Afrojack is a dutch music producer and DJ, his music falls under the genre of dance. As he is a DJ rather than a typical singing artist, a lot of his music videos take a more performance based style rather than a narrative. This is the case within the above video, Rock the House. As it is a performance based video, the focus is made on both the artist and the audience. The inclusion of the audience makes the video more relatable as, both those in the crowd, and those watching at home can feel part of the experience. As this video is taken from one of his live gigs, it keeps in the audiences responses and reactions, for example the crowd cheers. The effect of this builds up a party like atmosphere between a community of people who are there to enjoy the music. This party themed video is reflected throughout the video, as in several shots its focus is on what the crowd are doing for example drinking and dancing. This proves that the dance/electronic genre is more about the music than the performance itself unlike a staged concert. This is also reflected through the spontaneity of the artists positioning on stage and his involvement with the crowd.
Although this video is performance driven, what makes it different and more visually appealing to watch is the inclusion of the artists journey through travelling to his different locations when touring. By doing so, it makes Afrojack appear more relatable to his audience by showing the both sides of him; the popular performance side as well as the more down to earth side showing him with no crowds, but just at the hotel, or in a plane. By including these shots, as well as scenes of cities, gives the viewer more to visually look at, and see it as a journey they are going on with Afrojack. Frequently within dance/electronic music videos they include many abstract shots to keep with the fast pace beat of the music. Throughout this video it features shots of cities, the equipment, lighting and smoke effects. This helps build up an atmosphere to keep the video flowing with the pace and style of the music.
The main target audience for the electronic/ dance genre is young adults between the ages of 16 to 25. This is also the case for Afrojacks, Rock the house video. The showing of alcohol consumption reflects this as those of the young adult generation are the most interested and experimental with alcohol. A younger target audience would not be able to view the video, and an older would disapprove with the level of consumption. The showing of alcohol also reflects the party like atmosphere as well as the relaxed vibe that goes with the genre. Typically, the electronic/dance genre aims itself towards the male gender. Many of the artists within this genre are men, therefore aims its music towards the male genre. This is shown throughout the video above by the continuous focus on both women's breasts and bums. Sexualising women encourages more men to view the video as it becomes more visually appealing to the males rather than females. When on stage performing within the video, Afrojack is dressed in jeans and a black hoody. Although this does reflect the genres relaxed style it also shows how the live performance is more about the music and the experience rather than him sexualising himself to gain more of a female audience. This would also result in him loosing his larger group of fans which is the males.
As the idea for this music video is simple, much like many others within this genre, what they tend to focus more on is the editing rather than the shots themselves. This can make the most abstract and repetitive of shots to be made more interesting and visually appealing. Throughout the video, there are various styles of editing used to keep the audience entertained as well as to keep with the fast paced beat. As the video begins they use a slow motion effect before introducing the artist, Afrojack. The effect of this is that it builds up an atmosphere and tension for then the entering of Afrojack where both the beat and editing style then picks up. The use of slow motion is used throughout the video as each verse then builds up to the chorus where the beat then drops. The effect of this is that it makes the video work as whole with the music to make it run smoothly and professionally. A more unusual editing style that was frequently used within the video is how each shot overlaps. It fades one with another, so at some moments two shots will be shown together. An example of this is when they overlap two different angled shots of Afrojack performing live. The effect of this is that it presents a more techno, electronic vibe, keeping with the modern, fast pace beat. Another style of edit that gives a similar presentation is the use of colour effects over the different shots. This is repeatedly used over the variety of scenic shots as well as the different live performances. This also sets an electronic and modern vibe over the most basic of shots.
Although I will not be able to recreate many of the scenes within this video, a technique that I am planning to include into my own work is the use of different editing styles. This is because it relates well to my focused genre and will help me aim my video towards my target audience of the young adults of today. It will also help me make my video appear more professional and genre related by focusing more on the editing rather than the shots themselves, as I do not have the money or equipment to create lavish scenes.
Heidi Nockels
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