The history of music videos a level presentation

A level presentation

1. History of music video Andjela Rodic Andrea Dacic A Level Media Studies

2. What defines a music video? A music video is a short film which accompanies music. Modern music videos are usually used as marketing products for the artist. It helps promote the sales of the album or song that has been shown. According to Wikipedia: A music video, sometimes abbreviated to M/ V, is a video of variable duration that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. These videos are typically shown on music television and on streaming video sites like You Tube. Music videos have been and still are an essential element for a band or an artist to have. Before music videos existed, fans could only listen to their favourite artist’s music, they couldn’t see them or watch a concept intended with that song, unless of course going to a concert to see them live .

3. Music videos can date as far back as 1926 with the introduction of ‘talkies’. These were short films with synchronized sound. However these didn’t really take off because it was hard to synchronize the music with the video. It then developed when Tony Bennett claimed to have created the first music video when he was filmed walking along the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Jailhouse Rock from Elvis Presley can also been seen as the first music video that classes as a ‘promotional’ video. In the 1920 ’s, a theater in New York presented the first motion picture with sound on film, this synchronized movies and there soundtracks.

4. In the 1940s, jukeboxes played soundies . Soundies were three minute films featuring music and dance performances from jazz singers and swing dancers. In the 1960s, The Beatles used the power of film to promote their records. They starred in full length features such as "Help" and "A Hard Day ’s Night“ .

5. The music video came to prominence in the 1970’s and 1980’s. In the late 1970’s Top of the Pops began to play music videos, one of these was ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ from Queen. However the BBC restricted the videos that they could use. This was when MTV came about and had based all of their programmes around the music video. The music video was described as an ‘illustrated song’. The first song to be played on MTV was “Video Killed the Radio Star” in 1981. A lot of successful acts in this period of time owed a lot to MTV because of how successful their videos were. These were acts such as Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Madonna. There were two key innovations in this time that also helped the music video develop into something that was easy to develop and cheap at the same time. These were easy to use video recording and editing equipment and the development of visual effects.

6. In 1983 the most successful, influential and innovative music video was released. ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson was nearly 14 minutes long and cost $800,000 to film. This video also helped the African American community of acts because before this was shown on MTV, there were rarely any African American videos shown. So this video helped people such as Rick James. Then in 1984 MTV launched the MTV Video Music Awards which later changed to the VMA’s. This was an awards event that came to underscore MTV and its importance in the music industry. Then the year after MTV launched VH1 (Video Hits One). This was to cater for an older audience and included softer music. In 1986 The Chart Show was launched on Channel 4 in the UK. This channel only showed music videos and had no presenters, and the videos were linked with state of the art computer graphics at the time.

7. In 2005, the web launched one of the most renowned websites of the music industry- Youtube: Youtube makes the viewing of online video's much quicker and easier; other websites that use a similar interface include Google Videos, Yahoo, Facebook and My Space. All of these music websites have a massive effect on the viewing of music videos and an artist's success rate. Following You Tube success, Vevo was introduced in 2009 which also provides music videos from major record labels, called "the big four".

8. In addition to previous mentioned platforms, in 2005 iTunes was opened which allows music videos as well as songs to be downloaded from internet. Music videos are essential for fans engagement. They help audience grasp the visual identity of specific artist. Music videos create a multidimensional experience. Nowadays, there is a tacit expectation for a visual reference associated with music. Music videos communicate to audience, promoters, and bookers that artists take your music project seriously and professionally. In return, this influences the way audience see artist, their art, and performance.