2. The history of music videos...
What are music videos? Music videos are short films integrating both music and
imagery, nowadays music videos are created as a marketing device to promote music
recordings.
Music videos came into the limelight in the 1980s, when MTV began basing their
format around the medium. The first video ever played on MTV was 'Video Killed the
Radio Star' by The Buggles in 1981. However, aspects of music videos did exist earlier
than this time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwuy4hHO3YQ
Music videos involve different styles in order to draw in different audiences depending
on the genre of music for example, animation, live action filming and documentaries
although some videos blend together different styles in order to attract different
audiences.
The very first music video...
In 1894, Sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired various
performers to promote the sales of their song “The Little Lost Child” by projecting a
series of still images on a screen. This was the first step towards music videos. Justin Bieber – Baby music video.
Up to date...
In 2010 the number of music videos viewed online reaches 34 billion in the month of
May with an estimated number of 183 million viewers. Nowadays there are many new
ways of viewing music videos for example through Smartphones, Ipads and Internet
sites.
Most Viewed song: Justin Bieber: Baby = 620,583,978 Views
Longest Music Video: Michael Jackson – Ghost (1995) = 39 Minutes
Most Expensive Music Video: Michael Jackson Ft Janet Jackson – Scream (1995) =
$7,00,000
3. Music video timeline…
1894 – First example of an illustrated song: Still images are
projected next to a live performance of the song: Little Lost Child.
1960′s- This is the era music videos really took off. The Beatles
introduced a whole new way of promoting their music, this was
through different types of video, ranging from making a video of the
band singing on a rooftop (Get Back) to many psychdelic animated
videos (Yellow Submarine). This is what opened up a whole new
genre of music. The Beatles album ‘Sgt Pepper’ inspired many 80′s
disco genre music videos due to the inspired physdelia of the band.
The news ways of promoting music reached out to different audiences
and drew a much wider audience into the interest of different types of
music.
The Beatles – Help! Music video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=606ZcMKXlUg
1965- The Beatles produce 10 B/W films which are used as
promotional videos for their album release. This kick starts other
artists to promote their songs via music video. This new technology
was very different to what audiences had seen in the past causing them
to have great interest in the new releases of music videos. Old and
young audiences were intrigued by the new equipment and technology
that was being used to create music videos causing other bands to use
the technology as well later on.
The Beatles – Help! Music video.
4. 1974- This year, Sony released the first video camera to be sold to the
public. This was an inspiration for many different audiences as they wanted
to see what it was like to capture footage themselves.
1981- ‘Elephant Parts’ is the first video album and Grammy winner in the
category of music video. This video clip is relevant to the video I will be
making as it conveys the strong message that drugs are bad.
Madonna- Material Girl’ music video.
1983- Release of Michael Jackson – Thriller: started a revolutionary
craze of unusual music videos. This was a 13 minute long screenplay
which drew in wider audiences across the world. This was certainly
something audiences had never seen before, the video was shown heavily
on MTV and was the top-selling home-video release of all time at one
point, with over 9 million copies sold after being released on VHS.
1984- Awards show specifically for Music Videos is formed and
presented by MTV. This is also known as the ‘Oscars for youth’ and never
fails to draw in old and young audiences due to the choice of stars featured
throughout the ceremony. Artists such as Madonna and Cyndi Lauper who
were current icons performed at this time. Artists performed as though Michael Jackson - Thriller
featured in a music video in order promote their new releases.
1988- Public Enemy releases ‘Night of the living baseheads’ which
breaks new ground as it presents music videos as a form of cultural
expression for artists in the world of hip-hop.
1990- RUN DMC – Tricky: This song has a strong narrative structure as
it cuts between the artist rapping and the moral narrative of the video. This
is significant as we could portray the message that drugs are bad, by using
this sort of editing effect.
Culture Club – Kama
Chameleon music video.
5. 1992- Directors names began to be shown along with the artist/song
name when in music videos which allowed directors to begin their career
in the business as well as gaining a lot more acknowledgment.
2002-Formatting videos onto DVD became available, this brings a 33
percent growth for music videos worldwide. This new technology created
allowed new audiences to become available for the music as well as
causing the video to have a lot more promotion and discovery.
Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce – Telephone music
video.
2003- ITunes store opens. 20 days after music videos were introduced
on iTunes, 1 million songs were downloaded. This software allows many
different audiences to find artists of their choice however they have to
have a computer in order to access the programme. It now offers over 28
million songs, videos and apps.
2005- With the launch of YouTube and MySpace two years later music
artists such as Soulja Boy begin to see more success through the ability
of viewers watching their videos online. As these services are free, wider Katy Perry – Wide Awake music video.
audiences are browsing the web and are more likely to find a wider
variety of videos that may appeal to them.
Soulja Boy – Crank Dat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UFIYGkROII
2010- The number of videos viewed online reaches 34 billion in the
month of May with an estimated 183 million viewers. This is down to the
increase of technology that allows audiences to view music videos. Beyonce – Beautiful Nightmare music
video.
6. The history of Indie Rock Music…
Indie rock music is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and
the United States in the 1970s, after the Beatles broke up, new bands formed, experimenting
with different and new sounds which resulted in eventually forming the new rock sound of
indie. The 1980s was an incredible decade for the Indie music industry. Indie; at this point,
was still more of a hard rock genre of music. The most popular Indie band at this time was
Nirvana, who soon transformed into a hard rock/metal band. In the 1990s Indie music had
become some-what well known as a new genre due to bands making their sound heard by
touring the country and bands beginning to become more well known in the industry for
example Oasis and Blur.
Now, Indie Rock is a huge genre of music having not only having Music channels dedicated
to the genre, such as Q and NME but also having music magazines dedicated to the genre as
well. Indie bands are becoming a lot more well known and getting a lot more coverage on
TV and the internet.
Blur-Song 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbBvKaM6sk
Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7bHe--mp1g
7. Distribution of music videos…
Music videos are available on various different platforms in order to
reach out to the selected audience of the song. Over the years more and
more platforms have become available meaning that audiences can view
the videos in different ways for example:
- TV (E.g. MTV/4music/Kerrang etc.)
- Internet (Youtube)
- Video Games (E.g. Singstar/Rockband)
- CD/CD-Rom (Exclusive Videos on CD’s/Singles)
- DVD
- Phone
- Tablet
8. The history of Indie Rock music
videos…
Many people say that Queen’s hit
record Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
was the first real ‘Rock’ music
video created, although other rock
videos were created before this they
were not intended for promotional
purposes.
Since the 1970’s rock music videos
have come along a lot as there are
now several rock music channels
dedicated to playing old and new
rock music such as ‘Scuzz’, ‘Q’
‘NME’ and ‘Kerrang’.
9. The history of magazine
advertisements…
Magazine advertisements are extremely
significant features of making profits and drawing
people into products. Magazine advertisement
agencies began in 1890 and since then they have Magazine ad from the 1950s
been generally financed by advertising, either by a
purchase price, by pre-paid magazine
subscriptions, or all three.
Magazine advertisements have been around for
many years however more recently producers of
magazine advertisements have realised what
really draws in the target audience compared to
anything. The further back through time you go,
the more text you will find in the advertisement
however, now it’s all about the image. The Magazine ad
simpler the advert the better. People only need to from 1999.
know so much so unneeded information is no
longer included. The layout of magazine
advertisements have become a lot easier on the
eye and font styles have remained relatively
similar as the text still needs to be easy to read
from a distance, so the clearer the better.
Magazine ad from 2012
10. Digipaks…
A digipak is a type of CD case meant to replace
the standard jewel case. One advantage of
digipak over jewel case is it doesn't break as
easily. With a proper design, a digipak can look
more classic and delivers the premium
packaging impression.
The very first digipak was released in the 1980s
and has since become an on-going trend in the
music industry. Different items are included in
digipaks for example booklets with lyrics of the
songs featuring on the album, posters or
backstage images of the artist creating the
album. There is usually information included in
the digipak about the artist’s upcoming tours
and merchandise.
11. As a result of this research…
I have learnt that music videos are an extremely significant
factor of an artist’s promotion for a song. I have learnt that
music videos are placed upon many different platforms in order
to draw in wider audiences and cause more attention towards
the artist’s music.
When I create my music video I will make sure that I include
certain elements that I know will attract the target audience for
my product. I may also carry questionnaires on my target
audience in order to find out what appeals to them so I can
include it in my video. I will use a wide range of technology in
order to appeal to the audience as well as making the video
look as contemporary as possible by following rules and
guidelines of other recent videos.
