Josh East A2 ADVANCED PORTFOLIO - Music Video: August 2017

"The music video didn’t simply appear out of nowhere in 1981 when MTV opened. Rather, there were many music videos before this, but few were successful, thanks mainly to only occasional airings on weekly pop shows on TV stations around the world."

"Christian Cawley" - www.makeuseof.com

MTV is not as fond on playing music videos these days, however, when they did it helped to define eras and careers, becoming a phenomenon in its own right. While music videos are predominantly viewed on YouTube in most recent years, MTV will still air a limited about of music videos from their TV channel.
Rewind back to the 1960's, very few acts recorded music videos. MTV was non-existent and artists often could not make it to TV studios in order to perform. With many artists over time experimenting with the idea of creating promotion films for their songs. The Beatles, who's influence is still felt after almost 50 years since the band split are a truly iconic British band in pop music history who started to produce promotional films for their music around 1966.
Jump forward to 1975, the music video was still nothing more than an occasional promotional film, usually the syndication of a particular TV performance. Some artists like David Bowie recorded promotional films, but on the whole this idea was ignored. When Queen’s epic “Bohemian Rhapsody” made the number one spot in 1975, the band was on tour and unable to make it to the recording of Top of the Pops on BBC One. Instead, they decided recorded a special video for the occasion, featuring the band performing the beginning and end of the song on stage, and with a collection of visually appealing imagery using the latest video editing technology accompanying the middle “opera” section.

Audience response to this video was very strong, placing it in the number one spot for 9 weeks!

The launch of music video giants MTV occurred on the 1st August 1981 with The Buggles’ video of 'Video Killed The Radio Star'.

The message behind The Buggles' hit pre-suggests the advances in technology over time.

In 1983, Michael Jackson's solo career hit the market with his 'Thriller' album, this is when pop videos were starting to emerge and were becoming more common. The music video for 'Thriller' which was directed by John Landis who co-wrote the screenplay for the video, was 13 minutes long and enjoyed its worldwide premier on MTV on December 2nd 1983.“Thriller” has since been listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the “most successful music video,” and is the first music video added to the National Film Registry.

The full 13-minute video debuted on MTV as part of an exclusive deal MTV struck with MJ’s team and was played 3-5 times a day, something which increased MTV’s viewing audience.

Just three years later a video dropped that while less-beloved these days, still made history. Peter Gabriel’s 1986 video for “Sledgehammer” won nine awards at the MTV Music Awards in 1987 — a total that remains, as yet, unsurpassed — and it’s also the most played clip in the history of the channel.

The video’s use of claymation, pixilation and stop motion animation was considered rather radical at the time. One of the two animation companies behind it, Aardman Animations, went on to create Wallace and Gromit.

"Virtual Insanity" 1996. The music video to this hit features a combination of dancing and apparently a moving floor. While it appears that the video is all filmed within one shot, it is in fact several sequences edited together with a subtle use of camera pans. However, that is not the only magic here....

The floor is not actually moving; the camera is fixed to the set, which is being moved around on a grey, featureless floor. Unsurprisingly, “Virtual Insanity” won four awards at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, where the band gave a memorable performance, with Jay Kay dancing on two moving walkways installed on the stage.

1998, "Baby One More Time". Britney Spears’ debut single was released with this slightly cheesy high school-eccentric video from director Nigel Dick, and immediately tapped into the MTV audience. Unlike previously mentioned videos, there is little in the way of special effects in this video. Instead, this is an example of perfect synchronicity between a song and the accompanying video, strong direction, compelling choreography and realistic costuming (the use of standard school uniforms).

Lady Gaga has made music videos the focus of her pop single career more than any artist since Michael Jackson, therefore, the expectations for her products are high. Directed by fashion photographer Nick Knight, the video for "Born This Way" 2011, features Lady Gaga in a number of guises, with scary-looking facial make-up. The video features various references to Greek and Roman mythology. Oh, and a Michael Jackson impression, appropriately enough.

From MTV to YouTube...And Beyond?

"Right now, I can unlock my phone, launch the YouTube app and enjoy virtually any pop video that has ever been made, wherever I am. It is a far cry from the experimental times of the 1960s, where adding some film to your latest hit record was considered avant garde. But where might YouTube take music videos? Are the astonishing videos of Lady Gaga taking advantage of the medium, or merely exploiting it? Could YouTube – or another service entirely – offer a brand new way of hosting, playing, and distributing music videos in the future?"

Christian Cawley" - www.makeuseof.com