Most mainstream music videos are very expensive to produce. This is because they have the money to be able to produce good, high quality videos as they have the money and technology to be able to produce these. These sort of high budget music videos usually belong to well known, successful artists. Some may include each of the following or just one aspect:
- Performance Clips/Showcase Artists Talent
- Animation
- Images accompanying the Lyrics
Independent companies don't have as much capital in the business, and therefore can't produce as extravagant music videos or not at all. Therefore we can expect less from these sort of artists.
Before any music videos were released, the first machine that was able to record sound was made. This was called a phonograph.
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| An example of a phonograph. |
There were 3 main era's is music video history. These were:
Pre-1981
1981-2005 which was the MTV Era
Post 2005 which is the Youtube Era
1930's- Len Lye produced a music video called 'Colour Box'. It was produced and funded by the Post Office and because of this, they actually used this music video as an advert for themselves to by including things within the video that connoted back to the post office. (e.g- parcel weights)
1940's- The ability to listen to music at home, opposed to just live performances. This meant a new industry was slowly created. Also video jukeboxes were produced, these were called 'Soundies'.
1950's- This was the birth of youth culture and teenager. This was the era of rock and roll and in particular artists like Elvis Presley. This sort of music originated form Blues. At the time, rock and roll was against the rules of society and was seen as people rebelling.
1960's- Mainly comprised of The Beatles. At the time, due to artists like The Beatles and Elvis Presley not being 'allowed' and due to this BBC did not broadcast this music, it lead to pirate radios being set up out at sea. At this stage, performance videos were first shot live.
1962- 'Scopitones' were released in France.
1969- The first music festival was held. It was known as 'Woodstock'.
1970's- Disco Music and Punk was the new 'in thing' for music. There was a music video breakthrough as Queen released 'Bohemian Rhapsody' which was a totally unique music video and changed how other artists produced music videos leading to more daring and unique music videos being released.
1981- MTV was first aired. It was designed to be a space filler on the station, however it led to a revolution. Initially, British music dominated MTV. This meant that British artists could thrive, as a result Madonna broke onto the scene. This then led to other woman copying her, and many woman still follow conventions that she set back in the 1980's.
The first music video was shown on MTV. Music Television was launched on August 1st 1981. It is an American owned channel. When MTV first started its main target market was young adults, however as the TV station developed they changed and marketed more towards teenagers and adolescents.
The first music video to be aired on MTV was The Buggles 'Video Killed The Radio Star'. This was influential as it was the first video to be accompanied by moving images to be shown on TV. The song was then No.1 in 16 countries. Over time, this would be the start of an era that would continue to present day. The video below is the music video that was aired on MTV by The Buggles.
During MTV's early years, they were quite desriminitive towards black people. There were a select few who were shown, however the majority were rejected. The first non-white artist to be played on MTV was The Specials 'Rat Race' which had both black and white people in it. This was the 58th video to be played on the station.
1981- This was the year that the Walkman was released.
1982- The CD was invented and released.
The next major event occurred in 1983. This was when the king of pop, Michael Jackson first got airtime on MTV with his song 'Billie Jean'. Prior to 1983 Jackson struggled to get airtime due to his colour. However after feuds with CBS a music record label, MTV agreed to play black artists music on the channel. This was then known as the song that 'broke the colour barrier'. At the time, the main director for black artists was a man called Hype Williams.
MTV went on to start the MTV awards (Video Music Awards). The first one was in 1984 and was a benchmark for the music channel itself. The awards given are called 'Moonmen'. The first awards show was opened by Madonna performing her song 'Like a Virgin'.
The next benchmark for music videos was Dire Straits song 'Money for Nothing'. This was released and got its first airtime on MTV in 1985. This was the first music video of its type that included animation. This was therefore a breakthrough in music videos.
After this, music videos started to incorporate different aspects from different music videos and common themes were followed depending on the genre of the music video. This is now known as iconography, and is what as an audience we can expect from a music video in particular genres.
1992-2004 was the time in that MTV started to add credits to the end of songs. This included directors names and other information like this.
The most popular music video of the 1990's was 'Sabotage' by the Beastie Boys. This was nominated for 5 MTV awards, however was unsuccessful in actually winning any of these awards. In 2004, it was also rated in a Rolling Stones magazine as #480 out of 500 of best songs of all time. The music video has to date 20,282,370 views on YouTube.
2000's- This was the time of Ipods, reality TV shows such as X-Factor and the internet which allowed for the birth and growth of music platforms such as ITunes, YouTube and Spotify. This allowed for digital screening, digital viewing and also lead to issues such as piracy.
In 2005, YouTube was created. This was an online service that allowed people to upload videos onto it. Many artists now use this to present day as a way of showing off there music and music videos and a way of aiding there music.
An example of this is the song 'Gangman Style' by PSY. This video is the most viewed music video on YouTube. I personally think the reason for this music video being such a success and then in turn the song being a success is due to the very simple yet catchy dance routine that ended up going global. The video has had 2,083,625,879 views and was released in July 2012. The song was then followed up by the song 'Gentlemen'. This video also included a dance routine and helped it to become a success. The second most viewed music video on YouTube is Justin Bieber's 'Baby'. This shows that the music industry is very diverse, and there is not a specific way to be successful as these two video are very different as you can see below. PSY included catchy dance routines, whilst Justin Bieber instead used lots of shots of himself and included a narrative of him and a girl.
By researching about music video history, it has helped me see how music videos have changed over time, however the main principles and generic conventions have stuck. This therefore means that when producing my music videos, I should take inspiration from successful music videos that I've looked at above and see how and why they have become successful as this will help me to go on and produce a good quality music video myself.
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