The History Of Music Videos

History of music videos

Along with my previous music video analysis of current muisc videos ive also een ooking at how theyve progressed form history,and just how different music videos were back in the day.I was really intrigued and shocked when i realised that withn only around 10 years we hav advanced greatly.Time and technology has definatley played a key in the progression of music videos,alllowing them to be what they are today.

Looking back muisc videos never exsisted you could only hear the music via a radio.Portable radios became affordable allowing alot of pople to gain acsess to hearing music that previously they never had a chance of.Around this time televisons were extremely expensive and rare,but those who could afford wuld rent televisonsin order to be ables to see visuals with muiscand this is when the da\wn of muisc videos began.Orginally they was filmed on film as video as to expensive.As th idea of muisc videos became very popular and more and more srtists were making them of some sort a televison programme called MTV lauched in the late 1980's whch took televison owners by shock.It was the first channel different form chanle 1-5 that alowed them to see/listen to teir fvaourite songs while watching a corrosponding video with it.MTV soon became popular as it alllowed artist to promote their songs on anothe rplatfrom than just radio,allowing them to reach a wider audeince.It also gave the artists exposure,as now the artist could be pictured wityh their song.By mTV creating this channel it ament for the first tinme ever a song ad visuals with it,allowing the song and artist to be understood more.It not only gained the artsts exposure and more audience it allowed them to create an iconic public image of themselves in order for them to be liked by the publc.

One of the first bands to do this was The Beatles.They deicded to make a film for televison as they knew more people would see it,meaning they could broadcast their music further than the radio with corrospoding visuals.They were extremely suscsessul in doing so,and their music instantly started becoming more sussesful and popular.The launch of music videos and MTV was a phenomenon for the music industry.Here below are some music videos form the past i looked at and analysed:

The Beatles-Hello Goodbye

When watching this music video i was so shocked at how basic and badly it was made,it made me relaise straight awy the progression of music videos.In 18 seconds there was just 1 camerea shot.Nowadays you wouldnt find any music video that held a shot for this long.This is becasue in this video the shot was so long it became boring,there was no change and i was left wondering when the next thing was goibg to happen.The frmaing of this video was noticeably shocking,a third of the screen was empty anf the beatles were just sot in a tiny corner,rather than being spread out.This completley goes again the tule of thirds we use nowafdays in mjusic videos ad demonstartes why this rule allows a video to be gframed and shot well so it looks good.Their bright 60's loking costume doesnt fit the genre also,its very far fetched considering the video if fairly slow and not all that happy.Their use of mise-en-scene throughout the whole video is extremley poor.There is also a lot of clumsy editing,for exaqply instead of editing 2 shots together,1 of the beatles just moves out the way then the camera adjusts itself.It looks very un professional,and good of been done alot cleaner to create a better effect.Going back to the point of framing and shots,Paul Mcartneys head is cut off various  times in the video,instead of adjusting trhe camera it as just been left.

After analysing this video it really helped me undertsand just how basic music videos were,because The Beatles were so big in the music industry i expected something really good,as im looking at it from a modern day perspective.It allowed me to undertsand the technology advances and just how much things have hanged.

Queen-Bohemian Rapsedy

 

 

The next video i watched was Queen-Bohemian Raphesdy,this was filmed 8 years later than The Beatles-Hellow Goodye.This was the first music video to be actually filmed on video,up unitll this point prvious ones had been filmed on film.This means alot of money,tine ad effort was spent on this music video in order to get it to a standard then that had ever been seen before.The video establishes rock icongoraphy due to the mise-en-sce and cinematography.I noticed this music video has really good performance element,it looks an d sound show youd xpect to it,making it a vaiable video.It also had a mixtur eof shot types and agles,giving the music video variety making it iteresting to watch.Very different6 to the pervious Beatles video were everything was done quite uniformly.Thefre was use of fade edits,which demonstartes they knew what by fcreatng a fade dit the video would flow alot better and more professionally.There us eof lighting stood out to me,this is becasue it was used  effectivily.It was used to make them look dominant and strong which are stereotypes of the rock genre.Because this is very fast paced it keeps you intrigued and interested in whats going on,it doesnt give you a second to be bored as something new is constantly happening-and this works really well.

Analysing bad existing student work

Withing my next lesson we looked at exsisiting student work,that had been created for the same course previously.Every video we looked at was examples of what NOT to do.This allowe me to see the difficulty that is invloved and what to stay away from when i create my own music video.It allowed em to notice and be aware of things that dont get good marks just by anlysing previous work.

The first student music video i looked at was graded by the exam bored a Grade E.

The first thing i noticed which was bad in this video was how bad the camera was used.All the footage was un steady and wobbly making the footage look really bad an unprofessional.The majority of the shots were very dark,making the peformers barely visible in quite a few of the shots.Another really bad thing was that the video had to relation to the song.The song was quite a heavy metal loud song and the corrosponding video did not follow this genre at all.Making it really hard to understanf the narrative at all.It also looked asi the video was aimlessly put together,by this i mean itlooked asif the student had no intrest in creating something good.It lacked all planning possible and looked like a very last minute thing.Every shot was very basic,and was edited together really bad.

I could see how this only just received an E grade,because so many thing were noticebaly bad aout it.It highlighted to me that everything im going to do should not resemble this.

The next student video i looked at was also a Grade D but low in marks.

This video seemed noticeably slighty better but was done poorly.They decided to use a green screen for a majority of their shots which really didnt work well.the backgrounds they edited in was really bad quality,are were taken outsie the college.This means they could of just filmed olutside the college which wouldve of allowd it to e better quality.All the performances was poor.They all looked forced and lacked emotion.

The last student video i watched was a high Grade D.

This final video was noticeably better than the last 2,yet still quite basic.When i watched this video i undersstood where it was going but unfortunatley it didnt turn out as well as it could.The main ba dareas was that the costume didnt fir the genre,so the use of mise-en-scene didnt compliment the4re music.Which made it quit ehard to understand,and very un realistic.The elnght of the shots was also an issue,some lasting up to 10 seconds with nothing changing which became very boring to watch as the video progresssed.They had over edited as well,as in they thought by adding special effects it would gainthem extra marks,but instead it ooked very clumsy and didnt work well.Althugh this video did have a narrative it wasnt show well.But overall i thlough this video had a bit more direction than the last to,but still could of been extremely better.

Furher music video analysis

During my next lesson we looked at a few snapshots of other music videos,this had helped me undertstand the way of variety of music videos are constructed and made.I looked a 3 compleyley different music genres and noted dowen some key point of the musi videos and whats good about them.

The first music video was:Red hot chilli peppers-cant stop:

 

The key good points from this video i note down were:

• They had great performance,everyone was perfoming to the best of their ability which allowd a sense of comedy value to be obtained.
• A variety of different shots were used to allow it to look interesting
• There wasnt a narrative,but the excellent perfromance and whaky use of cinematography allowed them to create something so different yet so good.
• They used special effects e.g the same person was mirrowed 3 times to create surrealism
• They had a continous rebellious,fun theme which was held throughout
• Quick shots were used throughhout yet each time matched the beat of the music wheich allowed it to work effectivly.It also kept me interested because it was different,fun and busy.

The next video i watched was Chris Brown-dont judge me:

• I noticed he uses a lot of special effects e.g motion movement to create relaism;slow motion;special effects lighting etc.
• In this video also alot of locations are used which compliments the video really well
• Chris also uses a hjand held camera-which is a clever idea.I like this because it invloves the audience and makes it more personal.
• Montage editing is also used,it allows the narrtive to flick back and fourth which allows it to make sense.
• The costumes he wears also fit the genre hes portraying,his use of mise-en-scene has allowed him to create a very relaistic video,canging his identity (costume) to something different than hed usually wear.

The final video i looked at was Daft Punk-around the world:

I found this video really weird and different,and ddint really understand it.But i felt it was good to include as its something completley different.
• The perfomers were correctly dancing to the beat which allowed it to work well.     
• It has comntinous editing with very little edits.
• The dancers were dancing repeatvily all the way  through,so this beome quite boring.
• I didnt undernstand the narrative,so this shos it was a poor video is tring to get a message across.
• The lighting seemed very old fashioned
• The video seems rushed asif it had been filmed in a very short space of time

What makes a good music video

Within our media lessons we have been watching and analysing music videos as to why they're good and why they're bad.I've looked closely at many music videos and its allowed me to see what conventions make a music video look good and professional.Ive identified many conventions and these are listed below:

What are the conventions of a good music video?

• Special effects
• lip syncing its done correctly
• Good use of locations
• Various camera angles/shots
• Edits match pace of the song
• Creative layout
• Narrative thought out
• Fast pace editing
• Performace

The first video i watched was Ariana Grande-Problem featuring Iggy azealea.

The reason i chose this was because both artists are in the charts right now and are currently making No1s.I thought it would be interesting to see what there music videos entail and what makes it so popular.Within this music video i found it used a lot of special effects.I found this very effective,and the special effects were repeated throughout the video allowing it to flow without it looking clumsy, by having just 1 special effect being used.It added to the creativity of the music video and alomost allowed parts to be seen as 3D-which would be very appealing to a audience.The next thing i noticed was there was use of backing dancers which added to the performace of Ariana Grande and Iggy.This allowed the frames to be full and chaotic.Which fits with the face pace of the song.This leads me to my next point,this music video was very face paced,and the edits match the pace of the song correctly.Which allowed it to work really well.Every beat, the edits changes making it interesting but also allows it to have an effective layout.Various shots and use of camera angles are used in this video,theres an iconic use of a birds eye spin shot where Ariana Grande is laid down and the camera circles her form above.This is featured more than once and is a clever way of a simple shot made to look good just by a change of camera angle-and i hope to use something like this in my final product.It also uses many zooms and extreme close ups so you can see all the perfomers close up.Finally i noticed the song talks about a 'problem' with a boy,the boys shhown in a stereotypical 'trouble causer'costume that makes it relevant to the lyrics.

The next music video i looked at was Calvin Harris-Summer.

I chose to look at this music video as personally i like Calvin Harris as an artist and this song was a really big hit this year.This fist thing that stood out was the lyrics matched the video.For example at the beginning of the music video we see a long runway,youd associate this with goig on a holiday in'summer'.I think its a really good way to establish a holiday themed song as it associates with real life thibngs making it more understanble and believable.It also features a female model alot throughout the song but she mostly appears when the lyrics 'when i met you in the summer' so it allows the audeince to put a face to the lyrics allowing the story to flow alot better.Editing is of a emdium pace throughout the song,allowing each shot to be seen but without it been shown for to long.A noticeabke point with Calvins music video is the use of tracking shots.He use many of them to establish the seen,as hes wlaking the background is allowed to be seen by this shot which i think works really well.As this music video has a narrative montage editing isw sued which allwos the narrative to flash back and fourth scenes so the whole story is told well.

I then went on to watch Beyonce ft Jay Z-Drunk in love music video.

This msuic video really suprised me-in a good way.There is only 1 location used in this whole video,and if this is done badly it could turn out to be a really boring video.But Beyonce pulls it off and for not one minute you are bored.This is because of her range of shots and agles used.There a mixture of fades,close ups,extreme close ups and establishing shots.These duiffernt shots mix up the scences creating something different and takes away the fact shes in the same place.Beyonces also performing in a charcter in this video,i like this because its done really well and it works.If she played herself in this video the message may not translate as well,but because of her frantic moves and drunk like behaviour it corrosponds with the song title 'drunk in love' and works really well.Towards the end of the music video we see a male appear,which is Jayz.I like this because although there are performing there love is for real on the outside.This makes it special as when they sing togther you can see their passion and emotion which shows through when the lyrics are being sung.And this allows the narrative to come together as when they both start singing it almost completes the video endig it on a really hight note

After this i decided to look at something slow and completely differnt so went with Coldplay-Fix you

When this video starts the first thing i noticed was that there is only 1 man (the singer) in the whole shot.Hes constantly walking forward  while singing the song.Straightaway i feel this sets the right mood for what youd expect the narrative to be.The shots in this music at the beginning are quite lenghty,lasting up to 10 seconds each.This allows you to get a feel of the song as,and allows you to see th emotion he is singing with,as if it was fast paced it wouldnt match the beat of the songs and the edits wouldnt match.I also noticed a re-occuring code throughout,he sings the majority of the song with his head down.This code allows us to undertsand hes sad as it relates to an everyday action.I also like the fact this music video is shotat a night time,the dark scenery and gloomy amosphere completes the narrativly very well.Because if it was filmed on a bright sunny day,i dont believe it would have the same effect as it does on a night.Continuing with this point almost all the colour used throughout the whole video untill near the end is al dark.This included costume and scenery-a clever way to present the narative through mise-en-scene and location.As the lyrics progress we see various shots used while changing locations but still walking with his head down,almost asif hes walking about searching ton try and fix himself.This is the idea i get from it.He also lip syncs the song the whoe way through.This changes howevr as at the song comes to the final climax he starts to run asif hes found what hes needed.We see him run onto his own concert where his band and audience are waiting,and thwe last tie of his song 'i will try to fix you' is sung by him and the audience.A clever and moving way to end a narrative,as it makes it knwon that what needed to fix his is his passion for music.

A2 Music Video Chosen Breif

A promotion package for the release of an album,to include a music promo video,together with two other products.Which are:

• A cover for its release as a part of a digipack (CD)
• A magazine advertisement for the digipack (CD)