Music Video History and MTV

key =MTV
Most music videos follow conventions such as:

-Camera shots: close-ups of the artist and instruments, angles and composition which focus the audience’s attention of the artist.

-Editing: Quick cuts are used and the clips will be edited to the rhythm of the music and are synced to the performance. Jump cuts are also very common in music videos and shots change frequently form performance to narrative.

-Effects: Fades, dissolves and CGI are often used to enhance videos and create special effects.

-Misé en scene: This is dependent on the genre however lighting will be used to create atmosphere and focus attention onto the artist/band. Instruments are a a common prop in performance videos.

-Narrative/Performance: This is also dependant on the genre of the music, although most music videos contain an element of both narrative and performance. Performances by the band are sometimes staged to look as though they are live as this gives a lively energetic feel to the video.

However conventions vary from genre and have developed and changed over time.

Bob Dylan-Subterranean home sick blues

This is a low budget music video form 1960, it was made before music videos were common yet it still follows conventions of today. The video stars the artist and is in sync to the music as the words are dropped in time to the music. The mise en scene of the video is also used to represent the artist as it is set in an urban location with low budget equipment and a very simple idea, showing that he is an ordinary down to earth guy. However unconventionally one shot was us for the entire video.

In 1967 The beatles and The monkees both produced videos which showed conventions of todays vidoes

 

 

The beatles video of strawberry fields forever showed conventions of editing and effects as it uses cut aways, fades, different angled shots, reverse effects.
The monkees video for a little bit me , a little bit you contained humour and surreal aspects as well as using plenty of shots and jump cuts.
However both videos are still lacking in the performance which is very common in todays music videos.

In 1972 Queen produced an iconic video for their song bohemian rhapsod
This was one of the first music videos to contain performance , the video also used lots of effects and lighting. As music videos were becoming increasingly common, Mike Nesmith from The Monkees set up a channel for music videos: MTV. Music videos had previously been used to replace people in absence or to promote an artist, MTV provided the videos as entertainment for people which gave royalties to the artist. Queen however decided to air their video free of charge to create as much publicity as possible.

In 1980 Duran Duran made a big budget video for their song Rio. Duran duran invested a lot into music videos as they went on to spend $1,000,00 on a music vidoe for 'wildboys'.

The video features lots of fast pace editing and performance. The main conventions the video developed was use of mise en scene as the video features money, yachts and girls to represent the glamorous lifestyle of a popstar.

In 1983 Micheal jackson made a feature length music video - thriller.

 

 

Thriller was a very controversial video on a very large budget which created a lot of publicity. The video was shown in cinemas due to the large narrative of the film. Zombies were a key feature of the film which shocked the audience and was deemed very frightening. Thriller contained one key convention of todays music videos, dance. There was a large dance number which caught on to the public, publicising it further.

In the 80's MTV was criticised for targeting a limited audience as the channel only featured white pop groups. In 1986 Run DMC and Aerosmith changed this with their video walk this way

It featured both bands using conventional close ups of instruments and action as well as having a narrative running throughout.

Finally in 1989 more controversy was created after Madonna’s video 'like a prayer' was released, it featured a narrative which contained controversial views on Jesus which instantly gave Madonna publicity.