Tuesday, 27 September 2011

Music Video History

The history of music videos or music promo’s, dates back to the 1950’s but before then there was music videos being recorded within the 1920’s these being films that were created by animators such as ‘Oskar Fischinger’ and they were accompanied by a record label called ‘visual music’. Music videos were established from the beginning with the use of animation such as Disney and the music was built around the animation. This was connecting music with something that could be seen and giving it a match for the audience.

The music in motion picture called A Hard Day’s Night by The Beatles which was created in 1964; this was a rock film that consisted of clips of the band and this visual element combined with the band’s music created a music video, it would give the audience something to relate to with the band, it would give the audience a chance to see their bands perform and this would be able to be seen in the cinemas that the audience would live near instead of waiting for the Beatles to come to their city and perform, making this rock film saved time and it also expanded their fan group very wide and made them the most known band ever. Alongside this rock film, other artists made small films, many which were drug influenced, also along with the creating of the music videos; there was the element of experimentation.
The music video by Bob Dylan with the song Home Sick Blues (created in 1965) was a very basic music video, containing no editing, it was black and white and the sound quality on the music video was very poor. This was a music video that used visual elements along with the song in order to show the audience what Bob Dylan wanted to show the audience, this being the use of different fonts along with the main points of his lyrics within the music video.
In the 1970’s there was the music shows such as Top of The Pops and that was to promote bands and the record labels on the show, it would be live performances so any mistakes could make the bands look bad and then it would create a bad representation .
In 1975 there was Queen with Bohemian Rhapsody there was a great amount of editing used within the music video, also alongside that there was colour here as well, from here all videos or music videos were filmed in colour and transmitted in colour to the audience, the use of positioning within the camera frame was more effective including the effects used too. There was the costume that the music video consisted of including the hair styles too, this music video also reflected the culture of us, we are them as such, they speak English and they wear the same clothing and have the same hair styles as us so in reality their fashion reflected upon the audience. The mise en scene of this music video is set in a variety of locations, the first location being on a set with a white light behind them, displaying that this is a music video and not a live performance, the second location being on a stage with all the equipment for a live performance, this giving the impression that it is live to the audience when they watch the music video.


 MTV (Music Television) first launched in 1981, 1st August, this gave the audience a change to watch their artists perform on their very own TV set at home and not having to go to the cinema, instead of a live performance recorded and transmitted, it would be a music video instead, showing the audience the visual ideas of the artist. The first music video to be transmitted via MTV to the homes of the audience, and that was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles.







The song does reflect what was happening, music video is going to get bigger than radio and eventually kill it off. In this music video there were a lot of visual effects used, they were used a lot more in this music video compared to Bohemian Rhapsody. This music video also has its own location, for example it is set in a studio where as Bohemian Rhapsody was set on a stage. There was detail to the setting of the music video as it had video cameras, radios and television sets, in Bohemian Rhapsody there was no detailed setting, only the instruments that they were playing and the stage lighting. The use of editing used in Video Killed the Radio Star was used a lot more, there were more cuts and it kept the attention of the audience with interesting cuts, it wasn’t one long shot like Home Sick Blues. Michael Jackson came up with the music video called Thriller in 1983; this was made with the genre of horror, it is set out in a different setting, it establishes that they are in a cinema, using the aspect of verisimilitude and relating the world that we live in, people go to the cinema, then as the music video goes by it is like a film, there were some visual effects that were used within this music video such as cosmetic contacts and zombie costume, something that would only be used within a horror type movie.

In 1990, Madonna made a music video called Vogue; this video reflected a number of things including the fashion within the 80’s/90’s. It also showed the lifestyle and also our culture within the 80’s/90’s. She also having borrowed the look of other people such as Marilyn Monroe which comes onto the music video of Lady GaGa’s

R.E.M in 1991, the song called Losing My Religion has a deeper meaning to the video, the lyrics talk about someone losing their religion and for the main fact is that a religion can be made up at any time, within the video it shows men constructing these religions and men only, no gods just men and that is what the message of this video is putting across. There are more editing techniques used here, there is no visual effects used in this music video, it is just editing along with the lighting, the mise en scene is more advanced within this music video, there is a setting within a house and also on a film set.




In 2010, Lady GaGa came out with a song called Alejandro which had many aspects the same as Madonna, the same coloured hair, the same make up and dress and even similar. In Alejandro it was made with a very small budget but there was a very big part of this music video which was just like Vogue. There was also Telephone that Lady GaGa came out with which has a few borrowed looks from.





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