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Monday 9 December 2013
Saturday 7 December 2013
The History of the Music Video
The History of the Music Video
What is a music video?
A music video of song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional of artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote sale of music recordings.
The birth of the music video had been traced back to the 1920's with the invention of the talkies (first feature film originally presented as a 'talkie' was The Jazz Singer released in October 1927) and by the 1930's, the talkies were a global phenomenon, here the futuristic idea of the convergence of music and moving images was made possible.
A music video of song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional of artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote sale of music recordings.
The birth of the music video had been traced back to the 1920's with the invention of the talkies (first feature film originally presented as a 'talkie' was The Jazz Singer released in October 1927) and by the 1930's, the talkies were a global phenomenon, here the futuristic idea of the convergence of music and moving images was made possible.
The Jazz Singer, 1927
This inspiration was further sustained by the first colour musicals in the 1950's. A popular example from the time is Judy Garland's performance of 'Get Happy' in 1950.
Judy Garland-Get Happy,1950
This new popularity of prerecorded musical performances has provided inspiration for the music video.
The demand for such performances increased due to the birth of the 'teenager' circa 1955. This new wave of teen aged audiences with a higher disposable income to invest in media products. Such products can be seen through the investment in the new Rock'N'Roll era by producing Rock'N'Roll movies such as Jailhouse Rock starring Elvis Presley.
Jailhouse Rock, 1957
Top of the Pops was created by BBC producer Johnnie Stewart and begun on New Years Day 1964. The show originally intended to run for only 42 years. During it's heyday in the 1970's it attracted 15 million viewers each week. The move to music to mainstream television can be seen through TV variety shows, where artists would give live performances on the show. Whenever an artist was unable to perform they would send in videos of them performing instead. A good example of this includes popular British band- The Beatles.
The Beatles would make videos of their songs whilst touring, these videos would alter be released when the songs were released or sent into TV stations as a video performance. An example of this is Strawberry Fields by The Beatles:
The Beatles- Strawberry Fields, 1967
One of the most popular artist to invest in the music video was Queen, in their video for Bohemian Rhapsody is widely considered the first music video. Directed by Bruce Gowers in 1975, it costed roughly £3,500 to produce whilst only taken only three hours in total to shoot. It looks quite dated now when compared with the high tech effects of today's music videos. However,the artists intended to bring the album cover to life.
This video introduced new forms which hadn't been done before and being the first of its kind, the video worked on a trial and error model.
Queen- Bohemian Rhapsody, 1975
From the the early 1980's music videos seemed to be 'going Hollywood', meaning artists began to reenact famous films. The era of what is known as the 'New Romantics' is a prime example of this seen in the examples of Duran Duran, Boy George and Adam Ant who wanted to recreate movie roles.
Adam and The Ants- Stand And Deliver, 1981
One of the most popular artist to invest in the music video was Queen, in their video for Bohemian Rhapsody is widely considered the first music video. Directed by Bruce Gowers in 1975, it costed roughly £3,500 to produce whilst only taken only three hours in total to shoot. It looks quite dated now when compared with the high tech effects of today's music videos. However,the artists intended to bring the album cover to life.
This video introduced new forms which hadn't been done before and being the first of its kind, the video worked on a trial and error model.
Queen- Bohemian Rhapsody, 1975
From the the early 1980's music videos seemed to be 'going Hollywood', meaning artists began to reenact famous films. The era of what is known as the 'New Romantics' is a prime example of this seen in the examples of Duran Duran, Boy George and Adam Ant who wanted to recreate movie roles.
Adam and The Ants- Stand And Deliver, 1981
Such videos as these show that the idea of the music video was really taking off yet there was nowhere to play it yet. Britain invented Pop Videos but they didn't know what to do with it, an outlet such as MTV was much needed. Founder of MTV Mike Nesbit (formally a member of 'The Monkees') was collecting these videos and knew there was nowhere to show them, therefore he had a dream of a 24 hour channel to present what he believed to be 'artistic gems' but he had trouble convincing music executives.
MTV launched in August 1981, with only 200 videos to broadcast. The first video was 'Video killed the Radio Star'. Centered on music videos, MTV helped artists to gain exposure and was presented by on-air personalities known as Video Jockys or VJs. MTV helped audiences to connect with music on a whole new level.
The Buggles, Video Killed the Radio Star, 1981
PopClips was introduced as a way of linking videos and consisting of the use of Video Jokeys it became an immediate hit.
With the majority of videos being made by British artists, this was the first British invasion of the American airways. In 1992, MTV launched other programs, therefore diversifying into other youth programs (such as Beavis and Butthead) as well as music videos. In 2001. MTV launched an additional channel 'MTV Dance' and since then as branched into more different genres including, MTV Base, MTV Rocks, MTV Hits, MTV Music, VH1 and even MTV Xmas during the Christmas period. Nowadays, MTV hosts networks in over 30 languages in over 160 countries to over 300 million homes.
Beavis and Butt-Head, 1992
MTV Channels, 1985-present
Techniques and ideas seen in today's videos were in fact invented back then such as Director Tim Pope who introduced the idea of the artist not singing in the video. With the introduction of MTV and the increase in its popularity we see that artists became more focused on their videos making them more artistic and polished and many famous directors today started their careers back in the 1990's through music videos. However, this has received many criticism from the artists such as Phil Collins felt that 'looks became more important than the sound'. The industry only about the video which upset artists as that was the one aspect of their career which they had no control over.
Some artists, however, fully embraced the idea of video and used it to their advantage making a part of their identity as a performer. Madonna is a prime example of this as she saw the idea of the music video as a quicker route to stardom and always reinventing herself, she quickly became what's known as a 'Video Star'.
Another artist which has fully utilized the music video includes Michael Jackson, his video Thriller is well renowned not only as a music video but as a short film in its own right. Jackson's Thriller pop music video broke records and industry boundaries. By turning the 5:12 minute song into a 14 minute short movie it gave birth to the MTV generation and set the standing for the music industry for decades to come. Michael Jackson was desperate to emulate the hybrid of comedy and horror of his favorite film the 1981 hit American Werewolf in London, directed by John Landis, both he and Jackson urged MTV to invest in the project. Executives at the station loved the idea by struggled to find the funds of $500,000 for the video, chief of the station Bob Pitman was under scrutiny for not playing enough black artists decided to produce a 'Making of Thriller' TV special which then sold worldwide therefore financing the full-scale production.
Michael Jackson- Thriller, 1983
As a recognition of the contribution to the music industry which the music video provides, in 1984 MTV introduced the VMA's (Video Music Awards) acknowledging the success of music videos, artists, producers and directors all within a certain field.
Nowadays, music videos have become more advanced and a bigger part of today's society. They have become more hi-tech using the same editing and effects that can be seen in a Hollywood blockbuster.
Black Eyed Peas- Imma Be, 2009
Music videos today are not only constantly breaking the boundaries technologically but also controversially. An example of this is seen in recent videos produced by child-star Miley Cyrus, in her latest video for single 'Wrecking Ball' we see the singer trying to move away from her child-star image and recreate herself with a new 'sexy and provocative' image. Through swinging on a wrecking ball with minimal clothing on and suggestively licking a hammer, the video has been deemed inappropriate for her young audiences, who still remember her from her Disney Channel days.
Miley Cyrus- Wrecking Ball, 2013
This video was extremely controversial upon release and sparked up many criticisms for the artist and led to a new craze of online parodies of the video. This is just one example of how music videos are now being used to not only introduce new artists to the music industry but also reintroduce existing artists, giving them more creative freedom and expression through their music videos.
Thursday 28 November 2013
Introduction to genre!
An Introduction to genre...
What is genre?
genre
ˈʒɒ̃rə,ˈ(d)ʒɒnrə/
noun
- 1.a style or category of art, music, or literature.
To put it simply, genre is the French word for type. Each genre has a set of conventions and this makes the genre easier to identify.
Pete Fraser says: "Some music videos transcend genres, others can be more easily categorize. If you watch some (music) channels you will be able to identify a range f distinct features which categorize different genres".
We have been establishing what we as the audience expect to see from certain genres and distinguishing different genres and the different types of music videos, for example whether they are performance, narrative or concept based.
Here are some of the examples which I have studied:
Name of the artist: Girls Aloud- Something New
Genre: Pop
Genre Expectations:
- Bright colors
- Dance routines
- Love/Romance
- Close ups of body parts (such as lips, eyes, faces etc.)
Performance/ Narrative/ Concept: Performance
Examples from the video:
- Unusual editing
- Pop of color (orange dresses among a black and white set)
- Dancing
- A lot of use of close ups
Name of the artist: Muse- Supermassive Black Hole
Genre: Indie/ Rock
Genre Expectations:
- Performance
- Close-up of instruments
- A lead singer
- Dark colors
Performance/ Narrative/ Concept: Performance and Concept
Examples from the video:
- Guitarists
- Lead Singer seen
- Dark lighting
- People in body suits
Action Plan
Action Plan
WEEK
|
DATE
|
TASK
|
WEEK 1
|
25.11.13
|
Research and Planning
-History of the
Music Video
-Textual analysis
of pop videos
- Notes on
appropriate genre and conventions
-Notes of Top 100
videos
- Notes on
Narrative
-Notes on
representation
-Notes on Media
Language
- Notes on the
music industry and the role of pop video within that industry
- Notes on key
directors
-Notes on audience
-Audience Research
- Textual analysis
and research of digipaks
-Analysis and
research of adverts
|
WEEK 2
|
02.11.13
|
|
WEEK 3
|
09.12.13
|
|
WEEK 4,5,6 (XMAS)
|
16.12.13
23.12.13
|
Review work so far
|
WEEK 7
|
06.01.14
|
Final week of research and planning before
filming
-Beat Sheet
-Record of ideas
as they develop
- Treatment
-Animatic
-Storyboard
-Script (if
required)
-Recce info.
- Recce shots
-Shooting Schedule
-Risk Assessment
-Flat plan for
digipak
-Drafting of
digipak
|
WEEK 8
|
20.01.14
|
Filming begins
|
WEEK 9
|
27.01.14
|
More filming
|
WEEK 10
|
03.02.14
|
Editing
|
WEEK 11
|
10.02.14
|
More editing
|
WEEK 12
|
17.02.14
|
Rough cut
|
WEEK 13
|
24.02.14
|
Begin Ancillary (CD Cover)
|
WEEK 14
|
03.03.14
|
Poster
|
WEEK 15
|
10.03.14
|
Evaluation
|
WEEK 16
|
17.03.14
|
Evaluation and Review
|
WEEK 17
|
21.03.14
|
Deadline!!!
|
Welcome!
Hello Bloggers!
I am Kristi. This is my blog.
I am creating this blog as part of my A2 Media, I will be using this to upload my work and track my progress! I'm excited to see how it ends so....
LET'S GO!
see you later,
Kristi! :)
I am Kristi. This is my blog.
I am creating this blog as part of my A2 Media, I will be using this to upload my work and track my progress! I'm excited to see how it ends so....
LET'S GO!
see you later,
Kristi! :)
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