The Purpose of Music Videos

The Purpose Of Music Videos: 

In 1941 the 'Panoram Soundie' jukebox created he first ever type of music video. It was a jukebox that played short video clips along with the music. However music videos still didn't feature in films until 1956 when Hollywood began discovering the music video genre. It was big releases such as Rock Around the Clock, Rattle & Rock, Shake and The Girl Can't Help It, that started it off and there was a huge sudden boom in popularity towards the genre. 

The first stand-alone music video then didn't come along until 1975 when Queen released Bohemian Rhapsody, a video that started a trend of video's we still consume today. Six years in 1981 later a channel launched called 'MTV; which was the first ever satellite music channel. It eventually became a massive hit and is common house hold name today. Then 1984 a short film, Thriller, by Micheal Jackson released changing the concept of music videos forever. 'The Making Of Thriller' home video is also released in the same year as was the first ever video about the making of a music video. In 1989 MTV renamed its 'Video Vanguard Award' to the 'Micheal Jackson Vanguard Award'.


Artists have used music videos to promote themselves in many various forms over the years. It is one of the top marketing methods for an artist to use in the music industry. In 2013 following the death of Paul Walker, Wiz Khalifa released a promotional music video for Fast & Furious 7 'See You Again', in memory of Paul Walker which has now reached over 3 billion views on YouTube.

Other methods are used by artists to promote themselves in music videos like sexualizing the video in order to attract a young male audience. You can see early examples of this in Eric Prydz 'Call On Me' (2004) and more recent examples in Nicki Minaj's 'Anaconda' (2015)

Producers strategies will greatly vary depending on how far/successful the individual is in the music industry. For example, a famous world class musician will have a large production company working behind their music video, with dozens of people having an input into the project. They will generally have a large budget to work with a little to no limitations as to what they can produce. Micheal Jackson is known for having the most expensive made music video with 'Scream' having a budget upwards of $11,000,000. However Madonna dominates the field having the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th most expensive music videos ever made. Having a high budget production will also bring in top directors and even help build the careers of starting directors. For example Madonna had her video "Express Yourself" directed by David Fincher in 1989 which turned out to be a very successful video. David Fincher then went on to direct huge blockbuster films such as Seven (1995), Fight Club (1999) , and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011). David Finchers work on 'Express Yourself' is a good example of how small projects like music video's can be good for a directors career.





Then you have your smaller field artists. Individual producers who will try to promote themselves via music videos with next to no budget on social media sites like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. There are many people who have made a name for themselves using social media, however probably the most famous example of an artist becoming successful from it is Justin Bieber.

An example I know personally is an artist living locally to me in Norwich. Daniel Frost, otherwise known as 'Frost-D' began to make a small name for himself on YouTube attracting upwards of 11,000 viewers in some of his music videos. All his videos would of been shot unprofessionally on next to no budget and edited by someone with little experience. However producing this type of video and targeting the audience he directs his music towards still started to attract a following and gave him 3,000 subscribers

The different in being self produced artist is massive because you won't be in contract with a record label and won't have a guaranteed salary/income. Being self produced requires you to be promoting your own name and searching for your own work. In today's world with platforms such as YouTube, Soundcloud & Spotify this is a lot easier than it was a decade ago. Your able to promote your content to huge audiences and have complete control over what you make/create, where as a lot of the time that may not be the case when in contract with a record label.

This change is media outlets is vastly reshaping the music industry and the way artists can get known/earn revenue. Only twenty years ago for example, the only way to earn money as an artist to earn money other than performing live was to produce a CD/record to be purchased or to create a music video to then have the rights purchases by the likes of someone like MTV. Media outlets we're very limited a few decades ago, however with today's technology more and more platforms are being created where artists can share their content and earn direct revenue in partnership with the sites/companies. YouTube is the biggest known for this, however 'Twitch.tv' has become a popular platform for artists to stream their talents to a live audience who can 'subscribe' or tip them money. This has also however made the industry a lot more competitive among top record labels as platforms like Twitch become more and more popular.

An example of large artists using the extension of various media outlets would be Chris Cornell's 'You Know My Name'. This was released along side the 2007 film Casino Royale to be the made soundtrack for the film, but a music video was also released featuring all similar themes from the film i.e playing cards, blood, guns etc.

You can see this repeated five years later with Adele's 'Skyfall' in 2012 and a further three years later with Sam Smiths 'Writings On The Wall' for the release of Specter in 2015. However Sam Smithes video differed from the others in the fact it features actual clips from the James Bond film. You can see it switching between Sam Smith singing in a shot with a James Bond misc-en-scene then it quickly goes back to important scenes from the film. This is obviously huge promotion for artist giving them huge exposure to a much wider audience than they might of not reached before.

Synergistic marketing is the method of linking an already known common brand to your production to either increase the audience you reach, or to receive a lump sum of money to put into the production in return for product placement in your video. A unusual company you might notice this with is 'PlentOfFish.com'. In the early 2010's they managed to pop up in just about every new pop music video. Britney Spears received $500,000 for all the products she endorsed in her video 'Hold It Against Me'.

Sam Smith's - Writings On The Wall is also a really good example of large scale synergistic marketing. The whole of Sam Smiths video features clips from the Spectre film and reflects the theme of song through showing specific scenes from the films at certain moments. It also cuts out to clips of Sam Smith singing it a scene very similar to ones scene in the film suggesting he's in the bond universe. This is a very strong, effective use of synergistic marketing, attracting both the likes of Sam Smith fans to the Bond film, and Bond fans to Sam Smith.

It sounds obvious, but in conclusion I think music videos are so popular because they combine the two most popular forms of media in today's world, music and video. Music has been around for centuries before us, so in the early days of music videos it was only natural the two would come together when the world started to become obsessed with screens. Musicals and music videos channels then spawned from that, however today the most used outlet for music videos is YouTube. Being completely free and having instant access to any song you could possibly think of, it has become the most used platform to listen/watch music on. Music videos will only now grow bigger and hit higher record numbers of views as social media grows bigger & bigger and more people have access to the free music video streaming service known as YouTube.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_music_videos
Jukebox Picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn26O7f97IE
MTV Picture: https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/3/4490312/mtv-celebrating-independence-day-by-playing-music-videos
Wiz Khalifa - See You Again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk
Eric Prydz - Call On Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQSYo_pC-QA
Niki Minaj - Anaconda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDZX4ooRsWs
Justin Bieber Young Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQOFRZ1wNLw
Frost D Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wwzotlThn4
James Bond Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MNoBx5mvBI
Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5djSk7u