History of Music Videos

History of Music Videos 

Originally, music videos were named musical short films. These short films started coming about around the 1920's but mostly came into prominence in the 1980's through MTV's promotional features. Prior to the 1980's, these clips were known as "illustrated songs", "filmed inserts", "promotional (promo) film", "promo clip", "promo video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip". 

Now it's simply known as one thing, a music video. 

One difference that you will notice with the evolution of music videos is that performance based videos were more or less the only type of videos developed. This really changed through a massively successful Michael Jackson song - 'Thriller'. This was quite a shock to most as this was among the first few songs that took a narrative based idea and took that as its platform. The sudden change of performance style allowed other artists to be more imaginative with their video. 

Technology has also had a massive effect with the evolution of music videos as the use of special effects and CGI (computer generated imagery) enables the artist to include and do what they want. 

This form of editing, among others, further widened the music styles that artists could pursue for their music video - especially abstract based videos. 

Merchandising has only grown through time in accordance with music videos. Originally music videos wash purely for entertainment purposes with no wide variety of publicity other than posters, radio and news. 

Now it would be virtually impossible to miss a highly rated musician. Not only is our technology better in producing a larger amount of posters or merchandise. But our media is far more expansive. Television has more channels including more news and several channels devoted to music. Youtube has also allowed artists to produced promo and official videos allowing easier access to the music and creating that platform where celebrities can gain recognition, furthering their popularity. 

Short summary of the evolution of music videos:

1926 - 1959 - Talkies, soundies and shorts. 

1950's - Early music clips.

1960 - 1973 - Promotional clips. 

1974 - 1980 - Beginnings of music television (MTV). 

1981 - 1991 - Music videos go mainstream. 

1992 - 2004 - Rise of the directors. (Directors are deemed a necessary addition to filming music videos to promote the artist as best as possible. Film ideas become further expansive e.g Madonna's videos under David Fincher.) 

2005 - Present - Internet becomes video friendly (Youtube publicises music - Vevo). 

Music Video Styles

The Music Industry

The Music Industry

The music industry consists of many branches and styles of music all of which target a specific target audience in aim to gain recognition and money. These branches of music span a variety of ways to span out to the audience. 

For example, the main section of the music industry is the chart music of which is most commonly known. This will be the music that you will hear everywhere and have easy access to it, for example these artists, such as One Direction, Taylor Swift and Beyonce, will be shown through music channels 'Vevo' and '4music'. This branch of music will also be commonly used on other programmes such as talent shows 'X Factor' and 'Britain's Got Talent'. This publicity makes this branch of music highly successful and very well known as it would be hard not to know these artists.

Rock has never had the same publicity as chart music as it's not seen as a universal style of music so wouldn't attract the wide audiences that chart music does. This does not mean that rock has never been a very successful branch of music. ACDC and Bon Jovi had a massive influence over the economy of the music industry but as the music evolved into R'n'B music, rock began to hide behind the new brand of music. 

However, in recent years rock music has become increasingly popular to ages in-between teenage and late adults around 40 due to music magazine and radio station 'Kerrang' becoming more of a presence in shops. Moreover, with the success of rock artists such as 'Fallout Boy' and 'Bring Me The Horizon', this success has boosted the standard of rock that is around today and is creating a massive amount of revenue, particularly on music festivals such as Reading. 

Classical music has become a thing of the past now however not extinct.

Most of classical pieces are pieces from the renaissance (1400-1600) and common practice period 1600 - 1750) although they target a  small target audience of the elderly; classical music is still being produced and labeled. Distribution as well as development is not of a high standard however. 

This branch of music doesn't have a high income as it doesn't appeal to mainstream audiences and the elderly will only be able to afford them out of luxury as many will be retired. This means revenue is slow. 

Moreover distribution, as mentioned, is poor. Few radio channels broadcast classical music such as 'Classical Fm' and 'BBC radio 4' and T.V programmes and adverts will be less likely to use this music as not everybody would be able to relate or appreciate the advert for what it's worth. For example, a car advert with a background track of chart music would be more appealing and pleasant for the majority of audiences than classical music as it would be seen as more modern. 

Moreover, classical doesn't bring in a lot of money due to its low CD manufacturing rate (compared to other branches and styles of music) and lack of advertisement. 

 The music industry  is controlled mostly by three major labels, these include; the French- owned Universal Music Group, the Japanese- owned Sony Music Entertainment and lastly the US - owned Warner Music Group. These are not the only music labels however. Any labels outside these groups are known as independent labels. Most Rock and Classical artists (with a few exceptions) are owned by small independent labels. For example a small unknown band 'The Cab' are labelled by 'Republic Records' and 'RCA Records'.