Impact of Music Videos on Music

1. Media Theory
What is the impact of music videos on the music industry?
Introduction
From the begging of music creation, music in general has been about conveying a storyline to the
listener. However,music artists have only had access to audible ques, through instruments and vocals.
But with the introduction of TV’s and other means of visual aids which can add extra meaning to the
story artists try to create. As music videos became cheaper to produce, artists developed music videos
from just complementing the music to using it in storylines and character development. But I'll get
into this later.
What I want to understand by the end of this essay,is the usage of music videos. Be it performance,
concept or narrative. And hopefully I can categorise some genres and break their music videos down
into these genres.
Genre Theory
Interestingly, every song, video and book don’t belong to any one genre, and nor do they belong to no
genre. But genre is the comparison of one media to another. I had my own theory to why humans
categorically sort out information into genres, it goes down the lines of similarities and differences.
And to an extent, this is correct. But one thing my idea doesn’t touch upon is the fact that a subject
can partially link to a genre. From reading “Genre” by John Frow (John Frow (2013). Genre. N/A:
Taylor & Francis. 25.) my perspective was guided down the idea that genres are fluid and dynamic.
Frow references an extract from the philosopher Jacques Derrida where he mentions that “a text
doesn’t belong to any one genre” but that every text “participates in one or severalgenres” this is
because no one media is aimed at one genre. But this media can experience being involved partially in
a genre, which can shift overtime. But that doesn’t mean if a media is fully connected to a genre but
that it has connection to the genre.
From a more natural perspective, genre for humans is the categorisation of the natural world. Take for
example the periodic table, the categorisation of naturally forming elements into a table where
differences and similarities are clearly visible. Humans as a species use categorisation in our daily
lives. From different cultures, cars and computers to using categorisation to ‘fit’ into daily life. John
Frow wrote that as humans we have to recognise that to “be a member of a culture is knowing the
differences, and the ability to talk about those differences.” Coming back to genre. Genres are those
categorical similarities and differences. I found this hard to wrap my head around at first but recognise
the reason why a joke is funny requires contextual and cultural knowledge to decipher the heart of a
joke. If someone doesn’t understand a joke, it would be because they don’t have the understanding of
the context.
Genres play a more common part in your lives then you might image. We group different people,
places and objects into categories. In the same regard as categorising songs or texts into genres. Being
exposed to the idea that we don’t just use genre to categorise entertainment is something that I have
thought about. The unintuitive categorisation of people into social and economic groups is exactly

2. why we have so much division in our current day and age. Because it's so common for humans to
categorise otherwise normal objects or information means that differences will be spotted easily.
More interestingly, you would get different answers from different areas of the world. This idea is
driven from the different perspectives that languages provide shaping the perspective of cultures.
(Susan A. Gelman and Steven O. Roberts (2017). How language shapes the cultural
inheritance of categories. United Kingdom: National Academy of Sciences. N/A.) In the paper
“how language shapes the cultural inheritance of categories” by Susan A. Gelman and Steven O.
Roberts they mention that languages categorise into 2 different transmission catalogues: “Labels
(names for categories like shark) and generics (which is the generalisation of names, for example
shark attacks swimmers).”
Genre itself is the categorisation of different arts,medias and music’s. Genre theory investigates how
these categories are created by individuals. How can they tell if one song has a ‘different’ genre? As a
whole, “genre contributes to construct and re-construct" (Cornelia Ilie and Giuliana Garzone
(2014). Genres and Genre Theory in Transition. English: BrownWalker Press. 7. ) many
different areas of our lives. Areas such as Culture or politics. It can be challenging to group certain
music's, videos or social situations because genre itself is an ever-evolving category.
The expansion of streaming videos
Music has always been an activity where the listener has to interpret what the artist is conveying with
their music. But with the introduction of music videos in the 1950’s, music artists had a separate
visual way to convey a storyline through. Understanding each scene,in conjunction is thrilling when
the music video fits the song itself. And in the last 10 years,artists have nailed music videos. But
there have also been the cases where the music video doesn’t mesh with the music, and it flops hard.
The genre I'm going to focus on one of the most popular genres of music: pop music. More
specifically, pop music within America and the UK. The reason is that I have grown up around the
expansion of social media like YouTube. YouTube is one of many platforms that make music videos
easily accessible to the masses for free. This drives incentive for music artists and developers to create
a music video to add that extra to their music. In 2018, 63% of the music industries revenue was from
“on-demand” services like YouTube, Spotify and apple music. On-demand music being streaming
from a service provider on the internet. Being easily accessible,the music industry has had more
incentive to create music videos for their songs. It is stated that “40%” of YouTube viewers watch
music videos, which is a huge market. Not for income, but for marketing. This in my eyes is one of
the true of usages music videos. Marketing and exposure is one of the major reasons why music
producers make them alongside a song. A music video “can create a visual representation” (Student
at Highbury College. (2014). PRODUCER STRATEGIES. Available: http://music--
videos.weebly.com/purposes. Last accessed 30/12/2020.) ) promotional purposes) of a
band/artist, using the video to create an emotion to promote to the audience. This is seen all of the
music industry, in all genres of music, but its easily visible with pop bands with artists such as Yeek
and Lilly.
Music videos always have a set budget which the producer would stick to. And as you would imagine,
music videos tend to cost a large sum of money for major producers. In the example of a music
video’s cost by a major producer would be “Scream” by Michael and Janet Jackson. With an “overall
production budget of $7,000,000.” (Student at Highbury College. (2014). PRODUCER
STRATEGIES. Available: http://music--videos.weebly.com/purposes. Last accessed
30/12/2020.) Adjusted to today's inflation would be $10,834,025. A huge amount for just a song.
This budget was so high because the music video was on a short deadline. More recently however, the

3. production cost of music videos have become cheaper and more accessible to independent labels and
self-producers have had more access to creating music videos for their songs because the cost of
production lowered. Being more accessible to smaller producers, allows for more music videos to be
created. Having a more saturated market means that producers have to be more creative with their
products. You can see this development of creativity from initial music videos from the 1970s to
today's music videos, where producers use music videos for not just promotion.
Genres of music videos
Performance music videos and live events
As a very general and basic definition: A performance-based music video is where the “music video
displays the artist/bands performance.” The main ways producers can advertise their music without
‘advertising’ it. Is by creating a music video. And the simplest and cheapest option is a performance-
based music video. It's not to say that performance-based music videos have their own challenges. But
in my current opinion; performance-based music videos are the easiest to create.
Generally, performance music videos are used to advertise the band in question. Producers can do this
in multiple ways when it comes to performance music videos, but typically the band is ‘centre stage’
displaying them to the viewer. And this raises 1 important point: does this remove the need for the
band to visit their target audience? I ask this question because the viewer/audience of the band can see
the artist/band on demand using streaming platforms. In the article by ROTOR mentions how artists
and bands use music videos to “replace the need for bands to travel from city to city.” (N/A. (N/A).
How Internet Changed the Music Video. Available: https://rotorvideos.com/blog/how-
internet-changed-music-video. Last accessed 29/12/2020.) why would bands need to travel from
“city to city”? Well, by traveling to a location with individuals who would visit the concert would
open up the opportunity for the band to advertise their new music and albums. But one problem with
traveling to different locations is the cost encored. This is where the development of MTV and the
decrease in the cost of music videos allowed producers to use music videos to display the artist/band
to the audience instead of live concerts.
Having a live concert allows artists to directly play to the audience. If you have ever gone to a live
event, you will understand that there is more of a connection between the audience and the band/artist
then compared to a video produced by the same band. Artists can use audience interaction and in the
moment events to expand the experience that the audience has while at their concert. In the book
Music and Soul making by Barbara J. Crowe there is plenty of reference towards the experience that
the artist and audience have while at a concert. At a concert Crowe was “surrounded by the sound”
and “bombarded by the physical vibrations” (Barbara J. Crowe (2004). Music and Soulmaking.
United States: Scarecrow Press. 77.) and this would be the same for the audience. A joint
experience that couldn’t be had digitally. For this extra experience, the audience will pay more, and
this will create a short-term economic incentive for bands to use concerts instead of music videos
(especially smaller bands, because their videos won't get many views, but their concerts will still have
an audience). Another thing a band can use a concert for, is to advertise new songs and merchandise.
An audience member searching up a music video will only be looking for said music video. But at a
concert a band could advertise their new music and products.
However,live events are not all positives. The largest con plainly comes down to the price. The cost
of hosting a venue can be the primary reason why a band cannot have a live event. Yes,the band will
have many positives for hosting an event which I mentioned earlier but looking at a large upfront and

4. staff costs is a hard figure for bands to pay. Therefore, a band might choose a video over a live event
because of the possibility of being much cheaper. Another reason why a band might not choose a live
event is because of the size of the venue. A video online can have unlimited amounts of viewers.
Whereas a building has a set amount of people allowed inside. If the band wants to fit more people
into the venue, tough luck, should have made a music video instead.
Returning to performance music videos, cost is the least of a performance videos problem. The main
issue with any type of music video, is exposure. A producer can offset this by advertising their music
to a wide audience, but this will endure the same if not more cost then a live event. A live event is
easily advertised on social media, because it will be easier for a band to fill a venue then create a viral
music video with plenty of views. The largest difference between a venue and a video is the potential
either has. The venue has the maximum potential of the people visiting the concert,whereas the video
has the potential to be seen by millions of different people globally at no extra cost. Mentioning the
cost of videos, there is no cost to upload a video to YouTube. The costs from music videos will be
staffing and resource costs. There are no maintenance costs with a music video, once it's on the
internet, it's on the internet. After a music video is posted, it’s a permanent advertising location for the
band. Any time a person watches the video, they are exposed to the branding and merchandise in
other areas on the page. Producers can link stores within the video, as well as linking in the
description of the video and in the comment section. Many areas people go on the internet. This extra
advertising should snowball as more people are exposed to the video.
Plainly the difference between live concerts and performance music videos, is the band is present for
the live event. The challenge for large modern bands is to decide between hosting their music online
or with a live concert. Both directions the band could take can each provide benefits. And for most
bands it's possible to do both.
In total, producers use performance music videos for a variety of reasons. But the one reason that
stands out the most is the connection between the music and the complementing video.
Concept music videos
A concept music video is a video based around an idea or concept which can be obscure and unlinked
to the music. Take for example the fantastic music by Alt J (Breezeblocks)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVeMiVU77wo. This is a great example because the video
displays what we think is a murder, with the husband attacking the wife. But played in reverse,we see
the true story.
Concept videos can come in many forms. Ranging from creative animated music videos to music
videos that are multi-track brand building stories, in the case of 21 pilots with their albums
“Blurryface” and “Trench.” story driven concept music videos are the most common, Breezeblocks
being an example. In the philosophical book “100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About
People” Susan Weinschenk (the writer) explains in rule 6 mentions: “People process information best
in story form.” Essentially Weinschenk explains that the structure of stories is the primary reason why
humans understand the “content”/information. In relations to the internet. The audience of any music
video will be on YouTube or some other streaming service,where they can navigate anywhere, they
want. It is your job as a producer to maintain their attention with an entertaining and engaging story.
The reason why a producer might want a band to create a concept music video would be to have an
entertaining music video, with plenty of hidden objects and concepts which the viewer will want to re-
watch to understand the “story.”

5. Concept videos and create a storyline which has no relation to the music itself. This is not the aim of a
concept music video. Like performance-based music videos, concept music video is there to
complement the music behind it. What the video does is add that extra which otherwise wasn’t there.
Producers could deliberately make the video about an obscure story; however, this would only entice
more people to watch it. And this comes back to the main aim of a concept music video which is to
entice and maintain viewership.
Concept music videos tend to only stick to the beat or certain instruments at a time. This is instead of
lip syncing. Again, this is to provide a twist on other types of music videos like performance videos,
which would use lip syncing. By being more of a story form, concept music videos tend to be more
dramatic and thrilling compared to its counterparts. The stories themself will convey an underlying
message which might not have been included in the lyrics of the music.
Overall, concept music videos are a relatively new form of music videos compared to narrative and
performance-based music videos. The first performance music videos appeared with the starting of
the MTV channel in the USA. Whereas concept music videos have only begun widely showing up in
the early 2000s. Concluding, concept music videos are used to add an extra layer to music with a
second story/animation which can grab the short attention span of a viewer.
Narrative music videos
Narrative music videos are designed to “tell a story” (STRATFORD UPON AVON COLLEGE. (N/A).
Narrative Based Music Videos. Available: https://suacdigital.wordpress.com/video-
library/music-videos/narrative-based-music-videos/. Last accessed30/12/2020.) to the
viewer. Taking them on the wild ride the writer prepared for them. Narrative music videos use the
music and the video in conjunction to create a storyline. There is plenty of lip syncing as the video
provides context to the lyrics. The entertainment value is like concept music videos regarding the fact
that both use stories. Concept videos don’t have to but most of the time they are based around a story.
The involvement and entertainment is the storyline that the viewer is taken down while watching and
listening to the music video.
Brands can easily use narrative music videos to create a cross album story which is what 21 pilots did
when I mentioned them earlier? They can use stories within music videos to bluster the image of
artists within the band. Giving them an exaggerated and inflated story, which might definingly be
interesting to watch for target audiences keen to know more about the band.
Music videos uses as a whole
Overall, Music videos are a make-or-break experience for some viewers. If a producer gets a video
wrong. It is possible to ruin the music; however, music videos are 9/10 a worthy investment by a
producer to advertise their song to a wider audience on the internet.