The reason for me researching the length of music videos is to roughly get an idea on how long my music video should be, and if it should have a story or any bits before and after the video, me researching and looking at other artists videos should give me a good idea and will also help me know what to include and what not to include in my own music video.
Michael Jackson was an artist who did long music videos and was actually one of the first to make a 13 minute long video. The song was 'Thriller' and it became a hugely successful music video. The video became more of a story, with it starting off like a film. The video had a bit of everything in it, it had dancing, it also had the unexpected, it had a story to it and it made you want to watch the whole thing, even though it was long and no one had seen a music video this long before, people wasn't put off by this. Also it meant that Jacksons fans could get to see more of his creative side instead of just dancing like most other music videos back then did. Today this video is still watched and many other artists have tried to make long videos like Michael Jackson..
More recently, Lady Gaga is another artist who has done longer music videos. Lady Gaga's first long music video was Paparazzi, and this lasted 7 minutes long, the music channels didn't play this version though, they cut it to a shorter video, meaning that key bits was left out. The next long video that Gaga did was Telephone, which lasted 9 minutes. You can tell that in the video, they wanted it to be more of a short film because in the very beginning, it tells you who is starring in the video and who directed it, also it has a famous star in the video, so it is just like a short film. This was one of Lady Gaga's most popular video's after Bad Romance, and got a lot of attention, even Facebook groups started with the quotes from the video, meaning even more publicity for the song, and also meaning that Lady Gaga gets more money. Thats another thing about doing these longer music videos, it means that they can add more in and get more publicity for what happens.
Another recent artist who has started to do longer video's is Katy Perry, her video for Last Friday Night (TGIF) was 8 minutes long, the longest video of hers yet, so this means that longer videos is now becoming more and more popular with artists, it defiantly shows more of the artist and their creative and acting skills. Again this is also like a film it has credits at the beginning and end, it has dialogue and doesn't feel like a music video. This video became extremely popular and has over 100million views on Youtube.
After researching longer music videos, I have decided that I wont be making mine a long one, this is because I think that they are more like mini films, and also are much more complex.
Music Video's are something to promote the artist and their music. It's a piece of marketing merchandise that is used to sell records and make the artist more popular. When creating a music video they have to have a target audience and also some sale figures in mind, in the end they must reach the target sales and also have all the codes and conventions to make sure that the audience are kept happy.
Codes and conventions of a music video are very important when creating my own music video. By looking at the conventions I will be able to see what I should put into my own music video and also by looking at the codes I can see what equipment I can use and how I can use it also.
There are many conventions to a music video, without these conventions it would be hard to create something that people would expect to see. Within most music video's there is performance in which the artist will do something like perform the song on stage or just mime the words in a certain way. The reason for this is because they want to promote the artist in a certain way and make sure that they get their point across in their way. So for example, In most of Lady Gaga's video's, she does a performance in all of them and makes sure that the meaning of the song is put across within the video. I want my artist to also do this too, I want lots of performance because it means something and you can tell there is a message behind it, I also think miming is important because it means that you can see what the words mean and also the words are explained more and its more of a connection between the audience and the artist. Its very rare to find a music video without any miming in it, and if it doesn't then it must have a very strong story or narrative to it.
Another convention to music video's is that they usually have a Narrative, this is a story, and although some of them don't include a narrative, most of them do have a structured story that works well with the music and will relate to the lyrics. The reason for a narrative is because it means that the song has meaning, and it also has something that the audience can relate to, if some music video's didn't have narrative, it would make them boring, and not interesting. In my music video I do want narrative but I don't want there to be a proper story to it with conversation and dialogue, but I want the audience to still understand from my performance what the song is meant to be about, and what it represents.
Animation within a music video is something else that can be popular, this is where the whole music video is done digitally, and by doing this, you can create a new story with anything you like, but by doing this, its hard to promote the artist and get them known, so if it was a new artist doing this, the video would have to be brilliant or the song would to get them noticed. Animation is used in Cage The Elephant - Aberdeen, and this is a strong narrative, it doesn't need performance to make the video.
Some artists have a mixture of all of them put into one or they will have a couple of them put together, so for example, some artists will have narrative and also performance put into one, and I think this is a good idea for my artist, because if you do both, it stays interesting to the audience don't get left bored by just seeing a narrative or just performance. In my own music video I don't want any dialogue whats so ever though as I think it distracts you from what the main focus is meant to be which is the music.
When artists have a new song out, one of the first things they think about doing is a music video. This is great promotion for the song and the artist. Plus its a way of seeing the artist perform, and get to know them that little bit better.
Music videos are a relatively new way of promotion. It all started when in 1940, Disney created a animated film 'Fantasia', based around classical music. People hadn't really seen this before. This helped Disney promote their film. As this is what artists do now, is promote their music through a music video.
1964, Top Of The Pops was created, this was where artists performed thier new song, by singing it live, and every Thursday the show would air. Music videos was then shown on here too, and this would be a great platform for new music wanting to be shown to the audience.
In 1965, Bob Dylan released a 'music video' for his song 'Subterranean Homesick Blues', this music video was a very simple consept. All the music video involves is Bob Dylan holding lyric cards, and he is just going along with the song, the video is in Black and White. This video to us now would be very boring but then this promoted his song and was seen as interesting.
The first 'real' music video was done by Queen in November 1975, and the song was 'Bohemian Rhapsody', this was all because Queen couldn't make an appearance at the popular show Top Of The Pops, where they was scheduled to perform the song, so instead they made this video. This blew up in the music industry and other artists started to copy. This was seen as a music video because it had all the elements like Performance, and a small peice of Narrative.
Without this video, other artists today wouldn't even think of making a video to get the music out there, so Queen have influenced many artists in doing this. The video is mainly performance based, it has a lot of live action but still with an abstract feel to it.
The Beatles then carried on from this and made their own music videos and really got the music industry into it, they was the first band to make music videos for marketing and promotional purposes.
'Love Me Do' was the first Beatles song to be realeased and with the release came this music video. The video shows a short performance and clips of the Beatles. This is again, another influence on many artists today. The video is in black and white, as colour TV didnt come around until the 1950's/1960's. Colour TV came earlier for Americans, so some of the Beatles earlier music videos are in Black and White, but this did't stop the videos from being successfull.
In 1981, MTV was created, a television channel in which they would show music videos, the first music video seen on the channel was The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
Then after this was shown it was Pat Benatar's - You Better Run that was the second music video to be shown. MTV then evolved and got better, they started making 30 minute programmes on the channel in which they would show the latest music videos.
Madonna in 1982 then brought out 'Everybody' which was her first single, this music video was mainly performance based, but made Madonna who she is today. Madonna is a huge artist and has done numerous amounts of music videos. if you look at 'Everybody' to 'Celebration' there is a big difference, and not just because of over the years the technology getting better but also her style of music video. In the first music video its more performance, and you are getting to see what Madonna would be like if you saw her perform live, but in her most recent music video, you see its more abstract, and not much performance. The Beatles performing would have influenced Madonna when making her first video, just like many other artists in the late 1900's.
Music videos then started to get better and more advance, and in most there would a story (a narrative). Michael Jackson took it to the next extreme by making a mini movie within his music video. It had great narrative from start to finish, it also is one of the longest music videos of all time.
This made people think differently about music videos and that they just wasnt a way of promoting the artist but also making you see them and thier creative skills. It also showed other good talents like directors and actors, It was also using synergy. Michael Jackson was an artist known for very good music videos, it would cause excitement whenever he would bring a new song out because whenever he did a new music video came along with it.
Now music videos are a huge part of an artists image. MTV is even more popular now, and has...
MTV Hits
Music channel which mainly focus' on mainstream music, like Pop and R&B.
MTV Base
This is R&B, Hip-Hop and Soul
MTV Rocks
This is Rock music, and Alternative, with a bit of Indie
MTV Classic
Old Music.
MTV also now isnt the only music channel around, there is around 30 music channels now like The Box, Viva, Kerrang!, NME and many more.. all showing different genres of music.
