A music video that I believe is a great example of the true music video form;

What 10 components make a good music video?

1. Rhythm editing
2. Attractive artist
3. Interesting location
4. Good message
5. Choreography
6. Both the Image and Music/Song match
7. Strong Narrative
8. Originality
9. Good tempo
10. Repeated Central Image

These are the ten components that I believe are the most significant/important things to consider when creating an effective music video.

Although it’s not my favourite video/song, I believe that the track entitled 'One Thing' by artist 'Amerie' consists of a large majority of the above components, i.e. It has good rhythm editing throughout, an attractive artist, strong choreography, good tempo and also repeats the central image (artist).

However, although it covers many of the main components, it also fails to fully fulfil some of the others; for example, this video hasn’t been filmed in any particularly interesting or stunning locations i.e. from 0.00-0.08 we see the main artist (Amerie) walking down, what appears to be, some sort of city side street and from that point onwards, all the other locations are indoors, varying between her dancing in front of a band within a large plain room, then to her in a long hallway, then to her dancing alongside other backing dancers in a gold coloured room and finally to her under bed sheets.

Nevertheless, even though Amerie chooses to use simplistic locations, I feel it is effective and in keeping with the song.

Furthermore, the message she puts across is not particularly that powerful or punchy but the way she sing’s the song is what’s strongest about it, with a catchy melody and lyrics.

The image does not necessarily reflect the lyrics since most of the duration of the video is just her dancing, however, personally I feel as though it shouldn’t matter whether or not the image matches the lyrics in order for a music video to be successful. ‘Disjuncture’ is a technique that I believe can be incorporated into a video and still work just as well as amplification.

A story is not being told in this video; therefore, there is a lack of strong narrative, nonetheless, this is not essential in order for the video to be effective or for it to serve its purpose, which in this case may be to purely promote the artist/song.

Also, though the video is not the most original of all music videos, it is still memorable because of the strong choreography and the use of all male musicians playing a form of drum in comparison with all female backing dancers.

To sum up, even though this particular music video is missing some elements/has slightly weaker aspects from the list of things that make a good music video, it also covers many of the key factors that come together to create a strong music video; I especially enjoyed the precise timing of the edits with the beat throughout the entirety of the video and in addition, the fast tempo of the video keeps the audience constantly entertained and always gives you something to watch, in other words, the video lacks a dull moment. E.g. from 0.20-0.30 there’s a range of shots/angles including; a close up of someone hitting a drum, a long shot of Amerie walking towards the camera, a close up of Amerie’s face coming into focus and a series of rapid jump cuts of two male backing dancers dancing either side of the main artist.

This is why I like this music video, because of how it compresses a variety of different editing techniques and shots over such a short period of time.