Research
1. History of Music Video
Music videos have evolved thought the years from the
typical blank filming band/orchestra performances to the
cinematic big budget music video . Today , they have
become of great importance to any popular band , with many
popular music videos creating great controversy
worldwide with their different genre themes.
Major changes Over the years
 Television Popularity
It is no doubt that television had an great impact on
the popularity in music videos at their start and still
today with the rise of music channels creating an
demand also competitor between bands with the music
video by Bohemian rhapsody-Queen .This force the
improvement of visual - dialogue expression in music videos so
channels like MTV could show the band unique trademarked
style .
 “Video Killed the Radio Star” music video
by The Buggles launch MTV its an great o
example of the blank narrative style of bands
at this time , gain an great commercial
success for the Buggles and criticise with an
budget of $50,000 . Shown shots of an girl
dressed "in a silver costume and be lowered via wires in
a test tube “, of Hans Zimmer briefly seen wearing
black playing a keyboards and footage of Debi Doss
and Linda Jardim, who provided the female vocals for
the song.
 Meaningful Music videos Narratives
With times changing forced bands to improved their narrative
stories to an more interpretative way ,what some groups of bands
took off meaning for their musical
videos , were the interpretation and
discussion of popular issues that
influenced the “present” modern
time for their music videos like TLC
— “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg” where the
music video pioneer the idea of
condom-as-fashion-item . Other
groups took an more approach to the
encourager of political activism this
include bands like Public Enemy
— “Fight the Power”
The video presents
sexual imagery.She
explained at this
time that it was
done to brings up the
issue of safe sex.
“The point is to make
condoms something
kids aren’t afraid of
or ashamed of.” she
said
The use at the
beginning old civil
rights-era footage
and then contrasting
it with rally at that
time
This meaningful narratives have evolved today in modern popular
music videos that address today issues in society from recent
popular artists like Meghan Trainor with the music video and song
“All about that Bass” that address problems with society vision of
women looks. Music videos today also evolved to narratives of the
artists interpretation of the song .
The music video
contrast the
perceives perfection
looks of a women
by society with the
true reality.
 Cinematic music videos
This today as become an standard for popular artist/bands musical
videos . Initiated by the famous Michael Jackson -thriller , the
musical video portrait an plot that equals to an “mini”-movie , it
also follow with an high budget that creates an sophisticate look
for fans at that time with choreography dancing. This type of
style is very popular use in many of Michael Jackson music video
like “Billie Jean”. Michael also initiated other changes in musical
video at an early stage with “I want you back” where he introduced
cross -cutting from singers and narrative.
In “Thriller”. Michael Jackson
parodies the conventions of an
Horror movie , were himself
plays an part on the narrative
having him dancing
choreograph with dancers
while in an zombie costume. It
was produced with high
budget of $750,000 , with an
high success of 29 million of
albums sold .
This type of production in
music videos as inspirer
many popular artist like Lady
gaga for their music videos .
One example of this
cinematic music videos are
the latest Kanye
west-Runaway 30 minutes
length music video that was produced at an high budget for his
latest song , that tells a story about an angle falling down from
heaven,in it also there are a lots of choreography dancing
representing the narrative
 Technology advances
Thought the years , technology advances have
influences the visual and distribution of musical
videos. Innovators like Dire Straits and Peter
Gabriel saw the music video has an opportunity
to make an impression with artistic expression .
They done this by the
use of what were, for
the era, cutting-edge
stop-motion and animation techniques,
the music videos for the songs
“Sledgehammer” and “Money for
Nothing” were catapulted into the
category of iconic. An more iconic
music video showing the technology influence in music video
would be A'HA-TAKE ON ME that show the combination of live
action with book format popular in the era. Technology advances
have always had great impact to music videos ,
more seen today with the visual effects in high
budget production music videos of popular bands.
An example of this would be the fall out
boys-Centuries , where we see an computer like
style scenario of an Colosseum around them. With
the introduction of the Internet , business like You
tube a have had positive influence towards the
distribution of music videos as social media as lead
to music videos expansion of exhibition worldwide
has well raise problems within piracy of those musicians . Film
also lead to many music videos to collaboration with popular films
that use their songs as an constant thought the films
2. Purpose on music videos
There are many reasons towards an music video production :
 Improves sales figures
By creating an musical video , it raises awareness towards the
bands album especial depending on the amount controversial
issues portrait on this video like Nicki Minaj - Anaconda that due
to the sexual content portrait lead to a boost in sales that would
never had occur if it there wasn't for the music video
 Product placement
Most music videos will often include outside products from the
band .Music videos will introduce and promote this outside
companies like Beat , and in return the music either increases the
budget or the band is pay an certain amount for the collaboration,
sometimes both.
 Messages ad values
Music videos can also be produced to inform or instruct about a
specific message or values . Like creating a specific narrative
that explicit the meaning of the song. Sometimes like thriller by
Michael Jackson or Telephone by lady gag , the music videos are
made to parody popular concepts.
 Promotion
This is the main purpose that most music videos are produce . They
introduce the bands musicians , artistic , new directors , albums ,
films and product . Basically the are produce to informed
audiences of their existence and the styles that the band is
composed off
 Play on music channels
Used to shown bands new trends songs over the television or
introduce them
3. Current State of Music videos
The current state in music videos has been an result of the major
changes in history that popular music videos and technology
have introduce through the years.
Today , current music videos will follow structure around 3 mains
styles:
 Performance based video: where
it features band/artist/group
performing the song through partly
of the video , sometimes all of the
video. This is normally used in
music videos for new recent bands as for it doesn't
require an high budget bands like Arcane Roots - Slow
 Narrative based video: where most of the footage
attempts to tell a story. Usually involving actors , the
story is sometimes linked to the lyrical content of the
song , but this isn't always the case. This type of music
video tends to be popular for song that is featured in a
movie and you will often see scenes cut into the music
video.
 Concept Based video: this style video is base around a
single concept or idea. This types of videos tend to be
fairly unusual or utilize a particular editing or filming
technique. Its not often you get a purely
conceptual music video as the
commercial world demands things to be
a bit more accessibly. Like the musical
video Sia - Elastic Heart feat. Shia
LaBeouf & Maddie Ziegler
The codes and practice that current music videos will followed will
be the beat matching editing, lip sync, multi screen , live action ,
Animation , performances.
Popular music videos of today will follow the styles of cinematic
music videos originated from Michael Jackson like the fall out
boy-The young blood chronicles that each music video will contain
an sort of narrative that in this case progress in each music video ,
off course most are produced in an high budget with amazing
visual . The most popular music videos dispute the most
controversial topics in society with out ranging imagery that
attracted most audiences . The actors in displayed will often be
categorize famous .
The popular music videos are full-blown commercial epidemic
that blurs the actual purpose of the video: to entertain, rather than
to sell. While this reign in many popular films many are return to
the simpler take on the music video more than the Buggle but less
than “Marry the Night”.
Music videos like Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” or Radiohead’s
“Lotus Flower” align with an increasingly popular tradition of
music videos that accompany but do not overshadow the song
itself. Other artist let visual effects, whether digital or physical,
take centrer stage in beautiful mash-ups of art and music.All in all,
the current state is also welcoming an break from modern
cinematic music videos.