Conventions & History of Music Videos.

Definition: A music video is a short film or video which accompanies a complete song/ piece of music. They are recorded using a wide range of styles of filming techniques which are usually structured with a narrative, abstract or a blend of the two. They are made to promote through entertainment and offer voyeuristic pleasure.

5 main conventions of every music video:

1. Performance
2. Narrative
3. Lyrical representation (editorial, cuts to the beat of the song etc)
4. Lyrical interpritation
5. Abstract - visual imagery, moods, tone, feel.

Editing:Continuity editing is generally not used in music videos, and montage is.

Forms of early music videos created in 1940's could be found in the form of e-song films called promotional clips, made for the Panoram visual jukebox. These shot films where of the musicians, usually filmed on a movie set made for playing. The jukeboxes would be placed in pubs and bars for members of the public to watch, as it helped increase moral after the war and provided great entertainment. But the main reason was to promote their music to as wide audience as possible.

The real start of the term music videos wasn't until 1964, when The Beatles starred in a feature film, A Hard Days Night, directed by Richard Lestor. The film was a low budget, black and white mock documentary which featured the band fooling around in various areas and these scenes where strung together with different soundtracks. The Beatles where the first band to write and perform their own songs and this made them famous worldwide. By producing music promo videos this enabled The Beatles to distribute their music world wide, making millions of pounds from a low budget film.

In 1965 The Beatles produced their second film promo, Help!. This was totally different in style as a lot more money was spent. Locations such as The Alps, Switzerland and the Bahamas where used as filming bases, and this gave a higher quality. Help was also more advanced as parts where filmed in colour and special effects where used for example, the piano notes appear on screen when they are going down the ski slope.

Another main difference in this promo was the use of Micky Mousing. All these techniques are ones which where developed and still used today. But the main reason bands like The Beatles made promo videos was again to distribute and promote their music so they didnt have to make personal appearances.

Throughout late 1960's to 1970's promotional videos grew dramatically in importance of distribution of music worldwide.

On August 1st 1981, acces to music videos was changed forever as the channel known as MTV was born. The channel was devoted 24/7 to distributing music videos from various rock and roll artists including Rod Stuart. Originally available to only 2.5 million subscribers, MTV cost Warner a modest $30 million to launch. By 1983 it was the highest-rated cable channel to date, reaching 13 million households. But now MTV now reaches 248 million homes in 58 countries though there is lots of competetion from other channels now.

Distribution of music videos changed again because of the creation of VHS in the late 1980's/ early 1990's because ordinary people could buy an artisist music video and watch it in their own homes. For example January10th 1989 Micheal Jackson released Moonwalker and it was a hit worldwide.

Nowadays it is as easy as ever to indulge in music videos, firstly because of the internet and secondly becauese of TV. Sky currently has 32 channels in the Music section 6 of which are MTV channels. Also now websites such as Youtube allow artists of all calibers to upload videos and distribute them worldwide to thousands of veiwers for free.