History of music videos
Original pioneers of music: (two very different artists)
Michael Jackson: Michael Jackson was born the 29th of august in 1958, and died on the 25th of June 2009. Michael Jackson was an American recording artist, actor, producer, dancer, businessman, and philanthropist. Michael Jackson was often referred to by the honorific nickname "The King of Pop", but before he started his solo career 1971 and rise in fame he was a part of a band made up of himself and his brothers called “The Jackson 5”. Michael Jackson is widely credited with having transformed the music video from a promotional tool into an art form, with videos for his songs "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Thriller" making him the first African American artist to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. Most of Michael Jackson’s music videos were (narrative and non-narrative) conceptual clips (videos that have a theme and tell a short story), an example of a (narrative conceptual clip is “just beat it”.
The Beatles: The Beatles were an English rock band that formed in Liverpool, in 1960. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were the members of the band. They became widely regarded as the greatest and most influential act of the rock era. The Beatles started to build their reputation by playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg for over three years. Beatles were the pioneers of joining the two ideas into the concept we now know as the music video, it a short, stand alone film of a musical act presenting a song that may or not be a live performance. The idea came to the Beatles as a way to ease their ridiculously tight schedule, instead of the band having to make tons of public appearances on TV shows around the world; they could send a video of themselves instead. The first dedicated music video was for the single “Paperback Writer/Rain” in 1966. Most of The Beatles music videos were performance clips (videos that concentrate on the actual appearance of the musicians.
MTV’s contribution to the evolution of the music video:
MTV is a Music Television channel Launched on the 1st of August in 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by television hosts. In its early years, MTV's main target demographic were young adults, but today, MTV's programming is primarily targeted at teenagers in addition to young adults. Now it has expanded and affected artist’s music and music videos. MTV’s is the reason for todays the fast pace and kaleidoscopic style of music video has spread across popular culture, changing the way people listen to music and leaving its mark on movies, television, fashion, advertising and even television news.
Trends in music videos over the past fifteen years:
Fifteen years ago female artists were covered up and wore modest clothing in music videos, over years clothes became tighter, shorts became shorter and cleavage became a necessary. But recently it is not unusual to see someone with no clothes at all! For example Miley Cyrus’s wrecking ball music video. In the past fifteen years having a rap or featuring a rapper in the song/music video has increased from rare to a necessary, for example Ke$ha’s song/music video(s) almost always features a rapper and/or a rapped verse. Over the past fifteen years most young male artists have (close to naked) girl(s) in their music video.
How the medium of music videos have moulded my attitudes towards music:
I have a positive attitude towards music from a result of the medium of music videos, as a member of the (MTV’s target) audience I expect that every song will have a music video to go with it. Sometimes I would say I enjoy the video clip more than the actual song itself.
The average cost of music videos (which performers spend the most and which don’t spend much at all, statistics of the link between music videos and record sales):
Music videos can vary as little as $5 000- $500 000, these costs include:
-Producer
