Music videos have been used throughout history to promote artists and their music. Music videos were primarily the artists playing characters in a narrative film. They allowed labels to create a certain image for an artist and were used as a form of publicising the artist as no one had TV’s and it wasn’t always possible for large pop stars with a huge fan base to travel to all of their fans. Therefore the creation of films meant that fans had access to see their favourite artists performing on a budget that they could afford. However, over time the focus moved away from the artist and lyrical content and more onto the narrative form.
The earliest music videos began in the Sixties when music entertainment became an industry. D A Pennabaker created a documentary of Bob Dylan and chose to open the documentary with a short film. The film was a simplistic, single shot video with no sound as films like this had never been done before. The video was in black and white and showed Dylan holding flashcards of key phrases from the song to draw attention to the lyrics. This kind of music was different from the norm as; not only did the artists write their own lyrics, the focus was on the song and not the artist.
From then on, artists began to use films as a way of identifying with their audience as not everyone would be able to see them live/on TV so by creating music videos their audience could see the artists they loved so much, performing their favourite songs.
In 1964, the Beatles released “A Hard Day’s Night”, a film in which the Beatles played themselves and tried to show what it was like to be the Beatles. This technique was new as, not only did the Beatles use the documentary style rather than characters in a narrative; the video also used a variety of different shots, camera angles and the band are miming their own lyrics ready to add the vocals over later. By 1965, the Beatles had produced another film, this time in colour. More techniques were used to make the video more entertaining, close ups, camera angles and a lack of continuity editing were all used to help create a fun loving image for the band. However, by 1967, the Beatles imaged had changed again. They were no longer performing and had started taking drugs. The result of this was the video for “I Am the Walrus” which had veered away from the traditional, wholesome style of the Beatles and towards a more surreal, colourful style. This helped the Beatles create a wider fan base as they opened up to a whole new target market.
By 1972, video production had developed to new levels; artists had now started using music videos separate from documentaries and films to promote their music. David Bowies Space Oddity video used animation special effects to reflect the futuristic vibe of his lyrics. However, his video had receded back to the boring, performance style, even though this now included more advance techniques of filming such as close ups and cantered angles. In 1976, Queen released Bohemian Rhapsody, which was considered to be one of the first music videos. By now music videos had become a crucial part of the music industry; Queen spent around £8000 on their Bohemian Rhapsody video, using lighting, staging, dry ice and props in a video that was just as important as the song itself.
With the importance of the music video on the up rise, a new style of performance was introduced. Artists such as Wham and Duran Duran explored a narcissistic performance with a voyeuristic style. Videos like “Club Tropicana” gave an insight into an aspirational lifestyle which the audience were allowed a sneak peak into. By this stage the video was now becoming more important than the song in terms of a selling technique.
As music videos drew into the new millennium, artists were starting to experiment with more abstract forms of performance. Acts such as R.E.M and Radiohead produced videos that were less obvious than the ones before them, using more symbolic references rather than a sterile, mainstream dance performance. For example, Beautiful South’s video for Song For Whoever used an abstract performance style with several hidden messages and references. Through their video they suggested that anyone could be a pop star and slated the idea of pop music without directly saying anything. They used a blancmange in sunglasses as their singer to signify the superficial identity of a pop star. Similarly, R.E.M used religious ideology in their video for “losing my religion”, unlike several other abstract pieces, R.E.M used the narrative to represent the lyrics; the religious iconography and visual symbolism were all clear signs of how the importance of video had evolved.
Nowadays, music videos tend to reflect the style of music they represent. Mainstream artists will still go for the original, narcissistic performance style of video, whilst alternative/niche artists are much more likely to produce low budget, abstract pieces. Bands like Warpaint display this through their videos. The band aren't very well known by a mainstream audience, and this is reflected in their work. Their videos, although experimenting with elements of voyeurism, tend to be abstract and show no surface connections to the songs lyrics.
Although Warpaint are a good example of Indie music nowadays; there is a less obvious dominant style with a lot of styles of music having there own music chanels and magazines, and also their own debuts in the charts. Styles such as Rock and Country which where once styles which only the very select few new about and enjoyed; have placed their mark on the music industry through performers such as Blink 182 and Mumford and Sons respectively. Music has developed at an astronomical level over the past 100 years, veering away from the original performance style of videos that gave audiences an insight into their favourite artists life towards a storytelling fashion that reflects the styles and values of the song and band rather than the actual person themselves.
