History of music Videos

 History of Music Videos

1960's

In the 1960's the "Music Video" was starting to be brought in with music because of TV and people where staring to get TV (Mostly the Upper and Middle Classes) and for the Music to be showed on TV there needed to be visuals to go along with it meaning the music video was born. Although music videos of today are totally different to the early music videos of the 1960's they share some realities. Most music videos of the 1960's just pictured the band or artist playing and singing. Where as music videos of today have a narrative to them but they still do have the artist or band playing.

This is The Beatles music video for a Hard Days Night was completely different for the videos of the 1960's as it didn't feature the band playing at all and it was just narrative. people argue that the video for this song is actually the start of a film called the Hard Days Night. This was the first ever proper music Video as well.

1970's

In the 1970's Music Videos started to become more popular as more people started to get TV's at home. Even the working class were getting them and this meant that music videos were more accessible to people so bands decided to start making more music videos even though these where still in the early days. Due to the fact that TV had started to gain popularity more bands started to do music videos for their song. some bands did but not many because TV was gaining popularity it still wasn't as popular as the radio and it was more cost effective for bands to not do videos for there songs.

The Purpose of the Music Video in the 1970's was to help sell the song. Lots of the songs that had music video wouldn't have been very memorable if it wasn't for the music video. This was why a few bands did it because it meant that there was another way they could promote their music. All of the main part of the music video was in the first 90 seconds because that was all that was shown on TV the rest of the video was either repeated or filler.

ABBA were big in the 1970's and they released some music video for some of there songs. Mamma Mia was one of the more well known songs that got a music video. The video was just the group singing ad playing instruments and this was because not many people explored narrative because it was expensive and not worth doing due to the fact that there wasn't many places that they could be shown.

1975 saw Queen release Bohemian rhapsody. The video for it was one of the first videos that started to experiment a little bit because although the basic premise of the video was that the band were either singing or playing. They did some lighting Tricks and stuff with mirrors to add effects that hadn't really been used in music videos before.

1980's

Michael Jackson's Thriller was and still is the biggest selling album of all time. It was a very influential music video because it was more like a short film. It had a very strong but cliche narrative. It was a massive production that cost $1,000,000 to make. The Music Video had a run time of 14 minutes and was more like a short film rather than a music video. The production was directed by John Landis who at the time of directing Thriller had just finished directing 'An American Werewolf In London'. This was a feature length Horror film and this put him in a very good position to make 'Thriller' as he was more well known for his Horror films. Thriller was released on December 1st 1983. It was first shown in cinemas just before films because of the narrative and how it was made. It was Released on TV after it was released in the cinemas.

On August 1st 1981 MTV showed their first music video which was a song by The Buggles called TV killed the Radio Star. This song was made for this because TV and the music video was becoming more popular than the Radio. This meant that bands produced more music videos to promote them selves. Some of the more experimental ones like Thriller had a narrative to them but most of them were just band shots and the effects where all in the first 90 seconds because that was all that was shown on MTV.

Director - Megaforce

This is a modern and up to date music video and it is very explicit as it has lots of violence, drugs, murder and torture in it. This has become acceptable with the modern generation and is more and more common in today's videos. This is a bad thing because it promotes this type of stuff and it is not acceptable unless it is on a video. my generation is more accepting and is used to that sort of content because it is everywhere, on the news, in music videos and in games that most people play. This means that young people are exposed to this sort of content and then they are more likely to want to try that sort of stuff.

Music videos now are done more as a publicity stunt as they want to make then full of things that people in the media will has to cause controversy and this means they get loads of press coverage on it and the video goes viral. This is the modern way of marketing because it will go viral online and it means that loads people will see it and listen to the song. Right-wing news are the ones that are targeted because they see all of this explicit content as bad and negative and they give it lots of news coverage to get out there that it is a bad video but this works in the favor for the artist as that is what they intended all along because the video then goes viral. The weapons in the video Americans don't mind but the video has a lot of nudity in it and Americans don't like that. this video is aimed at an American audience because it is an American artist and this means that the content in it is put in the to create controversy in America. To Create further controversy there is a female back woman kidnapping an upper class female white woman and then she tortures her. This has lots of problems in an American society. Daily Mail - Rihanna News Artical - This is a news article from a right-wing news company about the video and how bad it is and how it should be band.

The video is of a very high production value and this is become more common with music videos as it makes people want to watch it. It also means it can be more graphical that brings up the controversy factor again because if it is more graphical it means its more life like and not cartoony and this means that it brings up a lot of problems again. The video has lots of violence, drugs and nudity in it and this is the driving force behind the video getting out there because it appeals to a male and female audience because there is the nudity for the male audience which is the male gaze but the female audience is because the video empowers women. It does this by making the female the stronger character in the video even though the victim is a woman the stronger character is as well. This also create conflict between the two characters and this creates even more controversy.

Romain Gavras

This is one of Romain Gavras's music videos and a brief synopsis of this video is that there is American police that go through a set of flats and they are beating anyone they see up. Then they get to one room and there is a person with ginger hair in that room and they take him and lock him in the back of a bus with other ginger people. The bus pulls up in a desert and they push the people out of the van and they tell them to line up. One of the police people shoots one of the younger ginger people in the head and kills him. The others start running and are running through a mine field and keep getting blown up. One of the The ginger person that they capture at the start of the video runs off in a different direction and they chase him down and beat him to death.

Modern Music Videos

This is what music have become all in the last 5 or 6 years. they have been made either very shocking with lots of nudity and not censored. Or they have been made into political statements about what is going on in the world or the artists views. These are made as more click bate meaning that they entice you to click on it so that the artist gets money because everything is online nower day. Music videos are promoted though adverts or on social media and this is why they go viral because if they are made to be shocking or a political view people will share it and either agree or disagree with what the video is making and this creates controversy and the video then goes viral. The Purpose of the music video is to go viral and get the artist publicity, be that good or bad but it gets the song played. 

Take the Rihanna video that i mentioned earlier as an example of this. The video is about murder, torture and drug taking which shocked most people because they believed it should be censored. But to try and get this censored people will share it on their social media saying that it should be censored but in sharing it, it works in the favour of the artist because they get more money the more views it gets. The more people that share it the more videos it gets. The video goes viral and this is the modern day way of marketing.

Most of the music videos now have a lot of product placement in them for different products. Mostly it is either Monster Energy Drinks or Beats products. But there is many other such as Vodka or Mobile Phones. Companies will pay for their products to appear in the videos as they know the video will go viral and be seen by a lot of people and this is a way to get the product advertised. so it doesn't just advertise the artist but a particular product as well.

The music video is now used as a calling card for directors. Most of the well known directors now have used Music Videos as a way to get better known and the more shocking the video is the more publicity the video will get and the more known the director gets.

I mostly watch music videos online through YouTube and other online video streaming websites along with most other people in the world. This is why all artists now promote their songs on YouTube.