For historical research, I looked up the history of music videos as my FMP this year is a music video (Maxwell, 2014). The origin of music videos began in the 1960s when The Beatles pioneered music videos with their "A Hard Day's Night" motion picture as the band pairs footage of them traveling to London from Liverpool to perform many different concerts with their songs off of the album "A Hard Day's Night" being included as part of the soundtrack as well as diegetic sound with the songs being performed to the adoring fans of the band. This allows for The Beatles' music to help push the narrative of the film forward and for the characters in the film played by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr playing themselves, it enables assistance in establishing character traits as their roles in the film are only made more believable by the contributions they have made to the music in real life as a result of their exuberant personalities being incorporated into their discography and into the dialogue in the film too.
(A Theatrical Poster for the film "A Hard Day's Night", n.d.)
The next notable moment in the history of music videos after the various other videographer and musician collaborations that occurred in the 60s/70s was the new, more conceptual approach to music videos that arose in the early 1980s which involved more creative and groundbreaking with the way the music videos of the period did not follow the traditional conventions of anything seen in the industry at the time. The new type of media product being created was also paired with pre-recorded studio versions of songs which has ended up becoming the norm in music videos up to now. For, example, the music videos for the songs "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles (The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star, 2010) and "Thriller" by Michael Jackson (Michael Jackson - Thriller (Official Video), 2009) are both two of the first music videos to have some sort of narrative instead of the music video just being a regular performance by the band/artist like it had been up to that point.
The music video for "Video Killed The Radio Star" was released first in 1979 and is well known for being the first music video to air on MTV in 1981 while the music video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was released and aired on MTV in 1982 is considered to be one of the best music videos of all time because of its mixture of well-choreographed dance moves and horror based themes. Michael Jackson himself transforms into a zombie as he attempts to reassure the woman he is with that she is not in harm's way despite being a member of the undead as he is dancing in time with the music in a trance like state due to the music being so infectious that it is able to control his body to move like it does which is what is trying to get across I feel. These music videos along with many other ones from the same decade paved the way for the unique ideas and enticing visuals of music videos that we see nowadays as the medium continues to evolve as time goes on.
(The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star, 2010)
(Michael Jackson - Thriller (Official Video), 2009)
The way music videos began being consumed in the 80s carried on throughout the decade and into the 1990s, although the popularity of music videos did decrease from its peak in the 1980s towards the end of the nineties, however MTV launched a new network based around both conceptually driven music videos and live performances turned into music videos over the final twenty years of the last millennium. The network launched in 1985 was called Video Hits One (VH1) and it set out to focus airing music videos for a more mature and older audience with softer music such as Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A" which was the best album of the year in 1985 so it made sense financially to create the network. In 1988, the show Yo! MTV Raps was started in order to capitalise on the growth of the Hip Hop music genre and the song "Night of the Living Baseheads" is a great example of how a song and music video can be used as a form of cultural expression, no matter the genre of music.
In the year 1992, the directors name began being featured alongside the band/artist's name in music videos, the music video for "Scream" by Michael and Janet Jackson became the most expensive music video to make costing $7 million to produce in 1995. Now, we are at a point where music videos are viewed online on YouTube and shared via websites/apps such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp etc. which makes smaller and upcoming bands/artists a lot more accessible than they once were which also allows for directors to demonstrate their skill to a larger audience, putting their creativity on show for more people to see than ever before. The use of YouTube and the internet for distributing music videos began in 2005 with iTunes inspiring a change in the industry with how music is delivered to the consumer. Also, there is artists such as OK Go having people view their creative endeavours online with such a wide reach across the world which has increased a humungous amount since then as it has become the most common way in which people view music videos these days so that is how I am going to put my music video out as it will be the most effective way to distribute it evidently.
(The MTV Logo, n.d.)
(The YouTube Logo, n.d.)
(Maxwell, 2014)
Bibliography
Maxwell, W., 2014. The Impact And Development Of The "Music Video" Over Time|Daily Infographicdaily Infographic. [online] Dailyinfographic.com. Available at: <https://www.dailyinfographic.com/the-impact-and-development-of-the-music-video-over-time> [Accessed 16 April 2020].
n.d. A Theatrical Poster For The Film "A Hard Day's Night".. [image] Available at: <https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjQyMGUwNzAtNTc2MC00Y2FjLThlM2ItZGRjNzM0OWVmZGYyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjc1NTYyMjg@._V1_.jpg> [Accessed 18 April 2020].
YouTube. 2010. The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs> [Accessed 18 April 2020].
YouTube. 2009. Michael Jackson - Thriller (Official Video). [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA> [Accessed 18 April 2020].
n.d. The MTV Logo. [image] Available at: <https://root.coreylittle.com/apopkav/2016/07/mtv-logo.png> [Accessed 18 April 2020].
n.d. The Youtube Logo. [image] Available at: <https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/centaur-wp/designweek/prod/content/uploads/2017/08/30151749/yt_logo_rgb_light2.jpg> [Accessed 18 April 2020].
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