of people having a good time which makes it more relatable to the audience. Furthermore they are having a good time drinking and dancing makes it more appealing as the audience to watch as they have a positive image of the party. It also appeals to them in the way that there are women being promiscuous which would also appeal to the adult target market which they are aiming at with this video.


Overall the music video that the Arctic Monkeys is very conventional to the indie rock genre and has connections in many ways. Some of the ways that it does this is its way of objectifying women, wearing individual clothing, illegal activities such as drugs and it being in black and white. All of these ways underpin the stereotypical indie rock music video.