Project Brief and Analysis of the history of the music video.

The project brief is to create a music video for an unsigned band. The video requires to be made as a group where the planning and shooting is essentially created as a joint effort in order to create a well-planned and well-shot video.
In order to get a sense of how to create a video I feel it is crucial to identify and analyse the history of the music video.


The music video is a short video that conventionally lasts three to four minutes long. The video is used as a marketing device to promote a single produced by a band or solo artist. The music video has became more diverse in the techniques used to film the video.
David Bowie’s “ Ashes to Ashes” and the band “ Madness” use of visual innovation in creating a music video made music videos a hit for audiences.Arguably the catalyst for the beginning of the music videos significance in the music industry is from the song “ Bohemian Rhapsody” by the band Queen in 1975. The video was directed by Bruce Gowers who used various effects including fades, they filmed the video and edited it in around five hours due to the soon release of the single. Queen decided to create a video also to enable them to be able to travel to concerts instead of having to sing for shows such as “Top Of The Pops”. Because of the ground braking impact the video had in the industry and the way it engaged fans into listening to the single it became number one on the UK top 40 for nine weeks and also positioned highly on the billboard 100 in America.
Top Of the Pops was also arguably one of the biggest changes in music industry in Britain. “Top Of The Pops” ( also known as T.O.T.P) was a weekly music chart television programme where the biggest names in the industry performed. Top Of The Pops was produced by the BBC and began broadcasting on first of January 1964 and finished on the thirtieth of July 2006. The importance Top Of The Pops has in the history of the music video is the way it aired music videos regularly and because of its popularity was a show where artists sought there track to be played on as it was a show which could enable the success of an artist or track. Because of the appeal the audience had to the music video it created new professions in media and film production.
When mentioning the history of the music video, one of the main focal points on the timeline is the rise of MTV. MTV which stands for music television aired in 1981 in the U.S. where it began an era of 24 hour music on television. Because the channel had constant 24 hour music it needed music videos to survive. MTV initially let artists promote their videos on the channel, this worked in favor for each half, the artist getting free promotion and MTV gaining viewers. One possible explanation for the survival and importance of MTV was how it made artists able to express a social problem in society and expressed it in a powerful engaging form of art. Throughout the 80’s it is noticeable how music videos had variations on a theme and focused on using a narrative clip ( visual story) in order to express their personal feelings to social issues.
Many directors challenged the convention of the music video to attract and appeal to a large audience. One of the most memorable and iconic music videos ever created which broke the “normal” conventions of a music video was Michael Jacksons “ Thriller”. The 14 minute video which was released on December 2nd 1983 cost more than $100,000 and was hailed as the best music video ever created by MTV’s “ 100 Greatest music videos ever” for the way it merged film making and music.

In the history of the music video , music videos most often targeted the popular culture and always targeted the younger audience as MTV gained more viewers. However, in 1985 MTV launched VH1 a channel which targeted a wider audience and offered softer music, in contrast to its usual hip hop music.
In 1989 sky television became available. “ going digital” offered television fanatics to have hundreds of other channels in comparison to the five they usually had. Sky tv had sub categories, one being Music. The music sub category needed a range of different music genres to appeal to a wide audience therefore becoming reliant on the music video. MTV created new channels such as MTV two and MTV Base these offer a greater music diversity to appeal to a wider audience.
In contemporary music videos, many have a variation on a theme and it is more unlikely for the performance to take place on a stage. Many don’t conform to the standard music video model set at the beginning of the history of the music video and since the millennium many music videos have caused controversy by the way videos have depicted social issues in a certain way. In the history of the music video “ All the things” by T.a.T.u was the most criticised because of the way it represented lesbianism. Videos that are as controversial as this is becoming more frequent, a possible reason is the media attention these videos get, the way the media criticises the videos often appeals to societies youth culture, therefore selling more units of the track.
The music video will always remain as a huge importance for the music industry across the world because of the promotion of artists and the way it showcases other talents of theirs ( dancing and acting ). It is clear when analysing music videos in the contemporary world that they will only become more powerful and controversial, a strategy by directors to gain a wider audience.

The understanding and analysis of contemporary music videos:

The brief for my A-2 media studies project is to create a promotional package for the release of a single or album. The promotional package must contain at least two forms of promotion; a website, Digipack or poster that all promote the single or album of the artist. The artist needs to be an unsigned artist in which me and my partner need to find and ask for permission for the use of the track. In order to present my project I have decided to use a blog. I decided to use a blog as it enables an easy find from my target audience ( where I hope to get comments to improve). A blog also enables a systematic presentation of my work where I am able to simply upload my work to and for an audience to easily see my work.

Before beginning the music video it is important to understand the conventional ideology of contemporary music videos. A lot of the theory work has helped to plan for my music video as it enables me to understand these conventions and the trajectories of the modern music video, in consequence, giving me ideas for mine. A narrative videoA narrative video consists of ;performance clip, narrative clip, and art clip. It is not necessary however, that music videos follow either of the three, evident in the modern music video industry is the formulation of new types of music videos.An example of a performance music video is Paramore’s “hallelujah” a music video that shows the band performing. This can include a range of different live performances such as a being in a studio rehearsing, or sat outside. Concert videos consists of an actual live performance that derive from Rock bands traditionally using them to promote their gigs. Again, Paramore create a montage of there various performances singing the track to create an overall effect .

An art clip is a less common form of a music video. It deliberately breaks the conventions as it has no clear narrative . El manana by the Gorillaz is a good example of this. It firstly uses none of the bands faces ( called a non representative tone) and the storylines meanings are hard to pin point. This video highlights the typical concept of an art video, to act as a challenge to the formulation and mentality of human principles where they often attack the ideology of humanity and serve to highlight the problems in society through symbols.
A narrative clip consists of a narrative where the music reinforces the meanings presented. Conventionally a narrative sets alongside the music where certain lexis is illustrated at the same time in the video. A narrative clip may have the artist as part of the narrative or, may use a cutaway to them whilst actors perform. Contemporary music videos however, conventionally are in the narrative.




The use of technical codes in music videos:
Camera Work
The use of various shots enables different interpretation from the audiences perspective and is able to shape different meanings presented in the video. The use of different camera move evidently has different effects on the audience , the theory of the “male gaze” where a shot can be used to engage men through the close ups of females is a marketing device to improve sales of a record. The use of shots such as close-ups and wide shots all reinforce a meaning the video is trying to illustrate e.g. the corruption in society or possibly, the emotion of a character in the narrative


Editing
Editing is a broad term in the sense of the technicality of the concept. Editing can involve the use of effects added, green screening and CGI and the selection of shots that , when they combine create the music video. The editing of shots shapes the meanings of the video, often videos may need to be viewed again due to confusion or simply because the use of a fast cut montage means that the audience misses something and creates an enigma. These meanings may also be shaped by the genre of the song e.g. faith hills’ “They’re you’ll be” , the video is a soft ballad of lost love which is reinforced through the use of the slow softness of the shots and its editing, until the contrast in the crescendo with the use of a quick montage is used to illustrate the tragedy of the narrative.

Intertextuality:
The three common sources of visual reference that are used most often are the cinema, art, and fashion photography.

Inherent in the collection of music videos in todays industry is the use of the intertextuality of cinema as a means for marketing or to state a point. These include Linkin parks “new divide” and Madonna's Material Girl . The influence for this video was Marilyn Monroe's Song Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend that was featured in the film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". The cinematic referencing the video encompasses attacked the mentality of women of that period; women who centred their fundamental principles around their looks.

Video Games

Many directors are using video games as an intertextuality to process certain meanings. The use of video games in music videos etc. Red Hot Chilli Peppers “Californication” enables a simpler way to express meanings to an audience and also enables the director to get certain angles and visual effects that are not usually possible

Television
Television is also often a point of reference for intertexuality in music videos. The Beastie Boyz's Sabotage music video is a spoof cop show titles sequence from the 80s. The continuous cross referencing the video has creates humour for the audience as it is the take on the show is supposed to be noticeable. Again, the video may try to stress a symbol by the use of intertextuality.
Fashion
Some music videos include fashion in them as directors may try to attack the morality and corruption of society as fashion is a controversial subject . For example Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love depicts the conformism women have to the medias image of a stereotypical woman, there necessity for this look , and the rejection of individuality, is reinforced in the identical image of the female dancers. Shania Twains “Man I feel like a woman” adopts a feminist visionary of society as it attacks the way society has positioned women into a certain, uneasy sexy role. It is a role reversal of “Addicted To Love” as Shania is in dominance amongst the identical males in the video. This video is just one of the videos that break the conventional ideology of the music video. It serves to exemplify the social move away from the trajectories of a patriarchal society.


Music Programmes On TV:When researching music videos, it is important to acknowledge the production of artists through talent programmes that is increasing in the industry. There are many critiques about the industry and many theories adopt a neo-Marxist perspective on the exploitation of people as a means for profit. An aspect of Marxism is evident here though, as Marxism focus’ on the exploitation of the working class that creates a system of inequality, where those with the most “cultural capital” endure greater benefits. The system, therefore, creates an exploitation of these individuals as a means to profit music corporations through the marketing of the artists musical talent.

Pop Video as a Promotional Tool
The effect of a music video on an audience is illustrated by the rise in music channels that caters for each strand on the strata of music. The complexity of the categorisation of music genres intrinsic in the industry means a greater possibility for more artistic videos that hope to break the conventions of the modern music video. Videos often satire the conventional music video as a means to create a “individual image” and to cause controversy, examples being; T.a.T.u “ All the things she said” and Robbie Williams’ “Rock DJ”.
The theory of the male gaze is applicable when discussing conventions and it‘s affect on an audience, if a music video features half-naked women is it bound to be aimed at men. The general age that music videos would tend to be aimed at would be 13- 20/30 yr olds. However, videos could pick up viewings from younger audiences who aspire to be teenagers.

The Youth Market
The dominance of the BBC’S TOTP (Top Of The Pops) and the effect it had on the sales of singles enabled other channels to encompass the need that the youth audience in society were in such interest with. The way in which T.O.T.P was used to market artists and their effect in the music industry has enabled a greater increase in this genre of television. “The Tube” and “sound” both are contemporary examples of television programs that have “tapped“ into this market.
Theory analysis
Forms and Conventions
A music video is conventionally a video-taped performance of a popular song, which is usually accompanied by a dance or a fragmented story. Some artists often use concert footage and the videos are usually 3 to 5 minutes long. A conventional pop video will usually be made up of quick cuts, stylisations, fanciful and often erotic imagery, and computer graphics.
Music videos can accommodate all kinds of film making including: animation; live action films; documentaries; and even non-narrative abstract film.
Institutions
For the institutions such as an artist's record label, the music video is a key marketing device to promote sales.
The success of the music video was synonymous with the second British invasion in the mid 1980s (when Wham! and Duran Duran broke into the US). It harked back to the old shows such as TOTP, Ready Steady Go, and American Bandstand, where record companies would provide short films when an artist couldn't be there to perform.
In the 1990s it became popular to be in a cross-section music genre. Examples include: country-western, hard rock, heavy metal, hip hop, R&B, adult-oriented rock, and teen pop.

Audience
Even though society has progressed from the trajectories of the concept of having a nuclear family to an accepted diversity that consists for the family unit, a lot of music targets the family audience. The family audience is a popular target audience as it enables an influencing effect to all different target audiences on the strata. Engaging the family therefore enables the possibility for many different age groups to become interested into the music or the show, in consequence selling more sales. The evidence of the effect of this targeting is evident in the intertextuality of music with television; shows such as “The X factor”. The sales of records from the voted winners of the show ( by the family audience ) shows the effect that targeting this audience has. 2006 winner Leona Lewis shifted 218,805 copies of her first album single in its first week and even entered the number.1 spot on the American “Billboard hot 100” , the first UK female number.1 in America since 1987.

Understanding the audience and there interests is the catalyst to producing high sales in the market. Finding the way to target this audience therefore is one of the fundamentals in engaging the audience. The use of we media illustrates the diverse marketing in the contemporary media industry. Social utilities such as Myspace, Bebo and Facebook all serve to exemplify how the use of we media can create an effect on the music industry and create an interest in an artist. Contemporary examples of this are the Arctic Monkeys, signed after distributing there music on Myspace and the controversial petition set up by a couple who use Facebook who managed get Rage against the machine “Killing in the name” to the UK Christmas number 1. These are examples that reinforce the power of the internet and there effect on an audience, its sheet size and accessibility is something to take into consideration when trying to understand of ways to target a variety of audiences.

The Male Gaze

The gaze contextualises the 'social power relations between women and men'. The theory derives from Laura Mulvey‘s "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" a
feminism that shapes meanings as to how heterosexual men perceive and enjoy viewing the female body. The concept of the Male Gaze reinforces females subjective state in society and is serves as a means to contextualise the de-moralization of young women in contemporary society. Even though there is a gradual changes in the perception of women in society , the male gaze illustrates the perception men have on women’s status, objects of desire. The ideology of this theory however, has been shaped into the form of music videos where women are gazed upon as they appear in a music video in small amounts of clothing. Music videos use the theory of the male gaze to attract the heterosexual male audience to increase sales of the singles. Contemporary examples are lady Gaga ft. Beyonce’s “Telephone” .The close ups of the certain areas of the women in the video was banned from many music channels , resulting in a “hype” from the audience over the viewing of the video.

Music videos may serve as highlighting the change in the social visionary of the classification of what in considered “moral”. Buggles' “Video Killed The Radio Star“ is an illustration of the critique some individuals have on the effect on the music video. In conclusion, it is clear that there is a stratum that consists when producing a music video, a formulation of a variety of codes and meanings which blend and shape to form the narrative of the video.