The Role of Music Videos

Music videos have not always accompanied music. In the past, music was released as a record and could only really be advertised over the radio. In 1965 the first real music videos were created by the world famous band 'The Beatles' in order to be able to have their music shown on different TV shows around the world without them having to do a live performance.

The next band to begin making music videos was 'Queen' in 1975. Again it was made due to the inability to make a live show but this time the show was the BBC's 'Top of the Pops'. After this, music videos started to become popular and by the early 1980s there were just enough of them to sustain an entire TV channel, MTV.

MTV was a very controversial channel when it was introduced. Although to many people it was viewed as the beginning of a new era in music history where musicians can show what they've got besides singing, many others viewed it as the loss of many possible musical talents due to the fact that musicians could become more appreciated if they were good looking. At this point the role of the music video changed. They were no longer just for appearing when bands couldn't make performances but were now becoming necessary for the advertisement of the song as well. MTV showed non-stop pop music and became the first of the many music TV channels that exist today. It even gave birth to a new form of director where directors can use music videos as a platform for showing their talent before moving on to other platforms like films or TV shows.

Eventually, if you wanted your music to be 'heard' it was almost necessary to create a music video. Music videos had become an art form where the music is presented to its audience in a more engaging and visual way. Music videos had become so important that videos from the most famous artists were made at a cost of up to $7,000,000 dollars (Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson's 'Scream' in 1995).

Music videos allow artists to impress their audience with not only their music but also with their looks, moves and acting. People can become instant fans after watching just 1 music video on a music channel. Music videos are considered as almost as important as the song itself and can often be the reason why a song is particularly liked.

But what is a music video? 

A music video is described by yourdictionary.com as "a performance on film or videotape of a musical recording accompanied by synchronized actions, such as a dramatic interpretation of the lyrics or a series of, sometimes surreal, images". There are 3 ways in which to conduct a music video, performance style, narrative style, or a combination of the two. Below is a table showing the differences between the two.

Narrative	Performance
Band members are actors in a story	Band members are shown playing the song
Key points in the song create room for important moments in the story	Individual members get privileged shots when their instrument/voice is heard
Can be set anywhere and can have a variety of locations	Usually set during a live concert or in a studio or rehearsal room although can be set anywhere if done well
The music dictates how the visuals are presented	The music and visuals share the onus and both have to be in sync with each other

Music Channels - Research

As with the magazine industry the tv music channel industry is an oligopoly mostly dominated by 3 main companies; MTV Networks Europe, Box Television (Bauer Group/Channel Four Television Corporation) and the CSC Media Group. These companies own 9/7/7 music channels respectively consisting of 79% of the UK's music channels.

The first music TV channel to air was MTV (Music Television) in America, 1981 and ironically made 'TV Killed the Radio Star' the first music video aired on TV. A UK version was later launched in 1997.

MTV has had a significant impact on the music industry and popular culture and now, as the number of songs and music videos increased, has a number of sister channels devoted to variations of MTV and different genres of music. These include:

MTV

MTV+1

MTVN HD

MTV Base

MTV Hits

MTV Dance

MTV Hits

MTV Two

MTV Shows (MTV Music)

MTV Trax

MTV even introduced its own music award show with which bands could become even more famous as they compete for top spots. There is also now an online site for MTV where users can look up the latest music news and sign up for competitions.

A2 Project Brief

Out of the many briefs to choose from to carry out as my media project, the three below I felt were likely to be the best choices for producing optimum results. The other briefs in my opinion were either impossible to do, or impossible to do to a professional standard.

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band;
• a cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package);
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

2. A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the film;
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• a poster for the film.

3. The first level of a new computer game, together with two of the following three options:

• the cover for the game's package;
• a magazine advertisement for the game;
• a radio advertisement for the game.

 

Of these three briefs, the first (music video) sounds like the most likely option for me. The film trailer would be difficult in that it would be hard to find very good actors and although I have worked on computer game design before, it would also be very hard to make a professional looking product. Although actors are necessary for a music video, there is less emphasis on the quality of the acting and more on the camera work and editing.