TARA PILKINGTON A2 MEDIA BLOG
The History of Music Videos
INTERESTING FACTS:
Most expensive music video:
Scream - Micheal and Janet Jackson at originally $7 million.
Longest music video:
Happy - Pharrell Williams at 24 hours long.
First ever music video:
Batcat in the early 1930s.
Pharrell truly knocked Micheal Jacksons 39 minute epic 'Ghosts' off the top spot for having the worlds longest music video with his 24 hour, interactive video.
It comprised a cast of singers, dancers and famous actors mouthing the words of his catchy 4 minute song a total of 360 times.
An interactive clock allowed viewers to watch through the video and watch back previous moments, and the whole event was condensed into his tv edit video which lasted only 4:08 minutes.
Celebrities in the video included Whit Hertford, Kelly Osbourne, Magic Johnson, Urijah Faber, Sérgio Mendes, Jimmy Kimmel, Odd Future,Steve Carell (who plays Gru in Despicable Me 2), Jamie Foxx, Ana Ortiz, Miranda Cosgrove (who plays Margo in Despicable Me 2), Gavin DeGraw and JoJo.
The most expensive music video of all time was created by the sibling duo, Michael and Janet Jackson, with their very successful 1995 song, "Scream."
Mark Romanek was the director for the video which tells the narrative of the two artists trying to escape from earth and its intrusive media. A total of $175,000 was spent on lighting, a computer generated spacecraft costed $65,000 to create, which gives an indicator of the financial extravagance. In total the video cost a massive $7 million.
"Scream" won the award for best dance video at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards.
The first ever music video was created by the group Batcat in the early 30s. The video used mulitple techniques such as fading transitions and cross disolves which show early pioneering technology in the film world. The quality of the footage is very poor as very basic cameras were used, and a gramophone was the tool used for the sounds in this short clip.
MOST SUCCESSFUL SONGS OF THE PAST 60 YEARS:
50s
Rock around the clock - Billy Haley & His Comets
60s
She Loves You - The Beatles
70s
Mull of Kintyre - Paul McCartney and WINGS
80s
Do they know its Christmas? - Band Aid
90s
Something about the way you look tonight / Candle in the wind - Elton John
00s
Anything can happen / Evergreen - Will Young
MUSIC VIDEOS TODAY:
Today music videos are not just visual performances, but they represent the meaning behind songs, the beliefs and opinions of the artist, and sterotypical images of that genre. The video has become as vital as the song itself to selling music, and as artsists appearance becomes even more prevalent in the music industry, this trend is set to grow as the years go on.
While some music videos cause controversy, such as Mini Minaj's Anaconda which angered feminists on a global scale who argued that she was selling her sexual image rather than a song, others use videos and music to promote a political opinion in a mainstream business for example Beyonce's ***Flawless.
'Anaconda' - Nicki Minaj '***Flawless' - Beyoncé
BEYONCES VISUAL ALBUM
"Beyoncé is the fifth studio album by American recording artist Beyoncé, released on December 13, 2013 by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. Developed as a simultaneous audio-visual medium whereby the singer sought to recreate an "immersive experience" in her music, the visual album comprises non-linear short films that accompany its songs, illustrating the musical concepts she conceived during production. The album has been identified as one of the most explicit pop albums ever recorded, and tackles themes darker and more complex than her previous material, including feminism, sexuality, the joys of motherhood and post-maternity relationship problems." - en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyoncé_(album)
A visual album is an idea not before explored, whereby ever song on her album has an accompanying video. This has broken the record for the most amount of music videos created for songs originate#ing from one single album, and means that her music from this album is not simply on a singular platform but links on different forms of media. It is also a very clever marketing technique as it ensures more success for each individual song because her fans want to watch all of the videos as well.
Todd Tourso directed the videos for both "Jealous" and "Heaven", and along with Beyonce he worked as the creative director for the entire project. Along with the music videos came a 5 part short documentary of how the album was made, these were entitled:
 Part 1 |
|---|
 Part 2 |
 Part 3 |
 Part 4 |
 Part 5 |
As you can see from the best selling songs of each decade, not only the quality of the camera has improved meaning the videos are more aesthetically pleasing, but the content of the video has broadened into more narrative short stories. Many videos nowadays do have solely performance, but the majority of videos have a storyline which links to the lyrics of the song to pair visual and lyrical images and enhance the song. Music videos are tools for artists to represent what they stand for and their own personal brand. Through mise en scene we can detect genre from a video which makes it easy to identify a target audience and therefore attract a specific group of people.
INFLUENTIAL MUSIC VIDEOS:
Take On Me - a-ha
The 4 minute video for a-ha's Take On Me took 16 weeks to complete due to a very long process of pencil-sketch animation fused with live action footage called rotoscoping. 3,000 frames had to be rotoscoped in order to give the effect of transferring from reality to comic animation.
In 1986 a-ha won a total of 6 awards at the MTV Video Music Awards for "Take On Me" - Best New Artist in a Video, Best Concept Video, Most Experimental Video, Best Direction, Best Special Effects, and Viewer's Choice. This acclaim proves the effectiveness of a music video in enhancing the success of a song as it almost brings a song alive, it makes it more interesting to listen to as you can connect the words with the images on screen.
Praise You - Fatboy Slim
In 1999 Fatboy Slim (real name Norman Cook) voiced his opinon that he didnt like the idea of a music video because "all the good videos had been done". Therefore he decided to go against the conevtions of highly expensive videos filled with girls in bikinis, drugs, cars and money and replaced it with a short 'home-made' looking videos of a group of dancers busking in front of a cinema. The laid-back, comical essence of the video, directed by Spike Jonze made it hugely popular.
"The video won three major awards at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Direction (awarded to "Torrance Community Dance Group"), and Best Choreography (awarded to "Richard Koufey & Michael Rooney"). It was also nominated for, but did not win, Best Dance Video. The group also put on a dance performance to the song at the awards. In 2001, it was voted number one of the 100 best videos of all time, in a poll to mark the 20th anniversary of MTV." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praise_You#Music_video
The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
When The Beatles suspended touring, the visual identity of the band became increasingly significant in correlation to the music industry becoming more visual with their promotional strategies, such as videos. The director of this video was a Swedish man called Peter Goldman who took them to Knole Park in Sevenoaks to film this "psychedelic landmark". Editing techniques such as stop motion, reverse, slow motion and cross-fades were still considered very experimental when Strawberry Fields was released, which made the video a hot topic for the media. Other bands such as Pink Floyd, the Kinks and the Rolling Stones would follow the lead of the beatles to create promotional films for their music to increase awareness and the success of their image.