Origin of Disco and the influence of the 70's and 80"s

Saturday night fever BeeGees

The 1975 Love me video takes heavy influence
 from the 1980's through the use of neon colours

Earth, wind and fire September

Extremely bright colours are a vital convention to disco/ house music videos since the early disco dance music from Madonna, The BeeGees and Earth,Wind and Fire. Disco as a genre peaked in popularity in the late 70's early 80's and this time period influence is still present in disco and alternative music today.  The dance disco genre started in night clubs across major cities and with the help of the film Saturday Night Fever hot the peak of it popularity. From early disco the use of neon colours in contrast to black has gone on to influence many modern videos from Mika to The 1975. The introduction of disco as well as advancing technology brought the use of heavy editing to music videos with kaleidoscopical editing techniques being used to enhance the bright colours to give a new visual experience for audiences. As well as this the videos also reflect the tine period with the fashion of flared trousers and the beginning of the fashion trend of disco pants which is still influential today. Thus my music video must reflect  the origins of disco with the use of bright and contrasting colours in order to comply with disco/house conventions.

Earth,wind and fire Lets Groove

Abba Ring Ring

Blondie - Heart of Glass

Instruments and other band members
were commonly featured in disco genres
particularly in the begining. (Earth,Wind
and Fire also did this)

Make up still features two bold colours
despite the simplistic look with the bright
green and pink shades reflecting the disco
genre as well as the style of the early 80's.

This tracks video has a very simple mise en scene of a performance set up up in what is portrayed as a disco club. The simplicity of the mise en scene gives the audience a platform to focus their attention on the front woman of the band (Debbie Harry). The band themselves were not generally from the disco genre and almost make a mockery of the genre with the featured prop of a disco ball. however the transition between shots features a black screen with the Bokeh effect on neon lighting meaning the video very much fulfils audience expectations of a typical disco genre video.  Costumes are kept very simplitic which is a contrast to the genre, but it draws more attention to the props of the disco ball and the neon colours in the low key light room rather than forcing the audince to notice their clothing. This could be a possible aspect to explore when planning the costumes for my music video.

Flyte - Light me up

Use of Blue

Use of Blue

Use of Blue 

Contrasting colours of blue and
 pink draw attention from the audience.

Although the genre for this track doesn't comply with the disco/house genre of my chosen track, the video does have an interesting use of colour and graphic matching that I could use to influence my video. The shades of colours used here are slightly blander than I would need for a disco music video. However the block colour that seams to follow the artists around the location dose comply with the conventions of a disco track and brightens up an otherwise bland location. in terms of audience appeal, the visuals are aesthetically pleasing and the use of the same shades across shots is oddly satisfying yet the impact doesn't lessen meaning the video has a high repetability quality essential for a successful video.

Use of pink

Mika We are golden

Brazil- Declan Mckenna

Animated editing 

Make Up

The video for this track is heavily edited and features intertextuality throughout fulfilling the disco/house conventions despite the track not being from that genre. The editing although has more of a sense of realism than classic disco track animation, the strange almost disorentated aesthetic engages audiences as its not what is to expected of a music video. this factor of 'weirdness' will work well with the disco track I've used in order to appeal to the audience. Make up, particularly in modern disco music videos is an essential convention. Although Brazil doesn't fit with the disco genre the make up used, with its bright colours, does. the use of one colour make up is something conventional to disco tracks and I will use this as influence for my music video. The use of colour lighting is also something that this video uses well and is something I will take as influence for my disco tracks video.

Use of colour in lighting

Madonna - Hung up

Madonna from 12cbrannan

Scissor sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancing

As with many disco music videos, this Scissor Sisters  track features a heavily editing and animated video. The colours of the mise en scene are bright and contrasting fulfilling a common convention for the genre, but the video has an almost gothcic aesthetic to it from the red colour correction of various shots. This  creating a discordant atmosphere as the track is extremely upbeat fitting into the disco genre.

The two shots shown on the left and right, feature examples of the tracks heavy editing with there being multiple silhouette of the main artist in the shot at the same time. It has become apparent that this is a common technique used in disco tracks, evidence of this is that similar editing effects are used in La Roux - Bulletproof video.

La Roux
Bulletproof 

In terms of shot types the video keeps it varied with an equal contrast between high and low angle shots, fitting with what I understand to be typical disco genre conventions. However the mise en scene of a halloween video really challenged the stereotype of a disco video which is successful in this video, but i will not be going for such a genre switch to challenge conventions in my music video.

You make me feel (might real) - Sylvester