Music Video History

A music video known as a short film or just a video  to promote an artist. It is usually the length or longer than the actual song, if longer the video is known as a short film.
The video has to be visually memorable and have specific conventions to be effective to the audience.

The said to be the first music video was 'St Louis Blues - Bessie Smith' in 1929. This was shown in theatres until 1932.


Some people don't count this as the first 'Music Video' because it doesn't follow Andrew Goodwins Seven Conventions. The video is just her singing the song looking drunk.

In 1940, Walt Disney released fantasia. This was the first video/film which was made to fit with music. The animation was made around the music to portray the story the sound is making.




In the 1950-60's Disney and looney toons started to make cartoons to music. But the main thing was Cab Calloway who introduced live action videos with famous artists.


Also Scopitone Jukeboxes where introduced. These where jukeboxes that also showed the music video to the song on a screen. These where popular but rarely seen due to them being really expensive.

Beetles - Strawberry Fields Forever + Penny Lane was their first attempt of a music video.
This is really simple due to its time, it doesn't have any narrative but it has relations between music and visuals and some to lyrics but not much.

In 1966 Bob Dylan released the video to 'Subteranean Homesick Blues' This is a simple lyric video.
You can tell this was don't with one continuous shot because of the mistakes made by the man holding the signs. This was a clever attempt of a unique video which has now been copied many times.

As time went on better quality videos and colour was introduced as well as 35mm castes.
In 1975 Queen Released Bohemian Rhapsody. This is considered the first proper music video.
You can tell this was purposely filmed to the music and to promote the song and band. They use a few of the conventions as well making this one of the first proper videos.

Top of the pops and the top 40s was then introduced making videos really important. But when top of the pops couldn't get a band or the video they had dancers which was filmed dancing to the songs. This attracted a male audience to something which would be classed as more of a female programme.

In 1981 MTV, the first 24hour music video channel, was introduced. This made having good videos really important to get airtime to promote themselves. There where more sophisticated effects and transitions added and videos got better stories and plots.
Buggles released Video Killed the Radio Star.
Which had more of a plot to the video even though its a little abstract and surreal.

Michael Jackson then introduced the first short film videos such as Beat it and Thriller. Thriller is the best example.


This cost $500,000 which at its time was expensive. This is classed as a short film because it had characteristics like a film such as: a voice over, a strong narrative, closing credits, quote at the beginning and the song was cut up with acting and speaking. This became an iconic video which was copied and reproduced many times.

In 1985 more music channels where introduced such as VH1 for softer music and the Chart show in 1986.

Dire Straits-Money for Nothing was the first computer animated video.


This compared to now obviously is really poor quality but it introduced something that many hadn’t thought of doing and is now used all the time.

In 1986 Peter Gabriels video Sledge Hammer, filmed with stop motion and special effects, got 9 MTV awards.



This was a really creative way of making a video which promoted them well.

Bands started to purposely produce controversial videos to gain more publicity this caused issues due to Top of the Pops being aired before the water shed.

Duran Duran's 'Girl on Film'

Frankie Goes To Hollywood 'Relax'

and Grandmaster Flash 'White Lines' where all band and over cleaner videos where created.

Martin Scorsese directed 'Bad' by Michael Jackson.



And Duran Duran's 'Wild Boys' cost 4 million due to them having to build the set.


In 1992 the directors of videos started to credited on MTV.

Michael Jacksons Video 'Scream' is still the most expensive video of all time. This cost 7 million to make and was directed by Romanek in 1995.




MTV started to go worldwide over the 90's and MTV2 came out in 1996.

in 2002 Madonna's song Die Another Day cost 6 million.



After 2005 Napster allowed you to show video files to people making music videos more accessible and MTV and other music channels stopped showing so many music videos.
YouTube also came along in 2005 and artists started to get fame through it. Ok Go for example with 'A Million Ways' in 2005 and then 'Here It Goes Again' in 2006.


In 2007 RIAA issued cease-and-desist loyalty and copy right came about on YouTube. This is why there are adverts at the beginning of music videos to pay record labels.

ITunes came about making CDs slowing stop being as important and being able to download music videos online.

MTV dropped their music TV tag line.

Top 3 music videos of 2012 according to MTV UK

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Stone Sour - Bother

The first shot is a close up of Corey Taylor's hand with rings, one of them being a spider-man ring which is a reference to the song being featured on the soundtrack of the film. The eight ring is his number in the band slipknot, this shows he is playing himself in the video not a character.
The video consists of Corey Taylor singing the song to himself. One copy rapidly growing old throughout the video and ends up dying and turning to dust at the end, only leaving bones and the spider-man ring.
The lyrics can be interpreted in many ways, for example:
'Never had a voice to protest,
So you fed me **** to digest.
I wish I had a reason, my flaws are open season.
For this, I gave up trying,
One good turn deserves my dying'
This connotes to religion and how he never had a voice because of always striving to be good all the time. His flaws became so apparent due to trying to change them all the time and can made him not want to try anymore.
Also the verse 'Stones to throw at my creator' and about how he keeps slipping further is about how his own morality, or past teachings of how he should behave in gods favor. He sing: 'You don't need to bother, i don't need to be, I'll keep slipping further' it sounds like he's saying he can't keep his ways clean so god doesn't need to bother keeping him going, he doesn't need to be cause he'll keep slipping further, further away from god or how he was taught he was supposed to be.
Or this song could be about depression and the video seems to get along these lines to.
'Wish I was to dead to cry'
Striving to not feel emotion so he can move on with his life and not feel the pain.
'My self affliction fades'
How his self harm/abuse fades as they heal.
'Stones to throw at my creator'
Throwing the blame onto someone else either god or his parents. Trying to find someone to blame for his misery.
'Masochists to which i cater'
Masochist means the gratification from being physically or emotionally abused, so self harm supposedly makes him feel better.
'You don't need to bother, I don't need to be'
Telling people not to bother to try and help and that he doesn't feel he needs to be here, He wants to leave.
'I'll keep slipping further, but once I hold on I won't let go till it bleeds'
He will keep slipping towards the edge, but if there's any hope to hold onto he will hold on tillhe can't anymore.
'Wish I was to dead to care, if indeed I cared at all'
He wishes he didn't have to act like he cared about himself and others because he never cared in the first place
'Never had a voice to protest, so you fed me **** to digest'
He never had a chance to voice his problems so they just kept building up making it harder.
'I wish i had a reason, my flaws are open season'
He feels his flaws are easy to see so he always feel self conscious and depressed about something.
'For this I gave up trying, one good turn deserves my dying'
He pretends to be someone he isn't to try and hide who he really is but wishes he just died instead.
'Shell forgotten with it's memories, diaries left with cryptic entries'
He feels if he kills himself or dies he will be forgotten. I think he uses the word shell because he feels there is nothing left of himself. The diaries would be his suicide note that he feels no one but him will truly understand.
'Once I hold on I'll never live down my deceit'
Once he finds something to hold onto and keep him living, he will never forgot how he felt and he will always be burdened by the memories.
The video shows this by showing him singing to his dying self, it's like he is singing to the part of himself that can't cope. So when he dies and the other him puts the ring on it connotes that even though that part of himself is over he will always have a reminder of it.
The black and white of the video shows the contrast of light and dark really well. So when there is a close up of Corey's face the background looks really dark showing how he is in a dark place within himself.
The setting itself seems to be a large empty ware house, this could connote the emptiness he is feeling and he only has him and himself. Until the rest of the band comes in at the end, this shows how he isn't really alone.
The way that the camera pans around the two Corey's as he sings shows how they are fighting for power. When the camera is behind the younger and stronger Corey, he looks bigger then the older dying side of himself. But at times it's the other way round connoting the shift in power.
At the start. as the camera tilts up from his hand to a close up of his face, his eyes are focused away from the camera but as he starts singing his eyes lock straight onto the camera. This gives the impression he is singing the song to you, instantly catching your attention and engaging you into the video.
The editing is low paced and the transitions are all either fades or cuts. This makes the video smooth and fit the tempo of the song.
The zoom in through the bands members eye connotes how the band see him as the stronger Corey not the one who is struggling and dying.
Throughout the video the lighting is quiet dark and only really highlighting on faces but at the end after the double dies the shots brighten with the close up of the rings rolling on the white floor and the bright contrast of his hand against this black coat. It connotes how things are now better and brighter now that that side of himself is gone.
The line 'Masochist to which I cater' both Corey's sing showing how he is hurting himself.

Specific Knowledge of music videos

This will help me know music videos in more depth and make my video more professional.

Mind Map on Target Audience

Help us target our video to the right audeince and not try and reach a audience that wouln't be interested.

Textual Analysis of Angel Eyes by New Years Day feat. Chris Motionless

New Years Day are a female fronted rock band. This video and song has the lead singer of the heavy metal band Motionless in White performing withing it.
The video is both performance and narrative, it fits with the conventions of a rock video due to the live performance by the band.
It has a typical narrative that is seen in a lot of female front bands which is boy meets girl but boy doesn't turn out how they wanted him to. This is twisted to be more gore and horrific to fit with the persona of the band and the style of music they produce.
There are direct links between lyrics and visual when she is singing about descises and hiding and they are at a mascaraed party with them all wearing masks. This has connotations that you don't know whats on the inside everyone is hidden my the mask they wear.
When the singer sings reach inside my chest there is a close of of a woman's chest. This is a clear show of male gaze. This also shown at the beginning when she is getting ready in a bath room standing in just her underwear. Being a female fronted rock band it is hard to get a strong male audience so by having alot of male gaze in videos it means they can try and build that following by having half naked attractive girls in the videos. Meaning it gets more views and downloads on the Internet.

Also the last time she sings 'Reach inside my chest, you can have whatevers left, cause baby I'm possessed' Chris Motionless reaches into her chest and pulls out her heart. Once he leaves she looks up and her eyes are blacked out showing she is possessed this is a direct relation to lyrics. It is con-notating that he took what he wanted and had her hook straight away. Showing men are manipulating to get that they want. 

At the beginning there are a lot of Dutch angles which connote its not quiet real. These angles are mostly used to show a character is drunk or drugged, making them seem confused and disorientated. But in this video the characters are shown to be sober, the use of the angle gives it a unreal and otherworldly feel.

The camera angles between the female and male characters are pretty level through out never really giving anyone dominance till the end. This connotes that you never know the balance in a relationship till one does something to prove for tilt it. In this there is only one very quick low angle on Chris which gives it away other then that it is pretty balanced throughout.

The editing starts off being rather slow a the beginning but speeds up with the tempo of the music. As the song gets faster and louder the editing gets quicker. This really helps the narrative because the story get more intense when the music does, making the whole piece flow together nicely.

There is pretty even amounts of air time between Chris and Ashley. Obviously with Ashley being the lead vocalist of the band she has more singing time and slightly more air time but Motionless in White are a bigger and more well know band meaning he will gain them views by being in the video. Due to this he has a large part in the video.

  

Analysis of Plan B

Writing's on the Wall was the sixth single from the album released on 7 March 2011. The single did not chart on the UK Singles Chart. Two versions of the music video were released; the first available in February 2010.
This song is from a concept album, this is when an album tells a story. This album follows a story of a soul singer who gets sent to prison.
The album tells the story from the first-hand perspective of the soul singer, a character played by Plan B. The album's opening songs, "Love Goes Down" and "Writing's on the Wall", are love songs sung by the singer at a concert. They follow him as he celebrates the success of the concert with a night out which finishes with him having a one-night stand with a woman, cheating on this girl friend/wife.
The phone call gives the video more of a feel of a film because you can hear the voices over the music. This fits well because all the music videos from this album fit together to give that feel. Also the sound of the boiling water at the beginning.
The relation between lyrics works because he singing about how a relationship isn't going very well and that its not over yet but its heading that way. This is shown by showing her putting loads of effort and him not caring and going on a night out.
This mixture of narrative and performance works really well because the performance is part of the narrative.
The opening shot sets the scene and narrative making it clear and easily followed.
We did this in Class to help us get a good understanding of a good music video and how we can take parts of it to really help our video when we film it.

Analysis Arctic Monkeys

The video was directed by Paul Fraser and premiered on MTV2 on 21 December 2005.
It starred Lauren Socha and Stephen Graham. The music video used footage from a film, Scummy Man, which used the same actors who appeared in the video to tell the story of 'Nina', the nameless "that girl there" from the song.
The lyrics and video tell a story in the point of view of a someone who was approached by a under dressed girl, implied to be a prostitute and he sees a "scummy man" who has been hanging around. The man is either the prostitute's pimp or a 'client' who is picking her up. This beginning of the song consists of just vocalist Alex Turner singing with a electric guitar chords with a oddly soft tone. After the line "I said he's a scumbag don't you know" the song then changes into a heavy rock style with a fast beat and guitar riff which is also played on the bass guitar. When this happens the shots change from slow paced cuts and pans to a julty hand held in a speeding car, this shows the change in tempo and shows the narrative picking up pace.
In the songs lyrics, the prostitute propositions the song's narrator and he turns her down politely; he then observes the "scummy man" arriving to pick her up in a Ford Mondeo, this shows relation to lyrics and visuals because she speaks to a younger looking boy and he rejects her. After that you see her being picked up by the 'Scumbag' whilst the boy sees. The girl is "delighted when she sees him" because "she must be fucking freezing, scantily clad beneath the clear night sky" also showing relation to visuals.
The song's chorus consists of the repeated line "they said it changes when the sun goes down around here", noting the stark difference between the appearance of the city at daytime in the video and the dark prostitution trade the narrator observes in the lyrics.
After the second chorus, the song goes back to the style of the introduction. The last line "I hope you're not involved at all," is either the narrator expressing his disappointment that the girl has turned to prostitution or a warning to the person to the narrator is telling the story to, who also may be involved with the 'scummy man' or the listener themselves.
The setting is in a city, most of the areas they use seem rather run down. This works because the main character is meant to be homeless and you wouldn't see her in a well built up area.
This will help me be more creative by looking at different genres and seeing different concepts and narratives.
This will help me because they have very good relation to lyrics and a subtle link in story line.