Video Notes

Today, we watched a short documentary detailing the rise and evolution of the music video. I've made some quick notes under each section covered...

History

• First combination of music and film came with MGM music videos which were based around performances of popular songs.
• The 60s saw a rise in popularity of Rock 'n' Roll films staring artists like Elvis and the Beatles.
• Later that decade, the popularity of TV variety shows was increasing. They often featured musical segments where a band would do a live performance of whatever song they were promoting at the time.
• Often, artists were unable to appear live due to other commitments. In their place, they often created a visual piece or recorded performance to play in their absence.
• The Beatles saw an opportunity in these short films and began creating films themselves so their singles could receive TV airtime. A popular example is their video for 'Strawberry Fields.'
• Possibly the first music video as we would recognise it was the famous video for Queen - 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' It was too complex for live performance and the band wanted a way to bring their album cover to life, so a film was made on a tight budget in a short amount of time. Since then, the video has become iconic receiving a great deal of coverage and perhaps adding to the success of the song itself.

MTV

• MTV was launched in August 1981.
• In its beginning, it was only able to play 200 of the same videos which was hardly suitable to supply an entire channel, leading to its nickname 'Empty-TV.'
• British bands responded to the popularity of the channel by producing a greater quantity of videos in order to supply the ever more demanding audience.
• They made videos with a simplicity at heart. Budgets were limited, and complicated ideas often had to be replicated by cheaper means.
• MTV faced issues with funding. Whilst videos were a nice addition to the single, they needed to prove that they were viable as a business.
• By finding a small record shop in Oklahoma which has seen an increase of particular albums following their airtime on MTV, they showed that videos were a effective method of marketing a track. Aside from being an interesting arty production; they also sold records.

Big Spends to Anti-Video

• Following the MTV success story, videos saw escalating costs for ever more extravagant productions.
• The most popular artists, such as Michael Jackson and Will Smith, commonly spent more than 2 million dollars on one music video.
• Whilst this did make for a more 'glossy' final product, this did not necessarily reflect in a huge increase in profits.
• Artist sought to bring the art back into their videos by decreasing the budget, in some cases to bellow 500 dollars, in order to inspire a more creative output, far removed from the world of mainstream Pop music.
• Moby, Bjork and Fatboy Slim all made attempts at creating videos with a focus on low production costs, interesting concepts and simple creations. Often, these resulted in an individual and visually interesting outcome