"Music videos have changed drastically over time and are now unrecognisable from their historical counterparts"

“Music videos have changed drastically over time and are now unrecognisable from their historical counterparts.”

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are commonly used and made as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. The earliest music videos were released in the mid-1950. Developments were made and in 1956 Tony Bennett was filmed walking along the serpentine in Hyde Park. He was recording ‘stranger in paradise’ which played on UK and US television. Bennett later claimed he made the first music video. Modern videos however challenge music video traditions with Andrew Goodwin’s ideas on narrative performance and concept videos.

There are many different types of music videos: historical, classic and modern. Firstly I focused on historical music videos and what they included by looking at Queens Bohemian Rhapsody and Buggles Video Killed The Radio Star. The music video for Bohemian Rhapsody started a new era for music videos as a way of promotion. This also happened to Video Killed The Radio Star, when released in 1979. Buggles music video linked with the theory of Goodwin and concept, due to the theme of the video was promotion of technology and worrying about the effects. The song is linked to concerns of the 20^th century inventions and media art and was written, directed and edited by Russell Mulcahy. You can clearly see the era which this is filmed in due to the backing, for example the moon and the fake sea. You can see that this is a historical technique of achieving effects.
Bohemian Rhapsody, which was released in 1975, used special effects achieved while recording, rather than the editing. This is where historical videos differ from modern day videos. Editing is now achieved in the editing process (in modern music videos). For example in Bohemian Rhapsody they use the effect of pointing the camera at a monitor, giving visual feedback and making Mercury’s face fall away by using lighting to achieve this. You can also highlight that these were shoot in historical times due to clothing. You can see this due to the colour and the material of the costumes. For example they are wearing silk, white, low cut costumes which can be linked with music in the 1970’s. I believe that this is linked with Goodwin’s theory of performance, due to the band and singers being shown on stage rather than having a story behind the music video.

The music video’s then updated in the 80’s to classic music videos. Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, which was released in 1982, was seen to have brought music video stations such as MTV into mainstream attention. This was because Billie Jean was one of the first videos featuring a black artist to be aired regularly by MTV.

The music video shows a photographer following Jackson, on the way to Billie Jean’s hotel room and as he walks the pavement and any object he has contact with lights up. This music video was a mixture of performance and narrative based. For example, the film includes a story, which has a beginning, middle and end. Yet it is also a performance as he danced his way to her hotel room. You can also see that this clip is a classic movie video due to the special effects being improved since historical music videos. For example, having the floor light up as he walked along the pavement.

New and modern music videos are distributed differently to historical music videos. Firstly they are film/made in more realistic locations and released on the Internet, rather than television programs. For example, Lego House by Ed Sheeran. His video was filmed at a University of Hertfordshire, while staring Rupert Grint, most famous for being in the Harry Potter films. It was released on Sheeran’s YouTube channel which differs from the historical videos as they were released and premiered it on television. This is due to the rise and development in technology. The Internet is a wider platform to release music onto as everyone and anyone can view it. The music video for Lego House portrays Goodwin’s narrative theory and confirms the gratification model as it shows Grint as Sheeran. The video had a beginning, middle and end to the story, where historical and classic videos were more performance based rather than to tell a story. Another modern music video that I focused on was Miley Cyrus’s Adore. In this video you can see Miley herself being sexual and lying in bed filming herself. This video supports Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory as it deals with how an audience views the people and how they are presented. You can tell that this is supporting this theory due to the camera clearly focusing on the ladies body and clearly highlighting her curves and features. These two videos highlight to the audience that this is a modern video due to the features, the narrative and costumes used. For example, today clothing in music videos is more sexualised and less covered up, whereas in historical videos costume wasn’t a main aspect of the video.

Through-out my research I found that over the years music videos themselves have stayed the same; music accompanied with a piece of film. Whereas they film has changed massively. In my research I found that music videos have changed due to the rise and development in technology, the distribution of each video and the features of each. I agree with Andrew Goodwin theory of narrative, performance and concept. You can clearly see from all of the music videos that I focused on that each one uses one of the features that he found. Whereas I do not feel that I found much evidence about the Hyperdermic syringe model theory.