History of Music Videos - Ms Georgiou

Music Video History

There is a number of different ways that an audience can consume music videos. It depends on what attracts a specific market segment into watching a music video by an artist in a specific genre. This means that consumers can either relate to music videos by the narrative storyline that may interest them. On the other hand consumers may also find it easier to consume music videos by just listening to the lyrics in the song which then becomes concept based as it is giving out the audience a message. Lastly, people can then consume music videos by the way an artist performs. A performance based video tends to be seen in relation to a specific artist that a fan may follow and enjoy listening to. As well as this people also consume music videos by the use of editing styles and camera shots. An example of a music video that attracts the narrative market segment is a video by Jason Derulo, ‘What If’. 

This music video tells the audience a story based on the title of the song, it is also a frequently used question that everyday individuals use as well as being a rhetorical question. This then is identifying the concept of ‘what if?’ Throughout this music video a lot of camera shots and editing techniques are used to capture the audience and make them want to follow the narration of the music video. This again then makes the video performance based as the artist takes part in the production of the video. In conclusion to this different elements that are brought together capture what consumers expect to see in music videos.

As music videos have developed it has had an impact on the way people consume music videos from technical elements and the way artists are shown to the public. Through the development of music videos and the technology used within the music videos it has become clear that different elements attract different markets. As a result of this consumers may not like the way technology has developed as they may feel it ruins an artist’s music by a video over shadowing an artist. On the other hand consumers may feel the views of producers and music artists are met with the technology that is available to them now to produce a realistic video. An example of a video that has used a vast amount of technical elements is by N.E.R.D, ‘She Wants to Move’.

This music video shows many elements of technical abilities that some consumers may find distracting from the song, having said that it could have the opposite effect on an audience due to their attention being kept at all times. In conclusion to this depending on what type of genre the music is in will determine what kind of market segment will be attracted to watching a specific type of music video.

Music video's have come a long way from how they started off. Every major record company expects their artists to be promoted through music videos and is a big aspect of symbolising success. Different organisations are known for starting the popularity of music videos and only in the 1940's it was recognised that every artist is to release at least one hit music video in order to gain credibility. From organisations such as Top of The Pops and MTV was it an important factor for artists to take part and produce a music video.

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. Modern music videos were primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings.

Source: Wikipedia 

An Early example of a music video- St Louis Blue’s – Bessie Smith 1929 Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a two-reel short film called Saint Louis Blues ( 1929 ) featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. It was shown in theatres until 1932. 

Music videos are often called promotion videos or simply promos, due to the fact that they are usually promotional devices. Sometimes, music videos are termed short-form music videos to distinguish them from full length movies pertaining to music. 

In 1940 , Walt Disney released Fantasia , an animated film based around famous pieces of classical music . 

The earliest music videos or music promos were filmed in the mid 1950’s, however before then as early as the 1920’s, films by animators such as Oskar Fischinger were accompanied by musical scores labeled ‘visual music’. 

The early animated efforts of Walt Disney , his Silly Symphonies , were built around music. The Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies , were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films . Live action musical shorts, featuring such popular performers as Cab Calloway , were also distributed to theatres. 

The Panoram jukebox with eight three-minute Soundies were popular in taverns and night spots, but the fad faded during World War II . 

Source: Wikipedia 

1950’s and 60’s developments 

In 1956 Tony Bennett was filmed walking along The Serpentine in Hyde Park, London as his recording of Stranger in Paradise & played this film was distributed to and played by UK and US television stations, leading Bennett to later claim he made the first music video. 

According to the Internet Accuracy Project, disk jockey -singer J.P. The Big Bopper; Richardson (d. 1959) was the first to coin the phrase rock video.

Around 1960 the Scopitone, a visual jukebox was invented in France and short films were produced by many French artists, such as Serge Gainsbourg , Françoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc to accompany their songs. Its use spread to other countries and similar machines such as the Cinebox in Italy and Color-Sonic in the USA were patented. 

1950’s and 60’s

The defining work in the development of the modern music video was The Beatles ' first major motion picture, A Hard Day's Night in 1964 , directed by Richard Lester . The musical segments in this film arguably set out the basic visual vocabulary of today's music videos, influencing a vast number of contemporary musicians, and countless subsequent pop and rock group music videos.

Although unashamedly based on A Hard Day's Night , the hugely popular American TV series The Monkees was another important influence on the development of the music video genre, with each episode including a number of specially-made film segments that were created to accompany the various Monkees songs used in the series. The series ran from 1966 to 1968. 

The Beatles took the genre to new heights with their groundbreaking films for Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, made in early 1967, which used techniques borrowed from underground and avant garde film, such as reversed film effects, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles and rhythmic editing. Created at the height of the psychedelic music period, these two landmark films are among the very first purpose-made concept videos that attempt to the song in an artful manner, rather than just creating a film of an idealized performance. 

In 1966 the clip of Bob Dylan performing " Subterranean Homesick Blues filmed by D A Pennebaker was much used. The clip's ironic portrayal of a performance and the seemingly random inclusion of a celebrity (Allen Ginsberg) in a non-performing role also became mainstays of the form. The clip has been much imitated. 

 

Source: Wikipedia 

Modern Era 

The key innovation in the development of the modern music video was, of course, video recording and editing processes, along with the development of a number of related effects such as chroma-key. The advent of high-quality colour videotape recorders and portable video cameras coincided with the DIY ethos of the New Wave era and this enabled many pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the relatively high costs of using film. However, as the genre developed music video directors increasingly turned to 35mm film as the preferred medium, while others mixed film and video. By the mid-1980s releasing a music video to accompany a new single had become standard, and acts like The Jackson's sought to gain a commercial edge by creating lavish music videos with million dollar budgets; most notable with the video for ‘Can You Feel It’.

Source: Wikipedia

Modern Era of Music Video’s 1970’s.

In the UK the importance of Top of the Pops to promote a single created an environment of innovation and competition amongst bands and record labels as the show's producers placed strict limits on the number of videos it would use - therefore a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see the video again the following week. 

Queen 's, Bohemian Rhapsody also started a whole new era for using music videos as promos. American band Devo were one of the first to create the early self-produced music videos by Devo, including the pioneering compilation The Truth About Devolution directed by Chuck Statler, were also important developments in the evolution of the genre and these Devo video cassette releases were arguably among the first true long-form video productions. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1980’s 

1981- MTV is launched, The first video to be aired is Buggles ‘Video killed the Radio Star’

David Bowie scored his first UK number one in nearly a decade thanks to director David Mallets' eye catching promo for Ashes to Ashes. In the early to mid 1980s , artists started to use more sophisticated 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, directed by Steve Barron , then in a West Side Story way with director Bob Giraldi's Beat It , but it wasn't until the 1984 release of the Thriller short film that he took the music video format to another level. Top of the Pops was censorious in its approach to video content, so another approach was for an act to produce a promo that would be banned or edited and so use the resulting controversy and publicity to promote the release. Early examples of this tactic were Duran Duran's Girls on and Frankie Goes to Hollywood with directed by Bernard Rose & White lines by Grandmaster Flash

A non-representational music video is one in which the musical artist is hardly shown. Because music videos are mainly intended to promote the artist, such videos are rare; an early 1980s example of this is Herbie Hancock’s Rock it! 

Source: Wikipedia 

MTV

Music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing.

Madonna, owed a great deal of her success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of her videos. Some academics have compared music video to silent film, and it is suggested that stars like Madonna have (often quite deliberately) constructed an image that in many ways echoes the image of the great stars of the silent era such as Greta Garbo. Although many see MTV as the start of a golden of music videos and the unparalleled success of a new art form in popular culture, others see it as hastening the death of the true musical artist, because physical appeal is now critical to popularity to an unprecedented degree. 

Source: Wikipedia 

Music Video’s 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 basis for the artform) the videos are appreciated for their visual qualities, while viewers remain uninterested in the audio portion of the performance. This is a normal sociological reaction, some say, to the increasing trend in the music business to focus on visual appeal of artists, rather than the quality of the music. Critics say that the corporate music managers, over the course of logical and calculated business decisions, have sought to capitalize on the sex appeal of females in music videos rather than in choosing less profitable musicianship-based music. 

Source: Wikipedia

Music video history- timeline

1941: A new invention hits clubs and bars in the USA: The Panoram Soundie is a jukebox that plays short video clips along with the music. 

1956: Hollywood discovers the genre of music-centered films. A wave of rock'n'roll films begins ( Rock Around the Clock , Don't Knock the Rock , Shake, Rattle and Rock , Rock Pretty Baby , The Girl Can't Help It , and the famous Elvis Presley movies). Some of these films integrated musical performances into a story, others were simply revues. 

1960: In France a re-invention of the Soundie, the Scopitone , gains limited success. 

1962: British Television invents a new form of music television. Shows like Top Of The Pops , Ready! Steady! Go! and Oh, Boy started as band vehicles and became huge hits. 

1964: The US-Television market adapts the format. Hullabaloo is one of the first US shows of this kind, followed by Shindig! (NBC) and American Bandstand ; The Beatles star in A Hard Day's Night 

1966: The first conceptual promos are aired, for the Beatles' Paperback Writer and Rain. Early in 1967, even more ambitious videos are released for Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever. 

1968: The Rolling Stones collaborate with Jean-Luc Goddard on Sympathy for the Devil 

1970: The record industry discovers these TV-Shows as a great opportunity to promote their artists. They focus on producing short Promos. Early music videos which started to replace the live performance of the artist on the TV-stage. 

1975: Bohemian Rhapsody a groundbreaking video released by Queen marked the beginning of the video era and set the language for the modern music video. 

1979: Devo releases The Day My Baby Gave Me a Suprise, which is the first music video to include computer animation as well as the first to include traditional animation. 

1980: Ashes to Ashes which is considered as a groundbreaking video is released by David Bowie.

1981: MTV, the first 24-hour satellite music channel, launches. Initially few cable TV operators carried it, but it rapidly became a major hit and cultural icon. 

1981: Michael Nesmith wins the first ever music video Grammy with Elephant Parts. 

1983: Night Tracks debuted on Superstation WTBS (later known as TBS) with up to 14 hours of music videos each weekend by 1985. This allowed nearly all U.S. households with Cable TV to view music videos regularly as MTV still wasn't as widely available at this point in time compared to WTBS. 

1983: Friday Night Videos debuted on the NBC television network, allowing nearly all U.S. households to view music videos regularly. 

1984: Michael Jackson 's short film Thriller is released, changing the concept of music videos forever. The Making of Thriller home video was also released in 1984. It was the first ever video about the making of a music video. 

1986: Sledgehammer, the groundbreaking video from Peter Gabriel, is first shown. 

1989: MTV renames its Video Vanguard Award to the Michael Jackson Vanguard Awarding honor of Michael Jackson for his contributions to the art of music video. 

1989: Madonna 's controversial video for Like a Prayer is released. 

1991: Nirvana release the Smells Like Teen Spirit video changing the MTV platform from glam rock to alternative rock, and catapulting grunge and Kurt Cobain into the American and Worldwide mainstream. 

1992: MTV begins to credit music video directors. 

1992: Guns N' Roses 's groundbreaking video for November Rain is released and remains as one of the costliest ever produced. 

1996: Pop-up Video is first aired on VH1. 

1996: M2 is launched as a 24-hour music video channel, as MTV has largely replaced videos with other content. 

1999: M2 is renamed to MTV2 . 

2002: MTV Hits is launched as MTV2 is gradually showing fewer music videos. 

2005: Saw the launch of the website YouTube, which made the viewing of online video faster and easier; MySpace's video functionality, which uses similar technology, launched in 2007

2006: The Norwegian unsigned band Rektor makes the world’s first playable videogame music video game . http:// www.rektor.no 

Source: Wikipedia 

This information was taken from http://www.slideshare.net/crosswaysfederation/music-video-a-brief-history

Music Video Styles: Music Video Production 2004

Camerawork

As with any moving image text, how the camera is used and how images are sequenced will have a significant impact upon meaning. Camera movement, angle and shot distance all need to be analysed. Camera movement may accompany movement of performers (walking, dancing, etc) but it may also be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage performance, by for instance constantly circling the band as they perform on stage.

The close up does predominate, as in most TV, partly because of the size of the screen and partly because of the desire to create a sense of intimacy for the viewer. It also emphasises half of the commodity on sale (not just the song, but the artist, and particularly the voice). John Stewart of Oil Factory told me that he sees the music video as essentially having the aesthetics of the TV commercial, with lots of close ups and lighting being used most prominently for the star’s face.

Editing

Though the most common form of editing associated with the music promo is fast cut montage, rendering many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing thus ensuring multiple viewing, there are videos which use slow pace and gentler transitions to establish mood. This is particularly apparent for the work of many female solo artists with a broad audience appeal, such as Dido.

Often enhancing the editing are digital effects which play with the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience. This might take the form of split screens, colourisation and of course blockbuster film style CGI.

Star Image

Richard Dyer has noted:
“a star is an image constructed from a range of materials” (Richard Dyer 1979).

For pop music these materials include the songs (their lyrical themes and musical structures/genres), the record covers (singles and albums and the image of the star they present), media coverage (from interviews about career and private life through to tabloid gossip), live performance (the image through the stage show) and arguably most significantly the music videos, which may draw upon the image presented in each of the other aspects.

Each video may also draw upon its predecessor both in reinforcing the star’s existing image and in taking the image on further, perhaps in new directions. Thus even more than Hollywood films may be seen as vehicles for their stars, music videos will act as a showcase for their talents and a significant part in the construction and maintenance of their image.

Voyeurism

This idea comes from Freud, and has been much used in Media Studies, particularly in explaining the gendered pleasures of cinema. Broadly it refers to the idea of looking in order to gain sexual pleasure. It has been argued that the male viewer’s gaze at the screen is geared to notions of voyeurism in that it is a powerful controlling gaze at the objectified female on display. In music promos, as we have seen, the female on display has been a staple element through the Scopitones to Duran Duran and beyond. Goodwin argues that the female performer will frequently be objected in this fashion, often through a combination of camerawork and editing with fragmented body shots emphasising a sexualised treatment of the star. In male performance videos to the idea of voyeuristic treatment of the female body is often apparent with the use of dancers as adornments flattering the male star ego.

The idea becomes more complex when we see the male body on display and we might raise questions about how the female viewer is invited to respond. Equally, the apparently more powerful independent female artists of recent years, from Madonna onwards, have added to the complexity of the gaze by being at once sexually provocative and apparently in control. This offers interesting questions for discussion of the range of audience experiences of music video and the contradictory meanings they may evoke.

The idea of voyeurism is also frequently evident in music video through a system of screens within screens- characters shown watching performers or others on television, via webcams, as images on a video camera screen or CCTV within the world of the narrative. Indeed the proliferation of such motifs has reached a point where it has become almost an obsession in music promos.

Intertextuality

The music video is often described as ‘postmodern’, a slippery term which is sometimes used as a substitute for intertextuality. Broadly, if we see music promos as frequently drawing upon existing texts in order to spark recognition in the audience, we have a working definition of ‘intertextuality’. Not all audiences will necessarily spot the reference and this need not massively detract from their pleasure in the text itself, but it is often argued that greater pleasure will be derived by those who know the reference and are somehow flattered by this.

It is perhaps not surprising that so many music videos draw upon cinema as a starting point, since their directors are often film school graduates looking to move on eventually to the film industry itself. From Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’ (Mary Lambert 1985, drawing on ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’) to 2Pac and Dr Dre’s ‘California Love’ (Hype Williams 1996, drawing on ‘Mad Max’) there are many examples of cinematic references which dominate music video. Television is often a point of reference too, as in The Beastie Boys’ spoof cop show titles sequence for Sabotage (Spike Jonze 1994) or REMs recent news show parody ‘Bad Day’ (Tim Hope 2003).

John Stewart sees visual reference in music video coming from a range of sources, though the three most frequent are perhaps cinema, fashion and art photography. Fashion sometimes takes the form of specific catwalk references and sometimes even the use of supermodels, as by George Michael in both ‘Father Figure’(Morahan/Michael 1988) and ‘Freedom’ (Fincher 1990). Probably the most memorable example of reference to fashion photography is Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted to Love’ (Donovan 1986), parodied many times for its use of mannequin style females in the band fronted by a besuited Palmer. Shania Twain copied it for her ‘Man I feel like a woman’ (Paul Boyd 1999) and Tamra Davis directed a $350 parody of it for Tone Loc’s ‘Wild Thing’ (1988).

For the near future, John Stewart suspects that the influence of video games will predominate for the younger audience with the more plasticised look of characters emerging (as seen for example in Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Love be your Energy’ dir. Olly Reed 2001 and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers ‘Californication’ dir.Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris 2000)

His description of the music video “incorporating, raiding and reconstructing” is essentially the essence of intertextuality, using something with which the audience may be familiar to generate both potentially nostalgic associations and new meanings. It is perhaps more explicitly evident in the music video than in any other media form, with the possible exception of advertising.

Narrative and Performance

Narrative in songs is rarely complete, more often fragmentary, as in poetry. The same is true of music promos, which more often suggest storylines or offer complex fragments of them in non-linear order. In doing this the music video leaves the viewer with the desire to see it again if only to catch the bits missed on first viewing. As Steve Archer puts it: 

“Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor. Sometimes, the artist (especially the singer) will be a part of the story, acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip-synch close-up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it.” (Steve Archer 2004)

The video allows the audience access to the performer in a much greater range of ways than a stage performance could. Eye contact and facial gestures via the close up, role playing through the narrative and mise-en-scene will present the artist in a number of ways which would not be possible in a live concert.

The mise-en-scene may be used as a guarantee of what Simon Frith terms ‘authenticity’ as in the stage performance/use of a rehearsal room by a band whose musical virtuosity is their main selling point. It can be important to a narrative-based video to establish setting and relationship to existing film or televisual genres. Equally it may be used as part of the voyeuristic context by suggesting a setting associated with sexual allure, such as a sleazy nightclub or boudoir. Or finally, as John Stewart suggests, it may be used to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle for the audience, as in the current dominance of a futuristic look with emphasis on the latest gadgetry.

Other commentators have divided music videos in terms of style, though often there will be crossover between these; apart from Performance and Narrative, it is possible to identify at least six: Gothic, Animated, Dreamscapes, Portraiture, Futuristic and Home Movie.

Music Video Production 2004
Goodwin’s music video analysis

Andrew Goodwin writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992)

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
(e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals
(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

In conclusion to all of this major developments have effected the way people watch music videos from the 1940's to 2006. This is from technology that has developed over the years and generations becoming more open minded about the use of technology. For example, an older generation who were not used to seeing high technology music videos may find it weird in the amount of elements that are put together to create the final piece. As a result of this it will put them off until a new generation sees and is interested in how things change over time.