The History of Music Video

What is Music video?

• A short film integrating a song and imagery
• Produced for promotional or artistic purposes. 
• Made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. 
• The origins of music videos date back much further, came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 80s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip" or "film clip".

1970's music

In the 1970s, pop musicians used music videos to promote themselves and their albums. They were also used by record companies to advertise their artists, and were often shown on TV when a band wasn't able to appear on a particular show in person. Because they were just promotional tools, the lip-synched performances were simple, the scenery was sparse and the choreography was minimal.

Music videos were slow to catch on in America, but they were used by British and European bands quite often. European radio stations played less rock music than American stations, which made television a prime source for hearing new music. It was also easier to gain exposure in America by sending over a video clip than it was to send over an entire band.

The entertainment value of music videos became apparent in 1975, when the elaborate video for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" caused a sensation. Videos became more creative by telling stories and using special effects.
Here are some examples of a few popular artists such as:

• Rod Stewart
• ABBA
• Pink Floyd
• David Bowie

1980's music

The 1980's was a decade of revolutionary changes on the music scene. The two major developments were the advent of MTV and the compact disc. Music became more diverse, with new wave, heavy metal, rap, techno pop, alternative rock and the 'new' country sounds. And music became a huge marketing tool as filmmakers, TV producers and manufactures of everything. Here are some examples of a few popular artists such as:

• Madonna
• Michael Jackson
• Duran Duran

1990's music

The 1990's was a decade of continuation of teen pop of the 80's and the emergency of grunge music and alternative rock in pop culture replacing glam metal and the continuation of hip hop's rise beginning midway in the 80's. It also featured the rise of contemporary country music as a major genre, which started in the 80's. Here are some examples of a few popular artists such as:

• Spice Girls
• Garth Brooks
• The Prodigy
• Backstreet Boys

2000's music

In the First World, pop music, hip pop music, contemporary R&B, new wave, country and alternative rock dominated and defined the decade's music. Hip hop began to mix with electropop, synthpop and dance music by end of the decade, and some other artists began to revive the genre. Here are some examples of a few popular artists such as:

• Eminem
• Nickelback
• Britney Spears
• Christina Aguilera

The Cultivation Theory

This is a social theory which examined the long-term effects of television on American audience of all ages. This theory is developed by George Gerbner, dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. Gerbner began the 'Cultural Indicators' research project in the mid -1960's, to study how watching television may influence viewer's ideas of what the everyday world is like.

Cultivation theorists argue that:

- Television has long-term effects which are small but significant. They emphasize the effects of television viewing on the attitudes rather than behavior of viewers.

-Some studies have also considered other mass media from this perspective, and have dealt with topics such as: a gender roles, age groups, ethnic groups and political attitudes.

-George Gerbner argues that the mass media cultivate attitudes and values which are already present in a culture. He has also argued that television tends to cultive middle-of-the road political perspectives.

Negative influences of Rap & Hip-Hop music and music videos.
''Despite its popularity, hip-hop music is often scrutinized as a negative influence on behavior. People of all races and age groups relish hip-hop and often imitate the most popular artists and memorize the lyrics. Song lyrics can become embedded in the mind and can unconsciously motivate a listener's actions.''

History

Hip Hop began in the 1970s. The art form, which originated in New York, provided Black and Latino youth with an outlet to express themselves, often speaking out about the poor conditions that exist within their communities. The development of the hip-hop culture created a movement that influenced the way people dress, speak and socialize. The emergence of "gangsta rap" in the 1980s marked the beginning of some disintegration of the positive images in hip-hop culture.

Here's a music video by 50 cent 'Candy Shop' to support this theory.

Throughout the twentieth century, music videos have influenced various perceptions on the images of women. Male artists use women in their videos as an accessory, to make the video more appealing to a larger audience, specifically male. Sexism and the exploitation of women is a part of the learned mainstream American culture. Hip-hop culture is frequently condemned for its use of women as sex objects, but with mainstream American ideas being embedded into the psyches of many, the objectification of women seems to be culturally accepted.

In this song, you can hear the words such as: ' Got the magic stick, I'm the love doctor' or 'I melt in your mouth girl, not in your hands (ha ha)' are not only very suggestive, but also the video for this song is downright raunchy. This popular R & B music video portray women in a very negative way. The reason why is because videos fling messages to young women, how to being “cool” such as: to dress provocatively and be promiscuous. Women are rarely ever showed in a decent and good-natured manner in today’s music videos, not to mention fully clothed. In addition to the pop stars of today, the rappers in the media also display women as just merely objects.

Nowadays, television plays a significant role in shaping viewers' social realities. This reality is cultivated and maintained by on-going television viewing and consumption of various types of media. The influence of media on its’ viewers is demonstrated through the cultivation theory.

Encoding/ Decoding : Audience Theory

This is an active audience theory developed by Stuart Hall which examines the relationship between a text and it's audience.

• Encoding- the process by which a text is constructed by it's producers.
• Decoding - the process by which the audience reads, understands and interprets a text.

He states that all texts are polysemic, meaning they may be read differently by different people, depending on their identity, cultural knowledge and opinions.

In this video, producers wanted to keep it raw and funky, just having it in an insane asylum made it that much cooler to the singer. The singer portrays an inpatient that possesses the power to walk through walls and later she catches the 'crazy/dancing feet' with her friends.

The singer 'Monae' talked about the video saying 'Tightrope' takes place at the Palace of the Dogs. What impressed me was that at the beginning of the video, we introduced into black screen with white graphics which says: ‘The Palace of the Dogs Asylum: Dancing has long been forbidden for its subversive effects on the residents and its tendency to lead to illegal magical practices.’ Opening shot is a wide shot of two men wearing tuxedos, and are sitting against a white tiled wall. One is reading a book, and the other is playing with a small ball, which eventually drifts up and floats in the air. The reader turns to see it and looks surprised. Then we see a cut to an ominous-looking institution with a sign in front: ‘The Palace of the Dogs.’ Bright yellow text reading: ‘Monae and Left Foot: Tight Rope’. Overlays the image as bouncy music plays.

What I like about this video is the fact that many people can interpret it in different ways. Here is an example of how : 'Monae discussed the background to the song: Tightrope is basically dealing with how in life it's important to keep your balance and not get too high or low about things during the time when you're either being praised or being criticised. Which is something that, as artists, Big Boi and I could both relate to, because there are so many peaks and dips along the journey of just being an artist on the road to success. So we both felt it was important to kinda help those everyday working people who are constantly dealing with life's obstacles, by giving them like a tutorial on how to deal with issues face-on.'

I have done a small research to shows that this theory is true. Here you can see few examples of how people interpret this video.

Chloe Blanch says :
I think the video is about somebody who's either in prison, or in a mental health hospital (because of the last who pushes the trolley with medicine on) and its about them having to walk a tightrope to either get out of prison or the mental hospital.

Steve Allwright says:
little confusing video but think its about people being controlled and not being aloud to do what they want.

Bethany Fox says:
In this video, they used quite dull mise-en-scene to create a dull medical atmospheric feeling,however, never really know whats gonna happen in life gotta live it to as full as possible pills and stuff hanging around willing nilly not really clean cut and done properly only one nurse and the the two black figures hanging around to bring her back to earth because shes in some fantasy world.

Jacob Fraser says:
I think that the story is about an asylum where dancing was banned due to connotations with music, but the people living in the asylum might be imagining it all since she is kept there.

Samantha Dixon says:
i think it's about no having much freedom and that whenever she feels good or bad she has to keep control of herself, also it looks as though she is in a hospital or asylum place? which could mean that the people around her think its wrong to dance/sing/have fun or what ever it is she does. they also have no face or no unique-ness which i think means that she isn't aloud to express her individuality.

Elizabeth Sinclair says:
It starts off with two people doing magic it then goes on to show the people in the mental hospital dancing.

From my research, I've found out that the most of those people were really confused and didn't know how to describe this music video, however, all of them think that it's about people living in mental health hospital because of the opening wide shot of institution.

Brief

This is a coursework unit where candidates engage with contemporary media technologies to produce a media portfolio through a combination of two or more media and then present their research, planning and evaluation in digital format. This is a development of the skills from Unit G321 and is also internally assessed.

The following briefs are offered and in this portfolio a combination of two or more media is required:

• Video
• Print
• Web-Based
• Audio
• Games Software

For A2 coursework, I choose to do 'Video' , which means that I need to produce a music video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band;
• a digipak for the album's release;
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak.

Because, I only need to do two of three options, I choose to do a digipak for the album's release and magazine advertisement for the digipak .

I'm really looking forward to it, as I will produce my first music video, where you will see the profesional dancers ( young girls) in R & B'Soul style, as that's kind of dance style they do and are really good at. This will be a big challenge for me, as I have only a small experience with producing video, and have to say, it isn't easy at all. First of all, I need to pay most attention to the pace of my video, it must be dynamic and feature lots of cuts, without any complicated narrative. I want to achieve/ create something conventional as thats what people like to watch , however, there will be some elements of it which will be slightly unconventional such as: in my music video, there will be only girls dancers, dancing like men. I must say, this isn't really my idea as I already have seen this kind of music video by ciara- 'like a boy' where girls are dressed up like a boys, even the dance is more manly than girly. This video has fascinated me, as it's quite unconventional however, really good produced with such a great dancers. My video, will be similar to this one, however, not the same, as I don't want to see girls dressed up like a boys, but just dance like them.