Origins of the Music Video.
While music has been a part of human society for centuries, the modern music video is relatively new in comparison. During the late 1890’s Thomas Edison is credited with created possibly the first ever music video. Using a kinetophone and a phonograph, the short consisted of two men dancing to a popular operetta performed on a violin. While it is not an official music video in the modern sense, it is the earliest known footage of music matching what the viewer sees. The short was entitled “Dickson Experimental Sound Film.” (History). Which enabled the silent film genre and eventually the modern day music video.
Music at the Movies.
Before we hit music videos as we know them today we had what were called Musical Shorts. 1923 saw the first motion pictures to feature sound-on-film, which essentially synchronized the moving imagery to a soundtrack. Featuring a range of stars including opera singers, bands and popular musicians, Musical Shorts would play before feature films well into the 1940s. (History).
Sounds like Soundies.
Soundies originated in the 1940’s and appeared in various venues including bars, diners, nightclubs, roadhouses and many other public places. Via a complicated device known as a Panoram which would use mirrors and a screen mounted on top of a stylish cabinet, patrons would activate the soundies via a coin-operated system that would last for roughly three minutes. They were manufactured by the Mills Novelty Company in Chicago, who were also leading manufacturers of juke boxes and other coin-operated machines. They would cost $600 which is around $12000 today. They thrived for a few years but suddenly saw a decline in 1947. (Bewley).
From Tunes to Television.
Snader Telescriptions may be something you have never heard of before, however these were essentially the forerunners of today’s modern music videos. During the 1950s the top jazz, pop and country stars made three to four minute long films. Thousands were created over a few year span and were used as fillers to fill in gaps between other broadcasts on early television. The acts would perform one of their songs and would be filmed on multiple cameras. Unlike today’s music videos the performers would sing live where today a music video is matching a lip synced performance to an already produced soundtrack. Stars such as George Shearing, Nat King Cole and Elvis Presley were among the pioneers of essentially the first music videos (Vilencia & Ingram).
Music Meets the Movies.
The British band The Beatles unified their art of music with the moving image to market themselves in a brand new way and establish themselves as true artists. Starring in featured films such as “Help” and “A Hard Day’s Night” the four also recorded dozens of promotional clips. Some would have a narrative while other would comprise mainly of psychedelic imagery that were broadcast in the United Kingdom and overseas. Following their lead many artists during the 1960s and 1970s would also release sophisticated promotional films (History). However this was not the first time music and film had seen a synergy on this level Walt Disney for example had used songs and music as major themes in their feature films prior to The Beatles. But unlike The Beatles their films would not be a showcase to help elevate the stars in their career, instead the stars would be used to make the film more popular.
Music Making Television.
On the 1st January 1964 television welcomed the first ever programme to be dedicated entirely to music. The BBC launched Top of the Pops and presented by Jimmy Savile, the show had a simple aim. To showcase the stars of the day and count down the charts of the week based on record sales (BBC).
). The following year the United States started airing Hullabaloo which was an American counterpart to Top of the Pops with some minor changes. One of these changes was a segment presented by the manager of The Beatles which would cover up and coming acts from the United Kingdom (IMDB). Unlike Top of the Pops, Hullabaloo ended transmission in 1966, where Top of the Pops carried on transmitting until 2006. The trend of TV shows centred on music was not only left to the UK and USA, Australia launched two music programmes aimed at teenagers in 1974. “Countdown” and “Sounds” both featured only music videos of artists without a host. This was noticed by many countries as a highly popular and relatively easy television programme to organise. Three years before MTV hit the airwaves America began broadcasting a similar show in 1978 called “Video Concert Hall”. The show offered several hours of music videos every day to the USA television networks (History).
Making Music Television.
In 1981 MTV officially launched onto the airways with the words “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” Spoken by one of the channels creators, John Lack. The first video to air on the channel was The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.” MTV revolutionized the music industry across the world and influenced pop culture and entertainment forever. In its early days Video Jokeys would introduce basic music videos, but with the music industry realising the potential for marketing behind their acts they began putting for financial investment into the videos made. High profile directors including Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry worked on music videos before investing more of their time into feature films. Stars such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince and Duran Duran owe much of their early success to MTV who played their music videos in heavy rotation. With the inception of the MTV Music Awards in 1984 it became even more important for artists to create dynamic music videos for broadcast. This led to 1989 where Madonna’s “like a Prayer” music video pushing cultural boundaries and taste which was the topic of controversy at the time (History).
Music Videos Become Unstoppable.
With the birth of MTV many artists went to great lengths to produce visual spectaculars to accompany their music. Perhaps the most famous of these is Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. Directed by John Landis, the video acts more as a short film rather than your typical music video. With a run time of 14 minutes long, the video is stylised after the horror genre of TV and film. With an astounding half-a-million dollar budget making it one of the most costly music videos to produce at the time. Running with a clear narrative story, the video is to this day one of the most parodied dances in TV and film (Edwards).
Internet Killed the Music Show.
With MTV still around today it is now flooded with competition from many other music based television channels, with some such as Karrang specialising in specific music genres. This was the first drop in the control MTV saw with showcasing artists to the masses, however a relatively new online invention which has now taken over as fans main source of watching their favourite artist, group or even concert performance. YouTube is now a vital resource used by artists of today to help in establishing artist in a jungle of competition. YouTube has even found artists such as Justin Bieber launching him into the spotlight based off of a single video going viral. Another added bonus behind the online format now taken my many artists means that viewers can actively find the artist videos they wish to watch, rather than watching for hours in hopes the video they want to see is shown.
The Rules behind Music Videos.
Well the first reason is simply for promotion purposes. By an artist putting out music videos they can clearly market themselves toward specific audiences. Boy bands are perhaps the easiest example to see this. Boy band tend to have a certain style in their line ups. Their varying styles will enable them to target more girls to follow them and increase their fandom.
Music videos can also become an extension of income for many. Simply be having the artist or band using a specific drink is known as product placement. In product placement a deal will actually have been struck between the manufacturers and the artist’s manager, offering money for the product to feature in a video.
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With all the options for videos to be viewed artists also considering it an extension of how to reach audiences. With channels, online, DVDs, websites and even CDs they can reach a wider audience to showcase themselves. This can also lead to what is called “synergy”. Synergy is the merging of two art forms. In the case of music, it can be linked to movies and television. Many songs have become iconic for their portrayal of music to certain sequences. Rocky III and “The Eye of the Tigre” by Suvivor is one example. The song is associated with the training montage to some fans so strongly that the artists are linked to the movie. Another example is Aerosmith’s song “I don’t Wanna Miss a Thing”, pretty much the entire music video is footage from the movie Armageddon telling the story of the movie. This song again is strongly linked to this movie through the art of synergy.
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Styles.
Music videos follow six basic formats.
Narrative
A narrative music video is where the footage typically matches with the lyrics to tell a story. This style is used in near enough every genre of music. No Doubt and their song “Don’t Speak” is a prime example for a narrative music video. It tells the story of how the three male members of the band felt as Gwen Stefani was push forward as the front woman of the band, while they were pushed into the background. Another good example is Destiny’s Child’s song “Emotion”. The video features a different narrative story, presented in a triple split screen, for each of the three band members which then links all three of them in the finale of the song. Kelly features a story of a girl saying goodbye to her boyfriend as he leaves for some unknown reason, Beyonce’s story is about a girl who catches her boyfriend cheating and the final member Michelle shows a girl being by the bedside of her grandmother as she is dying. In the final segment of the video Michelle calls the other two as her nan has died, which results in the other two forgetting about their lives problems to be at their friends side in her time of need. |
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In-concert/live footage.
In concert and live footage videos are a popular option for many bands and artists. This is simply because they are also showing fans what seeing them live could be like, increasing the chances of ticket sales on their tours. P!nk’s “Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely)” music video consists of nothing but footage from her 2006 tour I’m Not Dead. Roxette’s music video for “Listen to your Heart” is simply a concert performance of the song as Borgholm Castle ruins on the Swedish Baltic Sea island of Öland. |
Animation
Animation is another popular format for music videos, but is not utilised as much as other styles. The band Eiffel 65’s music video “Blue” combined live-action footage with computer animated CGI which was done in a futuristic style to add to the techno-electronic music of the song. A more traditional animation styled video was by the Vengaboys with the song “Going to Ibiza” which was entirely animated featuring cartoon versions of the four band members dancing and partying in various locations around the world. |
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Performance
Performance based music videos are similar to In-concert/live footage but are set up performances purely for the music videos. Spice Girl’s song “Stop” featured the five girls dancing in their street to all their neighbours, ending with them at a community all performing the song and dance routine in front of the members of the local community. Hoobastank’s “Reason” would also fall into the category. While the majority of the video is a narrative story, it does feature cuts to the band performing the song in a studio. |
Parody
Parody music videos are very much like a parody movie. Their aim is to mock and imitate an already existing entity. But it is far less used than many of the other styles and is more used by rock bands. “All the Small Things” by Blink 182 is mocking a lot of pop artist’s music videos from the late 1990s. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Backstreet boys were amongst those that the videos mocked. |
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Pastiche
Pastiche is perhaps the least used style for music videos. Pastiche is essentially the opposite of parody. Rather than mock an already existing entity it is instead pay homage to it instead. Blur’s music video for “The Universal” is one of the best examples of pastiche. It is emulating the film Clockwork Orange with the band members dressed in white and wearing heaving eyeliner. Additionally the guest they are with are emulating other characters from the film. |
Techniques and Conventions.
Techniques and conventions play a massive part in a music video. The techniques used can literally define to music genre of a music video. For example Pop music themed video will typically have a brighter atmosphere in how the video is shot compared to a rock music video that will typically use darker and grungier lighting techniques. A Pop video is typical to utilise dance routines for the artist or band to perform during their video, RnB and Dance are really the only other genres to typically use dance routines in their music videos. However it should be noted that other genres will use dance moves, but it will more likely be in a mocking way. Where in contrast a Rock video is more likely to have the band performing with their instruments and fans screaming around them. Pop will also use a varied range of shots from long shots to close-up shots. Where a Rock video will use more close up shots to emphasise the facial expressions of the artist or band.
Camera Angles and Movement.
Camera angles also play an important factor in music videos as they can help portray a mood or enhance an effect in a music video. Close-up shots are used to capture the expression of the artists and extreme close-ups are even used to draw the viewers’ attention to even finer details. Long shots will be utilised to give a setting to the video and even showcase the artists outfit and movements. Tracking shots occur when the artist is taking the viewer on a journey in the video, while high shots are used to make thinks appear smaller and low angle shots make them look larger.
Sound.
Sound can also play a part in how a music video and I am not just referring to the music. While the music and act as a sound parallel to the footage, meaning the video matches the tone and mood for the song, there are other sounds that can play a part in a music video. Some music videos can actually feature dialogue. Another form of sound used sometimes with music videos is that of diegetic sound, which is background noises being used in the video. This can be from bird calls to police sirens to weather. It can literally be any sound that matches the footage of the video. Eminem’s video for “Stan” is a prime example of both as throughout the video you have many sound effects. Rain, thunder, wind, pencil scratches and cars are just a few sounds used throughout the video. It also features dialogue between the characters during the video when the girlfriend caught him bleaching his hair.
Mise-en-scene.
Mise-en-scene is the essence of a music video. This in some cases can be what define an artist’s style in both appearance and music video. The easiest to identify mise-en-scene is that used in the Rock genre. Guitars and drums are both a typical aspect that can define the genre of the music and the appearance of the band in the eyes of fans. Props can also be another mise-en-scene, Michael Jackson is famous for his glove in his videos and is one of the major styling aspects that differentiated him from others, and Nelly additionally always wears a plaster over his cheek, something no other artist wears. The final major mise-en-scene is the physical appearance of the artist or band. Lady Gaga is renowned for her eccentric dress sense and heavy makeup style. However artist can choose to abandon these, in her early career P!nk was branded with short bright pink hair to match her name. When she broke away from her RnB roots of music into Rock, she went blonde experimenting with streaks of colours and various lengths and styles to her hair.
Blending the Rules.
While these rule are in place they are not always followed where artists can sit between genres. Three artist each sharing the genre Pop while using another genre to separate their music from other Pop artists are P!nk classed as a Rock/Pop artist, Rhianna an RnB/Pop artists and Lady Gaga a Dance/Pop artist. By doing this they allow for a greater diversity in techniques and conventions used in their videos.
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P!nk’s music video for the song “Try” deomonstrates aspects of both the conventions behind Pop and Rock. Featuring her and a male dancer they portray as fight between a couple through synchronized dance routine. This allows for the video to feature a typical dance routine for a Pop video, while still harnessing the aggression seen more typically in Rock. The video is shot in a grungy shack in the desert adding to the rock theme more while various coloured powders fly across the pair causing the vibrancy of a Pop video. The video utilizes various shots throughout including many long shots for the dance routine with mid shots amongst them. There are however close-up shots to showcase her facial expression, lending it to the Rock genre.
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Rhianna’s video for “S&M” instantly blasts the viewer with a mix of colours and has instant close-ups of the artist performing in a room, which lands it into the Pop genre. However as the video progresses you begin to get effects such as blurs and increased speed of clips add to beat and subject matter of the lyrics, pushing it into the RnB column. The video gets raunchier as it progresses and uses an increase of visual effects to add to the video matching with the lyric, however it remains very bright and vibrant throughout making it tick both the Pop and RnB boxes. During one portion of the video Rhianna does something seen quite often in female RnB artist’s music videos which is appearing in skimpy clothing while wearing thigh high boots. With all these aspects Rhianna keeps her video both Pop and RnB.
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Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” uses many of the techniques outside of just her genre specifications. Right at the beginning diegetic sounds of birds sings and bees buzzing against the wind can be heard as the music gradually builds over the top of some running water. As the music still begins to start the sound of waves can also be heard in the background. Dialogue is then used between Lady Gaga and her love interest in the video. Props of newspapers are then used to set the narrative of the story along with someone taking photos of her and her lover. There are darker aspects to the settings and sexual moments in the video and she wears wild clothing which is typical for the artist adding to her mise-en-scene. When the song picks up there are various quick cut shots to add to the Dance aspect of the video. A dance routine additionally features which is an aspect of both Pop and Dance music videos. There are rapid lighting sequences which is an effect seen very often in the Dance genre of music, but it does maintain bright colours to the scenes which help classify it in the Pop genre.
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No End in Sight.
Music videos have only become more prominent in establish artists around the world. With an ever increasing demand on exciting and captivating videos from fan artists are keeping up with the demand and only getting stronger. Music videos seem to have multiplied more and more each year and formats for them to be accessed have increased exponentially since the first filler ever appeared on television.
Bibliography.
1940’s Society. Bewley, N. [Online] Available From: http://www.1940.co.uk/acatalog/soundies.html [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
BBC. Unknown. [Online] Available From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp/history/ [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
Bennett, A. “Cultures of Popular Music.” 2001. Open University Press. Berkshire.
Bennett, A. “Popular Music and Youth Culture.” 2000. Palgrave. Hampshire.
History. Unknown. [Online] Available From: http://www.history.com/news/the-music-video-before-music-television [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
History. Unknown. [Online] Available From: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mtv-launches[Accessed: 1st October 2015]
IMDB. Unknown. [Online] Available From: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167612/ [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
Rolling Stones. Edwards, G. [Online] Available From: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/12-thrilling-facts-about-michael-jacksons-thriller-20131029 [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
TV Party. Ingram, B. & Vilencia, J. [Online] Available From: http://www.tvparty.com/vaultvid.html [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
Notes from class were also used.
Bibliography.
1940’s Society. Bewley, N. [Online] Available From: http://www.1940.co.uk/acatalog/soundies.html [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
BBC. Unknown. [Online] Available From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp/history/ [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
Bennett, A. “Cultures of Popular Music.” 2001. Open University Press. Berkshire.
Bennett, A. “Popular Music and Youth Culture.” 2000. Palgrave. Hampshire.
History. Unknown. [Online] Available From: http://www.history.com/news/the-music-video-before-music-television [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
History. Unknown. [Online] Available From: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mtv-launches[Accessed: 1st October 2015]
IMDB. Unknown. [Online] Available From: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167612/ [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
Rolling Stones. Edwards, G. [Online] Available From: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/12-thrilling-facts-about-michael-jacksons-thriller-20131029 [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
TV Party. Ingram, B. & Vilencia, J. [Online] Available From: http://www.tvparty.com/vaultvid.html [Accessed: 1st October 2015]
Notes from class were also used.