Product Placement in music videos

Product placement:

the practice of a company paying for its product to be placed in a prominent position in a film or television programme as a form of advertising
   
     Music videos contain large amounts of product Placement.  Companies pay well known singers to have their product displayed in their latest music video.  Hopping their brands get noticed in the video, they believe this association will help them to sell their products and being seen with the latest superstar will not only raise their profile but also their popularity.  Some consumers will just buy products because their favorite star has been seen with them.

For example Beats By Dr Dre are in almost every music video.  As you can clearly see in the pictures above all the celebrity's are posing with one of their products.  The photo above is taken from Cheryl Coles' new video for her latest single 'Crazy Stupid Love'  and you can clearly see the Beats Pill in the background.  Product placement was at the beginning very subtitle, but now as it is big business the products have clear extreme close up for a long time.  Celebrities are now being given the option whether to make their own headphones for Beats and then endorse them in their latest video.  



In the video for the Saturdays 'Not Giving Up'  they are seen entering and exiting in a new Citroen.
  Britney is often seen in her music videos with her own brand of perfume.

Miley Cyrus is seen here in her music video for 'We Cant Stop' with a new EOS lip balm.

from J-Lo 'Live It Up' video she plugs many brands including Nokia

this diagram shows just how many products are in the music video for Lady Gagas' 'Telephone'

This again shows Britney with another brand for her video for 'Hold It Against Me'

in Christina Aguileras' video for 'Not Myself Tonight' she not only plugs her own perfume but sunglasses.

Smirnof vodka can be seen in the background for her video 'Give Me All Your Luvin'

J-LO can be seen in her music video for 'Pappi' driving in her new Fiat 500

Lily Allen can be seen promoting Polaroid and also Blue E-Cigarets.

Artists now write product placement into their own songs

Britney Spears song 'Work B**ch has lyrics including brands like Maserati and Lamborghini.


Avril Lavigne has even wrote a song based around a brand.


The music industry at the moment is suffering badly, it is now becoming increasingly difficult to create money from music.  To combat this product placement is heavily used to create large amounts of money for the artist and the record company.   

Aura live performances

As their isn't a music video for 'Aura' I have decided to take a look at its live performances for inspiration.

This does contain offensive language

Aura starts at approximately 5.40

From these videos I can see the performances are high energy and full of powerful dance routines.  They are also very abstract and almost like a piece of drama.  These videos have filled me with ideas of style, dance, location and of course costume. 

Song choice

Obviously to create a music video you need a song to promote.  I have chosen Lady Gaga's 'Aura' from her latest album 'ARTPOP'  I feel this to be a very upbeat and experimental song.  The actual music from the song is in itself mesmerizing and the vocals are both exciting and terrifying.  

Looking at the lyrics I believe will give me a few ideas.

I killed my former and
Left her in the trunk on highway ten
Put the knife under the hood
If you find it, send it straight to Hollywood

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Aura-a-a-a aura-a-a-a
Aura-a-a-a aura-a-a-a
Aura-a-a-a aura-a-a-a

I'm not a wandering slave I am a woman of choice
My veil is protection for the gorgeousness of my face
You ought to pity me 'cause was always one man to love
But in the bedroom the size of him's more than enough

Do you wanna see me naked, lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura, behind the aura?
Do you wanna touch me, cosmic lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura?
Behind the aura, behind the aura, behind the aura?

Enigma pop star is fun, she wear burqa for fashion
It's not a statement as much as just a move of passion
I may not walk on your street or shoot a gun on your soil
I hear you screaming, is it because of pleasure or toil?

Dance, sex, art, pop, tech
Dance, sex, art, pop, tech

Do you wanna see me naked, lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura, behind the aura?
Do you wanna touch me, cosmic lover?
Do you wanna peek underneath the cover?
Do you wanna see the girl who lives behind the aura?
Behind the aura, behind the curtain, behind the burqa

From the very first lines it talks about killing and death, although throughout the rest of the song the subject is never repeated.  With the lyrics and the sounds it gives the impression the song is very chaotic and all most psychotic.  From this I feel a concept or performance video would be easier to create, although the intro could be seen as a narrative.

With the heavy beat I would really like to create a dance heavy video, I believe group dancing would look very effective but if this is not possible I will do it by myself.  I have already asked one of my friends who takes dance as an A level to choreograph the song.    

  

Music video pitch

To help with my research and planning as a class we were given an opportunity to pitch our ideas.  With an active audience of peers and 2 teachers I feel this to be a nice range of ages.  Allowing others to hear my ideas allows me to improve them and create an even better video.  Here is my slideshow presentation I used to help me in my pitch.

After my pitch I was given helpful feedback from the audience.  They believed my ideas sounded good and were impressed by my understanding of music videos, they now are very excited to see the finished video.     

Sex and the music video

Sex sells.  Although some may dispute this fact, looking at the majority of successful music videos this is the case.  From the very start music videos had a sexual presence.  Artists like Duran Duran to Miley Cyrus use sex and nudity to sell their music and get their videos seen all over the world.

Duran Duran

In the 80s Duran Duran were one of the favorite pop-pin-ups of the time.  Known and loved for their iconic videos and sound they rose to fame with their sexual video for their song 'Girls On Film'.  Ranging from nudity, innuendos and mud wrestling their video was even banned by MTV and they were forced to create a cut final version suitable for daytime television.  

Miley Cyrus

 

The new Queen of shock, Miley Cyrus's video for 'Wrecking Ball' quickly grew in popularity and became the most viewed videos in 24 hours and broke the Vevo record.  One of its major themes is nudity and sees Miley swinging on a large wrecking ball totally naked, this added to its appeal and helped it to become a viral video.

 Lady gaga

Lady Gaga's video for 'Love Game' featured a dirty and dark, sexual video.  With its sexual references in its lyrics and risque dance moves and outfits (body gems and glitter) the video helped to raise Lady Gaga to her superstar status.  Her unreleased video for 'Do What You Want' was extremely sexual and due to this and a number of different reasons has still not been released and probably wont be for the foreseeable future.

Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue's latest video for her song 'Sexercise' is set in a hot and sweaty gym.  Proving she still has it Kylie is known for her risque and sexy music videos and her love of hot pants.

Madonna

 

Known as one of the first female superstars to use her sexuality, Madonna raised eyebrows with her song and video 'Like A Virgin'.  She again raised eyebrows with her sexual song and equally sexual video for 'Justify My Love', she even released a sex book.  Madonna has always used her sexuality and always will, from her very early days to the infamous Britney kiss from the 2003 VMA awards and now to posing with Katy Perry for V magazine.  

Britney Spears

Britney Spears used her childlike innocence and schoolgirl outfit to propel herself to super-stardom.  Using her sexuality matched with her school girl looks her video for 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' caused outrage and delighted fans across the world.  

Christina Aguliera

Trying to shake off her childlike image from the Disney Playhouse, Christina's 'Dirty' shocked the whole globe.  Her raunchy moves and lack of clothing led to a hit.  

Mason Vs Princess Superstar

 

Again like the Kylie Minogue video, this to involves exercise balls and tight leotards.

Eric Prydz

This racy video, again based in a gym, caused a lot of controversy when it was first released.  

Robin Thicke

 

The summer song of 2013, the video for Robin Thickes' 'Blurred Lines' contains naked models and laden with innuendo.  With it questionable lyrics and sexual video you either loved it or hated it.  Just recently VH1 run a Twitter Q and A with Robin Thicke using the hash-tag #ASKTHICKE, the questions flooded in (most of them being unpleasant) 

Jenifer Lopez

    

 

In the video for J-Lo's 'I Luh Ya Papi' she uses men as the sex object and turns everything on its head. 

Marina And The Diamonds

f

Just before J-Lo Marina And The Diamonds too had a music video the objectifies the men.

Benny Benassi

The video for 'Satisfaction' contains scantly clad models using power tools with lots of innuendo.

Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj uses her physical assets in all her videos.  Her latest music video for her single Anaconda split the nation with its raunchy metaphors and twerking.

Jennifer Lopez 

Not to be out done by Nicki Minaj's Anaconda, J-Lo quickly released the music video for her and Iggy Azaleas music video for Booty

Rihanna

Rihanna is always in the world press for her racy antics.  Her song 'S and M' had an explicit video filled with innuendo, they song was heavily edited with half of the lyrics missing to be played on Radio 1.  Very recently she was spotted wearing a sheer Swarvoski dress with little else.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood

'Relax' caused major uproar and controversy in the mid 80s,  a ban from the BBC led to this song cracking the charts.

Lily Allen

Lily Allens 'Hard Out Here' tries to use sexuality to create a statement about inequality.