2. What is the point of a music
video?
• A music video is mainly used for promotional purposes
and artistic purposes and is usually a short film involving
the song and mainly the performance by the singer.
• Recently, modern music videos are prominently
created for marketing purposes to increase sales of
the singles and also promote the artist.
• They can be created to express the artist’s feeling
through narrative and performance
• There can be a synergy across several products e.g. a
soundtrack to a film such as ‘Low’ by Flo Rida featuring
T-Pain where the music video includes several clips
from the film to also promote the film
• They can be created for a chance to win awards and
create more publicity.
3. The Development
• Music videos have been around for decades and will
continue to be created in the most creative formats in the
future
• Music videos started in the late 30s mainly starting with Elvis
Presley and his first live TV performance. This was completely
typical as many musicians would mainly perform live on
television
• This carried on all the way to 1980s when MTV was
launched where the first video released was ‘Video Killed
the Radio Star’ by The Buggles.
• The introduction of other channels such as VH1, Box and
4Music has also gained more attractions as a marketing
tool as has YouTube.
• MTV has also made a grave impact as it provided music
videos internationally for countries such as China
• In the modern day today, the music video is sometimes the
symbol that stands out the most rather than the song itself
4. Soundies
• Soundies were essentially short films with the main aim of
marketing the artist in the early days of sound film-making.
Short films could be up to up 8 minutes long which was used
to showcase talent by singers such as Billie Holidays and
Bing Crosby which would generally be shown in cinemas as
a small part of an entire programme of newsreel, cartoon
and main features but focusing mainly as reels on the front
runner of the video jukebox – the Panarom.
• The Panarom was a visual jukebox which was mainly used
for early music videos called Soundies which were basically
one song films. Lots of soundies were created within the jazz
and classical genre in the 1940s.
• Soundies tended to be a group of performers singing live
performances in short film musicals. Jukeboxes could often
be found in restaurants and bar enabling people to play
and watch the clip as the music played easily.
5. Rise of the Television
• The first short musical film made in the USA specifically for
Televisions was the Snader Telescriptions which produced
and filmed over 1000 musicals between 1950-54.
• It was in 1956 where Tony Bennett was filmed walking along
The Serpentine in Hyde Park in London, England in his
recording of ‘Stranger in Paradise’. This film was distributed
and played in television stations in the UK and USA making
Bennett the first ever person to make a music video.
6. The Beatles
• Music video were beginning to receive attention and reach
out to wider audiences when then eventually lead onto
videos to be made for specific programmes such as
Hullubaloo in the USA and Top of the Pops in the UK
• Promotional clips for music groups began being produced
e.g. The Beatles – A Hard Days Night which was the first big
motion picture released in 1964.
• Many musical aspects have created music videos today
through the use of the visual vocabulary which as had an
influence on many artists and lots of rock and pop groups
today in music.
• The Beatles had other work including ‘Strawberry Fields
Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’ which were made in 1967 and
eventually made into successful films which enhanced the
music video scene as they included lighting, unusual
camera angles and film techniques.
7. Modern Era
• Modern day music videos is in all the rebirth of music and videos as
audiences have been introduced to colour screening and lots of other
useful effects. Equipment became a lot more concise and easier to use
technology such as hand- held cameras making it more relaxed for
artists to produce, release and market their videos. It eventually became
more noticeable that the more money an artist earned, the more
advanced and better the music they came out with would be standing
out to the audience.
• During the 1980s, releasing a normal, standard music video had
become dull which became clearer once The Jackson Five released
their video ‘Can You Feel It’ which had millions of dollars behind it,
which gained them that more commercial edginess towards viewers.
8. Music Videos Today
• Music videos are created mainly to market an artist
nowadays. MTV continues to be a force on the
television as more than 320 million TV sets in 90
countries over 5 continents tune in to watch music.
• Videos can also be watched on other media platforms
such as the internet which provides sources such
YouTube, Game Consoles and Mobiles.
• It can be agreed that YouTube is seen as the most
modern music video marketing system today as plenty
of people can make their own music videos and
upload it onto YouTube gaining views and eventually
perhaps record label contracts.
• Downloading music from the internet is becoming
more common and can be seen as a threat to MTV as
not many audiences would tune in to watch videos on
TV if they can just browse online.
