Josh Way

Music Videos.

What is a music video?

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music,
usually a song.
Music videos are made in the modern day to help promote the artist or band, by doing
this they can show off the acts and make them look great to the audiences they aspire
to attract.

When were music videos first

established?

Music videos were first established in the 1920s & an example of this is St Louis Blues
Bessie Smith which was mad in 1929. She appeared in a short film which she
performed her song dramatically.
Walt Disney released fantasia in 1940 which was an animated film based around
classical music, the music was used for The Sorcerers Apprentice.

 The earliest of music videos came out in the 1950s but before then music videos were
stilling being produced.
Films by animators such as Oskar Fischinger by imagery and gained the name of a music
video.
Warner Bros. cartoons such as Looney Tunes, were originally made around specific songs
that Warner Bros. were making for their musical films.

 Music videos took a step ahead in the 1950s to 60s as they made developments, Tony
Bennett was filmed in 1956 walking around Hyde Park for this record Stranger in
Paradise. This video was later on played by UK & US television stations. Tony Bennett
later claimed that he made the first music video.
JP The big bopper Richardson made a rock video for this record in 1959.
1960 saw the Scopitone which is a visual jukebox, was invented in France and this gave
inspiration to people to make short films produced by French artists such as Francois
Hardy & Jacques Dutronc to supplement their songs. This spread to Italy and the Cinebox
was invented, similar to the Color-sonic in the US.

 A significant event in music video development was in Beatles A hard days night in
1964, this imagery arguably set out the basics for modern music videos today.
The Monkees which was a television show ran from 1966 to 1968, they can be seen as
another cog in the music video works.
The Beatles made ground-breaking films for their songs for Strawberry Fields Forever
and Penny Lane which were made early in 1967, the borrowed techniques from under
ground Avant Garde such as reversal film effects, dramatic lighting, rthymic editing and
unusual camera angles. These two music videos started the idea of making music videos
an art to make the artist look good to the audience.

 The modern era saw many improvements with video recording and editing processes, as
well as effects such as chroma-key. High quality colour recorders and portable recorders
were also invented and they were cheap to use. By the 1980s it was essential for a
musician or a band to have a music video accompany a new single.
MTV is launched and the first video to be aired is Buggles Video killed the Radio Star.
Artists started to use more classy effects in their videos, and added a storyline or plot to
the music video. Michael Jackson was the first artist to create the concept of the short
film. A short film is a music video that has a beginning, middle and end, he did this in a
small way with Billie Jean.

 Music Video today in the information technology era, music videos now approach the
popularity of the songs themselves, being sold in collections on video tape and DVD .
Enthusiasts of music videos sometimes watch them muted purely for their aesthetic
value. Instead of watching the video for the music, the videos are appreciated for their
visual qualities, while viewers remain uninterested in the audio portion of the
performance.

Outlets

Music videos allow the artist to extend outlets through accessible links such as:
Music channel
Websites
YouTube
Phones
All of these outlets allow the artist to grow in the eyes of the general public and gain fans.

Extension of Income

Music videos allow the artist to have an increased income

Watching the music video may enhance the audience to purchase some of the artists
merchandise such as T-shirts, shirts and wristbands.
The music video raises the profile of the artist and will therefore encourage audiences
to go to concerts, tours or festivals that the artist is performing in.

STYLES OF MUSIC VIDEOS

Questions
The Verve:
The music video for The Verves bittersweet symphony the lyrics do match the video, the
words bittersweet symphony he is walking around bumping into people like he doesnt even
care, its like hes saying he is bittersweet and living the bittersweet life. The verve has done
the same thing as Massive Attack but there is a difference, in Massive Attack there is less
editing than The Verve as they use more than one shot whereas Massive Attack uses one
shot the whole time as well as shes being nicer to the people around her and its like she
knows the place whereas The Verve dont care.

The Purpose

The purpose of promoting an artist is so that they get some recognition to the general
public, the record company need to artist to be a hit so they give them tours, albums
and many singles to release.

The Purpose: Marketing

The marketing team create the advertising and publicity for the artist including album
and tours, they also create the artwork for your album front cover, promotional videos,
in store displays, merchandise including hats or t-shirts which will have the artists
name on them.

The Purpose: Promotion

The promotion team are responsible for getting the artists music played on the radio,
this is a major part of the promotion of the artist and mainly the goal of the promotion
team because if it is played enough on the radio, it will slowly lead to the artist selling
more records and more demand for concerts.

The Purpose: Sales

The goal of the sales team is to get the artists music into the stores where it can sold
and therefore make money for the artist and their record company. The artist has to
sell records to keep their career going.

In concert

An in concert music video is showing that the band can actually

perform live rather than showing them in a different way.
An example of an in concert music video is Lane Boy by Twenty One
Pilots, in concert music videos are usually made to show to the
audience that they can perform as well as look good in music videos,
& this is why twenty one pilots have done this, they havent done a
music video like this before so its completely new to them.
The effect of in concert music video enables the band to show that
they arent just good in the music videos and to come and see the
play live.

Animation
Animation is used because its cheaper to produce as you would need
all the equipment to go with the production of a recorded video.
An example of Animation is Gorillaz Clint Eastwood , this is different
to a lot of acts as not many people would use animation for every
video and the reason is, the band came about when the two were
watching MTV, "if you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a cartoon
band, something that would be a comment on that," Hewlett said. By
the Gorillaz having all their music videos in the cartoon effect it
makes them different to everyone else as most musicians would just
go for the usual in real life narrative music videos or them playing in
a scenario but Gorillaz stick to their cool alternative ways.

Interpretive
An interpretive video is a music video that doesnt necessarily match
up with the lyrics or song.
An example music video is M83s Midnight City, the music video
has children who seem to be part of a research project as they have
superpowers but they run away to start new lives. The song has no
reasonable relation to the music video and we are left to find the
meaning of both the video and the song. Which I think is, running
away from the bad and going to the good and being happy. Although
the song is quite calm it doesnt suit the video at all, the people in the
video are running away from the people keeping them captive and
the music is quite happy and chilled out which doesnt really suit the
action of the music video.

Narrative
A narrative music video is a music video that follows a story that has a beginning, middle and an end.
Naughty Boys La La La has a narrative in the video, the music video has a beginning, a middle and
an end. The meaning of the video is the video is based on a Bolivian legend that inspired the Wizard
of Oz. The story is about a deaf boy who runs away from an abusive home and finds a stray dog to
accompany him. While living on the street, he discovers he can see how peoples lives are troubled,
and can heal them with powerful screams described to be similar to an earthquake or volcanic
eruption. One day, he meets an old man who was being yelled at and stoned by the villagers. By
screaming, the boy solves his problems and revives the heart of old man. Together, they then find a
disfigured man who is facing prejudice from his community. After being cured, it's discovered that the
man is a prophet who was cursed by a demon called El Tio because he left a community he had
gained control over. After the man left the community, El Tio cast a curse on the city that forced them
to commit suicide. As a group, they journey to the empty city in search of El Tio, who lives in a cave
just outside the town. Once they arrive, only the boy can enter the cave without falling under El Tio's
control. When the deaf boy comes face to face with the demon, he begins screaming so that no one
else can fall under his curse. The old man, the prophet, and the dog then leave the city and their
friend behind to scream for eternity.
Source - Wiki

Impressionist

Impressionist videos are used to incite a feeling to a music video, for

example in Jay-Zs Onto the next one many symbols are used in the
music video that provoke a reaction as the symbols are mostly used
to show evil. In Jay-Zs onto the next one the shots shown are related
to the lyric at the time the image is shown, the shots could include
location, people and obscure objects. There is also synergy in the
video, the number three links to the name of Jay-Zs album which is
called The Blueprint 3.

Surreal

Surreal music videos are created to show the world in the video as
super real, they are distorted and provoke a feeling for the audience.
An example of a surreal artist is David Bowie, his music videos are
much different than many other artists, he wears odd clothing and
has strange imagery going on in his music videos. An artist that you
could say is trying to emulate Bowie and his strange imagery is Lady
Gaga, she has taken on the act of odd clothing with strange music
videos to attract the audience.

Parody

Weird al Yankovics song Fat is a parody of Michael Jacksons Bad, this would
attract many viewers as Michael Jackson was a huge star so people would have
liked to see his take on it as Weird al Yankovic was well known for his spoofs.
Parody gives the audience a different view for them to see of their favourite
artists songs being changed into making something funny.

Pastiche

An example of Pastiche is Telephone by Lady Gaga that features Beyonc, the

music video has taken aspects from Kill bill and Pulp Fiction, it is similar to
homage as it doesnt take the mic out of the films but uses them well in the video
to make them look good. Although the video has light hearted imitation of the
styles, it pays respect to them

Homage
Michael Bubles Hollywood is a homage of the Hollywood lifestyle, the song
doesnt mimic the lifestyle but tells the story of people just wanting the 15
minutes of fame and that they shouldnt change their life's and do anything just
for a short period of fame as he says in the song, youll be famous because
youre dead. Homage is similar to Pastiche apart from it shows public respect for
the artists as they probably helped influence the artists. Another example is Blurs
The Universal as they payed tribute to Stanley Kubrick's film the Clockwork
orange. Source - SlideShare
Source - Wiki

Influence of commercials

Some music videos are influence by advertising, some music videos can be seen as
advertisements for a way of life. For example, Fergie's song, glamorous is promoting
her lifestyle with lots of money, and Common people by Pulp is promoting the working
class in comparison to the wealthy.

Cutting to the beat

Cutting to the beat is when images transition to another shot in time with the beat of
the song, it is used to gain the attention of the audience and put emphasis on the
lyrics. By using cutting to the beat the song will stay in the head of the listeners, as
they go around their daily business they will sing or hum that song, therefore the song
has done its job to and more and more people will listen to their music.
An example of this is The White Stripes seven nation army, you can see that the
images change to suit the beat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j7huh5Egew

Effects

Using effects in a music video will engage the viewer with the music video, theyll keep
watching and enjoy the video. Effects catch the eye of the audience, whenever they
hear the song they will think of the music video and the song which will grow because
of the diversity of the video.
An example of this is red hot chili peppers song Californiacation, the video consists of
the band in a video game going around California.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-9dh4otTbY

Miming

Miming is used when the artist dont sing in the music videos, the artist will voice the
words and the editors will time the voice recording onto the movement of the artists
mouth singing. These are used a lot in music videos such as fairly local by twenty one
pilots.
The video shows authencity to show that they are the people who have actually sang
it for clarity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDI9inno86U

Multi image
Multi image is the artist use a lot of different looks to present themselves to the
audience, this will keep the audience interested as they will not see the same look in
every music video.
Multi image is good because it will always keep the audience guessing, the videos
each time will be different so they artist will always been seen in different or better
lights.
An example of this is used in The song last nite by the strokes as they change image
throughout the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOypSnKFHrE

Camera movement

Camera movement is when the music video consists of a lot movement or shots to
interest the viewer, for example in the music video for the some heavydirtysoul by
twenty one pilots the camera keeps on shot but consistently moves around the stage
as the band are performing.
Camera movement always keeps the audience interested by the constant movement
by getting different views of the act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5canBXoCyU

Angles

Using a range of angles in music videos keep the audience interested in the music
video,
The audience wont turn it off, theyll want to keep watching as its sparking their
attention. An example of this is fall out boys, centuries, throughout the video a number
of angles are used to keep the audience interested. https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqS-Any4R5o