Music videos began as promotional tools for artists to promote their music when they could not make live appearances. They became popular in the 1960s when The Beatles began making them. As music videos grew in popularity on shows like Top of the Pops, they took on three main forms: narrative, performance, and user-generated. Major record labels now use high-production music videos on platforms like YouTube and VEVO to promote their artists and make profits. Independent artists and directors see music videos as artistic works rather than just advertisements. They can help launch the careers of up-and-coming musicians and directors.

1. *Music Videos

2. *
*During 1964, The Beatles starred in their first feature film
‘A Hard Day’s Night’ which was directed by Richard Lester.
*A year later in 1965 The Beatles began to make
promotional clips for the distribution and broadcast in
other countries.
*They did this and it was successful because it enabled
them to promote their record releases without having to
make a person appearance.
*This is successful because when artists are unavailable to
make an appearance to perform their song they are able to
show the promotional video.

3. * In the success of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ it then
became regular for record companies to produce promotional
videos for artists’ single releases.
* Once they then had promotional videos, when the artists’
were unable to attend the performance they would play their
promotional video.
* The promotional videos were successful on shows like ‘Top of
the Pops’ which was was chart show, showing the latest most
popular top songs of that week. On a Friday evening the
viewers would regularly tune in to watch the show.
* In the most present time, Top of the Pops has lost its
popularity and there is now new chart shows such as Top 40,
and they also have chart shows updating that week for
specific genres. For example: Rock, Pop, Dance, etc.
*

4. *If the artist was unavailable to perform their song,
they would have their music broadcast and
accompanied by dancers such as Pan’s People rather
than the artist being there. This was what happened
before promotional videos.
*Brian May said that the videos were produced:
1. so his band ‘Queen’ could avoid miming complex
songs on Top of the Pops.
2. They were unable to perform on the show every
week because they were scheduled to appear on
tour and their song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was
number 1 for 9 weeks.
*

5. *
* Music videos quickly became a key promotional tool for
artists and for a while it was their main function.
* A music video is an advertisement.
* It is designed to draw attention to the music and illustrate
the song.
* Music videos appeal to a visual audience.
* There are 3 types of music videos;
1. Narrative: this style relies on imagery to tell the story to
the audience.
2. Performance: this style focuses on the footage of the
artist or the band.
3. Successful: this style is where the promotional video
exceeds over 100 thousand views on YouTube.

6. *
PSY – Gangnam Style
*This was a good example of a video
because it is repetitive which makes
it stick in your head.
*The language is Korean, which
doesn’t seem appealing to the a
majority of the audience but it was
still catchy due to the words even
though we don’t know what it is
saying.
*The dancing in the promo video is
easy to remember.

7. *
*Miley Cyrus – Wrecking Ball
*In this video Miley showing herself with
vulnerability.
*You feel this from the video but not from the
song itself.
*The video gives the song more of a message.

8. *
*Often artists/groups are sold as a brand. The music
video acts as a product of that brand. They then hope
that the audience will be inspired and like the brand
and hope they will ‘buy into the brand’.
*They most often do this through ‘mise-en-scene’ they
extend the ‘look’ of the video into the rest of their
lives.
*The artist aims to have a consistent image across a
range of platforms: music video, websites, cd covers
and more.
*For some artists the ‘image’ is more importance than
the actual product. The spice girls are a good example
of this.

9. *
*The spice girls as part of their brand named
themselves a name of spices.
1. Posh Spice
2. Baby Spice
3. Sporty Spice
4. Ginger Spice
5. Scary Spice
* This made the spice girls stick out more to their
audience as n individual as it was named due to
their personality.

10. *
*JUSTIN BIEBER and ONE DIRECTION
*Justin has merchandise out for his fans:
bedding, dolls, etc.
*Well known artists have these because they are
popular and they have a really large fan base.

11. *
*Music videos help increase the income.
*Watching the video could encourage the
audience to purchase a number of items.
*It rises the profile or artist/group which
encourages audiences to attend tours, etc.
*It could be an opportunity for the ‘product
placement’. For example: Beyoncé and her
release of perfumes.

12. *
*The music video allows the artist to extend the
outlets to which people can access them through.
For example:
1. Music Videos
2. Websites
3. YouTube
4. Smart Phones
*Each one of these helps the audience become more
of a fan.

13. *
*Another purpose to the music video
can be to provide opportunities for
synergy.
*Synergy is when two media products
work together to create a final
outcome and to mutually benefit each
other.
*An example of this is Skyfall in the
James Bond film.
*Adele and the producers of the film
worked together to benefit from this
arrangement.
*Adele’s song promotes the film and
the film promotes Adele’s song.

14. *
*Another example is again the music and the
film industries working together.
*Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – See You Again
which features in the film Fast and Furious 7
from the death of Paul Walker.

15. *
*Another example is Sam Smith’s new song
‘Writing’s on the Wall’ in the new Bond film.
*Again music and film industries working
together to create a final piece.

16. *
*Because of the variety of online platforms,
music channels are not really the strongest
promotional platforms that they once were.
*In many ways the music video channels is in
danger of becoming irrelevant and less popular.
*Online streaming and downloads mean that
music videos and instantly more accessible.

17. *
*There are 3 types of artists:
*Major Label
*Independent
*Artist self-produced
*Each of these artists music videos has a different
purpose.
*Each of these uses a music video in different ways
but for each of them the music video is a really
important tool.

18. *
*The music industry is dominated by 4 multi national
corporations:
1. Universal
2. Sony
3. Warner Bros
4. EMI
*These are known as ‘The Majors’. The majority of these are
backed by conglomerates with stakes in other industries such
as; film, TV and electronics.
*For example: SONY is a CONGLOMERATE which owns SONY
MUSIC

19. SONY
Music
Gaming
Electronics
Entertainment
Computer
Hardware
Telecom
Equipment

20. *
*Most of these ‘Majors’ own, or license, a series
of smaller subsidiary companies in order to
reach different kinds of audiences in different
kinds of genre.
1. Columbia
2. Island
3. Syco
4. RCA
5. Virgin
*These 5 are known as ‘Major Independents’

21. *
*The purpose of the music for Major Labels is
clear. The videos provide a strong online
presence and allow them to make more profit
through advertising.
*A strategy is to use an online platform like
VEVO.
*VEVO is a music website owned an operated by
Universal Music Group, Google, Sony Music
Entertainment, and Abu Dhabi Media.

22. *
*There are a huge number of small companies
with little or no financial connection to the
majors.
*These companies often concentrate on a small
number of acts that are specialised in the
industry such as: Hip-hop/Rap/Electronics and
Dance.
*An example of a highly successful independent
is ‘Warp Records’.

23. *
*Independent or ‘indie’ producers see their
work as ‘art form’ and not just an
advertisement for the music industry.
*Their music video are often a stepping stone
for up and coming directors to help them
further their careers in the music industry.
*After mainstream actors these sort of
producers often become well sort.
*Lots of them are independent.

24. *
*He made is directorial debut with the music
video for ‘Come to Daddy’ by Aphex Twin in
1997.
*It was praised, banned and raved about by lots
of people in the business.
*From this his career then extended into making
films and advertisements.

25. *
*One of the adverts Chris Cunningham has made
is the Gucci - Flora perfume Advert.
*The advert is of a girl sweeping through a field
of flowers with dramatic actions and facial
expressions.
CLICK FOR
ADVERT

26. *
*An American director, producer, screenwriter and
actor. His work includes music videos,
advertisements , film and television.
*He shot to fame with videos for Fatboy Slim
including ‘Praise You’ and ‘The Rockfella Skank’.
*His feature films are:
1. Being John Malkovich (1999)
2. Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
3. Her (2013)

27. *
*The videos of this have the smallest budgets
and are usually unknown artists.
*Making a music video is vital to promoting their
early career. It allows them to utilise the
websites such as YouTube which can lead to
success.

28. *
*Justin Bieber was discovered in 2008 by
Scooter Braun.
*One his videos from his channel Kidrauhl was
‘With You – Chris Brown’