Music Video History

Music videos are used to help enhance a piece of music. The idea of them are to help sell the artists song. The reason for doing this post is to help understand the importance of music videos and how they have developed over time. I will include key music videos that changed the way we as an audience view music videos and how artists used music videos to better effect to help sell there music.

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.

An example of a phonograph.

Music then started to develop quickly after they were able to record sound. The music industry grew as technology improved.

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.

Extra Research: Music Genres & Music Videos

Music videos nowadays have reduced budgets compared to previous times. The budget for music videos rocketed, after the production of one of the most prolific music videos, 'Thriller, Michael Jackson'.



At this time, the opportunity was a lot higher, as support from record labels was a lot more. During this era, there was a lot of money still in the music industry and record labels could therefore afford to spend lots of music videos. In comparison to nowadays, music videos budgets are now about a fifth of what they were ten (10) years ago. There are many reasons why music video budgets have dropped, the main being because of the online age coming around, this therefore meant homemade music videos can be produced a lot easier, meaning it can be done for cheaper. Also anyone can easily post music videos online, meaning there is less security and therefore music videos can be accessed easily for free, meaning there is no money coming back to the record companies. Also piracy is a big issue, as it means that people can stream music for free, this means that they can view the music video for free online, and also then stream the song itself for free without buying the track, as a result meaning the record labels again aren't making any money, reducing there total capital and therefore there budget for spending on the production of music videos.

R&B Music Videos- These sort of music videos tend to be the most expensive music videos to make. When we watch these sort of videos, generic conventions of the genre that us as an audience expect to see are expensive cars, large houses and alcohol. This means music videos for this genre tend to be very expensive to produce and therefore only large mainstream record labels can afford to still produce these sort of music videos.

Rock Music Videos- This music video tends to consist of simulated performances from the band, and/or lots of clips from the band performing in recent concerts that have been edited together to form a montage of clips. These music videos are usually cheaper to make, and will usually show off the band and there ability to play live music (often showing members of the band playing different musical instruments).

Country Music Videos- Tend to be set outdoors and will usually have the band or artists in the shots. Often very performance based. These are again cheaper to make and will often be produced by smaller, niche record labels.

Pop Music Videos- These music videos are usually performance based. Often we will see the band in similar clothing that makes them look like a band. Incorporated in the music video will often be a dance routine as well.

Extra Research: Models within the Media

There are various different models in the media which all try to explain the effects media has on an audience. There are four main media models which are explained below:

- Hypodermic Needle Theory is a theory that suggests, ideas that the media pose are directly injected and consumed by the audience. An example would be when a newspaper is telling the audience who to vote for.

- Two Step Flow Model is a theory that suggests the audience aren't directly influenced by the media. Instead the theory says that individuals are influenced by them who surround them who they look up to and admire (an example being a friend). An example of this would be someone watches a music video, they say they like it, and in turn the person who looks up to them would then go and watch it, and agree, even if they didn't like it that much. This is based around the idea people can be influenced by others who they look up to and admire. 

- Cultural Effects Theory approaches the idea of media influencing it's audiences very differently. This theory suggests that media does influence people, however it is a slow process that builds up over time by consuming more and more of a certain idea that the media is pushing. An example of this would be that the world is heating up by Global Warming. The audience then starts to believe this over time as more and more articles and opinions on this matter are shared in the media. However, we don't know this for fact and it could just be that we are going through the geological time scale and we are always changing temperature as we pass through stages in the geological timeline. 

- Uses and Gratifications Model argues that the audiences use media as a way of meeting needs. There are four main stages that this model says people need, they are: 

• Information
• Personal Identity 
• Social Interaction
• Entertainment

The theory suggests an audience watches media products in order to fulfill one or more of these things. 

Extra Research: Censorship on Music Videos

Censorship of music is where either songs as a whole, or just certain words have to be blanked out, or changed in order to enable audiences to be able to listen to the music without it potentially offending certain audiences.

Therefore, in order to allow for music to be played ans therefore consumed by audiences, it is common for the institution that is the platform between music and the audience to censor certain things, such as profanities (swear words). Also some artists may release two versions of the song, one usually being a clean version, which therefore allows it to be played on the radio, television stations and other music platforms. It is in the interest of the artist to be able to have there music played on every platform possible, as it means more people will in turn hear there music, so most artists will ensure if there song could be classed as offensive, a clean version is also released.

Other ways of ensuring music stations won't refuse to play artists music is by artists doing some of the following:

However, although most artists try and ensure there track can be played on every platform available, there have been many tracks that have been rejected and not aired by large music platforms, for example MTV. An example can be found below.

Sex Pistols- God Save The Queen. It was released by Virgin Records in 1977, this coincided with the Queens Silver Jubilee. Some stations considered the lyrics to be offensive and therefore did not play the track. The main station being BBC Radio 1 that banned it from airplay.



Other songs have to have some words changed or cut out in order to be played on some music stations, this is more popular than banning a song completely. Some examples of this are:

Kayne West- Gold Digger. It was released in 2005, the song lead to controversy regarding a certain line in the song. The lyrics were 'She ain't messing with no broke nigga'. Many stations, due to the racist term, would not play this, and therefore the lyric was changed to 'She ain't messing with no broke bloke'. This then made it acceptable to play.

James Blunt- You're Beautiful. This song had expletive lyrics in it, which were changed from 'She could tell from my face that I was f*****g high' to 'She could tell from my face that I was flying high'.

Lady Gaga- Finally, Lady Gaga's song 'Love Game' was one of the most controversial songs to recently be played on radio. Some of the lyrics can have potential sexual suggestions to them, for instance, 'I wanna take a ride on your disco stick'. This lead to certain radio stations having bad press, regarding the times they were airing this song (during peak listening times and times when younger audiences tend to listen) and whether it was acceptable or not to do so.

Other reasons for censorship are:

Religious Issues- Lady Gaga, Judas. It was banned from playing in Lebanon, a country in Western Asia as the lyrics were seen to be offensive to Christianity.

Political Issues- In D12's song Rap game, Eminem uses lyrics which can be interpreted as him threatening to destroy the White House and also to kill a member of the United State Congress. This is illegal and meant on both his explicit album version and radio version, this had to be censored. 

Music Video Censorship

Not only the track itself have to be censored, sometimes the music videos for these songs have to be censored as well. The main reasons for this is if music videos contain anything related towards drugs, sex, nudity, violence, weapons, homophobia and racism. Some examples of this are:

Robbie Williams Music Video for the song 'Rock DJ' which was released in 2000. The ending to the music video was censored as it saw Robbie removing his prosthetic skin, however this was seen as being 'heavy gore' which could potentially harm viewers. Therefore, this was heavily censored.



Rihanna's music video for her 2011 hit 'We Found Love' was censored after viewers complained about distressing and potentially harmful and influential scenes to younger audiences that she attracts and is a role model too. The music video contained scenes of Rihanna getting undressed, throwing up on the streets, the use of pills and drugs and moving images of her and her boyfriend, at the time Chris Brown, fighting. This therefore lead to music video platforms censoring it, for instance MTV changing and censoring parts, while French authorities actually banned the music video from being played in France before 10 pm on television.



Some music videos have actually been banned from being played at all, MTV for example have banned certain music videos, examples include:

'S&M' by Rihanna was initially restricted from certain times of being aired, however was later banned due to 'suggestive sexual scenes'.


The song 'Justify My Love' by Madonna was banned from being played on MTV. This was due to sexual scenes and references as well, however, the music video later became a 'bestselling' video single when it was released as a VHS (Video Home System) which allowed audiences to buy and view it if they wished too.



Music Videos are nowadays similar to films. They get age ratings based on the music video, making it easier to stop younger people from accessing explicit images. Currently there is only 3 UK record labels who participate and are carrying this process out as part of a 3 month trial into the system. If this overall seems to have been successful, we could see it being bought in across the entire music video market. The main problem with this system is that it is hard to enforce such a rule, and to carry this out for every single music video.

Overall, this helps me when making my music video because it helps me understand how censorship is important, and the problems that can arise should your music video not meet expected standards and therefore not be aired on music video platforms such as MTV. It means when producing our music video, I must ensure nothing offensive or any of the other reasons music videos can be banned or have specific air time hours which leads to reduced airtime and therefore reduced total viewings. If this was to happen, it could affect the way the music video engages with audiences and instead of engaging audiences and make them want to see it, do the opposite and deter them as they may find it offensive.

Extra Research: Controversy in Music Videos

In the music industry, there are many stand out music videos that catch the attention of the audience and the media. This is because they are usually very unique, and therefore usually lead to some form of controversy. The issue we have in todays society is that the media has the power to portray differed versions of events, meaning they can bend stories and as a result have control over what audiences see. The media can manipulate an audience and in news stories, will often be pro-police, however as 'We Media' grows and becomes more and more popular in todays society as technology improves, multiple different versions of an event are now being published, seeing events from different sides. The same thing therefore happens with music and music videos in the media.

Examples:

Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Relax
This music video and song was banned by the BBC in 1984. This was there debut single and was banned due to the sexual lyrics. Despite the ban that the song was Number 1 for 5 weeks, and is the 7th best selling British single. This was one of the first ever record to be banned by the BBC.



Kinks, Lola
This song led to controversy due to the song lyrics and video, which detailed on a romantic encounter between a man and a transvestite or transgender. This led to speculation and anger, and the media therefore portrayed this giving the kinks a bad image. The lyrics go "walked like a woman and talked like a man" which is what caused the issues in the media and public and what led to an uproar of unhappy audiences.

Miley Cyrus copying Sinead O'Connor
In a recent event involving both Cyrus and O'Connor, rows have escalated as it appear Miley Cyrus included and even appeared to copy shots seen in O'Connor's music video for 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. The shots used were close ups of Cyrus in her 'Wrecking Ball' music video. Cyrus as a result has now been the cause of heavy controversy over the copying of the shots, and O'Connor wrote to Cyrus as a result regarding the matter and other matters too.


Overall, although standing out from the crowd is good as it means you are noticed and as a result you hope more people will see your music and music videos, it is also important to ensure that the music/music video is acceptable and suitable to be shown in todays society. This means that it is important that things such as racist views, sexist views or anything of the nature are not included, meaning when producing both song and music videos they must be thoroughly checked before being released to the public, even if no direct comment is made, sometimes a lyric or visual accompanying a lyric may be implying a view unintentionally. Therefore, when we produce our music video, it is important that we consider how our target audience and other audiences could perceive and consume it and how this could affect the sort of things we include in it. Overall, it is therefore important that the music video is clean, and does not harm any viewers or audiences in any way.

Miley Cyrus We Can't Stop: Music Video Textual Analysis

This music video was released in June 2013. It became a number one hit in the UK and sold millions of copies worldwide. The music video led to a lot of controversy regarding the singer and her current situation, as she transformed from a children's TV personality to a controversial pop star.

'We Can't Stop' Single Album Cover

It is from the pop/R&B genre, this is identifiable from watching the music video as I can see many conventions that link it with these genre music videos. Some examples of these generic codes are things like the drinking and drug use, connoting this genre. Also the relationships/relationship problems connote to me and the rest of the audience watching the music video that this music video is in the pop/R&B genre. There are also other generic codes used, however these are used very subtly, meaning they aren't immediately apparent to the viewing audience.

The music video starts with a close up on the artist herself; this is very often the case with music videos as they often start on the artist lip syncing the first line. This is her first video since her ‘big change’ and because of this caused a lot of controversy in the media. The initial close up shot is therefore even more important, as it connotes the beginning of a new era and is used to promote her new look. Over the top of this image we can see her name in large yellow writing; this therefore catches the audience’s attention and allows the audience to know exactly who the artist is. This again promotes the artist. 

Screenshot showing Miley Cyrus and the yellow text that informs the audience who she is. This may be because being her first video since her change of appearance and style, she may be trying to promote herself again. 

The next shot that we then see in the music video is a long shot, showing Miley against a black background and with smoke in front of her, distorting the image slightly. This along with the dark costume means the entire mise-en-scene is very dark. This connotes that she may be moving on from past, darker times and wants to re-establish herself in the music industry as being a matured lady.

The editing in the music video is very unique throughout and has parts which represent slow editing and other which shows fast pace editing. The slow editing can be seen in the scene where Miley is seen with a knife on her fingers. This is then seen to 'cut off' her fingers. When this occurs we can see pink liquid, which is imitation blood. This links back to her younger days, when this sort of thing would be used on children's channel rather than blood, so it isn't as crude, this could be connoting a comparison between then and showing the audience how she is changing now and developing into the artist she wants to be. 

This shows the pink blood and the knife that imitates Miley cutting her fingers off. 

Fast pace editing can be seen in most of the video, this is seen with lots of cuts from one scene to another, making the music video interesting to watch and keeping the audience intrigued. By doing this it means the editing would have taken a long time, however it keeps the audiences attention as there is always a different shot on screen, opposed to long boring shots that last a long time. Also in the music video there are sections that are in slow motion that have been edited to fit in time with the music video. By doing this, it adds an extra dimension to the video. We can also see a variety of locations, this in itself makes it more interesting for the audience to view, however all these locations have been edited effectively to make it obvious to the audience that this is one large party. Therefore, the editing is very clever here and is important that it is clear, to make it obvious to the audience the narrative of the piece. A lot of the time, the editing was done to match the visuals with the music. This enabled the audience to follow the narrative of the music video easily. 

Location : Kitchen 

Location: Outdoors

Location : Swimming Pool

These screenshots show the variety of different locations used in the music video. 

The shots used in the music video are vast. There are many different types of shot. The most prolific shot that helps me to understand the genre of the music video is the inclusion of the two shot. This shot shows a couple at a party. As stated earlier, this is a generic convention used in R&B/ Pop music videos, seeing two people in a shot that are in a relationship. Also it links in with Miley’s new self, showing she has matured from the times of Children’s television and is now rebelling and becoming an adult. Close ups are also used, as we saw at the very beginning of the video. Also we see the use of close ups later on in the video where we see a chip skull. This could be suggesting to the audience that she is trying to change her image, without being too explicit by using symbolism that could be connoting death and rebellious. Mid shots are also used in the music video, these shots tend to show Miley in provocative poses and/or revealing outfits. 

An example of Miley's revealing outfits which can be seen throughout the whole music video. This led to controversy in the music industry, especially in her to be released music video at the time; 'Wrecking Ball'. It caused woman to feel saddened by the fact Miley itemized herself making woman feel as though they are seen as 'items'. 

This again, backing up the idea that she is changing her style from being a well known Children's idol to becoming a rival to major pop stars like Jessie J and Beyonce. 

Textual Analysis of Whole Music Video- Beyonce: Single Ladies

The music video that I am analyzing is Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' music video. It was released on October 12th 2008. It was directed by Jake Nava. The music video mainly categorizes and fits into the R&B genre, and could also be considered to fit into the sub genre of dance pop.

From the beginning, we see the music video contains Beyonce, and two other woman in black leotards dancing to her song 'Single Ladies'. They are also wearing black heels. This makes them look very glamorous and could be interpreted to be quite sexual. The whole music video is a performance type, of which consists of Beyonce and her two other backing dancers, dancing to the whole song.

The music video is set  in a filming studio. The entire music video is filmed against a white background, and the music video has effects on it to make it look black and white. The setting is very simple and ensures that no attention is taken away from the singer and her two other dancers. By having a simple background, the audiences eyes don't get distracted, and are permanently on the dancers. Beyonce is always the central dancer, this is connoting her power, and connoting the idea that she is the most important lady there, and therefore is the 'center of attention'.

The only props used in the music video is the small ring that Beyonce has on her finger, which is used to link the lyrics to the music video, and therefore matches Goodwin's theory that lyrics go with what we can see.

There are many different editing techniques used throughout the music video. The music video uses basic cuts, jumping from one scene to another very quickly. Also the music video at the beginning uses a fade in, the screen is black but then the image of Beyonce and her dancers fades in. Also there is quite a lot of basic camera movements in the music video. The music video includes pans, when we see the camera panning around the dancers. Also the music video uses zooms to enhance the music video and enhance the emphasis of Beyonce being the most important in the music video. This is because when this happens, the camera zooms in and out, getting close ups of Beyonce, but never once gets a close up of any of the other dancers. This again connoting the importance of Beyonce in comparison to the other dancers. The main camera shots throughout are long shots, which allow us as an audience to see everything that is happening in each shot. We also see some close ups and some mid shots but the majority is long shots.

Mid Shot 

Long Shot (Also shows Three Shot)

The use of the three shot is in use almost the whole time (as there are three people in one shot). The male gaze theory could be in place in this music video, although there are no shots that actually suggest this completely, throughout the woman are wearing very little and dancing in such a way that could imply this and mean that this argument could be valid. The music video uses effects that mean it is black and white throughout. This could have connotations with regards to the name of the song, suggesting that the white is showing the emotion and feelings behind getting married while the colour black is usually linked with negative things, and could be suggesting that if the man has missed his chance to 'put a ring on it', meaning he has missed his chance to marry the lady he shouldn't be upset or sad.

Example of where Male Gaze Theory could be introduced. 

Male Gaze Theory could be used here too.

Throughout the music video, the main theme is Beyonce dancing to her song. However, unlike other videos such as PSY 'Gangnam Style' she isn't trying to make other people remember the dance for the song. Instead, she is showing and telling the audience that she can dance. This is a way of attracting audiences as people may enjoy watching this, as females may aspire to be like her, and may see her as a role model while males may enjoy watching it due to her being seen as an attractive woman.

The music video is very catchy, as it makes people want to watch it as the dance routine she does it good. It is a very simple music video that is purely a dance performance throughout. Audience could see the video as feminist as the outfits chosen are very revealing and show lots of Beyonce's body, however this shows she is confident and powerful figure and connotes that she isn't phased by what others think.