2. WHAT IS A MUSIC VIDEO?
• A music video is a short film or video used to accompany a piece of music, most
commonly a song.
• Music videos are used primarily to promote the sale of music recordings, however
some artists use them for purely artistic purposes.
• A music video uses techniques such as animation, live action filming and non-
narrative approaches such as abstract film.
• Music videos can tell a story and have a strong message whereas others can have
no concept and consist of the artist giving a live performance.
3. HISTORY
• The first music video was produced in 1894 in Thomas Edison’s studio by William Dickson for
the Dickson Experimental Sound Film that showed moving pictures and sound.
• https://youtu.be/SwIcRSvQ_TY
• Music videos became popular in the 1980’s when MTV was launched as one of the first 24-
hours a day music channel. The first music video to be played on the channel was “Video Killed
the Radio Star”-The Buggles.
• This MTV channel made it almost common for a song to be accompanied with a music video,
as part of the promotion for the artist.
• It was also around this time when producers experimented with storylines and different effects.
• The most influential video of that period was Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, costing nearly
$500,000 and lasted around 14 minutes in length.
• The 1990’s was the rise of directors, MTV started showing the names of the person who
directed the music video along with the artists name.
4. ORIGINAL PRIMARY AUDIENCE
• Music videos were shown at theatres, therefore the primary audience would have
been upper class adults who could afford a trip to the theatre.
• However, in the 1980’s when music videos became more popular and technology
had developed, the primary audience changed to younger people. For example,
teenagers stayed up until 12am the day Thriller was released in 1983.
5. HOW HAS TECHNOLOGY
IMPACTED MUSIC VIDEOS?
• The development of computers and mobile phones has made it easier and quicker to
view music videos.
• Youtube has become the most popular way to watch music videos and millions of
people watch them everyday.
• Almost 5 billion videos are watched on Youtube every single day.
• The total number of people who use YouTube – 1,300,000,000.
• Therefore, the amount of views a music video gets has increased massively since
Youtube was created. Furthermore, as you are paid per how many views you get on
Youtube, producers and artists make more money.
• The most viewed music video on Youtube is actually PSY’s
“Gangnam Style”, with 2.9 billion views.
6. HOW HAS TECHNOLOGY
IMPACTED THE AUDIENCE?
• Technology has made it much more accessible to watch music videos. For example,
computers and mobile phones have adapted so you can watch as many videos as
you like and on the go.
• Therefore, younger people have phones from a lower age and watch music videos
on Youtube often.
• 13-24 year-olds are watching 11.3 hours of free online video per week from sites like
YouTube.
7. HOW HAS THE AUDIENCE
DEVELOPED DUE TO THE
PLATFORM?
• The audience of younger people have developed to learn new skills off of Youtube.
For example, quite a lot of young teenage girls learn how to apply make up off of
Youtube.
• The audience of music videos has also lowered in age because younger people use
Youtube a lot more than older people, and they therefore have easy access to music
videos. Moreover, younger people such as teenagers are the target demographic for
most music videos.
8. WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR MUSIC
VIDEOS AND WHY?
• I think music videos will become VR, which is virtual reality.
• As technology has developed massively in 20 years, I believe that in another 10-20
years, VR will be possible.
• Therefore, music videos will be produced in VR and more appealing due to the new,
cool effects used.
9. ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES OF MUSIC
VIDEOS
• Advantage:
• Allows the audience to feel more attached to the artist and understand the message
the artist is trying to give. Therefore, the audience can learn important lessons from
the song.
• Disadvantage:
• Influence bad behaviour - eg in Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball”.
• Increases the amount of time young people spend on their computers and phones.
