History Of Music Videos.

    History of music videos.

The purpose of music videos are to promote the artist through a visual form as finding a venue that held the appropriate amount of fans was difficult in the early years of the music industry. Therefore, narrative music videos were made, similar to short films which involved the artist so that fans could watch them perform in a cinema, rather than a venue/stadium.

Only 2 TV channels displayed music videos/performances, one of these was ‘Top Of The Pops’ which showed ‘live’ performances of the band, these were not videos, however still grabbed the same aspect of performance in which the fans wanted to view.

Music videos were only introduced in the 50’s, before this music was shown through the use of radio. In 1965, Bob Dylan brought out a short film promoting his song ‘Don’t look back’ produced by D.A Pennebaker. This was a very basic film, with the artist stood holding a range of cue cards displaying the lyrics to the song playing in the background, with only one simple camera shot used. Even though this is very simple to the music videos we are used to seeing in the 21^st century, this was the first real music video produced. This video challenged authority and pushed the boundaries as it had never been done before. However, this video was a success – And from here the music industry was created.

The next big success after this video was the famously known ‘The Beatles’, in which they produced a video for their song ‘A hard days night’, directed by Dick Lester in 1964. This video was black and white (similarly to Bob Dylan’s), and had a basic narrative running throughout, however also contained aspects of performance.

Unlike the previous artists in the 60’s, The Beatles and Bob Dylan were the first to produce their own lyrics to their songs, this was effective as it spoke out to teenagers (The aimed audience), and therefore the fans could relate to them more. The Beatles first video not only had more narrative than Bob Dylans, but also used a wider range of camera angles, this allowed individual shots of each person (the band members), and therefore made the video more appealing.

In 1965, The Beatles produced another video to the song ‘Help’. This was when colour was introduced into music videos, along with the concept of developing features such as close-ups, birds eye shot, performance based, jump cuts and montage editing. This video also had no continuity of time, this made it unrealistic which went against the original objective of music videos to display to the audience a realistic performance, however boundries were further being pushed.

 After this was David Bowie’s ‘Space Odity’ in 1972. This introduced new media technologies such as the coloured lighting (Red) and the use of zoom. The lighting was used to create a futuristic mise-en-scene, even though to us this appears ‘cheesy’, in the late 1900’s this was seen as a clever effect created, due to the lack of technology and mediated knowledge.

The use of zoom achieves a close up of the face giving the audience access to read the emotions of the performing artist. Not only does this give the performance a variety of shots as there is no narrative, but it also makes the audience feel more involved as they are interacting with the way the artist feels. In this video Bowie is placed on a stool, surrounded by the dark red lighting and instruments, this gives the illusion of alienation, and also plays on the idea of the futuristic idea.

Music videos are not only a reason for the artist to impress the audience with their voice, but also with their appearance. Not only do the fans watch music videos to watch their favourite artist perform, but also to look at their image, and what their chosen clothings/hairstyle ect represents.

For example, in the early 90’s, ‘Song for whoever’ by Beautiful South, the band are wearing dark glasses throughout the video. These were seen as a code for ‘being cool’, and was then re-created in future music videos. Another image in which was shown throughout music videos from the early 90’s till the 21^st century in which we analyse now was the concept of Religion. In R.E.M’s video ‘Losing My Religion’ there is a narrative story line which is linked to the lyrics content ‘I’m losing my religion’. The suggestion to religion in this is clever, as a famous painting by an painter named ‘Caravaggio’ is imitated in this video through the use of acting. The way in which the actors in the video have been placed re-creates this painting, showing the audience in ways in which religion can be interpreted.
This not only has relevance to the religion, but also suggests that the viewers see music videos as a form of art.
This music video displays plausibility; as even though the wings that are featured in the mise-en-scene would be unlikely – The whole concept of religion as a revolution and the different beliefs developed over time makes this plausible as we believe what we see. In today’s video’s, Naivety is perceived however the theorists show it.

(The photo by Caravaggio

immitated at 02:24).

For example, Madonna’s ‘Die Another Day’ video – Madonna is perceived as a dirty, masculine women who isn’t bothered about her appearance, this is done through the use of mise-en-scene (For example the ripped clothes and the make-up). This is a completely different approach to her previous videos in the 90’s, for example her music video ‘Vogue’. This is a performance based video featuring dancing. This video has style over substance, as her music video has no relevance to the song. However her personal appearance us enough, as we are looking at her rather than the choreography. Not only is this an example of voyeurism, but also narcissism. This is interpreted this way  she is wearing revealing clothes and stroking her arms and face.

This video also has aspects of Synergy as she is portrayed as the famous ‘Marilyn Monroe’. Monroe was known as a sex symbol, and therefore this image is being impersonated in this video with the blonde curly hair and the way she is dressed.

However, relating back to the ‘Die Another Day’ video, Madonna’s personal image has gone from narcissism to not being afraid of how she is judged by her appearance in this video. However, as she is so high in the music industry, personal image doesn’t matter anymore – And therefore she is able to make a more exciting narrative video.

In this video, it shows Madonna’s horror of being tortured throughout the video, this is a very strong narrative throughout, as there is also other scenes of her fighting aswell against herself. This effect is created by computers, and in the early years of the music and video industry this was not able to be created, however technology is now getting more involved and constantly being upgraded.

The whole idea of the ‘narrative’ backs up Tim O’sullivans point, in that he argues that all media texts should tell a story, and this is what is happening more and more regularly throughout the years of music videos. This video also has another concept of Synergy as this song was originally created for a James Bond film, however as this film was so popular, so was the song – And therefore a video was created after. This had to contain aspects from the film (such as the fighting scenes, ect.) In order for the two mediations to have continuity and relevance.

The mediations are turned into media texts which are then interpreted by the audience however they like. The media texts demonstrate culture and society through the use of narrative and demonstration. Even though the technology, narratives and performances have changed over the years in Music Video’s, the basic aspect of Mediation will always remain the same. We upgrade the techniques used in music video’s as the world has to develop, otherwise the people who purchase the music (us) would get bored, and sales would rapidly drop in downloads and music shares. Not only does the tecniques need to evolve, but technology is constantly being upgraded, allowing us to continuously improve the music and music video industry.