This document defines and discusses the history and evolution of music videos. It begins with examples of modern music videos and defines music videos as short promotional videos used to market artists and songs. It then outlines the purposes of music videos, including selling songs, entertaining audiences, and promoting artists. The document proceeds to trace the history of music videos from early musical films to the rise of MTV in the 1980s. It concludes with a discussion of common elements in modern music videos like performance, narrative, themes, symbols, and cameos.

1. MUSIC VIDEO
INTRODUCTION

2. EXAMPLES OF MUSIC VIDEO
 House of cards– Madina lake
 Red – Taylor swift
 Work it out – Beyonce
 When i am gone - Eminem

3. DEFINITION
 A music video is a short video for marketing
merchandise to promote the artist and sell
its product.
 The origins of music go back into the 1980s.
 The trend of music video started in the early
1980s and at that time this type of music
video was known as
 Filmed insert
 Promotional film
 Film clip

4. PURPOSE OF MUSIC VIDEO
 The purpose of a music video is:
 To sell the song and invoke a reaction so it leaves you
remembering the song.
 To give the listener a better understanding of the song.
 To entertain the audience
 To sell CDs and DVDs to viewers and to create a memorable
visual for the song which increase its chances to sell.
 Marketing for the purpose of exposure and expansion of the
artist’s profile.

5. HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEO
 “Musicals” was a new film genre which came out in
the very early 1930s.
 It is where several songs were interworn into the
plotline of the story and are performed in line with
the narrative.
 Some of the first ever musicals are
 The Vegabond King
 Golden Dawn

6. SOUNDIES
 These were an early version of the music video
 They were three minute musical produced in New
York,Chicago and Hollywood in the 1940s.
 Soundies were displayed on the Panoram– a coin
operated film jukebox in nightclubs,bars and
amusement centers e.t.c.

7. RISE OF TELEVISION
 The first short musical film in the USA which was made
precisely for television was the Snader Telescriptions over
1000 musical films were produced and filmed for television
between 1950 – 54.
 In 1956 Tony Bennett was filmed walking along The
Serpentine in Hyde Park London in his recording of
“Stranger in Paradise”.This film was distributed and played
in the USA and UK television stations thus Bennett claiming
he made the first ever music video.

8. THE BEATLES
 Music videos began to gain attention of a wider audience which then
lead videos to be made for specific programmes such as Top of the
Pops in UK and Hallubaloi in USA.
 The Beatles as their music video “a hard days night” was the first major
motion picture which was released in 1964.
 The Beatles further work such as “Strawberry Fields Foreever”and
“penny lane” were made in 1967 and were successful films which
enhanced the music videos scene as they used film
techniques,effects,lighting and unusual camera angles.

9. MODERN ERA
 The modern era of music videos is all the rebirth of music
and videos as the audience have been introduced to colour
screening and many more effects.
 The equipment became more precise and easier to use
such as hand held cameras and this made it easier for
artists to produce , release and market their videos more
quickly and swiftly.

10. MTV
 In 1981 America launched a music channel called MTV
which was a 24 hour a day music station for all to view.This
allowed anyone to see and watch a music video any time of
the day.
 The first music video on the channel was Buggles”Video
killed the radio star”.
 In the 1980s artists started to use more storylines and plots
to their music videos an example being Michael Jackson
as he was the first artist to create a concept of a short film

11.  Music videos are now central for the
marketing of an artist.MTV continues to be a
force on the television as more than 230
million Tv sets in 90 countries over 5
continents tune in to watch music.
 Now music videos can be see on
youtube,mobiles and game consoles e.t.c

12. ELEMENTS OF MUSIC VIDEO
 Performance
 Narrative
 Thematic
 Symbolic
 Cameo

13. PERFORMANCE
 In a performance based music video there is
a performance of the artists as part of the
video.
 It was from clips of performances that music
videos developed.

14. NARRATIVE
 In a narrative based music videos there is a
story which is either featured in the lyrics or
is suggested in the lyrics.
 The narrative can be like a mini film with a
beggining,middle and end.

15. THEMATIC
 In a thematic based music video there is a certain theme
which is being represented in the music video.
 The theme depends on the genre of the film.
 For example;
 Heavy metal bands are used for performance dominated
clips.
 Rap has lots of street images.

16. SYMBOLIC
 The symbolic element uses alot of symbols
to build up meaning e.g rain is a symbol of
sorrow.
 There is a lot of use of montage -- lots of
images to creat meaning .
 Lighting is often used to suggest mood.

17. CAMEO
 In cameo the musician features in the
narrative but is not part of the storyline and
doesnot perform in it.

18. IDEA OF SPECTACLE
 This means that the performer looks
directly at the audience

19. The End