2. What is a music video
• It is a short video which accomplices a piece of music. It is
often used to promote the artist/ band, however some
times it is just to give the audience an overall choice to
have a visual image while listening to music. Over recent
years, music videos have changed dramatically, as music
videos are anything from a narrative to a live
performance, yet it all depends on the genre of the music.
However, music videos are often used to sell/ promote the
song.
3. What is the purpose of a music video
• One reason why artists have music videos is to sell their song,
and raise a reaction so it leaves you remembering the song.
• Another reason is to entertain, show off their talents such as
their dancing.
• They also make a video for their song as they feel it will give
the audience a better understanding of the song, for example: if
the video has a narrative.
• They also have a music video to create a memorable visual for
the song, which may lead to more people watching the music
video which means more people listening to the song.
• They also create a music video as it shows the artists
personality, also shows the change they go through, keeping
up to date.
4. Types of music videos
• Performance based video: these are music videos
which are based on the artist/ band performing the song,
however not all of the video but most of it. They often use
this type of music video as it’s the easiest to do on a
budget provided.
• Narrative based video: these music videos contain
mostly footage that attempts to tell a story through the
moving images which matches with the song. This type of
music video tends to be popular for a song that’s featured
in a movie and you will often see scenes cut into the
music video.
• Concept based video: this is a style of music video that
is based around a single idea. They usually tend to be
different from everything else such as using robots.
5. 1926–1959: Talkies, soundies, and
shorts
• Talkies - the arrivals of ‘talkies’ many musicals produced
short music films. The first feature film originally presented
as a talking picture ‘the jazz singer’, it was released
October 1927. however, a few years later in 1930s
cartoons began to feature popular musicians who would
perform their hit songs. Warner Bros produced a
vitaphone which featured various artists and bands.
• Soundies – this is a early form of music video, soundies
were one song films, made in the 1940s for the panoram
visual jukebox. Jukeboxes were in restaurants and bars
for people to play and watch the clip of music. Thousands
of soundies were created, mostly by jazz musicians. They
were usually just a band on a movie set bandstand.
6. The history of music videos
• Music videos have a history of dating back to the earliest days
of sound film. Music videos came into fame in the 1980s.
• 1970s – in the 1970s, a perfect musical bridge from the
revolution of 1960s were created. Following the 1960s, the 70s
created a trend of relaxing music as well as dance music. Over
time people had grown tired of the fighting that happened in the
previous decades and many of them required a refuge in dance
clubs. From this idea of dance clubs came disco movement,
however it was the same bands/ artists that continued. E.g.
Kiss, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones.
• 1980s – in this year many bands/ artists made new music and
it still continues to influence today. Genres during the 80s were
new wave and synthpop, rock ‘n roll and thrash metal. E.g.
Michael Jackson, Madonna.
8. The history of music videos
• 1990s - the 1990s was one filled with a variety of pop,
rap, and alternative music artists. It was a time when
musical taste was as varied as the events that were
happening at the time. Many of the most popular acts that
emerged in the 1990s were bands and artists who
enjoyed a type of resurgence in the mainstream music
scene after their popularity had dwindled for a decade.
For example: Whitney Houston, Oasis and Spice Girls.
• 2000s – during this time music videos became very
popular, this was because of the internet because it
advanced. It meant that it allowed people to view the
music video quicker and easier.
9. The internet
• By the mid 2000s, MTV had largely abandoned showing
music videos in favour to reality television shows, which
were more popular.
• 2005 – the launch of YouTube, made the viewing of online
much more faster and easier. For example: Google
videos, yahoo and Facebook, they use similar technology.
These websites had profound effect on the viewing of
music videos, some artist saw success due to the internet.
• Websites such as YouTube allowed people to be
successful for example: Justin Bieber, Cody Simpson and
Timeflies.
10. What are music videos now?
• Over recent years, technology has improved massively,
due to new software. However in the modern days the
typical video follows narratives to do with heartbreak and
relationships, where the artist is portrayed in a sexual and
provocative way, for example: Taylor Swift, bad blood, in
this music video of her she is seen as an object rather
than a girl, this is because of the way she is acting where
in her other videos such as blank space, she is seen as
innocent. However, its all different for different genres as
they all have their own ideas which are completely
different from others.
11. Taylor Swift: Bad Blood – Blank Space
By looking at these images of Taylor Swift from 2
different videos shows the way she is changing her
videos, from going from a sweet innocent girly girl to a
bad girl.
12. Michael Jackson - Thriller
• This is a 13 minute video for the song. It was directed by
John Landis and also co-wrote the screenplay with
Michael Jackson.
• It was MTVs first world premiere video, the music video
was made to tell a story.
13. Lyric videos
• This is when the lyrics of the song is on the screen, so it is
the main element of the video.
• A lyric video may be released separately by a music label
prior to the more usual video featuring the artist. For
example: Lady GaGa, Katy Perry and many others.
14. Structure of music videos
• All music videos are structured in the same way, the only
difference between them is the genre and artist/ band.
• The video is usually around 3-4 minutes long.
