In the crudest way, a music video can be seen as simply just a promotional piece to increase the sales of a song, to make record companies and artists more money. Although, over the past 50 years they have become arguably more important than the song itself.
Music Videos date back to as long ago as the 1930s, with short films being played to music in jukebox type devices; these were called ‘vita phones’; however, these aren’t really included in the music video history.
Music Videos, as we know them were first established in the 60’s through the form of films and documentaries, from musicians such as; The Beatles and Bob Dylan. The 60s was when the music industry first kicked off so there was more need for music video’s to promote musicians, for record companies to get sales and money, music videos also allowed the population access to view musicians as oppose to just hearing their songs on radio.
Through the past 50 year’s since then music video production and the consumption of them has vastly changed. It can be debated whether music videos these days are better or worse than back in the 60’s but they certainly are a lot different.
The first glimpses of what could be seen as a ‘music video’ came around in the 60s, this was in the era of The Beatles, at this time The Beatles were a huge band not just in England but worldwide. To keep up with the demand of fans wanting to see them perform they made a series of self-featuring films. These films included sections which showed the band performing their songs, this allowed more people access to them as a band. One of their most famous video’s from these is for ‘I am the Walrus’; this song was in the Beatles' 1967 television film and album Magical Mystery Tour.
As well as this other artists began touching on ‘music videos’, for example DA. Pennbaker directed an introduction video for Bob Dylan’s documentary; this showed words on cards being shown in time with the song played over the top.
In the early 70s music videos took a whole new level, with the likes of David Bowie releasing videos like ‘Space Oddity. This video was futuristic for it’s time and showed Bowie
Later in 1975 we had Queen’s, Bohemian Rhapsody; this is widely known as the first ‘proper’ music video. It broke all boundaries of videos before it and cost £5,000 to make, which was a lot of money at the time. It shows voyeurism and narcissism, as the audience are looking at this performance without the artists knowing. The camera work and mise-en-scene in this video also raised standards of what was seen before. In the mise-en-scene we see advanced lighting, dry ice and more expensive performance equipment. The camerawork gives us low angle shots to show how the artist is dominant and also a Kaleidoscope effect is used.
The 80s showed us a whole new batch of music videos in a different style. Through the 80s a lot of music videos showed narcissism as we had seen earlier in the Queen video, this became a trend as so many videos used it.
In the early 80s we had the likes of Wham! Making videos such as Club Tropicana, this even has a narrative at the beginning which leads into the song. It uses voyeurism as the audience are onlookers onto what’s happening into the video for enjoyment.
Later on in the 80’s we had Duran Duran releasing their video for Rio . This shows a luxury lifestyle and the band on a yacht, this isn’t something that the everyday public would be able to experience. It’s showing a better way of life and gives the audience pleasure from the fact they’re watching this in the video and can aspire to have a lifestyle like what they can see in the video.
In 1986 we had Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel which broke many conventions of music videos at this time. This unusual yet iconic video set the standards for all future videos. This was really the point where music videos became more important in the music industry. Most people even nowadays know about this video as it has left an impression on the public, this is what all artists aspire to do with their videos.
The 90s saw the start of videos really breaking conventions and challenging ideology within society.
The early 90’s saw bands like REM making music videos which show beliefs and challenge conformity. For example, the video to Losing my Religion shows a challenge of the concept of religion. This video went were other videos hadn’t been before as no other mainstream video had questioned religion in this way. There’s visual symbolism in this video also, as the objects on the window fall off and break, this can show the idea of religion breaking. This video relates fully to the lyrics of the song in a serious way, this hadn’t really been seen before.
Through the mid 90s we saw a spur of more artistic videos, for example Street Spirit by Radiohead, this video is shot in black and white and shows lighting movement and fades/overlays.
In the mid nineties bands such as Green Day released quirky videos which broke conventions, for example ‘When I Come Around’ and ‘Basket Case’. This shows how different genres of music had different videos to appeal to their relative audience. These videos are quiet surreal and appeal to a more niche audience than the usual mainstream stuff of this time.
Towards the late nineties we saw the birth of the iconic Fatboy Slim videos as he released Praise You, which featured ‘flashmob’ dancing, in the middle of a public place.
The ‘noughties’ saw Fatboy Slim go on to release more iconic videos, such as Right Here, Right Now; which showed the evolution of mankind. Also we had the release of Weapon of Choice, which can be argued as being the best music video of all time. This depicts Christopher Walkin dancing through an empty hotel lobby and flying through the air. This video shows humour and voyeurism as we are onlookers to the action. This was directed by Spike Jonze, as was the later released Buddy Holly by Weezer. This video related back to ‘Happy Days’, a TV programme from the 50’s, this idea hadn’t being done before.
The late 2000’s saw more artistic videos break through, with the likes of Arctic Monkeys releasing Crying Lightning and Cornerstone, both of these were Directed by Richard Ayoade, who is most well known as being in the comedy IT Crowd. Both of these videos are so bad they are actually quite intriguing. For Arctic Monkeys their videos probably aren’t all as ‘promotional’ as more mainstream music as their videos are rarely aired on major music channels so they can play about more with their videos. Their Crying Lightning music video can be related back to Duran Duran’s Rio , in a spoof-like way; as they are on a boat through a stormy sea with fog. This type of video however fits in with their music, if a more ‘pop’ song did this video it would probably be highly unsuccessful.
Music video’s have changed so much over the past 50 years, and nowadays we have access to hundreds of music channels, alongside the likes of youtube; so there is no end to the vast amount of videos we can watch. Also, with the music industry so huge it can often be seen as the music video being more important than the music itself, as popstars are selling a whole ‘package’ not just a song. This can be seen through the Lady GaGa videos, when she puts a mediocre pop song with a music video with high production values it becomes an instant success.
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