Music Videos
Music videos are videos that accompany songs, originally
made to promote bands in the later half of the 20th century.
The definition of music video is a little loose –
A film or video rendition of a recorded song, often showing the
musicians performing or showing images that illustrate the lyrics or
the mood of the song.
Music videos can be made for artistic and promotional
reasons, and is a very popular way of getting music across to bands.
The first music video is usually disagreed upon, as there is
not a simple answer. The Beatles movie Hard Day’s Night. It might be a movie,
but if a music video is a video promoting and accompanied by a song, then the
movie is also a music video. This came out in 1964.
Musicals led to music videos in some ways, with text
appearing at the bottom of the screen to encourage the audience to join in,
like lyrics. These were called Screen Songs.
These could be seen as a music video.
Disney’s Fantasia of 1940 was an animated film that was
based around classical music. Whether or not this promotes the movie is
debatable.
Putting a song over a video wasn’t new to The Beatles, in
fact people had been doing it for a while, but The Beatles Hard Day’s Night was
one of the first videos to fall under a clear definition of music videos.
This is the problem with the definition of music videos.
It’s very vague.
MTV
MTV was launched on August 1st, at 12:01 AM. MTV was a platform for artists to share music accompanied by a video. MTV stands for music television and was a major part of the history for music videos. The first music video to be aired on MTV was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles.
The song predicted that video would kill radio. They were wrong, but not far off. Most of us prefer video, but listen to radio when watching video isn't practical, like in cars.
MTV was responsible for the new, changing face of music videos at the time. For the first time artists realized that by making a music video, they were advertising their songs and making more money. Artists could brand their band. MTV had trouble keeping the channel busy with enough music videos, so bands that were previously unheard of would make music videos for a chance to appear on the show.
List of Influential Music Videos
Peter Gabriel and his video Sledgehammer (1986) was an iconic music video. It wasn't just a video showing him performing the song. It was a stop-motion video full of abstract effects that people wouldn't forget. It was produced by Aardman Animations, a company famous for the Wallace and Gromit series. Peter Gabriel lay under a glass sheet for 16 hours in order to create the video. To this day it remains the music video earning the most awards, totaling 9. The reason it became so important is because it wasn't just a performance, it was something you could watch with the sound down and still find interesting.
Herbie Hancock and his music video Rockit (1983) was a strange music video that involved several robots moving in time to the music. The video earned 5 music awards, including Best concept video and best special effects. It has been parodied and referenced many times, on the Simpsons for example.
List of Influential Singers Music Videos
Michael Jackson was huge at his peak fame. His music video for his song Thriller was a 13 minute long narrative that involved incredible dancing, and a very high budget of $500,000 (for the time). It was first shown in cinemas before movies, which just shows the changing purpose of music videos.
Micheal Jackson, using music videos popularized the dance move the robot, and the moonwalk, which he gave the name to. Without his music videos, Micheal Jackson wouldn't have been branded as the "King of Pop"or be as successful as it is today
Michael Jackson's Bad was very important part of his career. It rebranded him as a rule breaker and a rebel. In the video Michael Jackson performs a long and very complicated dance sequence, featuring a real gang. In the video MJ is dressed in all-black leather. In the long version of the video, there is a small plot where MJ plays a teenager who has come back from his private school, and the gang question whether he's really bad or not.
Michael Jackson's Black or White video was another re-branding of himself. Just 4 years after his Bad video, MJ stars in a music video themed on racial stereotypes and tolerance. MJ dresses in white clothing and dances the traditional dances of certain countries with people dressed in traditional clothing of their countries. Towards the middle, the children are shown to shout "I ain't gonna spend my life being a color" referring to not wanting to grow up with racism. The video features Macauley Cawkin, the child star of Home Alone and Home Alone 2. Towards the end of the video several black and white people of different ages morph into each other symbolizing how we are all the same. In the extended edition, Michael Jackson destroys a car and some glass windows. Later this was censored by adding offensive words, like KKK rules, in order to not promote violence, and instead symbolize destroying racism. After the music video was released Micheal became an important figure for breaking down racial barriers.
The purpose of music videos
Music videos were used to brand artists for a certain look or style. Musicians used music videos, songs and clothes to get their look to as many people as possible. Madonna was one of the first musicians to really reinvent herself every few years, and other musicians followed. Viral videos are a common way of creating interest in your band. They spread through people. You may not be able to think of a music video that you have spread to another person, but think back to the Harlem Shake or Psy's Gangnam Style, and you might change your mind.
Andrew Huang created the music video for bjork's stonemilker song. While it was a simple video, Andrew Huang was one of the first directors to use 360 degree video in a music video. 360 degree video means that the video was filmed from every angle horizontally. The user on a tablet, mobile or google chrome can move the video around to see bjork from multiple angles. The video manipulates time to show bjork moving around a beach.
Kazuaki Seki and Damian Kulash, Jr. Worked with Ok Go in order to create a music video that ran with no edits, in one take. Most Ok Go music videos are shot in just one take. However, the music video was filmed using a drone controlled remotely. The video was filmed over 4 days, at half the speed of the song. It took 44 takes and featured 2,300 people.
Romain Gavras is best known for his music video for M.I.A.'s song Born Free. The song was made more for the music video than the song itself. This is an example of the changing purpose of music videos. The video tells us about the struggles happening in Sri Lanka but in the context of our own community. It shows gingers being hunted.
http://www.houstonpress.com/music/the-25-most-influential-music-videos-of-all-time-6763497
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV
http://www.highsnobiety.com/2015/06/30/best-music-videos-azealia-beyonce-pharrell/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV
http://www.highsnobiety.com/2015/06/30/best-music-videos-azealia-beyonce-pharrell/
