An Introduction To The Music Video

What is a music video? 

Music videos are short films that are used by artists as a vehicle to promote and the artist and boost sales of their single and album. The music video as we know it came to the forefront in the 1980's, with the development of MTV. MTV was a channel that specialised in showing music videos, this provided artists with new platform to promote themselves on.

The different Types 

A wide range of films styles and techniques are employed in the production of music videos, with every artist having a different style and aesthetic. Some try to  mimic other videos within the same musical genre and some strive for something original and unique.

Some film making techniques include, animation, live action, documentary, bibliographical, narrative and un-narrative or abstract, although music videos are not limited to one style per video, with videos such a Green Day’s “When September Ends” which is a blend of narrative and footage of the band performing outside of the narrative. This is a difference between cinematic film work and music videos, as music videos break the usual conventions we see within film by often combining different styles with one video.   Combining more than one style provides the audience with excitement and sparks an interest within them, as this is not something seen within cinema. 

Beginning Of The Music Video 

In 1964 one of the first music videos was made. It was made by The Beatles and directed by Richard Lester, for the song “Hard Days Night”. It was a mock documentary, mixing dialogue between the band and musical interludes. It was a foundation upon which many of thew videos we see today are from. 

“ ... He influenced many other films. Today when we watch TV and see quick cutting, hand-held cameras, interviews conducted on the run with moving targets, quickly intercut snatches of dialogue, music under documentary action and all the other trademarks of the modern style, we are looking at the children of A Hard Day's Night"

Roger Ebert (film Critic), talking about Richard Lester.

Nowadays we are seeing new types of music video ever more frequently, particularly “fan vids” . These are videos made by the artists fans and they often include footage of the artist, but sometimes the videos are a completely random collection of images or pieces of footage that are pieced together and synched with the music. Videos like this are becoming ever more popular and frequent with the development of technology, in particular the internet, as it allows fans access to software and materials that would have been unavailable to fans of the Beatles back in the 1960s. 

(Facts & Figures taken from Wikipedia)