1. DO NOW – in table groups (6-7 mins)
• Imagine your table group are a record label of a new solo young pop
artist (male or female)
• You have to promote your artist to gain popularity and to sell their
debut album.
• What you do? You will have to explain your strategy.
2. Part 2 of DO NOW (5 mins)
• Consider the role of their 1st music video.
• What will be included in the video? The concept? Why?
• Think about your overall strategy…
Tip: Always link back to promotion of the artist.
6. Music video definition
• A music video is a short film that integrates a song with imagery, and
is produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music
videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended
to promote the sale of music recordings.
• However, music videos are far from simplistic. They can be very
experimental and stylised including many camera and editing
technique and narrative structures that we are not used to seeing in
conventional moving image platforms such as TV, news and film.
9. Part 2 Questions
1. What is MTV?
• Music Television – 24/7
2. When did it launch?
• 1 August 1981, 12:01am
3. What opportunity did it offer audiences?
• Visuals – no longer just radio – could see the artist and visual interpretations of songs
4. How did it help artists who wanted to make a name for themselves?
• Helped them showcase videos, as well as their songs
5. What did the MTV VJs help to usher in?
• A pop culture phenomenon
6. A previous MTV VJ once said “You’ll never look at music in the same way again.”
What do you think this means
MTV changed the way audiences consumed music = could listen to and watch
videos simultaneously, rather than just listening to it on the radio
10. 1st video on MTV
Buggles: video killed the radio star
• Cost 50,000 dollars, shot in a day
• People complained it was too violent because a TV was blown up
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs
11. Evolution of music videos
• Think about successful and iconic music videos over time
(the ‘game changers’)
• Name some and explain why you think they were ‘game changers’
• Challenge: Any noteworthy trends in music videos?
12. 2 years later……evolving….
• Released Dec 1983
• £500,000 budget
• 14 mins long
• 1st MV to have world premiere on MTV
• Played twice an hour on MTV when first released
• Considered to be best MV of all time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA
13. Continued to evolve…
• Released: Oct 1998
• Budget: £300,000 in LA over 3 days
• Director’s original idea was crap, he phoned Britney who came up
with idea for a girl in school daydreaming about boys
• Mainly performance showcasing the pop princess in the iconic sexy
school girl outfit (also her idea)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-u5WLJ9Yk4
14. And more….
• Jan 2010
• 9 mins
• Over £500,000 budget
• Extensive product placement financed the production
• Over 30 million views in first 5 days of release
• Sold 7.4 million digital copies – one of her most successful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U
15. Table groups
• What music video would you add to the list since 2010?
• Identify the reasons why/basic facts
• Think……’game changer’……
17. Newer ways of watching MV’s…
• Social networking platforms have changed the way
we watch music videos and how we listen to music
• Websites such as Vevo enable the artist and record label to have their
own MV channels rather than MTV VJ’s being in control of what’s
being played
• Youtube allows audiences to actively access MV’s of artists they want
to see, rather than what they VJ selects
21. Homework: Due Friday
• Research ‘Taylor Swift’ or ‘Justin Bieber’ as an artist.
• What is her/his ‘image’? (think about representation)
• How has her/his image changed over time? (consider where they started)
• How do her/his videos promote her/him and her/his ‘image’?
• What impact do you think she/he has had on society?
