HR: Are music videos commercials, porn or art?

• The argument that music videos contain some form of commercial  port or art is to help sell the single being released. It targets different groups of people, but these can be coincided with one another.
• Matt Hanson believes music videos are a form of art. He says "music videos has become meta-cinema" meaning films have been influenced around music videos because of their artistic form. Adorno however thinks music videos are commercial and that the products of culture industries create false needs in audiences, so the fact commericals are in music videos gives audiences a lack of choice, almost changing the social system.

• Many music directors base their videos around the sexual exploitation of women in order to boost their sales. Call on me by Eric Prydz features an aerobics class of women wearing 1980s styled aerobics outfits performing sexually suggestive gym routines. There are two videos - an edited one shown in daylight hours and a late night version which is uncut and features the dancers rubbing their breasts and one dancer slapping her buttocks.
• This video shows many ideas Goffman et al had about women being depicted in subordinate, subservient and male pleasing roles. The feminine touch conveys the idea the product is desirable and as this video features self-touching in a suggestive manner the woman's body becomes the product, thus dehumanizing and objectifying women. The women are mainly on the floor in the video, making the ladies physically lowering themselves in a social situation combined with the body language by their facial expressions can convey a social identity as a plaything for males. The fact the man is leading the women's class shows he has power over them.

• A mainstream star can use their music videos for product placement. A famous example that has been circled around the internet is Telephone by Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce. It includes famous brands such as Miracle Whip and Virgin Mobile. Fans might associate the star with the brand. Jonathan Feldman, vice president for brand partnerships at Atlantic Records said: "it was promotional, and today we look at video as another piece of pie and a way to generate venue.".
• This backs up Adorno's theory of culture industries as it may generate audiences to purchase these items because they were featured in a popular music video. It is an easy for record labels to gain income by including famous brands so it is likely popular stars will continue to put them in their videos as it is "easy advertising" for the products featured in the video.

• Matt Hanson states that the artistic styles of music videos acts as a confluence point for the more free-form of moving image arts. Heaven by Unkle was directed by Spike Jonze, a well known producer known for being part owner of a skateboard company called Girl Skateboards, so this music video shows no signs of the artist, just slow motion skateboarding coinciding with the rhythm of the music, when it reaches a crescendo, the skateboards stars to blow up the scenery around them, making an artistic vision.
•  The fact their urban art is in the background helps to make this video showcase artistic talents. Hanson says artistic directors demonstrate innovative visions with a narrative structure which exactly what Heaven by Unkle does, it is a simple image of a skate park  but has an ending that makes you think about the track more.
• I personally believe that music videos are not either porn, art or commercial  but a combination of two or three aspects. Even though Heaven by Unkle is artistic, it is also helping to promote what Spike Jonze is a part of - skateboarding.
• Most music videos have some form of artistic narrative in it or otherwise it would not be a music video, but purely an advert on television or pornography. These may have music in the background, but it does not have a narrative that has much structure to help promote the track. In reality, that is what artists what to do - sell their records and they do this by promoting themselves in a video with a narrative as it makes audiences relate the imagines in the music video with the track.