History of Music Videos

History of Music Videos

How people can view music videos 

•  TV 
• Online
• Itunes 
• Apps- Vevo, imusic 
• Youtube 

People nowadays can access music videos in a much more varied way with a vast amount of choices for the consumer to make in terms of viewing music videos. This has changed as technology has advanced in recent years. With apps being a click away for the consumers with smartphones downloading applications such as Vevo and Youtube, these applications allow access to any music video the consumer wishes, 10 years ago this would not be available and the consumer would be restricted to watching music videos on music channels such as MTV.  

MTV 

MTV is an American basic cable and satellite television channel owned by the MTV Networks Music & Logo Group. The channel is headquartered in New York City, New York. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys," or VJs. In its early years, MTV's main target audience were young adults, but today, MTV's programming is primarily targeted at adolescents in addition to young adults.

MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the U.S. and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. MTV's influence on its audience, including issues related to censorship and social activism, has been a subject of debate for years.

As of August 2013, approximately 97,654,000 American households (85.51% of households with television) receive MTV.

Most Watched Video on Youtube 

The most watched video of all time is Gangnam Style by PSY- 1, 829, 476, 686. The song and its accompanying music video went viral in August 2012 and have influenced popular culture worldwide since then. This video has clearly experienced the vast amount of the views acquired from the internet, therefore audiences on a worldwide basis can consume the videos and ultimately accumulating a large amount of views and gaining wider recognition, which is all due to the popularity of technology and the internet.

Technology

In May 2011, YouTube launched its own weekly chart, the YouTube 100, which aims to track the popularity of music videos on the site. In 2013, the Billboard charts began including online streams in its Top 100 lists, allowing the popularity of YouTube videos to influence the position of a song in the charts. YouTube and Billboard held talks for nearly two years regarding the proposed changes. 

As of 2013, the following music charts utilize YouTube views as part of its ranking method:Billboard. Hot 100 Country Songs, Hot Latin Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop, Songs Dance/Electronic Songs, R&B Songs, Rock Songs. As a result of this wide coverage of genres, may audiences from various walks of life can view their preferred genre of music and can watch the videos too. 

In January 2012, YouTube stated that the figure of views had increased to four billion videos streamed per day. If this was compared to music video views 15 years ago, this figure would surely be a large amount less.

• Target audience and the number of views a music video/channel receives

MTV - As of August 2013, approximately 97,654,000 American households (85.51% of households with television) receive MTV. 

Michael Jackson - Scream 

In 1995, Scream gained 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than any other music video—and won "Best Dance Video", "Best Choreography", and "Best Art Direction. Reacting to this, Jackson stated that he was "very honoured", explaining that he had worked "very hard" and he was "very happy" with the reception up to that point. It was also given a Billboard Music Award for best Pop/Rock video. A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form; shortly afterward Guinness World Records listed it as the most expensive music video ever made at a cost of $7 million, although this was later refuted by the director. In 2001, VH1 placed "Scream" at number nine on their list of the 100 greatest music videos.

Planning lighting and colour 2

Lighting and colors are paramount within a music video as they allow the video to be enhanced in a away that the audience can connect with and relate to. They are additionally involved to connote certain designations and feelings from the narrative of the video and the lyrics to the audience. Without categorical forms of light and colours being included in a music video the audience may not understand the video and the various messages the video is trying to convey, the may also misinterpret the artists genre of music as various lights and colors connote various things. 

The conception of light  is consequential to our music video as the concept of light is evident throughout our video. Our video will include various forms of light such as flashing lights (club lights) and naturalistic light which will give our video a more authentic feel, this will also assist us as the name of the song is 'the sun don't shine' therefore relating to Goodwins theory of 'lyrics having a link with the visuals' . We have decided to include club lights as this is a generic convention of the dance genre with the utliization of bright colors connoting fun and energy. The utilization of naturalistic light connotes a pure and natural feel, adding authenticity to our video instead of making use of editing techniques which could look artificial. With our narrative based video initially beginning in a graveyard we will utilize naturalistic light in the form of a sun, this type of lighting will assist our video as the woman in our video dies, therefore the sun represents her looking down on her boyfriend visiting her grave. Ultimately lighting is a pivotal element in terms of our narrative and creating a successful music video. 

The concept of color also plays a paramount role in our music video. It is especially pivotal to include specific colors in certain scenes in order to create various feelings and emotions for the audience, this supports the audiences understanding of the video and therefore makes it more accessible. The color red in our video is utilized in an ambiguous nature, the use of a red car, driven by both the boyfriend and girlfriend, is used in our first scene with the graveyard. Because our video starts with the narrative backwards the utilization of the red car creates a foreboding feeling in terms of the car, the color red is commonly associated with danger and  this creates an air of mystery around the car, this is especially useful as the girl has a car crash in this exact car and therefore the color red is used effectively to connote this danger. We also use red in this scene to represent strong emotion and love, this is evident from the utilization of the red roses, not only does red connote danger, but also love. In this scene the boyfriend is seen laying down the roses next to her grave, followed by a shot of the roses on a bench alone, this signifies a love that has been lost and a strong love that is still felt for the girlfriend. It is clear that color also plays an important role in music videos, this is to create various emotions amongst the audience and for them to obtain a greater understanding of the narrative. 

The lighting and colours are profoundly consequential in our music video in terms of availing to build a relationship with our target audience. This is because the viewers are given the elements to understand the narrative of the music video in great detail.  Therefore any feelings that they evoke whilst optically canvassing the music video will sanction them to build a deeper relationship with the video.The lighting and colours we will include will additionally give the viewers the opportunity to depict denotements abaft the red colour that is substantially present, to individually improve the way they view the video. 

Magazine Adverts

         
 What is the purpose of a magazine advert

The purpose of a magazine advert for an artist is to receive wider recognition of the artist and the
song/songs that they are trying to promote to the public. By fabricating an advert a wider audience
will be able to access it as magazines still remain popular despite technology advancing. With a 
successful magazine advert promoting an album or a single, they are more likely to boost sales as
a result of the wider recognition therefore an advert can lead to an increase in sales, a wider
recognition of the artist and this therefore can lead to a top artist that is successful on a worldwide
scale. 

 From The XX magazine advert they have not included themselves, this relates to Dyers two key paradoxes, 'a star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer'. The concept of them being absent leaves an air of mystery regarding the artist and poses a question in the audiences mind and should leave them intrigued to what their music might withhold, this representation of the artist makes the XX more exciting as performers. This idea of the XX not being involved in the advert is not uncommon with dance artists, as artists such as Swedish House Mafia, Klangkarussell and other dance artists are often not involved in their music videos.

The advert contains a series of graffiti on the wall in what looks like a derelict alleyway, graffiti connotes youthfulness and rebellion, which relates to the target audience of the dance genre which are generally teenagers. The graffiti included gives the artist a sense of accessibility as the audience will be able to relate to this, this feature of the advert gives the artist a relatability advantage as the target audience will be attracted to these sort of features. Again the advert does not have an artist which is a generic convention of the dance genre, so the artist is not represented in terms of themselves being in the advert, but through devices such as graffiti and the dark alley way portrays the target audience it is set for and gives the audience a type of idea of what sort of music they will be presenting.

The colour that is most noticeable in the advert is the graffiti, the green graffiti symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. This relates to the artist as they are a fresh artist in the industry, relating back to the advert text 'This is a great piece of music by the up and coming band the XX'. This green represents them as artists as they are also growing artists. This utilisation of vibrant colours are juxtaposed by dark shadowing colours that make the graffiti stand out more, the green graffiti could of been used as a metaphor for the XX, this could be to highlight that the XX are the main focus and they are the ones to watch out for.

·               Design/layout

·               Choice of images

·               Typography

·               Style of language

·               How does the advert promote the music genre?

·               How does the advert promote the artist?

·               How does the advert attract an audience?