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1. The Purpose of Music Videos
Music videos first officially emerged in 1975 with
Queens ‘Bohemien Rapsody’, where their advanced
video effects and lip-syncing set them aside from
many other musicians. It changed the way videos
were used alongside the artists music, the purpose
of the video was to promote Queen as new,
innovative and to gain popularity, setting up their
own brand. Since then, music videos have
skyrocketed in popularity. Most musicians now use
them as to promote their music and assert themselves into the industry. This essay will
explain the promotion, strategies, income, outlets and synergy of music videos.
Music videos are a way of promoting the artist and/or the
director of it. It usually works both ways. They do this to set
up their own brand identity, which can be inserted into the
video by having their band name plastered throughout the
video, a clothing style, an artist’s face being in the video or
symbols on the screen. When it comes to promotion of
directors, this can build their representation in the industry and help the director gain
popularity as well as the band. They can do this by visual
appeal where they express themselves using visual image,
using all creative means or as simplistic as possible to express
their talent to their audience. Directors such as Hype
Williams used Music videos to express his R&B and Rap genre
which helps create his M-O.
Artists like Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez and Katy Perry (Mainstream Artists) they all have
publicity behind them to create a refined image, this is added onto their music videos, all
high production value and thought through. This means they will usually add certain
elements in their videos such as; the artist themselves, dance choreography, a narrative,
high quality fashion, different locations, a variety of shots, and
sometimes VFX. These types of artists are usually seen on
channels such as MTV, Top 40 or The Hits and usually get the
most views on YouTube or Vimeo. Different artists are
marketed different to appeal to different audiences, this is so
they gain popularity in those particular niches, if they keep to
their fit then they keep their audience. Independent artists
are freer to pick and choose the way they want to portray
themselves as they don’t have flashy equipment, there’s a
chance to show their talent instead. Choosing their unique
selling point is essential to whether a band/artist gets noticed
or not, you are more likely to see new talent online such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook

2. and Snapchat (usually self-produced artists like Shawn Mendes). Some other artists create a
video to express themselves, this can be shown visually or with the meaning of the video.
An artist who is successful usually receive payment or royalties exchange by others to be
able to use their product, for example every time it’s played on the radio they get payed. If
the artist then makes a music video, every time
that is watched they also get payed. This is all in
theory as it can’t be tracked fully as there are so
many media outlets which a consumer may
watch the video. They made an assumption on
how popular the track is and how many people
have bought the album, then the artist is paid
appropriately. Bigger, popular artists are heard
more on the radio as the radios themselves don’t want to risk playing alternative artists as
they could lose their audience. Lesser known artists try to get themselves recognised by
music videos or Facebook pages and other media outlets. Jess Glynne’s ‘Thursday’ was
released in late 2018 with her music video reaching 19,772,158 views and topped 3rd in the
UK Singles charts, 1st in Scotland.
Media outlets in general allow us to access content media-
wise such as music videos from our favourite artists, this can
be done online, via DVDs or even on games consoles.
YouTube, for the last 5 years, have become the bigger media
outlet with various types of entertainment on it. Other media
outlets such as Vimeo, snapchat and Instagram showcase
different artists and their music videos. There are both
advantages and disadvantages to different kinds of media outlets, for example an advantage
of YouTube would be that anyone can sign up and its mainly free to use even if you don’t
sign up. A disadvantage would be that you need internet to access it, and also it has around
1,300,000,000. 300 hours of video uploaded every minute so a lot of content especially
music videos goes unnoticed if it isn’t popular. Therefore, it is hard for producers/labels and
their artists to go along with the trends as what audiences like changes every second.
Artists usually with their music videos synergise with
companies to help them to promote their video to gain
popularity and appeal to certain audiences. Billie Eilish’s
‘When I Wad Older’ was inspired by the film ‘ROMA’ and
the makers of ROMA synergised with Billie to help promote
themselves and for her to promote herself to the audience
associated with the movie. Imagine Dragons also
synergised with ‘Wreck It Ralph 2’. This strategy is very
useful as both sides gain from it by introducing different
audiences to each other, reduces cost, increases revenue
and helps to empower one another.
I believe music videos are so popular because of the visual
and audible aspects which work together to create this hybrid. Along with the visual aspects,
editing to the beat and keeping the pace the same makes it more satisfying to watch. Also,

3. the idea of seeing their favourite artists
makes the viewers feel closer to them. If
there is a story-line, then it adds to a movie-
like appeal and instead the viewer sees it
like an ongoing story of which creates more
relatability. This then gains more popularity
and gets the artist more money.