HISTORY OF MUSIC VIDEOS
In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern worked with electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child". Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen using a magic lantern. The images were simultaneous to live performances. This technique became a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the first step toward music video.
In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern worked with electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child". Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen using a magic lantern. The images were simultaneous to live performances. This technique became a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the first step toward music video.
In 1926, technology developed and many musical short films were produced. These were called “talkies”. They were produced using the vitaphone system where the sound wasn’t printed onto the actual film, but onto a separate 16inch (40cm) disk and later a 12inch (30cm) phonograph disc recorded at 33 1/3 rpm, a speed first used for this process. These short films lasted around 6 minutes long and feature animations, Art Deco-style which was an artistic movement of this era. These would be combined with film of the performer/artist.
Sing-along short cartoons called “Screen Songs” invited the audience to sing along to popular songs. The lyrics would be shown at the bottom of the screen and an animated bouncy ball would bounce over the words as the artist sang them. This would encourage the audience to learn the words of the artists music helping promote the artist to a wider ranged audience. Also cartoons from the early 1930’s featured musicians of the time performing their hit singles on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons.
In the mid 1940’s, Louis Jordan created short films to help promote his music. “Jumping at the Jubilee” involved live musicians and the artist singing and playing the saxophone. Two jazz dancers performing in front of the artist which is unconventional to modern day music videos, as you would normally find the dancers located in the background, (backing dancers). At this time the dancing and live music was just as important as the artist himself, as the whole short film was to entertain the audience and promote the music. Music historian Donald Clarke said these short films were the “ancestors” of music videos.
Promotional clips were also made in the 1940’s for the panorama visual jukebox which could be found in taverns and public houses. The short films comprised of musical selections where a band would perform on a movie-set band stand. They were very basic and many of these “soundies” were made mostly of jazz musicians. Dramatic movies generally had a music interval but these promotional clips made the music dominant and helped promote the artists. These died out during the World War 2.
Musical Films also played a part in the lead up to the making of music videos. Films such as “Singing in the rain (1952)” and ““Gentlemen prefer blondes (1953)” displayed bold performance elements, with rain effects, along with lip sync. Gender representations are clear in the “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” through the use of bold props and costume design. Madonna’s 1985 video for her hit “Material Girl” was based on Jack Cole’s staging of Marilyn’s performance.
The Beatles were massive stars of the 1960’s and were able to produce their own feature films starring “The Beatles”. This era was where music became an industry. As artist couldn’t tour particularly at this point, so they were a great way for audience’s to see the stars they admired and help promote The Beatles music globally by playing their films in cinemas. They brought out three successful films, ‘Help!’ ‘Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Magical Mystery Tour.’ The Beatles rejected the old values and brought something new to the table. These feature films displayed a develop in cinematography with the use of close –ups, zooms pans and establishing shots. In “Magical Mystery Tour” they used special effects such as split screen and edited through the use of fades and montage editing. They showed a lack of continuity editing and realism. They made a fourth film ‘Let it Be’ that still hasn’t been released as it shows the break-up of the band.
In 1974 Freddie Mercury wrote the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" for the rock band Queen. The song had no chorus but was made up of three unique parts comprising of ballad with a guitar solo, an operatic passage and a hard rock section. The single became a complete success and stayed in the charts for 9 weeks selling more than 1 million copies in less than a year. The revenue created from the single enabled them to create the first promo video or music video. As the band were touring at the time they would have had to appear on Top of the Pops, a promo video would enable them to promote their music without actually having to be there at all. The music video also meant they had to avoid miming to such a complex song. The video took just 4 hours to film with a total cost of £4,500. The video uses fast cutting in the hard rock section which contrasts with the smooth fades in the softer operatic section. The use of zooms draws attention to the performance element staged around the piano. The kaleidoscope effects hadn’t been seen before and were interesting for the audience to watch as an impressive visual. They also used different coloured lighting and dry ice to create a rock presence and the use of low angle medium shots gave a dominant feel to the band. They were showing they were setting the standards. This soon became popular and all artists produced promotional music videos as it not only allowed the artist to not have to perform live but to have their music broadcast and accompanied by their own choice of visuals, rather than dancers such as Pan's People.
In 1983 Wham released “Club Tropicana”. This was when music videos started to use exotic locations and tried selling life styles to the audience making them aspire to be like the artist and people featuring in the promos. Shots by the pool drinking cocktails with friends, donkey riding, sun bathing and flying. Things many people in the 80’s couldn’t afford to do frequently or at all. Videos also began using narcissism and voyeurism to attract the audience so if they didn’t like the song they would still want to watch George Michael in his white trunks and black wayfarers. It helped promote their music and the video became just as important as the song.
In 1990 Madonna had the world “Vogue-ing” with her fashion inspired hit single “Vogue”. The video showed high fashion, diversity and originality. Although Madonna’s look modelled itself upon Marylyn Monroe’s style. The video featured a crazy dance style which got the nation copying it and reliving the Vogue experience on dance floors all over the world. Artist soon copied this, creating music videos based on repetitive dance styles. Such as “Cha-cha Slide” and more recently “Party Rock Anthem” with the famous ‘shuffle’.
Radiohead broke all the set conventions of music promo videos with their single “No Surprises” in 1997. It featured Tom Yorke, the lead with a water tight astronaut helmet on his head gradually filling with water. An auto cue was placed in front of him so the words reflected backwards on the glass of the helmet. The video comprised of one continuous close-up with the artist looking directly at the audience all the way through, apart from when he closes his eyes. This video holds an abstract narrative and makes no sense what so ever, but it is so effective and holds the audience in suspense until the lights fade at the end of the track.
The 2000’s hold some of the most expensive music videos made spending millions on them. As technology has developed our music videos have followed, with each artist trying to break the boundaries with every new release. These are the videos I will be textually analysing in order to prepare for the production of my own music video.
THE BRIEF
A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo, together with a:
THE BRIEF
A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo, together with a:
- cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
- magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)
