2. DEFINITION
A music video is a short film or video that accompanies
a complete piece of music commonly a song. Modern
music videos were primarily made and used as a
marketing device intended to promote the sale of
music recordings.
In Short : “A MUSIC VIDEO OR SONG VIDEO IS A SHORT
FILM INTEGRATING A SONG AND IMAGERY PRODUCED
FOR THE PROMOTIONAL OR ARTISTIC PURPOSES”
3. EARLY EXAMPLE – ST LOUIS BLUE’S
(BESSIE SMITH 1929)
The blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a two – reel
short film called Saint Louis Blues (1929) featuring a
dramatized performance of the hit song. It was shown
in theatres until 1932.
4. BASIC VIDEO INFORMATION
Music videos are often called promotion videos or more
simply “promos”, this is due to the fact that they are
usually promotional devices. More often music videos
are known as short- form music videos to distinguish
them from the full length movies that are relating to
music.
1980’s – the term ‘rock video’ was often used to
describe this form of entertainment, although the term
has fallen into disuse.
1940’s – Walt Disney released Fantasia, an animated film
based around famous pieces of classical music, being
one of the most famous music videos internationally.
5. 1950’S & 1960’S
The earliest music video was filmed in the mid 1950’s yet before
then music videos were around as early as the 1920’s but were
mostly filmed by animators such as Oskar Fischinger.
1956 – Tony Bennett was filmed walking along The Serpentine in
Hyde Park. His recording of ‘Stranger in Paradise’ was played by
UK and US T.V Stations, which let to Bennett claiming he made
the first music video.
According to the Internet Accuracy Project (IAP), the singer J.P
Richardson (1959) was the first to use the term ‘rock video’.
1960 – Scopitone (a visual jukebox) was invented in France and
short films hence were produced by many French Artists; such as
Francoise Hardy to accompany their songs. The use of the
jukebox, then began to expand in popularity to other countries
and so similar products were soon created.
6. 1970’S
In the UK the program called Top of the Pops was seen as
extremely important at promoting singles, creating an
environment of innovation and competition amongst bands and
record labels as the show producers placed strict limits on the
number if videos that would be used. Hence a good video would
increase a songs sales as viewers hoped to see the video again
the following week.
The early self produced music videos by Devo were also
important developments in the evolution of the genre and these
Devo video cassette releases arguably among the first true long
form video productions.
7. 1980’S
1981- MTV was launched with the first video being ‘video Killed the
radio star’.
David Bower scoring his first UK number one in nearly a decade
thanks to David Mallets eye catching promo for ashes to ashes.
Mid 1980’s – more sophisticated effects were chosen within many
music videos. Michael Jackson being the first to create the concept
of short films to his music. A short film having a beginning middle and
end to a music video. The 1984 ‘Thriller’ is the most well known
greatest hit for the short film concept.
Top of the Pops was censorious in its approach to video content, so
another approach was for an act to produce a promo which would
need editing or to be banned in order to gain publicity through
controversy.
8. MODERN ERA
The key revolution in the development of the modern music video
was the recording process and editing process. This was due to the
additional effects such as Chroma-key. High quality colour video
tapes and portable recorders coincide with the ‘do it yourself’ ethos.
This allowed music artists to produce videos quickly and cheaply in
comparison to large music labels and costs.
As the idea developed music video directors turned towards using
the 35mm film as the preferred medium while others used the mixed
film and video.
1980 – when releasing a music video to accompany a new single
had become standard , competitions began between artists to
make the best, most lavish music videos for consumers and so bands
such as ‘The Jacksons’ became popular due to their large budgets.
9. TODAY’S MUSIC VIDEOS
Within the new era of information and technology music videos
now take the approach to promote the songs themselves
through platforms such as YouTube, DVD’s and social media. It
can even be argued that people not only watch music videos
for the audio but also because of their aesthetic value. Some
may also argue that corporate music managers have used music
videos to their advantage using female artists to exploit their sex
appeal to specific audiences.
Finally allowing up and coming artists to have a greater chance
at breaking into the industry with them able to promote their own
work onto platforms such has YouTube and become
international; and viral a lot faster.
