HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEOSA2 MEDIA COURSEWORK

WHAT IS A MUSIC VIDEO?• A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a

complete piece of music, most co0mmonly a song.• Modern music videos were primarily made and used as a

marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings.

Source: Wikipedia

Music videos can sometimes be referred to as promotional videos or ‘promos’. This is due to the fact that they are usually used as promotional devices. They can sometimes be referred to as ‘short-form music video’ to offer a differentiation between them and full length movies relating to music. During the 1980s the term ‘rock video’ could be a way of describing this sort of entertainment, however it has now become an archaic term.

AN EARLY EXAMPLE OF A MUSIC VIDEO – ST. LOUIS BLUE’S – BESSIE SMITH 1929A short two-reel film was made in 1929 starring blues singer Bessie Smith, this featured dramatized performance and was eventually released in theatres in 1932.

• The earliest music videos were produced within the 1950s era however during the 20s animation films such as Oskar Fischinger were accompanied by ‘visual music’

• The early works by Walt Disney and his Silly Symphonies were structured around music.

• The use of the Panoram jukebox with eight three minute soundies were popular in taverns and nightspots, however the use of these faded during world War I.

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1950’S AND 1960’SIn 1956 Tony Bennett was filmed walking along the Serpentine in Hype Pa5rk London as his recording of “Stranger in Paradise” played; this film was distributed to and played by the UK and US television stations leading Bennett to later claim that he made the first music video. The defining moment within the modern music industry came with the release of The Beatles’ first motion picture. A Hard Day’s Night in 1964. The musical sections within this video arguably set out what would become the basic visual structure for todays music videos, influencing a vast number of musicians and countless rock group videos. The Beatles took the genre to another level with their ground-breaking film for ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’, which were made in earl 1967. These borrowed new techniques such as reversed filming, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and rhythmic editing. Created at the heights of psychedelic music period, these two landmark films were among the first purpose-made concept videos that attempt to ‘illustrate’ the song in an artful manner. In 1966 the clip of Bob Dylan performing ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ was much used. The clip’s ironic portrayal of a performance and the seemingly random inclusion of a celebrity in a non-performing role also became mainstays of the form. The clip has been much imitated. Source: Wikipedia

MODERN ERAThe key innovation in the development of the modern music video was the development of the recording and editing process, accompanied by the development of a number of related effects such as chroma-key. The advent of high quality colour videotape recorders and portable video cameras enabled many new pop acts to be able to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply in comparison to the relatively high costs of using film. However as the genre developed music video directors increasingly turned to 35mm film as the preferred medium while others mixed film and video. By the mid 1980s releasing a music video to accompany a new single had become standard and acts like The Jackson’s sought to gain a commercial edge by creating lavish music videos with million dollar budgets; such as Michael Jacksons video accompaniment to Thriller. A production which was rumoured to have cosy $1 million dollars.

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1970’S In the UK the importance of Top of the Pops to promote a single created an

environment of innovation and competition amongst artists , bands and record labels as the show placed strict limits on the number of music videos it would use – therefore a good video shown on the programme would increase the songs sales as viewers would hope to see the video again the following week.

Queens ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ also started a whole new era for using music videos.

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1980’S In 1981 MTV was launched. The first video that was aired was Buggles ‘Video Killed the

Radio Star’ David Bowie hit number one with his song ‘Ashes to Ashes thanks to the unique promo

created by David Mallet. In the early to mid 1980’s artist started to use more sophisticated effects in their

videos, and added the use of narrative within the videos. Michael Jackson was one of the first artists to create a concept of a short film within his music video as it had a beginning, middle and end.

Top of the Pops was critical in its approach to video content, so another approach was for an act to produce a promo that would be banned or edited as to cause controversy and publicity to promote the release. An good example is Duran Duran’s ‘Girls on Film’.

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MTV

Music video would, by the mid-1980s grow to play a central role in popular music marketing.

Madonna, owed a lot of her success to the skilful construction and seductive nature of her music videos. Some suggests that Madonna modelled herself on starts from the silent era such as Greta Garbo. Although many see MTV as the start of a ‘golden era’ of music videos and the newfound success of popular culture music others see it as bringing forward the death of the true musical artists, because physical appeal is now critical to popularity within the industry.

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MODERN-DAY MUSIC VIDEOS In this technology controlled era, music videos are now much more

technologically advanced and music videos are now sold in collections on CDs. Enthusiasts of music videos may sometimes video the video with the sound muted, purely to appreciate the aesthetic quality of the video itself. This is deemed a natural sociological reaction and some say this is an increasing trend within the music industry, focusing on the visual aspects of the artists rather than music quality. However, some critics have said that corporate music managers have sought to increase the sex-appeal surrounding females in music videos rather than choosing the less profitable musicianship-based videos.

Source: Wikipedia.