Music Videos - The 00's

Busted - Year 3000 (2003)

Busted were a boyband who made a massive breakthrough with the song 'year 3000', mostly because of its video. The song itself tried not to use concepts already thought of before for the themes of popular songs, such as love, fame and rebellion - it used the theme of 'the future', and so incorporated this into the video by using the cartoons to represent the future. This represents how so far there is nothing in the real world that we can use to represent the future world, and also that with future technology the world might become so surreal it is almost like a cartoon. Improvements in technology meant that the cartoon elements of the video could actually be used as the set, rather than just separate scenes like in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall', which also shows how budgets for music videos are continuing to increase. This video uses a wide range of music video elements, including the concept of narrative in music, where Busted start off at home, go forward in time in a time machine and then perform on stage in the future. This also means that the performance aspect of music videos still remains a well used and popular theme from when music videos originally started being made. The time machine is a car that is very much like the one from 'Back to the Future', and 'the neighbour' who created it in the video is dressed to look like Emmett Brown from 'Back to the Future' also, showing how this music video cross references with film, which allows the audience to relate to it and recognise it. This technique is also shown in the reference to Michael Jackson in the lyrics where a cartoon animation of Michael then appears in the video, showing a cross reference within the actual music industry too. The 'real world' set at the beginning is in a typical teenage boys bedroom, and Busted are dressed in clothes typical to teenage boys of the time, exaggerated by mid-shots and close-ups, which shows how they are trying to get the attention of their teenage target audience, where boys can relate to them or girls may get to 'have a crush' on them. This is also represented in a 'future' scene, where a group of girls dressed in a sexualised manner take their tops off at the sight of Busted. This also promotes the band, by suggesting boys should want to be like them, and girls should want to admire them. Every action done in the video fits directly with the lyrics on cue, showing that the link between music and video is still an important aspect of music videos to make sense to the audience. 

Beyonce - Crazy in Love (2003)

'Crazy in Love' is Beyonce's debut single after the break-up of 'Destiny's Child' and therefore acts as a promo video for herself and her music as a solo artist. The lyrics celebrate the evolution of women and 'girl power', possibly influenced from more feminism, and how a romantic obsession can lead to a woman acting out of character, which is what the video then tries to portray. Throughout the whole video, in terms of mis-en-scene, Beyonce is wearing revealing clothing and performs provocative dancing, to represent the sexuality and passion at the start of a love inflicted relationship, which related directly to the lyrics. She also does this to show herself off as an artist and to present herself to her audience, which could be seen as the media portraying her as sexually attractive, to appeal to the male audience, as well as females. A lot of hip hop genre music does in fact show women in this light, but usually from male singers as a way of making themselves look powerful by using women as 'sex objects', however Beyonce in this video makes herself look powerful and dominant in terms of sexuality, as if she cant get what she wants when it comes to relationships and won't be used by men, which then makes her appealing and inspirational to her female audience. This is also shown by the way she dances around Jay-Z, as if she is controlling him, and then she kicks the valve off the fire hydrant to further show her power. This is also represented by a lot of low angle shots of her and close-ups to show her importance. The mock photoshoot scene in this video presents her as famous and materialistic, as well as the scene of her in a silk and fur coat, so her audience can inspire to be like her, which gains popularity one way for Beyonce, however she juxtaposes this with scenes of her dancing in the streets in a cap and full length trousers, or wearing simple denim shorts and vest top, to show she is connected with her audience and is also just like them, so the audience can relate to her also, which further gains her popularity as an artist. The dance routines in this video are also an important aspect, because they capture audience attention and keep the interest in the video. They also show how dance routines in music videos have rapidly evolved, from simple steps to the beat of music in the 60's to add variation in videos, to very energetic and almost sexual performances to date, to which audiences enjoy. From this, Beyonce became very famous for her dance routines, and further created videos such as 'Single Ladies' which was all one dance routine in one take, which became one of her most successful songs ever, because of how the audience could associate certain dance moves with just one simple video.

Mika - Happy Ending (2007)

'Happy Ending' by Mika is a song from his debut album 'Life in Cartoon Motion', and therefore acts as a promo for this album, but also, as a fairly new artist, a promo for himself as a singer as well. The song is about a sad break-up, but also about how life changes and time goes by, which doesn't actually link to the video directly, where Mika is shown to be at first in bed, and then he gets lifted up by a pink balloon into the sky whilst certain things in his bedroom 'sing' with him. The reason for the difference is so the video can be slightly unusual or controversial, which then makes it memorable for the audience. The 'weirdness' of the video represent's Mika's personality, where he tries to create an unusual identity for himself which stands out against other artists, similar to the ideas of artist's like Lady Gaga. The set is of Mika's apparent bedroom, to which it starts with Mika waking up to his alarm. This is a very usual set up to that of his target audience, which is his way to connect to them and for them to relate to him, which then gives Mika popularity. When Mika is lifted up by the pink balloon from his bed, the audience can assume he has fallen back to sleep and is now in a dream state, which is why weird things start happening like random gloved hands resembling singing faces, which is then confirmed by the end of the video with the sound of the alarm clock again. This represents how we as humans like to escape reality, when life changes and it becomes tough, but life goes on and therefore dreams is a way we can escape, which does then have some link to the lyrics. This is also represented by the white balloons showing all the times Mika felt different emotions.