The history of Music Video

1894- First example of 'Illustrated song': Still images are projected onto a screen at the same time as 'Lost Little Child.

1926- Arrival of 'Talkies': Many musical short films produced featuring many bands, vocalists and dancers.

1930- Ancestor of the music video: Many artists featured in dramatised performances of hit songs. 

        - Musical Film: a genre where many songs were interwoven into the film

        - 'Screen Songs' introduced: Series of cartoon films which encouraged audiences to sing along by              "following the bouncing ball."

 

 

       

1956- Rise of television: The rise of television helped the rise of popular music as the format exposed new stars.

1964- The Beatles: They set the stage for the modern music video with 'A Hard Days Night'

1965- The Beatles use promotional films: The Beatles use 10 films to promote their songs, this kicks of video promotion. 

1981- MTV launched: 24hour broadcast means music videos begin to play a central role in music marketing by the mid 1980s

1983- Michael Jackson releases 'Thriller': HIs most successful and influential video.

1985- VH1 launched: featured softer music that appealed to an older demographic and thus widening the audience of music video.

1988- The growth of Hip Hop: Hip Hop grows significantly and rapidly as MTV launch Yo! MTV raps.

1992- The rise of Directors: Directors begin to get featured in credits, directors such as Gondry and Romanek launch their careers. 

1995- The Jackson's 'Scream': costed 7 million to make and is the most expensive video in history.

2005- Launch of Youtube: allows people to watch videos online, allowing new artists to rise. 

        - Launch of Itunes: allows people to download music videos; one million downloads after 20 days.

2010- New heights: number of videos watched online reaches 183 million viewers!!

        - Lady GaGa: her music video's reach a total of 1 billion views. 

Investigation of Record Company: Domino

Domino are a UK record label situated in London, with branches in Brooklyn, Germany and France. Founded in 1993, by Laurence Bell and his partner Jacqui Rice, the label's first release was the Sebadoh EP Rocking the Forest, licensed from Sub Pop records for release in the UK. Many of the early releases were by American artists who in the USA were signed to Drag City, and this relationship continues today. They didn't have immediate success, as labels such as Domino, who were releasing more established American rock and unusual British music, were marginalised during the Britpop era, but a steady stream of new signings gave the label increasing credibility. 

They currently have 45 artists, including 'Blood Orange', 'Patrick Watson', and 'The Real Estates'. Recent high profile releases from Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, and The Kills have only acted as a catalyst to this, and Domino is now one of the longest running and most successful independent record labels in the UK.

Music Video Analysis- Beyonce 'Countdown'

Beyonce's video 'Countdown' was premiered in October 2011. Beyonce co-directed the video alongside Adria Petty (case study). The video is R&B, but their are an enormous amount of references, Adria Petty stated: "There are countless homages to pop culture of the past in this video. I think we were playing with Mod, and '60's and '80's iconic stuff" 

There is a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as they are illustrated and amplified throughout. Beyonce boasts of her loyalty and true love. This has clear references to her personal love life with Jay-Z and her pregnancy which is cleverly and subtly shown through the video (0:36). However, the video is very much performance based and so there is no narrative to show how the lyrics are illustrated and amplified although Beyonce's attitude in the video clearly represents the lyrics "Im still fallin'', "dedicated to the one I love", etc. Similarly the lyrics of the actual countdown are visually shown. For example, "We be makin love in 5", Beyonce performs a making love action and signals 5 with her hands. Or "Im all up under him like its cold", and Beyonce pretends to shake.
Doe visual relationship with the music is very clear. The music certainly cuts to the beat throughout the whole of the song. At 0:02 it could be argued that Beyonce flutters her eyelid's in sync with the 'boy-oy-oy' beats.  The best example of the music cutting to the beat is through the countdown part of the song, where each number creates a cut in the video. Similarly, from 2:22 the clicking of Beyonce's fingers corresponds to the music. The pace of the video parallels with the pace of the music, where the countdown shows the fastest cuts and movements, whereas the verse ''Killing me softly..." is slower.
The video is full of close ups of Beyonce, and this is used by the record company to 'sell' Beyonce. She is the centre of attention throughout the track, and no other people are paid attention. At 2:04 you see numerous Beyonce's dancing, signifying how she is of most importance. Beyonce slightly changes her usual star image in this video, and some have described the video as 'the oddest of Beyonce's career'. It is the most outgoing song of her album '4' and this is portrayed through her representation. The pregnancy profile shown in the video (0:36) generated massive hype, as a global superstar put a rest to the rumours of pregnancy. Beyonce's wide use of references in the video contrast with other videos and show her musical, fashion, art and cultural intelligence.
During the video, there is a huge sense that Beyonce is on sexual display. From the outfits she wears, for  example just a shirt, to the way she shows off her bra strap 2:34, Beyonce is represented in a sexual manner. The way she dances definitely implies sexualised display, as she shakes her hips and rubs down her body. Beyonce is portrayed in this way to attract the audience and recognise that she is a sexual symbol.
Throughout the video there are many intertextual references. For example she gives a look that pays homage to both Michael Jackson and Audrey Hepburn thanks to her short bangs, cropped pants, black turtleneck and exposed socks. Director Audria Petty explained how "one of the strongest wardrobe references was Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face when she does the beatnik dance scene." Her fashion in the video is heavily influenced by 1960's pop art, with the colour blocking and make-up. There is also a reference to her previous video and film 'Dream Girls', 3:07. This creates Beyonce as an even bigger star as we remember her previous hits. 
The video was one of our groups favourites, and the bright colours, fashion and make-up Beyonce used inspired us greatly with our work.     

Music Video Analysis- Kasabian 'Fire'

This is Kasabian's video to their 2009 hit 'Fire'. It was directed by acclaimed British director W.I.Z. It is an Indie/Rock song, but also featured in a Super Bowl commercial and used for Leicester Goal's music. The video shows a bank robbery gone wrong, with the use of instruments as firearms. The music video is narrative based rather than concept or performance based. 


There is no clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, as at times the lyrics are both illustrated and contradicted. The main way that the lyrics are illustrated is through the sepia tone of the video which conveys the idea of fire and also fits into the Old Western scene they create. Similarly, the line "Wire me up to machines I’ll be your prisoner" fits in with the idea that they are criminals as they rob the bank in the video. However, for the majority of the video there are no clear links between the visuals and the lyrics. For example, the first line "Take me into the night, and I'm an easy lover" has no visual aid, as the video is set in the daytime, and has no signs of 'lovers' or relationships. The visuals clearly do have much significance, as the audience receive the message that Kasabian are stealing the music back, and this might represent their absence from the music scene, and that they are now back, and on 'fire'. For example, they use guitars as weaponry,steal music sheets, and their are music notes disguised throughout the video, for example, tatooed onto a girl's eye, used as a car air freshener. This show's the audience that the band's main interest is the music. 
Furthermore, the relationship between the music and the visuals is interesting, as at times the video does cut to the beat, for example at 2:52, the music slows, and we can see this through the cut into a different scene, where the band's attitude has dropped, but then when the chorus kicks in at 3:08, we see the band begin to run and this amplifies the music. This shows that the video changes pace with the music, however the video doesn't always cut to beat and you can see this throughout. 
The band's star image isn't portrayed as much as another pop video, and this perhaps suggests how Kasabian sell themselves through the quality of their music rather than how they represent themselves in the video. However, there are close-up's of the artists, for example at 0:25, and this would be how the record company sell the track. However, for the rest of the video the close ups are not especially of the band. The video doesn't really relate to their other video's, for example their 2011 track 'Days are Forgotten' has a much more modern feel with the use of graphics, and has a much bigger element on performance and the band. However, their 2004 video 'Clubfoot' shows similarities with 'Fire' as they both have an 'old western' feel, therefore, the 'Days are Forgotten' video could signify a change in their star image.
In the video their isn't a particular reference to the notion of looking, but clearly fans of Kasabian would like the way the band are portrayed, their isn't a sense that the band are on sexual display. Their cowboy style costumes, and the way they use their guitar's as guns can imply sexualised display but is not particularly explicit. 
There is an evident intertextual reference with the video...

Location Research

For our bike scene we chose to use the picturesque Hamptons in Wocester Park. We thought they gave off a fairy tale feel that fitted in really well with the image we wanted to give off. We only wanted to use this location for the bike scene in our music video, but we are really proud of the location we found.

Inspiration: Cleo Sol- High

This music video was one of our main inspirations for our ideas. We wanted our video to be fun and lively rather than a sad pop video. We liked the bright colours and the quirky outfits. We really liked the bike scene and chose to use it in our video as we had an old fashioned bike available.
The locations of her video are all available for us as a group and this makes it easier for it to be an idealised video. This is because it is not a mainstream artist so the techniques and effects used in the video would all be available to us.

The dancing in the video is one of the things we want to include in our video as performance will be our main aspect. Although the songs are not particularly similar generically, the performance element of the video and the bike scene will be included in our video. We also liked the bright, quirky costumes used and this has helped us to come up with some costume ideas for our video.