2. A music video is a short film that features imagery that relates to the song, usually made for artistic and
promotional purposes. Modern day music videos are used for the purpose of marketing and advertising the
sale of music records.
Music videos can use a variety of styles of contemporary video creation, which include animation, live action,
documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos can blend different
styles, such as animation, music, and live action.
What Is A Music Video and What Are They Used For?
3. 1926 – 1959 : Talkies, Soundies and Shorts
Max Fleischer, an animation artist had begun a series of sing-along
short cartoons called Screen Songs, in which audiences were invited to
sing along to popular songs by following the bouncing ball over the
lyrics. In the early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians
performing their hit songs on camera in live action segments. The early
animated films by Walt Disney, such as Fantasia (1939), synchronise and
visualise interpretations.
4. In the mid 1940s, a musician named Louis Jordan created short films to accompany his songs. According to
Donald Clarke these films were “ancestors” of music video. Tony Bennett had claimed to have created “the
first music video” in his autobiography. He was filmed walking along the Serpentine in Hyde Park, London in
1956.
In 1961, Manny Pittson started pre – recording the music audio, then went on to location and filmed numerous
visuals with the musicians lip-synching, then he edited the sound together, this was for the Canadian show Singalong
Jubilee. Most music numbers at the time were filmed in a studio on stage and then location shoot ‘videos’ were to
add diversity.
5. In 1961, Manny Pittson started pre – recording music audio, then went on to location and filmed numerous visuals
with the musicians lip – synching, then he edited the sound together, this was for the Canadian show Singalong Jubilee.
Most music numbers at the time were filmed in a studio on stage and then location shoot ‘videos’ were to add
diversity.
6. 1960 – 1970 : Promotional Clips and Others
In 1965, The Beatles began creating
promotional clips for distribution in
to other countries, mainly the USA,
this was so they could promote their
hits without making in person
appearances. By the time The Beatles
had finished touring in 1966, their
promotional films had become very
stylish. In the year 1967 The Beatles
then went on to make colour
promotional clips for the tracks
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and
‘Penny Lane’, this had taken
promotional clips to a new level.
Click on me
7. 1981 – 1991 : Music Videos go Mainstream
1981, the U.S. video channel MTV launched and aired ‘Video Killed
the Radio Star’, this was the beginning of an era of 24 hour a day
music on television. The music video would, by the mid 1980s grow
to be a central role in music marketing.
The key development of the contemporary music video, was the
development of relatively cheap and easy to use video recording and
editing equipment.
In 1984, MTV had launched the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA’s),
this annual awards event would emphasise MTV’s importance in the
music industry. The event rewarded The Beatles and David Bowie
with the ‘Video Vanguard Award’ for their work in pioneering the
music video.
8. Successful Music Videos
In the year 1983, the most successful and influential video was released. Michael Jackson’s song ‘Thriller’ was
13:43 minutes long, this was iconic as this had never been done before. Costing $800,000 ‘Thriller’ set music
production to a new level. In 1984 ‘Thriller’ won the Viewer’s Choice Awards at the MTV awards, the same
year he won Best Choreography and Best Overall Performance in a Video. ‘Thriller’ also earnt two Grammy’s
for Best Video, Long Form and Best Video Album. Successful Music Videos
9. Released in 1992 ‘Heal the World’ has a significant meaning behind the music video. Heal the World is about the
world’s issues and how they can be fixed. The video features young children living in countries which suffer,
especially Burundi, this is to show the impact on adolescents. By using scene's in his music video this would get
the message across to the audience and show them how bad lie is for these people. Michael Jackson started a
charity which was named Heal The World Foundation, the purpose of this was to provide medicine to children,
fight against the worlds hunger, child exploitation and abuse. In 1992 Jackson was on his Dangerous World Tour,
all the proceeds made would go to his charity.
Songs with Meanings
10. 2005 – Present : The Internet Becomes Video Friendly
In 2005, the website YouTube launched, this made it easier and
faster for the viewing of music videos. Many artists found the
website to be successful as their songs were viewed mostly online.
Record labels uploaded their music videos to different online
outlets, this was seen as a way of free advertisement for their artists.
In the year 2009, Thirty Second to Mars’ music video ‘King and
Queens’ was uploaded to YouTube and on the very same day of its
release had been seen over 100,000,000 times. The song had been
featured on iTunes Store for video of the week and was one of the
most downloaded videos to ever have been featured.
11. The Internet has now become the main growth
income market for record company – produced
music videos. Vevo is another website launched
by several music publishers, the videos on the
website are broadcasted to YouTube by sharing
advertising revenues. Apple, iTunes Store now
provides free music videos in high quality to be
watch via the iTunes application. However, more
recently iTunes has started selling music videos
for the use on Apple iPods with video playback
capability.
