Media Trip

Media Trip

MTV TO YOUTUBE

What is a music video?

A music video is a visual to illustrate a track. It is usually the length of the song or longer, it may feature the artist itself but however does not have to. The director may chose to have professional actors instead. The music video may have a strong narrative and tell a story, however this does not have to happen. But the main feature to a music video is that it had to be memorable. Something different and new to make it have a higher viewing audience, therefore more views more money and a higher popularity for the artist.

History of Music Videos

1930:

In 1930 is when people first started to experiment with the use of images over a piece of music. Len Lye was the first to do this; he was funded by GPA to create a clip to promote cheaper posting. This was called colour box.  It used images of small dots of a variety of colours creating shapes and patterns. Words were added to this clip to help promote cheaper posting.

1940:

In the late 1940’s soundies were first in use in small diners. There were only 4,000 sold worldwide and they soon died out. Soundies are small jukeboxes that show short promo videos of the artist. A famous one used was Nat Nick Kole- Nick Nak. He used the typical male gaze shot of a lady sitting on a chair; this image shows the audience he was aiming at, men.

These sexual images were the cause of the so undies to die out; many people disagreed with provocative images being shown. Therefore making the company have to close down.

1960:

In the 1960’s is when scorpions flourished; they were most popular in France in cafes.  Scorpions were similar to so undies, they were jukeboxes that showed a visual image to a popular song, this time in colour.

Artist created short stories to their songs on a low budget; many of these stories had dancing in it and were also rather provocative.

In the late 1960’s bands started to create more and more short promo videos to their songs. These videos were mostly used for when bands were away on tour and could still be popular in areas in which they were not playing live.

A classic promo video is The Beatles, Cant buy me Love. They used clips from their feature film Hard days Night to create a video for this song.  Classic camera shots that were used were speeding up the footage and slowing it down, using a helicopter for a bird’s eye view. 

Another famous promo video, now one of the most influence ones to date, Bob Dylan, substaraiana home sick blues. They used the simple ides of using cards with the lyrics on being shown when Dylan sings the song, It is a very simple yet affective visual, which is still well known today. It has been used on YouTube; thousands of re-makes as well as a Simpsons spin off.

1970:

1970 is when one of the most famous music video was created, Queens Bohiemenrapsidy. It is iconic.

1981:

In 1981 is when people started to realise that money could be made from music videos. This was when MTV was born. At first it was just all-British artists with the majority of the acts being male. A classic music video was Madness- Our house; it was a very commercial video that people were always excited to watch. Madness then became well known for their wacky and boundary pushing videos.

All of the music videos that were shown on MTV for several years were all white British males, however Madonna changed this.  She was the first female from the USA to create such a popular music video.

She used well-known movie directors on a big budget to create a high concept theatrical music video. From this change it really highlighted the impact a music video can have to an artist and their career. She was won awards being named break through female as well as the directors she worked with winning awards for their work on her videos.

Not only this but Madonna saw even more money to be made, and created compilation videotape, which had all of her music videos on. This was sold in high demand and created a large sum of money.
At this period of time there were no black artist, however Michael Jackson was the first black male to hit MTV's screen. His first music video to hit MTV was Thriller, now one of the most iconic music videos to date. It is also one of the most expensive videos made, having spent several millions on it.

From black artist slowly making there way on to MTV, the producers realised there was a certain audience that viewed these videos, called the Black Market. This is where MTV BASE was made, it played artists such as Jay Z, 50 Cent and other well known black artists.
These artists music videos are very recognisable and in some ways stereotypical, using the female gaze, showing off their wealth via cars, money, 'bling'.  However one very unusual and different music video was Jay Z's 99 Problems, the style is one that would be most recognisable in a rock video. Quick cuts, fast paced editing, black and white, raw images. It is one of the most controversial black music videos, the controversy of it was one of the many reason it became so popular and from this word of mouth spread.

YouTube

MASH UP

This is where people create a mash up song of artist, one famous one is Jay Z and The Beatles, called Grey Album.  Its a way for everyday people to be able to create their own music video using some of their favourite artists and mixing them into one unique song. 

RE-MADE

This when music videos are re-made into a different version, such as using Lady Gaga, Telephone, and making it as a Sims 2 version.