WEB 2.0 LYRIC VIDEO Bring Me The Horizon example

See also:http://loudwire.com/starset-360-degree-ricochet-lyric-video/
http://www.metrolyrics.com/lyric-videos.html
Are Coldplay and Justin Bieber's fan-made music videos just cheap marketing ploys?

The idea long predates the digital age: (I see 351studio, a specialist producer of lyric videos, also cite this!)

This is a topic I've blogged on previously, looking at Anthrax and Jane's Addiction examples. I quite likely haven't tagged additional posts that reference this phenomenon.

When creating your own simulacra of existing artists (typically but not always the case - Sunburnt in December being a fine example of a student group that professionally recorded their own band) you need to be closely examining how they, and the industry more generally, seeks to engage with audiences.

The lyric video is one such means. This emerged as and remains a popular form of UGC or fan-made video, but more recently many artists (or their record labels!) have been adding and heavily promoting their own lyric videos. The attraction is obvious - production costs are minimal; providing the lyrics can boost concert atmosphere; the official lyric video can help spark further UGC efforts, whilst pushing traffic to the official YT channel.

Here's a BMTH example, reflecting 1 of 2 common approaches: white text on a black background, though they have both animated the text (something you can do in FCPX using keyframing and/or Motion) and the band's logo (using 1 ore more still images as a backdrop - often the album cover - is the other common approach).



This simple video has been a useful revenue driver for the act/their label, with approaching 32m views as of Jan 2017:

Indeed, an interesting reflection on the nature of music video consumption in our converged age, the lyric video has x7 the views of the actual main promo vid!

The Wiki on the term focuses on music videos which put the lyrics on screen, a different concept to the overlaying of typed lyrics on (usually) still images, but notes that the lyric video often precedes the release of the main promo vid:

A lyric video is one in which the words to the song are the main element of the video. The music video for R.E.M.'s "Fall On Me" interspersed the song's lyrics with abstract film footage. In 1987, Prince released a video for his song "Sign o' the Times". The video featured the song's words pulsing to the music presented along with abstract geometric shapes; an effect created by Bill Konersman.^[55][56]
In 1990 George Michael released "Praying For Time" as a lyric video. He had refused to make a traditional music video, so his label released a simple clip that displayed the song's lyrics on a black screen.^[57]
A lyric video may be released separately by a music label prior to the more usual video featuring the artist. Cee Lo Green, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Muse, Blur, Ellie Goulding and Avenged Sevenfold among many others, have released lyric videos.^[58]

There are even companies who specialise in producing lyric videos, such as 351 Studios:

Today’s digital age changes the way we promote new releases. These days, Lyric Video Production is part of the standard package when artists and labels release a new song. Each day we can see hundreds of new lyric videos on YouTube and other streaming services. There is big competition out there! Lyric Video Production actually dates back to 1965, in Bob Dylan’s release “Subterranean Homesick Blues” as an official music video. But now it’s a different story. It’s a new industry standard. There are also categories for best Lyric Videos in awards by multiple music networks.

Are you looking for a lyric video maker? 351 Studio is the best, most professional lyric video company. We are behind many major and independent artists and labels. With the best creative minds in the team, we can offer you unique, trendy, professional and industry-standard lyric videos for your songs, incorporating your style as an artist, your vibe, any graphics you may have, some video footage, and all animated with perfect dynamics to your song.

Blogging on AUDIENCE

I'LL UPDATE THIS THROUGH THE NEW SAMPLE BLOG TIME PERMITTING...

I've covered aspects of this in many posts - use the Q3 links list, and look at past egs linked in Q3 guide for example; try a search, or use the tags cloud!
A complementary guide, including a Word doc with step-by instructions, is available here.
You can also access PowerPoints on audience theory here, and links to other audience-related posts on the ProdEval blog here. 
This 2015 A2 example is a good reference point: you can see a video questionnaire, and this being delivered to a class, teachers etc, as well as audience feedback on rough cuts etc.
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This post looks at one of the better examples from 2012 and considers any issues that prevent it from being assessed as excellent (criteria: 'research into a similar target audience')

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Politics in Music Video

A simple post, for now at least: a few examples of music videos which have incorporated strong, explicit political themes (depending on how you read a video, any video can be seen as having implied political themes, and certainly ideological messages), following on from a student pitch centred on Muse's Assassin, a politically-charged track.

War is overdue
The time has come for you
To shoot your leaders down
Join forces underground
[sample lyric from Muse's Assassin]

First up, a band with a long history of tracks and videos taking up explicit, and generally controversial, counter-hegemonic, themes and positions: Megadeth. They were one of the very, very few bands to venture to my home town back in Northern Ireland in the midst of 'The Troubles' (an absurdly reductive label if ever there was one. Frontman Dave Mustaine naively took the advice of a friendly face just before going onstage, and, in a fairly Loyalist (pro-UK) town, pronounced his support for Irish Republicanism ... causing a fierce riot.
NB: The video below contains hyper-fast editing, coming close to a flashing light effect. (View in higher quality 720p here)


There are many metal bands that incorporate rebellious, counter-hegemonic messages, with the popular campaign to get Rage Against the Machine's totemic Killing in the Name Of [a performance video only; includes strong language] an example of how audiences' response to, or uses of, such material doesn't necessarily reflect the full political message as intended.

Next, a Brazilian thrash band well known for their explicitly political lyrics, Sepultura; songs such as Polozia are straightforward in their condemnation of excessive state force. They've used news footage of riots and civil uprisings in their videos (including, from memory, either Inner Self or Beneath the Remains), such as here, with Refuse/Resist - not just employing a political theme but actually a call to arms and action:


There are many more examples out there; punk lyrics were often highly political and so to many of the proto-videos produced around that time - Green Day's American Idiot is a good contemporary example of this.


Maggie Thatcher inspired many (mostly) hostile tracks over the years, continuing when she died in 2013 and any attempted debate over the rights/wrongs of her receiving a state funeral was swiftly shot down by most of the mainstream media. The Huffington Post also did an interesting post on this.

Any more suggestions? Add below as a comment, and I'll add to the post.

Act History: superb eg + showcase work

There were some excellent posts on this last year you can look at, but also Rob's on the history of Muse is exemplary. Very well detailed, with a blend of his own words and quotations (which are clearly identified), well presented with illustrative imagery and embedded vids.
I've had emails asking about use of Wikis, which this post largely relies on.
Basically - its okay to use Wikis as the primary resource for SOME posts, but if your blog continually relies on this you are showing weak research skills. Do general googling, try Amazon book searches (and use the 'Look Inside' to access some sample pages) in conjunction with google books (again, you can read some sample pages), newspaper searches (eg Guardian), magazines, blogs etc You could also do a quick index search of Lib/F6 books.
If you want to make it clear not just to me but to the exam board how wide your research has been, start a Links List called Sources Used For Research. Put a link and description in for every source you use (so Amazon links for books). This would overlap with more specific Links Lists but:

make it easy for credit to be awarded for your work; make the evidence very easy to spot. 

When I'm justifying my marks to the exam board I have to write detailed summaries; use what you learned from marking 2011 blogs to put the evidence of your work (not just research but ticking every box - aud research/feedback, drafting etc) in a prominent space.
Imagine you're an examiner with 300 blogs to mark - which is the approx number many will be assigned. Now imagine marking two blogs: one has used links lists/summary posts to summarise work, learning and blog content, handily fitting in with the assessment criteria. This blog can be skimmed through and marks verified quickly. But a second blog hasn't done this; an hour later, after you've trawled through just some of the posts looking for evidence of excellence/proficiency etc on each criteria you think its a borderline case, but thankfully you're feeling so happy at having to spend all this time that naturally you'll award the most positive mark...