2. What defines a music video?
■ A music video is a short film which accompanies music. Modern music videos are usually
used as marketing products for the artist. It helps promote the sales of the album or song
that has been shown.
■ According to Wikipedia: A music video, sometimes abbreviated to M/V, is a video of variable
duration that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional
or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music
marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. These videos are
typically shown on music television and on streaming video sites like You Tube.
■ Music videos have been and still are an essential element for a band or an artist to have.
Before music videos existed, fans could only listen to their favourite artist’s music, they
couldn’t see them or watch a concept intended with that song, unless of course going to a
concert to see them live.
3. ■ Music videos can date as far back as 1926 with
the introduction of ‘talkies’. These were short films
with synchronized sound. However these didn’t
really take off because it was hard to synchronize
the music with the video. It then developed when
Tony Bennett claimed to have created the first
music video when he was filmed walking along
the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Jailhouse Rock from
Elvis Presley can also been seen as the first
music video that classes as a ‘promotional’ video.
■ In the 1920’s, a theater in New York presented the
first motion picture with sound on film, this
synchronized movies and there soundtracks.
4. ■ In the 1940s, jukeboxes played
soundies. Soundies were three
minute films featuring music and
dance performances from jazz
singers and swing dancers.
■ In the 1960s, The Beatles used the
power of film to promote their
records. They starred in full length
features such as "Help" and
"A Hard Day’s Night“.
5. ■ The music video came to prominence in the 1970’s and 1980’s. In the late
1970’s Top of the Pops began to play music videos, one of these was
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ from Queen. However the BBC restricted the videos that
they could use. This was when MTV came about and had based all of their
programmes around the music video. The music video was described as an
‘illustrated song’. The first song to be played on MTV was “Video Killed the
Radio Star” in 1981. A lot of successful acts in this period of time owed a lot to
MTV because of how successful their videos were. These were acts such as
Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Madonna. There were two key
innovations in this time that also helped the music video develop into something
that was easy to develop and cheap at the same time. These were easy to use
video recording and editing equipment and the development of visual effects.
6. ■ In 1983 the most successful, influential and
innovative music video was released. ‘Thriller’
by Michael Jackson was nearly 14 minutes
long and cost $800,000 to film. This video also
helped the African American community of
acts because before this was shown on MTV,
there were rarely any African American videos
shown. So this video helped people such as
Rick James.
■ Then in 1984 MTV launched the MTV Video
Music Awards which later changed to the
VMA’s. This was an awards event that came to
underscore MTV and its importance in the
music industry. Then the year after MTV
launched VH1 (Video Hits One). This was to
cater for an older audience and included softer
music. In 1986 The Chart Show was launched
on Channel 4 in the UK. This channel only
showed music videos and had no presenters,
and the videos were linked with state of the art
computer graphics at the time.
7. ■ In 2005, the web launched one of the most renowned
websites of the music industry- Youtube: Youtube
makes the viewing of online video's much quicker and
easier; other websites that use a similar interface
include Google Videos, Yahoo, Facebook and My
Space. All of these music websites have a massive
effect on the viewing of music videos and an artist's
success rate.
■ Following You Tube success, Vevo was introduced in
2009 which also provides music videos from major
record labels, called "the big four".
8. ■ In addition to previous mentioned platforms, in 2005 iTunes was opened which
allows music videos as well as songs to be downloaded from internet. Music
videos are essential for fans engagement. They help audience grasp the visual
identity of specific artist. Music videos create a multidimensional experience.
Nowadays, there is a tacit expectation for a visual reference associated with
music. Music videos communicate to audience, promoters, and bookers that
artists take your music project seriously and professionally. In return, this
influences the way audience see artist, their art, and performance.
