“Music videos have
changes drastically over time and are now unrecognisable for their historical
counterparts”
A music video is a
short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a
song. Modern music videos are commonly used and made as a marketing device
intended to promote the sale of music recordings. The earliest music videos
were filmed in the mid 1950’s. Developments were made and in 1956 Tony Bennett
was filmed walking along the serpentine in Hyde Park where he was recording
‘Stranger In Paradise’, it played on UK and US televisions, then Bennett
claimed he made the first music video. Modern music videos however challenged
video traditions with Andrew Goodwin’s ideas of Narrative, Concept and
Performance videos.
The modern era of
music videos in the 1970s had platforms of where the videos could be
played/seen. The importance of programs like Top Of The Pops to promote a single created an environment of
innovation and competition amongst bands and record labels, as show’s producers
placed strict limits on the number of videos it could show- therefore a good
video would increase a songs sales as viewers hoped to see it again the
following week. Queens Bohemian Rhapsody started
a whole new era for using music videos as promos. Similarly, in 1981 MTV
launched, the first video to be aired was The Buggles- Video Killed The Radio Star. The video was going with Goodwin’s
concept thematic theory, as the videos theme was promotion of technology while
worrying about its effects. The song relates to the concerns about mixed
attitudes towards 20th century inventions and machines for the media
arts. The video was written, directed and edited by Russell Mulcahy. It was
produces on a budget of $50,000. Before Bohemian
Rhapsody was released artists would release video clips to accompany the
song. Not only until they realised the success of them it become increasingly
popular to release a video alongside the single. Queen had a budget of £4,500 and the video is hailed for launching
the MTV age. The special effects were achieved during the recording, rather
than the editing. Which normally in modern videos are added during the editing
process. Pointing the camera at a monitor, giving visual feedback, made the
visual effects of Mercury’s face cascading away.
Newer modern music
videos are filmed in more realistic locations and released on the Internet, rather
than television programs. For example, Lego
House by Ed Sheeran was filmed at
The Forum, University of Hertfordshire. It stars Rupert Grint, most famous for being in the Harry Potter films. It
was released on Sheeran’s YouTube
channel which differs from Queen’s video,
they released and premiered it on television as then in the 70’s televisions were
the newest and more widely available form to technology for them to be seen on,
where nowadays the Internet is a greater platform to release music onto as everyone
and anyone can view it. Now artists can widen their fan base and audience as
videos and music can be seen and heard all over the world with the Internet.
The video is known as a narrative and confirms the gratification model as it
portrays Grint as Sheeran, performing activities like
writing songs and taking to the stage, later in the video we realise that is
actually an obsessive fan trying to be like his idol. The video had a beginning,
middle and end story wise as classic video were more performance based, where
stars were recorded like they were performing the song to an audience.
Although, a classic
video like Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean
is to be considered to be the video that brought MTV, then a fairly new unknown
channel, into mainstream attention. It was one of the first videos by a black
artist to be aired regularly by the channel. Directed by Steve Barron, the
video shows a photographer who follows Jackson.
The photographer never catches the
singer, and when photographed Jackson fails to appear on the developed picture.
He dances his way to Billie Jean's hotel room and as he walks along the
pavement, each tile lights up as he steps on it. After he spins, jumps and
lands, freeze framed, on his toes. Upon arrival at the hotel, Jackson climbs
the staircase to Billie Jean's room. Each step lights up as he touches it and a
burnt out "Hotel" sign illuminates as he passes. The photographer then
arrives at the scene and watches as Jackson vanishes under the covers of Billie
Jean's bed. Followed by the police, the photographer is arrested for spying on
Billie Jean. MTV network executives thought ‘black music’ wasn’t ‘rock’ enough
for the channel’s image. A member of Jacksons record label CBS, approached MTV
as they refused to play it. He threatened to go public about the issue and then
they agreed to show it. Billie Jean is a
mix of both concept and narrative. Like most modern videos are the same like Katy Perry’s Roar video. Filming for the music video Roar took two days. Grady Hall and Mark
Kudsi directed the video. A 21-second teaser of the video had been uploaded.
Now companies offer not only a music video they offer access to behind the scenes
of the making of videos and are normally posted online, which never was even
imaginable with classic or historical videos. In this case Nokia posted a
two-minute behind the scenes
video then after an extended 17-minute behind-the-scenes video was uploaded to
Perry's official VEVO account. The video had 530 million views on her YouTube
channel.
Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory is the concept that of
gaze is one that deals with how an audience vies the people and how they are
presented. She believed that in film audiences have to view the characters for
the perspective of a heterosexual male. A video that shows this is Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus. The first close up of Miley instantly connects
with the male gaze theory, however it is perhaps a more milder version of what
is to come. Her red lips and blue eyes portray her femininity and also present her
as an attractive woman that a male heterosexual audience would be attracted to.
The next shot in the video reveals Miley acting intimately with a sledge
hammer, which is usually regarded as a masculine object so could perhaps so her
trying to subvert her femininity. Despite this, Miley still appears sexualised
through her actions and the distinctiveness of the red lipstick which could
give sexual connotations. It could be argued that Cyrus acted this way in the video to attract masses of media
attention, which it did, and therefore was able to sell more single and create
media frenzy over the video. Now artist may go into the industry not only
because they want to make music but with the publicity and fame as well. The Buggles or Michael Jackson may of thought that videos wasn’t as important and
the song was the thing that mattered therefore spending more time on producing
the song than the video but, now the video is an element in what sells the
music. Another video that goes with Mulvey’s theory is She’s So Lovely by Scouting
for Girls. The music video for She's
So Lovely is set in a bowling alley. Roy Stride is trying to attract the
attention of a girl, who is played by a model, but she has a boyfriend already.
While the boyfriend is there, Roy tells the girl she looks beautiful. The
boyfriend gets angry, but gets called away for his throw. As he scores a
strike, Roy and the girl walk off down the hall together, although only their
legs are shown; you can see the shoes and jeans are the same as Roy's. The girl
costume is the same as Roy’s but people may not notice it as audience’s
attention is on the woman most of the time.
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