These four major record labels make up around 75% of the music market or more, depending on the year.
US Music Market Shares, 2005, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
However, not every artist is signed to the central label. Each on the big fours have their own subsidiary labels; these subsidiary labels often sign their own artists and make most of their own financial decisions, however they are answerable to the 'main' company, who gives them their overall budget.
"In essence, a Big Four label is a corporation that manages several smaller businesses." {Heather McDonald}
Post modern - deconstructionism, the video highlights the making of the video by having cameras in shot and seeing the cameras action then the shot that it took.
This music video opens with an extreme close up of a dog infront of drums with the Guns & Roses symbol on.
Opening before the song starts, diegetic sound is included of the set up - camera crew and others working amongst the band.
Mise-en-scene - leather, tattoos, cigarettes hanging out of mouth = conventional for G&Rs
Cuts between black & white and colour - attracts the viewers.
Dutch angles and behind the scenes footage.
The drum kit allows a great variety of shots, high/low angle, longshot/closeup/ hands, feet, vibrations, symbols etc.
It seems that the venue isn't very significant, as the focus is to be on the band interacting and performing. Band logo is the backdrop which can sometimes be seen in shots.
Paradise City
Not straight into the performance, this video opens with before the concert, an empty arena, band warming up and in black and white. Colour kicks in with Axell Rose singing. Time lapse of audience entering and filling up the arena. Dutch angle in all sorts of shots. Cut aways to them throughout their world tour, denoting their success as a band and global tour. Shots of drama with the security guards and crowd signify the type of genre. Heavy Metal Rock bands conventionally focus on their lead singer throughout the music video, however as G&R's have become so big, Slash becomes more established for his talents, and more shots of him are included, which in effect makes it look like a music video with more focus on the band rather than just lead singer. Editing is cut to the guitar riff as opposed to the drum beat. The track is a recorded version, rather than the live track that matches the footage; this can be because it would take a lot of time to match the sound of each shot perfectly together, and the quality is better for the studio recorded version.
Patience
An example of performance music video, set up in a studio. The song is acoustic rather than the heavy metal it usually is from Guns N Roses. Mixes with some narrative. - Shows the rock and roll live style - loads of girls but not really showing much interest in them individually. Includes a shot of Axell Rose watching the band on TV - welcome to the jungle video, and doesn't look impressed. Still includes similar mise en scene as other videos, with cigarettes and clothing. Shots panning the room including the different band members playing their instuments, quite slow editing to match the pace of the song.
A music video following one man through a city square, who is on crutches but the interesting way is how he moves. With a smooth motion which matches the song, this music is designed to be inspiring to an audience by showing the unordinary. The man was born with a degenerative hip condition and has adapted to a different way of dancing with his crutches and use of skateboards. With limited use of editing, there is no sense of cutting to the beat of the song, however the video matches with the motions. Tracking is used to show different angles of the male as he makes his journey.
RJD2 - Let There Be Horns
A narrative video, taking inspiration from the name of the song and featuring a central protagonist of a bull, or similar animal with horns. The opening includes mise en scene with text showing the artist and song title. I think that this video is the type of video that can be easily achieved by ourselves in our own music video. Showing a real life situation of the bull going to work, but the costume gives an interesting aspect to the video. Like a short film, this video deals with issues of the characters struggle with stress of the daily life, by having to take pills to calm himself down. A wide variety of shots has been used in the separate scenes of this music video, which keeps the audience interested and is very effective alongside the song. Editing of cutting to the beat is used, with keeps the song synced with the video.
