Assignments

History of Music videos

The origin of the 'music video' although first appeared to audiences in the early 1900s it's prominence came to pass in the 80s when a channel a named 'MTV' was created and their whole medium was based around music video not just music changing how audiences would listen to music forever.

The first music video to air on Mtv was the song 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by the Buggles, this led to channels of 24-hour-a-day music on television which would lead to success to people such as Michael Jackson and Madonna due to their creativity with their music videos.

Names of music videos before 80s:

Jukeboxes

soundies- three minute films featuring music and dance performers

Scopitone- visual jukebox

professional film

Promotional clip

Song clip

Filmed insert

Illustrated song



Short Note on history of music videos :

Important dates

1894 First illustrated song: Precursor of music video

1907-1917 The cubist period

1926 arrival of talkies many musical short videos were produced
`
1930

1940's

1956

1963

1964

1966

1967

1972

1981

1983

1985

1986

1988

Present day don't have to choose every date






1894 First illustrated song: Precursor of music video

1907-1917 The cubist period

1926 arrival of talkies many musical short videos were produced
`
1930

1940's

1956

1963

1964

1966

1967

1972

1981

1983

1985

1986

1988

Present day don't have to choose every date

                                                 Music Video Genres

Classical : Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion - The Prayer : Released 1998
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt_OkgSOrkU

Country : Old Town Road: Lil nas X Ft. Billy Ray Cyrus  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ysFgElQtjI
Released 2019

Hip-hop : MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This : Released 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo


Jazz : Miles Davis- So What : Released 1959
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqNTltOGh5c

Religious : Tasha Cobbs Break every chain : Released 2013  music video not available on school youtube


Funk : Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars : Released 2014 music video not available on school youtube



Pop : Michael Jackson - Billie Jean : Released 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPAhnoCzFyw


Reggae : Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse: Released 1982
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6oYyG0KcvQ

Latin : Luis Fonsi - Despacito Released 2017 music video not available on school youtube


Promotional Music Video Example : Post Malone White iverson : Released 2014 ,
Post Malone's big break was when his song ''White Iverson'' once released artists like Wiz K, Mac M, co-signed the track which would have it peak at Number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100.



What is music video genre?

Music video genre are different themes within music videos , like film genres. Examples are above

Purpose of Music Videos:

The Purpose of a music video is to help better promote a song and sell it along side making it more memorable for the audience that view it. With music videos it also allows for a deeper message to get put across and an understanding of the song you wouldn't usually get from just the lyrics as it's visual. This creates that memorable visual experience for viewers which would better help sale the song and put it out there.



Various styles of Music Videos:

In concert - live -

Alicia Keys - Landmarks Live in Concert - Alicia Keys : Released 2017

Animation

Childish Gambino - Feels Like Summer : Released 2018 (Official Music Video)

Interpretative

Interpretive Music Video - Take Me Over (Peking Duk) : Released 2014

Narrative

Coldplay - The Scientist : Released 2002

Impressionist

Pacific Blue (Impressionist Music Video) : Released 2016

Pastiche

Beefeater City Stories with JNR Williams : Released 2019

Parody

Taylor Swift- ME! Music Video Parody / Remake by Niki and Gabi : Released 2019

Homage

Influence of commercials



Ne-Yo  Miss Independent -  Finish off : Released 2008

Shaffer Chimere Smith stage name Ne-Yo is an american songwriter , singer , dancer , recording producer and actor , who first came to spotlight in 2004 as a songwriter. His song ' Let Me Love you' Written by him for Mario who was a hit at the time blew up. The song impressed record labels and skyrocketed through the charts getting the attention of Head of Label def  jam.

The purpose of the music video was to show how Ne-yo and many other men in the world love a woman who's independent and can take care of her own, being that figure 'Miss independent'.

It belongs to the genre R and B which would be the rhythm and blues and I think it belongs to that genre as it has scenes of love between the protagonist of the mini story (Ne-Yo ) and female boss ( Miss independent) as he serenades her throughout the video but not to her as the song is about her.

This video would belong to the narrative style as it's showing a story and the way Ne-Yo describes her and talks about her during the video.



Michael Jackson Beat it : Released 1983 - Finish off

Michael  Joseph Jackson was an african american artist who is left to be known as the king of Pop, born august 29th 1958 in gary indiana. Michael began performing with his siblings in the hit pop group Jackson 5 when he was a child. Scoring their first No.1 single in 1969, with ''I want you back.''


Beat it is apart of the pop genre

Wstrn- Medusa : Released 2019

WSTRN are a collective that have both artists Akelle Charles, Haile and Louis Rei. Their debut single In2 release October the 15th 2015 which peaked number 4 on the UK SINGLES CHARTS
Louis previously known as LB and Akelle being A-star, both of them are cousins.

The purpose of this song was to try speak to brethren in london to show how they shouldn't be stricken by beauty and let women control them/ turn them into stone hinted at the song title medusa..

Introduction :

A music video is generally a short movie followed by music which either envision the artist's ideas or the promotion of what their singing about. Music videos are usually made for promotion to capture the story that the artist wishes to produce and this is done to either promote a cause or to tell a story. For example Michael Jackson's song ''They don't care about us'' has lyrics that are controversial relating to political themes such as racism/ prejudice / neglect / with the music video captured in Rio de janeiro with a poverty stricken place that he wanted the world to see and understand their pain as his lyric goes ''All I really wanna say is they don't really care about us'' followed with the image in the music video being captures of kids and the poor environment that they have to live in. Music videos like these help raise awareness and start organisations that help these people and that's the 'purpose' of that music video. Music videos come with three different styles, Narrative, concept and performance. An example of a performance based video would be Shake it by Metro Station as it's a music video that consists of dancing . instrument playing and acting all performance based. Another example of a performance based music video would be ' Weezer - Buddy Holly- a video consisting of instrument playing and dancing followed by shots of people enjoying themselves to lighten up the mood of the video. An example of a narrative based music video would be a music video that tells a story such as 'Bastille-Pompeii' the story the video is showing the artist trying to avoid the people with the dark eyes with the message ' But if you close your eyes, does it always feel like nothing's changed at all- and with everybody having dark pupils meaning it's still the same if they close they eyes or keep them open everything is still dark. This story inspired by the Volcanic eruption in Pompeii, with the meaning behind it being after the people being caught up in the volcanic eruption and after the event to be emotionally stuck in that event must be like closing your eyes and opening them , nothing changes at all only your vision. Another example of a narrative based music video would be ''David Guetta- Titanium Ft. Sia'' In this music the video the story follows a child who's awoke from a devastating attack in the school and as he's walking down the corridor the teacher seems to be afraid of him, he leaves the school and is hunted by the police and as he's going through the story he realises he's more or less invincible as nobody is able to harm him. The meaning behind this is that the narrator is saying he can't hear, the child has become to used to the words and insults others have given him due to his special abilities he realises they cannot hurt him anymore more of less invincible or durable like titanium (Name of music video).

History Of Music Video ( Intro):

The Beginning Era (1894-1965) The first mention of any type of music video was in 1894 when electrician George Thomas was hired to merge a live performance with a magic lantern that shows projected images.

1924: The first singer to ever sync audio and image was the Jazz Singer. This was the first performance that you could see the performance and hear the audio yet it wasn't a live performance.

1930 :Was the year that the concept of short films mixed in with live-action footage of the performer was introduced.

1958 : Scopitone was a jukebox that played 16mm film synced with music.

1965 : The beatles ( We can work it out) This was the first music video to broadcast on television.

1966 : Subterranean HomeSick blues - the forefather of the lyric video

1968 to 1974 : Experimentation of film in music video

1974 : Queen Bohemian Rhapsody , this was the song that practically brought about the start of MTV 7 years before it's launch.

1980 :  Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie) was the most expensive music video made until then.

1981 : Video Killed The Radio Star (The Buggles)  The first music to air on MTV.


1983 : Michael Jackson Thriller was shown worldwide on MTV, both John Landis and Michael Jackson brought back the concept of synchronising films with music video.

Rise of Music directors 1992-2004 : November 1992 Mtv began listing directors with the artist and song credits to show that music videos had started to become professionally directed.

Purpose of Music Video:

 Originally music videos were made to promote the sale of Audio music. The main purpose of a music video is to sell the song and have the story of the video stick with the audience to make the song more memorable. This also gives better exposure to the artist due to the creativity with their video for example ''Hey Ya'' By Outkast along with the song being memorable the music video with the green design and the duplicates of the artist singing, playing instruments is what makes the video and helped it sell more copies with it reaching up to top 5 of every chart it ever got into. This music video in a nutshell promoted the song as well as the album as this sold the persona of the artist having consumers want more generating more money for the artist as well as the record company. Selling the image of the artist is also something that music videos try show, through the mood/genre of the song you should get a clear understanding of the artist's music and who they are. Some music videos are used in synergy with movies to help promote the film but also help promote the artist and further their career and example of this is Flo rida Club can't handle me which was a song used to promote step up 3 but also in turn helped Flo rida as it won NRJ MUSIC AWARD FOR HIT OF THE YEAR. Another purpose of music videos would be the artist changing their image, this helps to move into a more popular genre or get them out of their fixed genre to get a larger fan base. For example Katy Perry formerly Katy Hudson was a christian pop star as she grew up in a strict christian household where worldly music such as pop/hip hop etc wasn't allowed a total no go. She had released a music video named Katy Perry (Katy Hudson) 2001 - Trust in Me this was a christian song which made no charts and after changing over to Katy Perry out of the gospel genre she has several platinum certifications in her label while her previous one went out of business 2001.

     
Conclusion:

In conclusion the purpose of music video is to sell the song and to help the artist/label get as much exposure as they can to raise the money for the artist to produce more songs and for the labels to promote them, this also ties in with the messages that artists may want put across with that exposure and so on so clout that they get. The expansion of the artist's image relies on the songs and changing the image of the artist would have to do with the music video genre/style. In my opinion artists use music videos to make themselves more memorable for example nobody can forget thriller by Michael Jackson and iconic song with his famous thriller Jacket and the song which is also one of the best songs in that genre. Reasons like this give artists reasons to make creative music videos to become more memorable to the public and have their names in the tabloids/ social media for years after they've been uploaded.




29.2 Styles, Conventions and Techniques of Music Videos
VLOG:

Introduction: In this vlog I'm going to explain the different types of styles and techniques in music videos for example

Narrative based: These types of music videos try to tell a story that makes the video revolve around the lyrics and then these are shown within the video. They usually feature footage from a film for example N-Dubz Ft. Bodyrox We Dance On (Official Video) features footage from Street dance and the narrative of the video is that dance is within everyone and it brings people together regardless of age, race and experience. Relating back to my other point these music videos usually follow after the video. They do all of these things as they want the viewer to understand the lyrics of the song clearly and these are usually enjoyed by viewers and understood well.


Performance Based Music Videos: These types of music videos include dancing, live concerts, or the artists playing their selected instruments. They don't include a hidden message for the audience as the songs are just expression of their creativity not stemming from a story or trying to follow so forth. These include close up shot shots of the artists and usually have no connection with lyrics and the performance which make these the most common music videos as they are easy to perform. An example of a performance music video is Glee black or white.

Concept Based Music Video: A concept music video consists of imagined images, depictions stemming from the creativity of the artist, these music videos usually don't correlate with the lyrics to the music video but are usually there to intrigue and keep the attention of the audience to make the song/video more memorable for example the song Junior Senior 'Move your feet' consists of an animated universe with both artists being animated themselves into it with the protagonist making the video visually engaging for the audience.


My first choice of an official music video that I will analysing is,  DeBarge - Rhythm Of The Night (Official Music Video)

In this song Debarge has used the technique of miming and lip-synching with the beginning sequence of the video showing him clearly lip-synching to the song ...the shots seem to cut to two characters the female and male that are dancing and the lyrics seem to go with the song as the the shots cut to the dancing right after the lyric ''Rhythm of the night''. This music video is narrative based as the lyrics tell the story of the rhythm with everyone dancing to it.

My second choice of music video is ,The Jacksons - Blame It On the Boogie (Official Video)

The Jacksons have used a wide range of techniques such good camera angles, moving mirages to give the impression of having a good time as within that time the gimmick was having a good time and everything being colourful , they use a black screen to keep the attention on them dancing and the shots seem to follow them as the beat is on point with the beat of their feet. Also everytime it says ''blame it on the boogie'' it seems to go to Michael showing he's the boogie of the song. This music video is performance based as the Jackson 5 dance/sing to the song while also performing with the shot being them only.

My final music video will be , Junior Senior - Move Your Feet (Official music video, HD)

Senior Junior have made a concept based music video with the images stemming for the creativity of both artists as the music video takes place in an animated universe with the music video having a crazy concept of animals,objects dancing to the music and singing the lyrics although not actually having anything to do with them. Also all the cuts are 2D only giving you a one way look of the video with the artists singing beforehand then having editors make the video and merging both in sync. The artists made edits so the beat can match some of the explosions in the video. The shots also cut from different creatures singing the song making the music video memorable for younger audiences due to the crazy drawings/creations that are within the music video.

References:

Junior Senior Music video thumbnail:
Uploaded by: Crunchy Frog Records, 14 March 2011
Made by Junior Senior
Released 2002

The Jackson's - Blame it on the boogie (Official music video) thumbnail: Uploaded : By the TheJacksonsVEVO, 19 APRIL 2018
Released 1978

 DeBarge - Rhythm Of The Night (Official Music Video): Uploaded by DeBarge Vevo, 16 Jun 2009
Released : 1985