BRIEF HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEOS.
A music video is a video or short film that complements a song. Most music videos are effectively used as a marketing technique to promote the sale of music and are often called Promotional videos or Promos for short. In 1940, Walt Disney released Fantasia which is an animated film based around most famous pieces of classical music, for example The Pastoral Sympathy (The Sixth) By Ludwig Van Beethoven. (Website 3)
Tony Bennett and his song ' Stranger In Paradise' was filmed in London's Hyde Park and was soon aired on the television across the United Kingdom and the United states. Tony Bennett soon stated that his was the first very first music video to be made (1940's). (Website 1). In the late 1960's Penny Lane (By The Beatles) music video progressed to another stage of using the codes and conventions in their production. For example, camera angles, lighting and rhythmic editing. A jukebox was also invented around the 1960's in France and many French artists produced short films to go with their songs.
In the 1980's MTV aired for the first time and the first music to be aired was The Buggles 'Video Killed The Radio Star'. MTV began to transform the music industry which soon became a powerful origin of Pop Culture and entertainment in the US & across the world.
When MTV first started off its main Programming was music videos, when MTV got acknowledged lots of money was invested to make better and more cutting edge videos. MTV began airing shows other than music videos in the late 1980's which were aimed more at teens and young adults, most popular shows were 'My Super Sweet 16' and 'The Hills'.
Most modern music videos nowadays have a nice aesthetic appeal but also most commonly videos from this century have a certain sex appeal to them. Usually the music videos will contain women in exploited or revealing outfits, this is done to appeal to the male audience and to make a more profitable record.
Tony Bennett and his song ' Stranger In Paradise' was filmed in London's Hyde Park and was soon aired on the television across the United Kingdom and the United states. Tony Bennett soon stated that his was the first very first music video to be made (1940's). (Website 1). In the late 1960's Penny Lane (By The Beatles) music video progressed to another stage of using the codes and conventions in their production. For example, camera angles, lighting and rhythmic editing. A jukebox was also invented around the 1960's in France and many French artists produced short films to go with their songs.
In the 1980's MTV aired for the first time and the first music to be aired was The Buggles 'Video Killed The Radio Star'. MTV began to transform the music industry which soon became a powerful origin of Pop Culture and entertainment in the US & across the world.
When MTV first started off its main Programming was music videos, when MTV got acknowledged lots of money was invested to make better and more cutting edge videos. MTV began airing shows other than music videos in the late 1980's which were aimed more at teens and young adults, most popular shows were 'My Super Sweet 16' and 'The Hills'.
Most modern music videos nowadays have a nice aesthetic appeal but also most commonly videos from this century have a certain sex appeal to them. Usually the music videos will contain women in exploited or revealing outfits, this is done to appeal to the male audience and to make a more profitable record.
THE PURPOSE OF MUSIC VIDEOS
The main purpose of music videos is to promote and sell music recordings of Artists which in turn promotes an album. The music video creates and gives the artist or band a bigger profile because the audience will see the video and instantly remember the song and artist who created it. Music videos tend to illustrate the songs and express an individuals emotions which also appeals to a visual audience. It's an entertainment source to the audience, they can watch something while listening to the song, the visuals create a story that accompanies the song. (Website 4)
Some brands sponsor an artist to use their product in their music videos, for example Dr Dre Beats Pill (Speaker) is a common product sponsored in many artist's music videos. This is done to promote their product because if the audience sees them being used in their favourite artist's music video then they may be influenced and buy the product. Dr Dre Beats Pill is a very successful product and what better way to promote the product than to have it appear in almost every pop video out there.
So overall a Music video's main purpose is to promote the artist, the song, an album and generating money for record companies but also having a purpose for the audience.
Some brands sponsor an artist to use their product in their music videos, for example Dr Dre Beats Pill (Speaker) is a common product sponsored in many artist's music videos. This is done to promote their product because if the audience sees them being used in their favourite artist's music video then they may be influenced and buy the product. Dr Dre Beats Pill is a very successful product and what better way to promote the product than to have it appear in almost every pop video out there.
So overall a Music video's main purpose is to promote the artist, the song, an album and generating money for record companies but also having a purpose for the audience.
Analysis Of Two Music Videos
Bring Me The Horizon - Follow You The mise – en - scene is everything the audience sees in the video from lighting to props. Throughout the whole video the lighting looks natural, in the beginning you can see the light coming in from the windows which cast light upon the room and characters. The lighting in other areas of the video also looks natural because of filming out side and using the suns lighting. They have used other lighting sources to provide better and well lit scenes. Towards the end of the video the scenes get dark, as we can see darkness covering the sun which indicates the end of the world and apocalypse taking place. The only thing lighting these scenes now is the various objects and houses on fire in the background.
The main props used in this video are shot guns. The video starts off showing an elderly woman in a rocking chair with a shotgun resting on her lap and this takes away her innocence in a way, as a stereotypical elderly woman is kind and gentle, we don’t picture them in possession of a dangerous object. Most of the duration of the video we see people inflicting violence on each other by shooting but while doing so the antagonists have a rather joyful emotion when killing others. The video contains mainly a tracking shot following the character through the neighbour hood and then cutting to mid shots showing the destruction of objects, cars, people and houses and the violence happening behind the character. Birds eye view shots are used to get a full view of what is happening around him and to show what the neighbour hood had become. This music video contains a mixture of non- diegetic and diegetic sound. The beginning starts with non- diegetic sound because we can here a new reporters voice but we can't see where the voice is coming from, the non – diegetic sounds are added during the post production process. The diegetic sounds are the acts of violence we see happening in the background for example the gunshots and explosions. The beginning had a montage of news reports following the violent events happening all over the world. This shows that violence can happen anywhere at anytime which exposes the audience to the reality they are deprived from. Also the beginning contained a black screen with typography telling us that "Love is blind and deaf" which then the story goes on to shadow the main character and his journey to his girlfriend's house while the world is ending behind him. The tells us that he is quite selfish because he doesn’t care about the world but only his girlfriend. |
The whole video contains a series of violent acts happening in a neighborhood and the meaning that this song and the video is trying to create is that if we compare the events happening in the video to the recent events happening in our society as we speak, they are very similar and we can see what 'we' as a society have become. The title of the song 'Follow You' shows us that what we see on the media and what we see people do, influences us to follow them and their ways whether they are good or bad because as people we are constantly trying to fit in and we believe that following others actions is the way to do it.
The main character wears headphones throughout the video and is completely oblivious to his surroundings and he separates himself from the violence. This proves how the younger generation are addicted to technology and are trapped in their own world escaping reality and unaware of what is going on in the world and around them. The lyrics also have a meaning to them ' You can drag me through hell if it meant I could hold your hand' this means that the main character will do anything to be with the person he loves even if it means walking through danger, his love for this individual has contradicted the violence and negativity happening around him. The genre of this music video is Surrealist because of the dramatic psychology and the end of the world, another example of why its surrealist is because the music video shows an apocalypse starting which involve zombies, this proves the surrealism of the video as zombies don’t exist. |
Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance
The style of this video is stop picture motion, this is where they take a picture of every single movement and edit them together and it is made to look like the character is moving. The video shows a woman sleeping in her bed, she doesn’t move from the it but the video and story manages to illustrate the journey of her dream. During the stop motion, the covers of the bed are pulled off the character as she begins to walk down the imaginary stairs which we see as pillows, because of this the director has a created a surrealistic element to the story and video. The narrative is quite easy and understandable as the visuals are a projection of the characters dreams.
In this video the mise – en – scene is based more upon the props. The props used were bed sheets, clothes, pillows and most importantly the bed. Towards the beginning of the video we do see an instrument being used as a piece of mise – en – scene. On the flooring of the video the audience can see a numerous amount of mise – en – scene, for example shoes, books and a lamp. The mise –en – scene changes as the character walks, she is in control of her dream and her surroundings, what she imagines is what we will see. Most of the mise – en – scene involved embodies the character's everyday life style that creates her personality. The cello for example may symbolize that she dreams of being a musician one day. |
They are key areas in the video where the lyrics will match the visuals on screen. For example the words 'A cello lying in its case' is sung and then we see a cello slide in from the left of the bed above the characters head, this is also seen as diegetic sound because we can hear the cello in the music but also see it on screen. Another example is in the lyrics it says ' And she fights for her life on the train' at this moment the sheets on her bed come together to form what looks like the main character on a train. When the visuals demonstrate the lyrics this can be quite constructive as it helps the audience understand the narrative a bit more.
In some moments of the video, the editing of the pictures fits in with the music. For example, near to the end of the video you can hear the single notes of a xylophone which the pictures are edited to change each time were hear the xylophone. The lyrics of the song have a meaning behind them but its difficult to know the true meaning of what the artist is trying to put across. The lyrics, 'And she fights for her life as she puts on her coat And she fights for her life on the train She looks at the rain as it pours And she fights for her life as she goes in a store Where the people are pleasantly strange And counting the change as she goes Nobody knows' In my opinion these lyrics suggest that the character is suffering or has depression, although the visuals seem to say differently as the character always has a smile on her face and there are no signs in the visuals of suffering. The journey of her dream could represent her finding a partner but as she begins to wake up and enter reality her dream becomes a fantasy and her love interest never existed. Overall this music video is a prime example of a perfectly made Stop picture motion video, with no continuity errors this video fits together smoothly and is enjoyable to watch. |
Bibliography:
Brief History:
1. http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/139468/A-Brief-History-Of-Music-Videos/#vars!date=1956-05-11_11:10:00!
2. http://www.slideshare.net/longroadmedia/the-history-of-music-video?qid=3bd45217-4233-45d2-b1be-0dc170b32b7a&v=&b=&from_search=1
3. http://www.slideshare.net/ellis421465/a-brief-history-of-music-videos
Purpose of Music Videos:
4. http://www.slideshare.net/MsJMcLeod/the-purpose-of-music-videos
Brief History:
1. http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/139468/A-Brief-History-Of-Music-Videos/#vars!date=1956-05-11_11:10:00!
2. http://www.slideshare.net/longroadmedia/the-history-of-music-video?qid=3bd45217-4233-45d2-b1be-0dc170b32b7a&v=&b=&from_search=1
3. http://www.slideshare.net/ellis421465/a-brief-history-of-music-videos
Purpose of Music Videos:
4. http://www.slideshare.net/MsJMcLeod/the-purpose-of-music-videos