Mariatou Hydara

THE LIFE OF MUSIC VIDEOS

HISTORY

This is the music time line from Timerime.

Source: http://timerime.com/en/timeline/596148/A+History+of+the+Music+Video/

“a commercial videotape featuring a performance of a popular song, often through a stylized dramatization by the performers with lip-synching and special effects.”

MUSIC VIDEO DEFINITIONS

“A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song.”

“A visual film that connects with the lyrics of the song.”

United Kingdom

The long-running British TV show Top of the Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, although the BBC placed strict limits on the number of 'outsourced' videos TOTP could use. Therefore a good video would increase a song's sales as viewers hoped to see it again the following

week. In 1980, David Bowie scored his first UK number one in nearly a decade thanks to director David Mallet's eye

catching promo for "Ashes to Ashes". Another act to succeed with this tactic was Madness, who shot on 16 mm

and 35 mm, constructing their clips as "micro-comedic" short films.

The phonoscène was one of the first inventor of films with sound. It is combined by chronophone which is a sound recording with a chronograph film shot with actors lip-

synching to the sound recording. The recording and film were synchronized by a mechanism patented by Léon

Gaumont in 1902. The first phonoscènes were presented by Gaumont in 1902 in France.

The phonoscène era(1902-1917)

Visual innovation1960–1967

In the late 1950s a visual jukebox was invented in France it was a a 16mm film and it also was one of the leaders to music video. Many French artists, such as Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, Françoise

Hardy, and many more produced short films to accompany their songs. This was then expanded to different countries like the USA and Italy with their similar machines such as the Cinebox in Italy

and Color-Sonic in the USA. In the year 1961 Ozzie Nelson made a video video called "Travelin' Man" by his son Ricky Nelson which he directed and edited himself. The video showed images of different

locations in the world that were mentioned in song Jerry Fuller wrote and Nelson himself sang. But in contrast to that Kenneth

Anger made a short film in 1964, called ‘Scorpio Rising’ which uses and focus on popular songs instead of dialog or narrative.

One of the earliest Videos of a Top 40 hit, was Jan & Dean's "Surf City", produced in Summer 1963, contributing with the single

release they hit Number One nationally in July 1963. it was filmed on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, showcasing the

surrounding, and atmosphere and vibe of the Southern California early 1960s beach scene. This video is readily available for

download and viewing on YouTube.com.

Music videos go mainstream1981–1991

MTV was launched in 1981 from the USA. They aired a Beetle music video called "Video Killed the Radio Star"

which was one of their few music videos to set of there era of the purpose of the channel. With a popular viewing from audience and great marketing the business began to grow in the 1980’s. From this many acts at that period, demand

and got deals with directors to make other marketing strategies on how to appeal more to the audiences, these acts were artist such as Madonna, Duran Duran, and of

course The Beetles.

Rise of the directors1992–2004

In the 1992, directors were listed in music videos and were giving credits and awareness as the music videos had increasingly become an auteur's medium. With many

creative and unique artist vision and style dirctors such as. Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze, Stéphane Sednaoui, Mark Romanek and Hype Williams all got their moment and

spotlight around this time. This later lead some directors such as Lasse Hallström and David Fincher to also direct in

feature films which became a big development.

The Internet becomes video-friendly2005–present

The earliest foundation of music videos on the internet was from Napster, which is a file sharing service for friends and peers. Their service ran from the 1999 to 2001, it allowed

users to share video files, including music videos. Channels such as MTV started to abandon showing music videos and start sharing more reality TV shows which was because the reality shows were becoming more popular and got more views. This was in the mid-2000s, but shows like The Real

World, which was premiered in 1992 opened up the path to reality shows and made it mainstream.

Different categories of music videos

Narrative Music Videos-

Concept Music Videos-

Performance Music Videos-

Hybrid Music Videos-

Narrative Music Videos

Narrative Music Videos- This type of music video relays on the audience focusing on a story throughout the music video which is matched to the lyrics and story told in the song. This type of music video often uses actors rather than showing the band or artist themselves however, sometimes the band are also shown throughout in clip in between the narrative being told. This type of video is also used if the song is also used in a film and therefore there is a range of sense from the movie also cut into the music video.

Concept Music Videos-

Concept Music Videos- this is based around a single concept or idea. These types of videos are fairly unusual with a particular editing or filming technique. There are not many of these kinds of videos either as coming up with a concept can often be a hard challenge to complete.

Performance Music Videos-

Performance Music Videos- this type of music video is when the band or artist performs to the camera for most or all of the video. Along with the bad performing is usually sequences of footage which can or cannot relate to the song at all. This style is usually preferred by rock bands as it gives a chance for them to show the different instruments within the band and all of the band members playing together. An example of a band who does this regularly is Foo Fighters who often use this form of video:

Hybrid Music Videos-

Hybrid Music Videos- This is a combination of all the above into one film.